This study of a royal couple is styled after loving couples (mithuna) depicted in courtly scenes in the murals at the Buddhist rock-cut caves of Ajanta, in western India. Here Srimati consciously celebrated that great legacy of sixth-century Indian painting. Contemporary literary sources tell us that the palaces and grand houses of the era were adorned in a similar manner, but it is the murals that survive at Ajanta that best demonstrate the mastery of painting in early India. (http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7b90b57fdc-c5bc-49a4-9bb6-cc1e199bef51%7d&oid=718426&pkgids=381&pg=0&rpp=20&pos=11&ft=*&offset=20)