Background Tag Not Recognised

Previously i was validating my code through xhtml 1.0 and the one major problem was that it tells me the background tag does not exist.

So i changed my doctype to html 4.1 to hopefully get round the problem but to no avail.
If it's deprecated what are you supposed to use instead?
Or what if any are the alternatives

The code as is below

<table width="1230" background="ma pics/12.jpg" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

The jpg is in a css file on my pc and displays it in my browser when i see the page although unpublished.
I havn't tried to publish this page yet but every time i try it through w3schools validator it tells me the tag dosen't exist?!
I've included the whole code to see if that will help at all. Cheers

The code below as requested

<table width="1230" background="ma pics/12.jpg" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

The jpg is in a css file on my pc and displays it in my browser when i see the page although unpublished.
I havn't tried to publish this page yet but every time i try it through w3schools validator it tells me the tag dosen't exist?!

I've included the whole code to see if that will help at all. Cheers

One more thing do you think it would make any difference if I took the jpg out of the css and made the link straight each page could that help? Just an idea.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="mariearts.css" />
<title>Marie arts</title>
<meta name="Keywords" content="Drama, School, Leeds, Marie Arts, Performance, Nina Prescott, Gabrielle Cresswell, Performance, Self-expression, Children, Drama Lessons, Role-play, Mime work, voice expansion, trust exercises, Workshops" />
<meta name="Description" content="Drama school for children, Artistic creativity, Teaching various skills such as, Role-play, Mime work, voice expansion, trust exercises,Workshops " />
</head>
<body>

<table width="1230" background="ma pics/12.jpg" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

<tr>
<td>
<h1>Marie Arts</h1></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h4 align="center">
<a href="2mariearts.htm" style="text-decoration:none">please
<img border="0" src="ma pics/cm4.jpg" align="middle" width="165" height="150" alt="mask"></img>
enter
</a>
</h4>
<h5>Drama and performance school</h5>
<hr />
</body>
</html>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="mariearts.css" />
<title>Marie arts</title>

<meta name="Keywords" content="Drama, School, Leeds, Marie Arts, Performance, Nina Prescott, Gabrielle Cresswell, Performance, Self-expression, Children, Drama Lessons, Role-play, Mime work, voice expansion, trust exercises, Workshops" />
<meta name="Description" content="Drama school for children, Artistic creativity, Teaching various skills such as, Role-play, Mime work, voice expansion, trust exercises,Workshops " />

</head>
<body>

<table width="1230" background="ma pics/12.jpg" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td>
<h1>Marie Arts</h1></td>
</tr>
</table>

<h4 align="center">

<a href="2mariearts.htm" style="text-decoration:none">please
<img border="0" src="ma pics/cm4.jpg" align="middle" width="165" height="150" alt="mask"></img>
enter
</a>
</h4>
<pre>

</pre>
<h5>Drama and performance school</h5>
<hr />
</body>
</html>