Upperside very dark Vandyke brown; cilia whitish brown; the discal transverse white bar on the underside of the wings showing through very clearly, more distinctly on the forewing than on the hindwing; followed on both wings by two or three dark pale-ringed, generally non-pupilled ocelli, and subterminal and terminal pale slender lines.

Underside: ground colour darker, the discal white bar and terminal slender line as on the upperside, but the former clear and well-defined inwardly, diffuse outwardly; forewing with four, hindwing with seven white-centred, fulvous-ringed, black ocelli; the rows of ocelli bordered on both sides by narrow crescentic pale purpurescent (purplish) marks forming somewhat irregular lines; subterminal line similar, lunular.

The North-West Himalayan and Southern Indian race of M. malsara, closely resembling it in both the wet- and dry-season forms.

It differs in having the transverse discal band crossing both wings very much narrower and not showing through at all on the upperside; the ocelli are very much smaller and more obsolescent.

Underside in the dry-season form irrorated as in M. malsara with short, transverse, dark brown striae.