The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Women worshiping a Shiva linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol Raga, from a Ragamala

c. 1700

Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

gum tempera and gold on paper
Overall: 21 x 18.4 cm (8 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.); Painting: 19.7 x 17 cm (7 3/4 x 6 11/16 in.)
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.87
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

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.
  • ?–1973
    Marjorie Buckle, Hong Kong
    1973–2018
    Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, Los Angeles
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Women worshiping a Shiva linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol Raga, from a Ragamala|url=false|author=|year=c. 1700|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.87