Madhubani art: How the local Mithila art is painting a global impact

A 10-year-old Avinash Karn would come home from school after winning prizes in the drawing competition and make fun of his mother and aunt making bright paintings boasting “figures with such pointed noses that could stab anyone to death”. “I was too young and naïve to appreciate the traditional art form that was all around me,” says a grown up Karn. The “garish” and “funny” art Karn witnessed as a child in his home and at the homes of his friends in his village in Ranti in the back of beyond Madhubani district in Bihar was Madhubani or Mithila painting. Karn today has come a full circle and is himself a Madhubani artist of note.

Like stories passed down orally from generation to generation, Madhubani painting has also hardly any written documentation. According to myth, the painting took birth during the age of Ramayana, when Raja Janaka, who was also known as the King of Mithila, commissioned artists to paint the swayamvara ceremony of his daughter Sita with Lord Rama. Ever since, generations from the Mithila district have claimed the art form.

Unlike most art forms, Madhubani painting is predominantly practiced by women. Every home in Mithila district, especially the village of Ranti, which looks like a mini art district, has Madhubani painting adorning the walls and mud floors. Women would paint not only to beautify their humble surroundings, but also to pay obeisance to the gods and nature through art. The requirements for the art form were minimal and were present in almost every household.

Before the artist started the painting, he would spread diluted cow dung on the walls or the mud floor. This would help in retaining the natural colours of the painting. The colours would be all sourced from nature – red from sandalwood, black from soot, pink from bougainvillea flowers, green was made from a paste of leaves, indigo was used as was the yellow of turmeric. These colours would be mixed with tree gum to make it stick to the walls in an effort to make it last a little longer.

The themes of these paintings were mostly related to the epics – Ramayana, Mahabharata – and also related to fertility and prosperity symbols drawing from nature and animals. There is prominent use of fish, serpents, tortoises, monkeys, and of course trees, flowers and creepers. The women in the village did not have access to paintbrushes, so they would use twigs wrapped with cotton to paint. Since pencils were not used to draw, nor was paper used traditionally, the artist would dip the cotton-wrapped twig in soot and make an outline before filling it all with colours and symbolism. The paintings mostly adorned auspicious places of the house like the prayer corner and is still used by many of the area to adorn the room of newly-weds, as a sign of fertility and prosperity.

But slowly a change has seeped into the imagery. “Changes we see today are not intentionally done; it is a result of collaborative efforts. Artists realised that new themes always fascinate viewers and buyers. Artists also got bored of painting the copied versions of their own painting and so they wanted to create something new. Still epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata are being painted but the way of expression is evolving. New colour palettes have come in which are balanced with sophisticated lines and patterns,” says Karn, whose ‘Nataraj – a cosmic dancer’ on clay-coated jute was auctioned for Rs 2.5 lakh, the highest amount a living Madhubani artist was ever auctioned for.

Many contemporary Madhubani artists today are doing socio-political works besides storytelling and paintings on epics and folklores, all while staying within the boundaries of identical Madhubani style. Though some oppose these changes and see these paintings as manipulation of traditional ethos, Karn says, he sees it as the add-ons to the evolving nature of this ancient art forms which has been changing through each individual artist. “In the past, none of the artists had painted in fixed grammar. They had their own individual styles with some common qualities. Padma Shri Ganga Devi’s works were based on very sophisticated lines and balance in colouring. Her contemporary, artist Shanti Devi, painted whatever she saw in her village such as, Chamars (shoe-makers) carrying dead buffalo to get the skin for shoe-making. The fact is that artists today can access a lot of information from the outer world in the age of the internet. Hence, the evolution in the art form,” adds Karn.

From mud walls and floors, the art transitioned in the 1960s on to paper. It was actually a brainchild of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who distributed paper among the women of the region to help them financially in the aftermath of a devastating famine. The project was aimed at reviving the wall painting tradition as a folk art. Slowly the artists also started making use of acrylic paints for a lasting and more contemporary feel. Today, one finds the art on saris and other attires, besides on home décor and even the pandemic-era masks.

The art form is going global too. The move to global prominence started as early as late 1970s. Japanese musician Tokio Hasegawa was so enamoured during his travels with Madhubani painting that in 1982, he opened the Mithila Museum housed in a converted schoolhouse in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, situated in Japan’s snow country. And since 1988, starting with Mithila artist Ganga Devi, artists are invited on a residency to contribute to the building of the museum archive. More than 15,000 exquisite Mithila paintings have been preserved in the Mithila Museum.

“Scholars like Erica Moser from Germany helped artists to bring an add-on called ‘Godna style’ to the underprivileged community. Anthropologists like Raymond Lee Owens, Joe Elder, David Szanton (from US-based, Ethnic Art Foundation) made films and established art institutes to uphold its evolution. Art writers like Peter Zirnis, John Bowles wrote various articles and exhibited the works of Madhubani artists in the US,” explains Karn.

Ragini Prasad, a contemporary Indian artist from California who explores themes of femininity, beauty and spirituality, says, “I personally believe that Mithila paintings are a deep connection of expressionism of beauty and spirituality of connections to nature in all generations. I believe in expressionism of the art more in contemporary times where women shine and face challenges with self in the balance of relations and independence; where she works the day and cherishes the bonds of family and togetherness. Mithila art has been seen through the lenses of traditional art globally. I would like to see it as an emergence of Indian art with a technique of Madhubani style that applies to all themes and generations.”