K. C. S. Paniker (1911–1977) was a metaphysical and abstract painter from India. He interpreted the country's age-old metaphysical and spiritual knowledge in the 1960s, when Indian art was under the influence of the Western painters. "That was the time when a few Indian artists were trying to break out of this Western influence and establish an idiom and identity of their own," he said. In 1976, he was awarded the highest award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's National Academy of Art, the for lifetime contribution.