Vishnu as Matsya, slaying Hayagrua

This painting is one of a collection of prints, paintings and drawings, some bound in an album, given to the museum by Rudyard Kipling in 1917. They were all collected about 25 years previously by Rudyard Kipling's father, J. Lockwood Kipling, when he was Director of the Lahore School of Art. Most of the collection was bought in Amritsar and Lahore, though some sheets were bought in Calcutta and Bombay.

Many of the works depict popular subjects of Sikhism or, as here, Hinduism. Vishnu is shown as the fish avatar, Matsya, slaying the raksha Hayagriva, who attempted to steal Brahma's vedas which remain lost in the sea. Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, flies above.