[1] He was born Ghulam Rasool in a Kashmiri Muslim family of modest means in the Chinkral Mohalla habba kadal neighborhood of old Srinagar.
He dropped out of school after his father's death and took up odd jobs like writing, painting signboards, weaving silk and whitewashing walls.
In 1954 he won a scholarship to study fine arts under a celebrated Indian painter, N. S. Bendre in the faculty of Arts, at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, in the state of Baroda, in the state of Gujarat, in western India.
[2] In the early 1960s, Santosh studied Tantric (mystical) art and Kashmir Shaivism.
His paintings have been exhibited in notable international shows including the Tenth São Paulo Art Biennial, 1969[3] and the 'Neo-Tantra: Contemporary Indian Art Inspired by Tradition' exhibition at University of California, Los Angeles, 1985.