Noted painter Maqbool Fida Husain often referred to as the Picasso of India died Thursday June 9 in a London hospital He was 95 During his lifetime he painted an estimated 25 000 works that in his later years were commanding record sums in keeping with his growing fame His epic work quot Mahabharata The Battle of Ganga and Jamuna quot sold at a 2008 Christie 039 s auction for 1 6 million India 039 s biggest grosser as a painter with his works fetching astronomical sums in auctions in London and New York Hussain turned away from his homeland in 2006 following a series of legal cases and death threats over his depiction of Hindu goddesses in nude