A Rajput Warrior with Camel, Possibly Maru Ragini from a Ragamala

1650–80

A Rajput Warrior with Camel, Possibly Maru Ragini from a Ragamala, 1650–80. Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Amber or Southwestern India, Deccan. Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper; miniature: 26 x 17.6 cm (10 1/4 x 6 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.168 A Rajput warrior holding a spear, with piercing dagger (katar) and sword attached to his belt, stands alone with his camel in a landscape. They have arrived at the banks of a stream, verdant in contrast to the intense hot yellow of the ground behind them. The musical mode associated with this painting is based on folk melodies of Rajasthan, where local stories feature a hero with a camel mount. The warrior’s belt is called a kamarband in Persian and is the origin of the English cummerbund.