Bhairava Raga

A raga is a traditional Hindu musical form. This is a page from a dispersed set of paintings known as a ragamala ('garland of ragas'), which uses a particular scene or person to represent each raga. This painting represents Bhairava raga and shows the Hindu god Shiva (in the form of Bhairava) with his consort Parvati in a palace setting. This important set has a colophon (in a private collection) on the last miniature. A colophon is a short text at the end of a set of paintings that gives the date and place where it was completed. This one gives the date of 999 in the Muslim (Hijri) calendar (equivalent to 1591) and the place name of Chunar, near Varanasi. It also names the three artists involved, who were all pupils of Mir Sayyid 'Ali, one of the most famous artists at the court of the Emperor Akbar. The painting shows a remarkable combination of Hindu imagery and the Mughal painting style. Mir Sayyid 'Ali and his colleague 'Abd us-Samad developed this style at the end of the 16th century.