Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.

Gunakali Ragini

c. 1750

Medium: Gum tempera and gold on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Image: 23.6 x 15.6 cm (9 5/16 x 6 1/8 in.); Overall: 30.5 x 22.9 cm (12 x 9 in.)
Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Jaipur
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Edward L. Whittemore Fund
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

About this work

A princess sits on a throne under a canopy. Her companion holds the royal fly whisk above her head. According to the verse at the top, she absentmindedly plucks flowers as she daydreams about lovemaking. Below, a woman holds an instrument, possibly referring to the musical compositions that were played for the viewers in accordance with the scene and mood of the verse. The two women kneel on a carpet, which the artist has tilted up to a vertical plane, so its pattern of stylized water lilies on a bold orange ground surrounded by a green border with undulating flowering vines can be fully seen.