I'd recommend a trip to the subcontinent if you ever get a chance, with the usual disclaimer: tread carefully if you're a woman. Lots of stories from my mom and sister (and more recently my wife) on that front, none of them good.
By the way, if you're interested in Indian art, here's some great work by Raja Ravi Varma, a celebrated painter.
http://ravivarma.org/Mythological-Characters-by-Raja-Ravi-Va...
The article, on the other hand, is about Rajput art, i.e., artists of that time and region created in that style. There are plenty of other regional styles, which may possibly help in understanding their cultures. Ravi Varma's paitings would be of little help there. That's not to say his paintings are good works of art. They are. But I think people have very different motivations for seeking ethnic art and mainstream art.