Untitled (Banganga)

K.H. Ara started his career by painting landscapes and still-lifes in vivid colour palettes before moving to female nudes. The early works, of which Untitled (Banganga) is a fine example, reveals the versatility of the artist and his remarkable control in handling the paintbrush. Ara paints here Banganga, a pilgrim spot in the Bombay of his childhood, which dates back to the era of the Ramayana. Legend has it that when Ram shot his baan (arrow) into the ground here, a freshwater tributary of the Ganga river sprouted from below the surface. Remarkably, this work was painted when Ara was but fifteen years old.