Thakur Prasad Mainali is a Nepalese artist and sculptor, known as a pioneer of Nepali modern art.
He studied sculpture under Sankho Chaudhuri, a noted Indian artist, at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.
There are statues of gods and Nepal’s past kings scattered in the cities of Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur; however, no work of a monumental scale with a contemporary theme was found in a public space before Mainali.
In 1965, Mainali was appointed to make a sculpture in Bhrikuti Mandap, a public park—the first contemporary piece of its kind on a monumental scale.
In between his monumental works he also made many bronze pieces of a smaller scale, which have been acquired by collectors around the world.