A prince and two female attendants, symbolizing a musical mode (Dipaka Raga)

Seated within a pavilion, a prince enjoys the company of two female attendants, one of whom holds a stringed musical instrument known as a vina. The vina depicted in this painting is less elaborate in appearance than the instrument on view in this exhibition, which has an intricately carved lion's head at the end of the neck. This painting represents an artistic tradition unique to South Asia, as its subject is a musical mode (raga). In addition to being performed, musical modes are illustrated in sets known as ragamalas (garlands of musical modes), each mode idealized as a human figure engaged in a particular activity or placed in a setting evoking a specific emotion, mood, and time of day. In the various classification systems used in South Asia, major musical modes are personified as men or gods, while other modes are personified as their wives, sons, and infrequently daughters. An inscription on the reverse side of this painting identifies the seated male figure as Dipaka Raga, a mode associated with the passion of lovers. This painting differs from typical representations of Dipaka, as it does not show him with a consort nor does it include the flickering lamps (dipaka) that make explicit his association with inflamed passions.