Two resplendent paintings in the Narmada maiya series show the Mahabharata hero Bhima in direct collision with Narmada. This blue painting portrays Bhima attempting to dam the river as it flows through the Dhuti forest and past the Ningo Mountain. “Bhim ne lakdi se dungar uthaya. Lakdi toot gayi aur Narmada aage behti gayi” (“Bhima lifted the mountain with a stick [fashioned from an infinitely long tree trunk that also appears to be the tail of the tiger]. The stick broke and Narmada just kept flowing on”). In the red painting here, Narmada’s story from birth to betrayal is staged in the long antlers of the Barasingha. She is shown as a child-woman swimming frenziedly through the forest, disregarding Kapil rishi’s watchful stance and nourishing herself with the milk flowing from the udders of the cow at Dudh Dhara. At Bhim Kundi, while our hero sits primed for action, Narmada escapes from right under his nose by hiding inside a fish. —N.Adajania