The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2023

Women Worshipping a Shiva Linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol, from a Chamba Ragamala

c. 1700

Northern India, Himachal Pradesh, Pahari Kingdom of Chamba

Gum tempera and gold on paper

Miniature: 21 x 18.4 cm (8 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.)

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.87

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The iconography of Devagandhari is consistent in several Ragamala series from Chamba

Description

Removed from any temple setting, the focus of the scene is on the intensity of the women’s devotions to the Hindu god Shiva in his abstract form of a linga. The figure on the right tosses flower petals on the linga and offers incense in a handheld censer. Her taller companion wearing a yellow blouse holds two lotus flowers in her hands cupped in devotion as she bows reverently.

Provenance
?–June 1973
(Marjorie Buckle, Hong Kong, sold to Ralph Benkaim)
June 1973–2001
Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001], Beverly Hills, CA, by descent to his wife Catherine Glynn Benkaim
2001–2018
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
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.87