The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

A Woman Plucks Leaves While Awaiting Her Lover: Gunakali Ragini of Malkos, from the “Chawand Ragamala”

1605

Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar, Chawand

gum tempera and ink on paper
20.6 x 18.1 cm (8 1/8 x 7 1/8 in.)
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.136
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

She has lit a six-flame lamp at the foot of the tree in her vigil.

Description

On a terrace outside an open bedchamber, a dark-skinned woman wearing a skirt of peacock feathers plucks leaves from a tree and has filled her basket with flowers. She has made garlands and hung them on the trees, probably in accordance with a vow made in the ardent hope of bringing back her overdue lover. In accordance with the verse, two peacocks stand perched on the roof.
  • ?–2018
    Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer, Beverly Hills, CA, partial sale and gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Diamond, Debra, and Dipti Khera, eds. A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers; Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2022. Reproduced: p. 72; Mentioned: no. 2, pp. 70, 74, 320.
  • A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 11-September 10, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=A Woman Plucks Leaves While Awaiting Her Lover: Gunakali Ragini of Malkos, from the “Chawand Ragamala”|url=false|author=|year=1605|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.136