Mohan Samant (b. Manmohan Balkrishna Samant in Bombay (now Mumbai), 1924; d. New York City, 2004) was an early Indian modernist painter and a member of the Progressive Artists Group. He was also a lifelong player of the sarangi, an Indian bowed instrument.

Samant was born in Goregaon, a suburb of Bombay, India, in 1924. The fourth child of eight, he grew up in a cultured environment. Samant’s father, Balkrishna Ramchandra Samant, was a headmaster, and his mother a homemaker. His younger sister, Vasudha Patil, an accomplished novelist, has written that their parents encouraged the family’s interest in music, art, theater, movies, travel, and writing, and Samant displayed an early proficiency in and dedication to both m...