Ahilya Uddhar

The story of Ahilya is one of the most popular one's. Ahilya was the wife of a sage Gautam and was a renouned beauty. Lord Indra who is a renouned lampat and vyabhichari came one night disguised as the sage himself and bedded her. When Gautam came to know of this he cursed Ahilya and transformed her into a stone. She was liberated by Ram coming and touching her many years later.

This story is often used to indicate the injustice done to women. Ahilya was conned and was not a willing party in the episode but her husband took out his anger on her instead of going after the culprit.

The painting also shows Ahilya on a lotus, a flower which symbolises purity (a lotus grows in mud but is always above it).