William Simpson, born on 28 October 1823 in Glasgow, was a distinguished watercolourist and war artist. Following a seven-year apprenticeship with a specialist lithographic firm, he moved to London in February 1851 and found employment with Day and Sons. The firm commissioned him to go to India and record places associated with the events of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Simpson arrived in Calcutta (Kolkata) at the end of October 1859 and travelled extensively. Throughout his life, he kept careful diaries, and his hundreds of sketches and pictures themselves formed an authentic record of his travels. In India, he planned to produce four large volumes with approximately 250 plates to be lithographed as illustrations. He spent seven years on the project – three years making preparatory works and the rest in London working his sketches into finished paintings.

In January 1862, Simpson spent several days making rapid pencil sketches of the sacred interior spaces at the cave complex at Ellora. Built between the 6th and 10th centuries, the religious site is dedicated to Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain idols. This watercolour, completed in London, shows a statue of a Jain Tirthankara meditating on a lotus throne with chauri (flywhisk) bearers on either side. Although Simpson labelled his painting as Buddha, a misnomer, the absence of clothing on the figure identifies it as a Jain deity.

While Simpson was away, Day and Son had been drifting into debt. In 1867, before it finally went into liquidation at the end of the year, he was made a company shareholder as part of payment. Two years later, his collection of 250 watercolours was sold as bankrupt stock.