Ascetic Princess with Snakes in a Wilderness: Asavari Ragini, from a Ragamala

c. 1650

Ascetic Princess with Snakes in a Wilderness: Asavari Ragini, from a Ragamala, c. 1650. Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Bikaner. Gum tempera and gold on paper; page: 25.8 x 18.2 cm (10 3/16 x 7 3/16 in.); miniature: 19.7 x 12.7 cm (7 3/4 x 5 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.190 According to a theme explored in various examples of Indian poetry and literature, a princess has fled her royal life to live alone on an island in the forest. She has skillfully made a skirt and hut of leaves and vines. Suffering deprivation and practicing yogic disciplines, she has achieved the power to peacefully commune with the water snakes, who are mystically drawn to her. This painting once belonged to the filmmaker James Ivory (American, b. 1928).