In the dark before dawn, a young girl dressed fancifully in the manner of the aboriginal Savaras, with green peacock-feathered skirt and top - focused and calm - pulls the tail of a hooded cobra entwined around the trunk of a small tree.  Another cobra slithers close.  A tiger sleeps soundly despite the calls of excited monkeys swinging from the nearby tree tops.  A variant of the more usually encountered iconography of Asavari: a maiden charming snakes in the wilderness.  An unusual and subtly colorful Malwa painting.

According to Anna Dallapiccola and Enrique Isacco the Savaras were renowned in ancient India as snake charmers.  The inscription above the painting does refer to this ragamala as "Asavari" with "Saveri" being a variant - the nayika (heroine) of our painting is depicted fearlessly capturing wild cobras in the dark - while Asavari traditionally charms the serpents with her flute (nagasara).  An early morning raga.