Very good overall condition. The folio borders of the painting are cropped. Slight scuffing to pigment on edges and minor losses to yellow skirt of female at center seen in catalogue illustration. Inscription in devanagari on verso. This lot is exhibited in a temporary frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Playing her flute (nagasura) and holding a charmed snake, she traverses a tree-filled forest. Serpents coil around her feet. Two tigers lick their teeth.

Blue-skinned Asavari strides bravely forward - in the dark before sunrise - holding a mesmerized cobra and playing her flute.  Enclosed within a red and white vertical panel - the flat abstracted compartment protecting and separating her from the dangers of the forest and her own apprehension - seemingly a doorway to safety.  She is dressed in forest-green skirt and choli, with a yellow dhoti beneath.  A repeated schematic pattern of green and red abstracted trees surround her, rising like a fleet of floral-patterned balloons.  Below a register of repeating open and closed lotus blossoms.  She looks up - purposefully gazing past the licking tongues and sharp teeth of two braying tigers who ale⛎rtly watch her with a disturbing level of interest.

"Asavari is longing for her husband and climbs the Malay mountains.
All the snakes desert their sandal treesﷺ and writhe and coil their bodieꦉs."

(Trans. by Pratapaditya Pal from A. K. Coomaraswam💟y)

For an Asavari example from a related Malwa Ragamala series see Edwin Binney 3rd., Rajput Miniatures, Portland, 1968, cat. 45, p. 60; Edwin Binney 3rd, Indian Miniature Painting from the Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Portland Art Museum, 1973, cat 45 a, p.60 (as Asavari); Anna Dallapiccola and Enrique Isacco, Ragamala, Galerie Marco Polo, Paris, 1977, p. 43 and Pratapaditya Pal, Ragamala Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1967, p.15.

For two further paintings from the same Ragamala ꦆseries see Pl. II (cat. 6) an💦d Pl. XXII (cat. 55) in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.