Maya Displaying Her Veil Of Many Colours

A composition where a female figure on the left, likely signifying Maya or Illusion, lays out her colourful veil to be viewed by three men of religion on the right. Two of them seem to be Buddhist monks, and one seated figure has a sage-like appearance. The iconography is inspired by the various folk and court painting traditions of India.

Badri Narayan was entirely self-taught and his art betrays a deeply introspective gaze. All of his work was in some way or the other an exploration of the self. He was inspired by various movements and art forms, particularly traditional miniatures, narrative paintings and popular Indian iconography. For his own work, this artist from Andhra Pradesh preferred a certain flat two-dimensionality that nevertheless teemed with life.