WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

The 17th-century miniatures by Allah Baksh in the Mewari Mahabharata bring the great epic to life

- Arshia Sattar

THE MAHABHARATA Mewari Miniature Paintings (1680-1698) by Allah Baksh By Alok Bhalla and Chandra Prakash Deval NIYOGI BOOKS ₹7,600; 1,994 pages (four volumes)

In the world of classical Indian painting, it's not often that we see scenes from the Mahabharata, apart from the iconic image of the Bhagavad Gita dialogue and the disrobing of Draupadi. And here we have before us a gorgeous set of books from Niyogi that allow our eyes to see the entire Mahabharata in pictures. I will confess to feeling like Sanjaya as, like him, I can see everything at once, even the so-called 'side stories'.

The last decade of art-historical work has brought Rajput paintings to our attention, particularly the renderings of the Indian epics from Mewar.