This painting is the creation of Somalal Shah and is a tasteful expressive watercolor created using his trademark Bengal School wash technique. It represents a beautiful lady standing in a lush tranquil wilderness and is dressed in flowing white garments with intricate motifs but holds a folklore string instrument Veena over her chest. Besides her, there are cute deers gathered at the riverbank entranced by the sounds of her music.
Somalal Shah is a famed Indian painter and an art teacher who played an important role in the development of Gujarati modern art. He was born in Kapadvanj, Gujarat and received his artistic training at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay and the Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta. In Calcutta, Shah studied under the pioneer artists of the Bengal Renaissance such as Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, and Kshitindranath Majumdar. Encouraged by his mentor Ravishankar Raval, he moved to Bhavnagar in Saurashtra, where Shah spent almost thirty years capturing the life and landscape, traditions and birds of the region.
This composition borrows heavily from the classical Ragamala theme, specifically Todi Ragini that historically conveys the feeling of love, beauty, and harmony with nature by portraying a young girl playing music that enchants wild animals. In this illustration, Somalal Shah successfully recreates the environment using smooth shades and washes of colors which in turn gives the artwork a unique serene quality. The hallmark features of Somalal Shah’s style are closely allied to the Bengal Wash Technique, which was invented and perfected by Abanindranath Tagore, who took elements from Japanese ink-wash and applied them to the Indian miniature paintings.
The piece depicts the classical Ragamala theme of Todi Ragini, whereby the main woman playing the Veena is surrounded by four deer at her feet, highlighting the idea that music has the power of bringing together Man and Nature.
In the foreground, one can see the plants of low height and a shallow water surface capturing the light. In the middle ground, all the important figures appear; lastly, in the background low green hills stretch to the perspective horizon line, which appears vague and infinitely receding without any sharpness or strict perspective.
A woman stands in a soft, glowing landscape at the hour between day and night, the sky behind her shading from blue into a warm band of orange at the horizon. She holds a veena against her body, her fingers resting on its strings mid-note, and around her a small herd of deer has gathered, drawn close as if the music itself has called them there. This is Todi Ragini, one of the most enduring images in Indian painting, born of the old belief that certain melodies could charm even wild animals into stillness. Somalal Shah paints her in a gentler, more naturalistic register than the older miniature tradition she descends from, softening the ragamala's stylised iconography into something closer to lyrical realism, with rounded modelling in her face and arms and a hazy, atmospheric landscape rather than a flat decorative ground. Yet the essential stillness of the theme survives intact. The deer press in around her without fear, heads lifted or lowered toward the sound, and she herself seems entirely absorbed, eyes lowered toward her hands rather than out at the viewer. It is less a portrait than an evocation of a mood, painted at the moment when music becomes almost visible, and the boundary between the human and animal world briefly dissolves.
