Rustam Kills the Dragon

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The Shah Kay Kavus sent a message to Zal and his son Rustam beseeching them to rescue him from the White Div who had imprisoned and blinded him in Mazandaran. At the urging of Zal, Rustam chose the short route, 'the haunt of div and lion', to the king. On this way he performed seven heroic acts or courses. While Rustam slept near a spring, actually a dragon's lair, the dragon approached his horse, Rakhsh, twice, and twice the horse awakened his master only to be chided for disturbing his sleep. The third time Rustam awoke and saw the dragon. Then a battle ensued, and Rakhsh helped by biting the dragon's shoulders and tearing back its skin, to the amazement of Rustam.

The drama of Rakhsh locking his teeth on the dragon's spine simultaneously with Rustam spearing it in the gullet is more or less contained in within the soaring mass of rocks that rise up the left side of the composition and extend across the top. The minor distraction of the dragon's tail and trees and bushes silhouetted on the margin is minimised by the powerful surge of Rakhsh across the page towards the slithering beast. Also notable in this painting by Kailash Raj, is the rather stiff pose of Rustam, the extremely large body of Rakhsh, the very refined rendering of textures and the preference for magnificent rock formations in shades of mauve and blue.