The mahatmya of the fifth adhyaya. The bottom half of the painting depicts Pingala's life as a Brahman, his argument with his wife and his death by poisoning. The upper half illustrates the narrative of their subsequent births as birds: they fight in an ascetic's skull in a cremation ground and are given new divine bodies. In the new form they are taken to the court of Dharmaraja, the judge of the actions of mortals

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: The mahatmya of the fifth adhyaya. The bottom half of the painting depicts Pingala's life as a Brahman, his argument with his wife and his death by poisoning. The upper half illustrates the narrative of their subsequent births as birds: they fight in an ascetic's skull in a cremation ground and are given new divine bodies. In the new form they are taken to the court of Dharmaraja, the judge of the actions of mortals. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection.