Madhubani art

Madhubani painting or Mithila painting is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region
of Bihar state, India and the adjoining parts of Terai in Nepal.
[1]
Painting is done with fingers, twigs,
brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and is characterized by eye-
catching geometrical patterns. There are paintings for each occasion and festival such as birth,
marriage, holi, surya shasti, kali puja,Upanayanam (sacred thread ceremony), and durga puja.
Origins
The origins of Madhubani painting or Mithila Painting are shrouded in antiquity and mythology.
Madhubani painting/Mithila painting has been done traditionally by the women of villages around the
present town of Madhubani and Darbhanga (the literal meaning of Madhubani is forests of honey) and
other areas of Mithila. The painting was traditionally done on freshly plastered mud walls and floors of
huts, but now they are also done on cloth, handmade paper and canvas. Madhubani paintings are made
from the paste of powdered rice. Madhubani painting has remained confined to a compact geographical
area and the skills have been passed on through centuries, the content and the style have largely
remained the same. And that is the reason for Madhubani painting being accorded the coveted GI
(Geographical Indication) status. Madhubani paintings also use two dimensional imagery, and the colors
used are derived from plants. Ochreand lampblack are also used for reddish brown and black
respectively.
Madhubani paintings mostly depict the men & its association with nature and the scenes & deity from the
ancient epics. Natural objects like the sun, the moon, and religious plants like tulsi are also widely
painted, along with scenes from the royal court and social events like weddings. Generally no space is left
empty; the gaps are filled by paintings of flowers, animals, birds, and even geometric designs. Objects
depicted in the walls of kohabar ghar (where newly wed couple see each other in the first night) are
symbols of sexual pleasure and procreation. This painting is, in fact, simplistic manifestation of the
philosophical heights achieved by Indian civilization for the universal power of love, longing and peace .
Traditionally, painting was one of the skills that was passed down from generation to generation in the
families of the Mithila Region, mainly by women.
[2]


Artists and awards
Madhubani painting received official recognition in 1970, when the President of India gave an award to
Jagdamba Devi, of Jitbarpur village near Madhubani. Other painters, Mahasundari Devi (2008),
[3]
Sita
Devi, Godavari Dutt, Bharti Dayal and Bua Devi were also given this National award.
[4]
Smt Bharti Dayal
won an Award from All India Fine Arts and Crafts for fifty years of art in independent India and the state
Award for kalamkari in Mithila Painting and her painting ."Eternal Music " baggaed the top award in
Millennium Art Competition from AIFAC for the year 2001 . Smt Bharti Dayal is also Honoured with The
Vishist Bihari Samman amid festivities to commemorate 100 year of Bihar.
MITHILA PAINTING: A BRIEF HISTORY
Mithila painting, as a domestic ritual activity, was unknown to the outside world until the massive Bihar earthquake
of 1934. House walls had tumbled down, and the British colonial officer in Madhubani District, William G. Archer,
inspecting the damage "discovered" the paintings on the newly exposed interior walls of homes. Archer - later to
become the South Asia Curator at London's Victoria and Albert Museum - was stunned by the beauty of the
paintings and similarities to the work of modern Western artists like Klee, Miro, and Picasso. During the 1930s he
took black and white photos of some of these paintings, the earliest images we have of them. Then in a 1949 article
in the Indian art journal, Marg, he brought the wall paintings to public attention.


Then a second natural disaster, a severe draught in the late 1960s, prompted the All India Handicrafts Board to
encourage a few upper caste women in villages around Madhubani town to transfer their ritual wall paintings to
paper as an income generating project. Drawing on the region's rich visual culture, contrasting "line painting" and
"color painting" traditions, and their individual talents, several of these women turned out to be superb artists. Four
of them were soon representing India in cultural fairs in Europe, Russia, and the USA. Their national and
international recognition prompted many other women from many other castes - including harijans or dalits, the ex-
"untouchables" - to begin painting on paper as well.
By the late 1970s, the popular success of the paintings - aesthetically distinct from other Indian painting traditions -
was drawing dealers from New Delhi offering minimal prices for mass produced paintings of the most popular
divinities and three familiar scenes from the Ramayana. Out of poverty, many painters complied with the dealers'
demands, and produced the rapid and repetitious images known as "Madhubani paintings." Nevertheless, with the
encouragement of a number of outsiders - both Indian and foreign - other artists working within the same aesthetic
traditions continued to produce the highly crafted, deeply individual and increasingly diverse work, now known as
"Mithila Painting."

Mithila had long been famous in India for its rich culture and numerous poets, scholars, and theologians - all men.
For women, it has been a deeply conservative society, and until painting on paper began 40+ years ago, most women
were confined to their homes and limited to household chores, child rearing, managing family rituals, and ritual wall
painting.
Painting on paper for sale has changed this dramatically. Aside from generating important new family income,
individual women have gained local, national, and even international recognition. Artists are being invited to
exhibitions across India, and to Europe, the United States, and Japan - no longer as "folk artists," but now as
"contemporary artists." Where once their paintings were "anonymous," now they are proudly signed. Along with
economic success, opportunities for travel, education, radio, and now television are expanding women's
consciousness and engagement with the multiple worlds around them. Gender relations are shifting. A few men
continue to paint within what is still defined as "a women's tradition," but their work tends to be personal and
anodyne. In contrast, the women's paintings are increasingly socially charged, critical, and edgy.
These changes have provoked an argument in Mithila and beyond between cultural conservatives who claim that
commercialization and the loss of its ritual functions has debased Mithila painting, versus those who see Mithila
Painting as a contemporary art form rooted in the expanding experience, concerns, and freedoms of Mithila's
women. Viewers of Mithila Painting: The Evolution of an Art Form are encouraged to form their own judgments.