Ragamala is a unique form of Indian miniature painting developed by combining a variety of sources including musical codes and accompanying poetry to indicate the time of day, or season, in which the melody should be performed. This new book, and the exhibition it accompanies, presents a fine and rare collection of twenty-four ragamala from the collection of Claudio Moscatelli. They are highly coloured, very delicate and beautifully executed miniatures dating from 1605 to c.1770. The book establishes the importance of ragamala's place in the history of world art and celebrates its literary content; its association with music and its regional styles, and provides an interpretation of its symbolism in a way that makes it accessible to a contemporary audience.

Author Biography

In association with Dulwich Picture Gallery and Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Catherine Glynn is an independent curator in the field of Indian art. Most recently she participated in the 2010 conference Portraiture in indian Painting, sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery, London. Anna L. Dallapiccola is an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, and has regularly lectured at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Her most recent publications include Catalogue of South Indian Paintings in the collection of the British Museum, 2010. Robert Skelton is a former Keeper of the Indian Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum and has written extensively on Indian miniature paintings and decorative arts of the Sultanate and Mughal periods.