Pandu hunting (Pandoe op jacht), or Pandu shoots the ascetic Kindama and his beloved, both disguised as deer, from the Mahabharata

During the 1930s in Batuan, I Nyoman Ngendon was an influential artist and teacher of a style of painting characterized by black ink-washed backgrounds and dense, flattened foliage. The emphasis on darkness conveys an experience of the world in which demonic powers affect human life. In this episode from the Mahabharata, King Pandu, father of the Pandawa brothers, is out hunting and shoots Kindama, who is making love with his wife in the guise of a pair of mating deer. The scene, which takes place in a dense tropical rainforest, shows Pandu at left, still holding his bow and looking at the dead deer, while the spirit of Kindama, embracing his wife, points at Pandu, cursing him to a life of celibacy or death. Birds and animals of the forest are scattering or looking on in horror. This curse sets the stage for the births of Pandu’s five semi-divine sons, the Pandawas. Pandu’s concern over having no heirs inspires his wife, Kunti, to summon gods and have children by them. Indeed, Kunti had conceived a child prior to her marriage to Pandu with the sun god, Surya. The result of this amorous encounter was Karna, who ultimately sides with the Korawas in the Baratayudha War. Kunti then proceeds to give birth to Yudistira by way of Dharma, Bima with Bayu (god of the wind), and Arjuna with Indra.