Leaf from a Kalighat album: Jatayu hinders Ravana’s chariot, trying to prevent the abduction of Sita (recto); Dushyanta watching his son Bharat playing with the tiger at the end of the Abhijnanashakuntalam (verso)

Leaf from a Kalighat album: Krishna Steals the Clothes of the Cowgirls (Gopis) (recto); Das Avataras, Ten Incarnations of Vishnu (verso)

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

Dushyanta watching his son Bharat playing with the tiger at the end of the Abhijnanashakuntalam (verso), from a Kalighat album

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

Leaf from a Kalighat album: Woman Playing Music (recto); Krishna Stroking Radha's Feet (verso)

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

Leaf from a Kalighat album: Rama and Sita enthroned (recto); Garuda carrying Balarama and Krishna (verso)

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

Folio 18 from a Chandana Malayagiri Varta (Story of King Chandana and Queen Malayagiri) of Karamachand: Ravana battles the great vulture Jatayu and defeats him by throwing stones in his mouth (recto); Jatayu approaches Rama and Lakshmana who are wondering where Sita could be (verso)

Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kishangarh

Rama and Hanuman, Holding an Uprooted Tree, Rescues Sita (recto), from a Kalighat album

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

Sugriva challenges his brother Vali, King of the Forest Dwellers, to a duel, folio 10 from the Kishkindha Kanda (Book of Kishkindha) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Northern India, Pahari Region, Himachal Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Nurpur, Court of Dayadhata (reigned 1700–1735)

Leaf from a Kalighat album: Krishna as Kali worshipped by Radha (recto); Krishna quells the serpent Kaliya (verso)

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

The third suitor, who is an archer, shoots the wicked fairy who has imprisoned Zuhra. He rides on a magic horse prepared by the second suitor and is led to the spot by the divining prowess of the first, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-fourth Night

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

Krishna Stroking Radha's Feet (verso), from a Kalighat album

Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat

Jatayu hinders Ravana’s chariot, trying to prevent the abduction of Sita (recto), from a Kalighat album

Eastern India, Bengal, Kalighat

‘Paithan’ (Chitrakathi) narrative painting

anonymous