Nata Ragini

This painting is from a set of ragamala paintings, which illustrate various musical modes (ragas) with a stock range of images. In this case, the scene of a mounted warrior fighting with a soldier is part of the iconography of the musical mode 'Nat ragini'. The subsidiary scene of the prince out hawking on horseback in the background is not part of the iconography for this ragini, and may instead be a stylised portrait of the patron for whom the set was made.