[2][3] Baktay had started his career as a painter[4] and he encouraged his niece Amrita Sher-Gil to pursue art.

[5] He gave up painting to study eastern religions and art, and became a renowned Indologist.

[4] Ervin Baktay was born on 24 June 1890 in Dunaharaszti, on the Pest side of Budapest.

[6] Following the death of his father in 1905, Baktay's mother decided to move to Austria and then to Zebegény, Hungary, at the onset of the First World War.

[citation needed] Baktay translated the Kama Sutra in 1920 and then published a version of the Mahābhārata in 1923.