Born in Kashmir, the artist and poet trained initially as a papier- mache painter prior to winning a Goverrmient scholarship to study fine art at Baroda University under N.S. Bendre. He held his first one-man exhibition in Srinagar in 1953 and has held over 30 one-man shows since then in India, America, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. He was an admirer of Cezanne and cubism and became a figurative painter in a cubist style from which he developed his distinctive tantric work. His work has been exhibited widely, notably at the Sao Paulo Biennale (1969 and 1972), the New Delhi Triennial (1968 and 1978), Contemporary Indian Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (1984), and Neo-tantra Art, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles (1986). He received the National Award in 1973, the Padma Shri in 1977, and then Artist of the Year Award in New Delhi in 1984. In 1979 he was recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of poems, Besukh Ruh. Between 1955 and 1975 he was exhibited and promoted by the Kumar Gallery, New Delhi.