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

c. 1650

Medium: gum tempera and gold on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: 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.)
Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Bikaner
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase 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

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.