EXCLUSIVELY FEMININE ART

Madhubani painting is said to date back to the time of Ramayana, when King Janak commissioned painters to decorate his city on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Seeta to Lord Rama.

An exclusively feminine school of folk painting, it finds expression on walls, papier mâché, floor , canvas, pottery, toy and other products. Villages of Jitwarpur, Ranti, Rasidpur, Bacchi, Rajangarh were the hub of such painting, which has spread over to involve several villages and over one lakh women.

The origin of continuity of the painting style is, however, traced back to 1097 AD under the Karnat and Oinvara dynasties, followed by Khandvalas.

The style was re-discovered and put before the world initially in 1934 during the Bihar quake, when central teams visited the area and saw the beautiful, stylistic paintings at close quarters.

While, the paintings were limited to Karna Kayastha and Brahmin women, of late a powerful movement has been built with a rebel genre of painting called ‘Harijan painting emerging in the last decade. Mainly done by scheduled caste women, they have moved from giving expression to Ram-Seeta, Krishna-Meera and Shiva Parvati themes to portrayal of deities revered by backward castes.

The Mithila style of paintings have been acknowledged with over 60 persons bagging national awards and three persons winning Padma Shree since 1970.