The exact date of this painting is unknown, as many works by Roy were mass produced in a studio workshop. For Hindus, elephants are symbols of wealth and in agricultural communities in India, the motif of an elephant and rider is used to mark a birth or marriage or to honour the Goddess Lakshmi. Bengali art has affinities with modern art, in that it eliminates all inessential elements and simplifies colour and form. Traditional folk art has been highly influential on many twentieth-century artists, such as Jean Dubuffet, Picasso and the Surrealists. Roy’s work became widely known after the Second World War, due to the westerners who spent time in Calcutta during the war. Like the Surrealists, Roy strived to approach painting with the innocence and simplicity of a child.