Bijapur, Deccan early 17th century. These paintings are actually Sufi in their depiction. The starving horse is a symbol of the dying ego and the crows pecking at the wounds, a total submission to the Divine will. A handful of such paintings exist in various public and private collections. Among the Sufis, stallions are thought metaphorically to embody the body’s gross desires and therefore are properly shown starved and beaten.