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Four albums in the Rampur Raza Library in Uttar Pradesh contain unusually explicit paintings, according to a 2023 feature by Scroll. The library’s 2002 painting catalogue reportedly labels them “pornographic”—a catalogue term, not a neutral or universally accepted art-historical classification. The albums are catalogued as items 29–32 and include works associated with several regional traditions and dates, from the early 19th to the early 20th century.
What the four albums contain
Scroll’s 2023 feature describes the paintings from the albums; this account follows that reporting rather than claiming direct examination of the objects. The scenes include heterosexual and same-sex encounters, group sex, sexual acrobatics, voyeurism and bestiality. The images are more overt than the romantic or erotic suggestion commonly associated with Ragamala painting.
The four albums differ in size. The folio counts below are collection details reported by Scroll from the library catalogue, not independent measurements.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstall| Catalogue item | Folio count | Catalogue attribution and date, as reported by Scroll |
|---|---|---|
| Album 29 | 25 | Kangra; first quarter of the 19th century |
| Album 30 | 9 | Delhi or Lucknow, tentatively; around 1825 |
| Album 31 | 9 | Associated with Rajasthan; first half of the 20th century |
| Album 32 | 3 | Associated with Lucknow; first half of the 20th century |
These are four particular albums, not a representative survey of Indian erotic painting. Their different attributions and dates also caution against treating them as a single workshop or a unified artistic programme.
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Why the catalogue calls them “pornographic”
The word comes from the library’s 2002 painting catalogue, compiled by Barbara Schmitz and Ziauddin Ahmed Desai, as reported by Scroll. It is useful to distinguish that documented label from a settled judgment about how the paintings should be classified. “Pornographic” foregrounds the explicitness of the scenes, but it can also narrow attention to sexual content and obscure the albums’ artistic and historical contexts.
Scroll reports that Album 29’s flyleaf bears the label “Muraqqa Ragmala Fohsh Qalam: 25 wasliyan (nadir) – Ragamala Album in the Obscene [Pornographic] Style: 25 folios (rare)”. The feature considers it almost certain that this label was added well after the artworks entered the collection; its timing is not established as fact.
The feature raises the possibility that the catalogue label helped keep the albums less visible. It also discusses how Ragamala painting’s Hindu-Muslim cultural entanglements can sit awkwardly within nationalist accounts of Indian art. These are interpretive arguments, not proven explanations for the albums’ visibility or for the label’s history.
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Ragamala paintings give visual form to musical modes, representing them through human or divine figures and situations. Art historian Klaus Ebeling’s definition, reproduced in Scroll’s feature, describes them as “visual representations of Indian musical modes previously envisioned in divine or human form by poets and musicians.” The tradition flourished especially between the 16th and 19th centuries across regions including Rajasthan, central India, the Deccan, the northern plains and the Pahari kingdoms.
Ragamala images can draw on several overlapping traditions:
- Music and poetry: the paintings translate musical modes and poetic ideas into visual scenes.
- Devotion: Bhakti readings of Radha and Krishna can cast romantic longing and union in devotional terms.
- Courtly conventions: Nayikabheda classifications of heroines and themes of love in courtly poetry shaped some depictions of desire.
- Cross-cultural exchange: Persian as well as Sanskrit and Hindi influences form part of the tradition’s wider history.
Erotic feeling is therefore not foreign to Ragamala painting. But it is often conveyed through romance, longing, devotion or metaphor rather than the explicit acts Scroll describes in these Rampur albums. That contrast makes this group unusual; it should not be used to define the tradition as a whole.
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What is known—and unknown—about their history
The catalogue attributions connect the albums to Kangra, Rajasthan, Lucknow and possibly Delhi, but attribution and dating are not equally certain. Scroll discusses possible connections with other erotic imagery, courtly collecting and exchange among nearby courts. Those possibilities offer context, not a documented account of who made or commissioned these works.
- Documented in the feature: the library holds four albums catalogued as items 29–32; the reported catalogue supplies folio counts and regional and date attributions; Scroll describes the scenes and the flyleaf label on Album 29.
- Not definitively established: the albums’ provenance and route into the library, their makers, who commissioned them, and who viewed them or for what purpose.
Without a known commission or viewing context, it would be speculative to assign the paintings to a particular patron, courtly setting or audience. Their presence in the library establishes where they are held, not how they arrived there.
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