Animals and birds in vibrant colours, the sun drawn in bright hues, trees and flowers in full bloom, fish cavorting in interesting formations, gods and goddesses in a splendid array of colours — this is the world of Madhubani art, and its origin can be traced to Mithila in Bihar. The term Madhubani means forest of honey , possibly stemming from the lush greenery that this region has always enjoyed.
The people living here are mostly farmers. As is the case with most folk traditions, their lifestyle is in complete harmony with their surroundings. Traditionally, the walls of the houses were coated with mud and cow dung, and painted with bright motifs drawn from nature, usually by the women of the households. It is a local belief that the Madhubani tradition of painting started when king Janaka commissioned regional artists to paint murals in his palace to prepare for his daughter Sita’s marriage to Lord Rama.
Today, these paintings are also done on paper and canvas.
Woman power
Interestingly, Mithila is a matrilinealsociety where mothers pass on their inheritance to their daughters. Girls are encouraged to paint right from their childhood. Within their limited means, these wonderful artists have devised clever working tools. A piece of straw and a few threads drawn from the hem of a sari form the brush. Colours are drawn from plants or other natural resources. For instance, to obtain black, soot is scraped from the bottom of a cooking pot, or from the chimney or a lantern. This is then mixed with gum dissolved in water or even goat’s milk to make an ink-like concoction. Since there is paucity of paper in these villages, pages from old notebooks are glued onto cloth to provide a large canvas to practise on. Usually, an entire wall of the house is used as a drawing board. For every festival, wedding, or other celebrations, women gather to paint a ceremonial picture.
The vibrant colours, symmetrical shapes and beautiful designs used in Madhubani are helpful in teaching children the fundamentals and aesthetics of colour, design and geometry.