“Royal Hunt,” folio from a Mahabharata
Western India, Maharashtra, Paithan or northern Karnataka
Not on view
The numerous battles that feature in the Mahabharata, one of the two epic Sanskrit poems of ancient India, provided traditional painters with a wealth of imagery. These narratives, together with the universal Indian desire to celebrate the hero-warrior (vira), combined in a distinctive genre of painting traditionally associated with the town of Paithan, near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Members of the Chitrakarthi caste were responsible for producing these paintings as well as narrating the stories depicted in public performance as they traveled throughout the western Deccan.
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