A rich collection from the past

The Department of Tourism along with the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Telangana released a book titled 'Raga Chitramala' at Ravindra Bharathi recently.

The book contains illustrations of Raga Ragini paintings from the collection of the State Museum at Public Gardens. There are 60 paintings in this collection by the museum.

On the occasion, Sudha Patwardhan from the Gwalior Gharana who was present spoke on the history behind the paintings, how ragas were classified and their diverse ways of rendition.

Further, she explained about how different schools of thought had different musical notes within the same raga. She also expounded about the period before and after 6th century BC, and the period beyond 9th century BC as being relevant periods for the Raga Chitramala.

As far as the paintings are concerned, there was an element of surprise, as not many of them had any particular character for the ragas.

There were distinct characteristics in Rajasthani paintings for dresses, jewellery, palaces and colours. The Mughal paintings invariably had men in turban that had feathers emanating from them.

Some of the paintings had a particular deer accompanying the women. Many of the paintings had dark clouds in a snake formation.Sudha Patwardhan,

author and performer of Hindustani music, from Pune demonstrated a few ragas in which she sang “Bandish” and “Taranas”.

She was accompanied on vocal support by Aradhana Karade; on Tabla by Suhas Shastri; and on Harmonium by Rahul Deshpande. Picture postcards of Raga Chitramala were also released on the ocassion.

By:Jaywant Naidu