Ashva
This painting depicts a charging horse, carrying the power of an entire army in its stride. I intended to capture the Ashvamedha ritual wherein a horse is allowed to roam free accompanied by the King's army, and if the horse enters another King's territory, the King should either accept the trespassing King's sovereignty or must engage in battle.
There is much controversy regarding the practice of Ashvamedha concerning how it was done procedurally, its legitimacy and its history. There are multiple historians with their own perspectives about the practice. There is also a perspective that the horse is said to represent the movement of time which is steadfast and in one direction, and therefore the practice of Ashvamedha could also be the observation of the movement of time; while the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad describes the entire universe as a sacrificial horse and has a different definition of Ashvamedha in the chapter pertaining to the sacrifice of one's own self.