The King of the Dark Chamber was a monumental mural project in which Rabindranath Tagore staged a play titled Arupratan. This was the largest mural that K.G. Subramanyan had made until then. It was planned in early 1962 when he had received a commission.

The initial drawing was executed in Baroda, whereas the rest of the mural was executed in Lucknow after Subramanyan had written to the Chief Minister of Lucknow requesting for a studio space. A facility was in turn offered to him in an area called Chinhat, somewhere at the outskirts of Lucknow.

As Subramanyan was teaching in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda at the time, the mural was executed in two phases: during the Diwali vacation of 1962 (sometime between October and November) and the summer vacation of 1963. It was the first time that Subramanyan worked on this kind of scale. As Subramanyan recalls, the quantity of the tiles that he made was four times more than that was required.

Working in a collaborative spirit, Subramanyan had invited his students from Baroda to participate in the making of this mural. Feroz Katpitia, Damodar Gajjar, and Jyoti Bhatt were therefore present. It was by then that Subramanyan met K.V. Jena in Lucknow who later helped with firing. At the second phase of its installation, Gyarsilal and his brother Kishori Lal were present along with Ramesh Pandya, Feroz Katpitia, and R. Gajjar. As Subramanyan recalls, Gajjar was at one time a student in the college and was looking for a job. Hence, he took Gajjar to Lucknow, and realised that he would be a great manager for the project.