An exhibition of Indian paintings spanning five centuries conjures up a flood of warm color and a variety of scenes: nobles at court, elephants in battle, lovely women in poetic gardens.

"The Greatest Delight: Painting of India from the Williams College Museum of Art" is a selection of about 70 works from the collection of the Williamstown, Mass., college. It's on view at the midtown Equitable Gallery through April 2, and will be shown at the college museum Sept. 3-Nov. 27.Works exhibited trace parts of the history of painting in India: the earliest works are 15th-century illustrated manuscripts in watercolors touched with gold. Two centuries of Islamic Mughal painting followed - its exquisite detail sometimes blending with simpler, boldy colorful painting done for the Rajputs, Hindu rulers of north India. Then the British arrived, with a whole new range of influences.

The exhibition includes jewel-bright watercolors influenced by Persian miniatures, delicate pen and ink drawings, and works on cotton - an embroidered wrap for religious offerings, and two huge, gorgeous temple hangings painted with scenes showing the god Krishna.

Many of the paintings teem with figures and action: an elephant, symbol of royal power, bounding merrily along in a procession; hunting scenes bristling with horsemen's spears and wild boars; a royal audience packed with courtiers whose swords, shields and turbans give the composition a rich, dense formality.

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An exhibition catalog includes a checklist of the college's entire Indian and Islamic holdings.

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