Ragamala, literally a garland of ragas, is a unique form of Indian miniature painting developed by combining a variety of sources including musical codes and accomanying poetry to indicate the time of day, or season, in which the melody should be performed. These miniatures were executed in India from 1400 and by the late 1700s had died out. This new book, and the exhibition it accompanies, presents a fine and rare collection of twenty-four ragamala from the collection of Claudio Moscatelli, a painting conservator based in London. Over fifteen years he has amassed one of the finest collections of ragamala in Britain comprising three different groups, Pahari, Rajasthani and Deccani, displaying regional variations.

The Mughals - descendants of Timur and Genghiz Khan with strong cultural ties to the Persian world - seized political power in north India in 1526 and became the most important artistically active Muslim dynasty on the subcontinent. In this richly illustrated book, Dr Milo Beach shows how, between 1555 and 1630 in particular, Mughal patronage of the arts was incessant and radically innovative for the Indian context.

"The Art of Music takes the relationship between two of the more prominent and oft-intersecting branches of artistic creation as its subject. The liaison between music and the visual arts has inspired countless generations of artists. The two have had manifold complex interactions across all periods of history, in Western and non-Western contexts alike, yet their intersection has only become a rich vein for research by art historians and musicologists in the last thirty years. By tracing these relationships, new insights into the affinities of the arts become clear"--

An exclusive selection of a set of forty-four exquisitely beautiful and hitherto unpublished ragamala paintings of Bijapur rendered in the Deccan style(19th century), in possession of the National Museum, Delhi since 1989 have been presented in 'Ragachitra: Deccani ragamala paintings. Miniature paintings of ragaputras and raginis in other medieval styles act as a foil, highlighting the various trends in vogue during the times as well as the special lyrical quality and originality of the Bijapur paintings, which stand apart in their vibrant visual appeal, depth and range of content and the perfect symphony created between art and music. A lucid narrative documenting the history of Indian classical music, the range of traditions of the raga theory and their miniature visual forms created in medieval India, accompanied by detailed descriptions of the paintings portrayed–highlighting their special features–de-mystifies the elements of the abstract and the obscure in the rationale supporting the unique and aesthetic marriage of music and art. Finally, it is a delightful and overwhelming aesthetic and intellectual experience for the reader.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Sept. 28, 2011-Jan. 8, 2012.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.