Answer:
The paintings, textiles, and objects in this exhibition range from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries, a time when two traditions--one indigenous, the other foreign--maintained a complex and often contradictory relationship in India. It was a period when Muslim dynasties exercised political control over most of the subcontinent, in the process promoting religion, culture, and languages at odds with native Hinduism. In strictly religious terms, the monotheism of Islam posed a direct challenge to the multiple gods of the Hindu pantheon, and these opposing beliefs fostered a separation that in large part persisted into the twentieth century. But outside of the religious sphere, political, social, and econimic considerations created points of contact that nurtured and often bound together these two systems of thought. With the visual arts, this repeated co-mingling of influences seldom allowed a strict diversion of traditions--the expected differences are accompanied by surprising affinities.