India, Sept. 18 -- India has famously told stories in stone.

Think of the Taj Mahal. Khajuraho. The ancient cave art of Bhimbetka. There were emperors, kings and artists behind some of this work. But the average person has typically had their say too.

An exhibition at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, revisits this history in an evocative exhibition titled A Moving Line: 1500 Years of Indian Visual Storytelling, which traces such tales in mediums ranging from hero stones to colonial-era political cartoons and modern-day graphic novels.

The centrepiece of the show is the Begur hero stone. Erected in present-day Karnataka in the 10th century, it depicts the story of a battle. Part of this story is told in six lines of O...