Born in Kashmir, he won a government scholarship to study Fine Arts at Baroda University under N.S.Bendre. He held his first solo exhibition in Srinagar in 1953 and later exhibited in America, Canada, Japan Hong Kong and Singapore and participated in group shows notably the Sao Paulo, Biennale (1968 and 1978), Contemporary Indian Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (1984) and Neo-Tantric Art, UCLA, Los Angeles (1986). He received the National Award in 1973, the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Artist of the Year Award in New Delhi in 1984. In 1979, he was the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of poems, Berukh Rub.