Discovery Amidst Ruins

Assumed to be more than 2500 years old, this art form was perhaps popular during the time of Janak Raja, the father of Sita in the Indian epic Ramayana. When Rama broke the famous bow of Shiva, ‘Pinaka’, to win the princess’s hand the gods were very pleased in the heavens. According to the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas, Gauri, the consort of Shiva, wanted to preserve this moment painted the first-ever Mithila painting on the walls. This is assumed to be the beginning of Mithila art.

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Following a destructive earthquake that hit parts of Bihar and Nepal in 1934, a British civil service officer named William Archer went out to survey the area. Archer noticed that amongst the disintegrated walls in the ruins stood, among the atrocities of the people, some intricate and detailed wall paintings. These might have adorned the inner walls of the houses which succumbed to ruins because of the disastrous earthquake.

The beautifully detailed art grabbed his attention and he could not just leave behind what he saw in the Madhubani district of Bihar. Large ponds with lotus in the bloom, snakes, fishes and turtles along with parrots and peacocks painted beautifully in vibrant colours along with depictions of some famous Gods and Goddesses like Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu and Lakshmi.

What was interesting here is that these were not brick walls. But the walls were made with reed, bamboo, mud, and cow dung. The art was beautiful and the artists behind it were the women of the household. After detailed surveys, Arthur realised that such paintings were available in the houses of the Brahmins and the Kayasthas. So, it was believed to have some religious or ritualistic significance behind it. Later, it was found out that even the women of the Harijan community decorated their walls with such kinds of paintings. It was later believed to have cultural significance instead.

He made a futile attempt to understand the motifs and meaning behind these paintings and published his findings in a magazine called “Marg” in 1949. But it was much later in 1966 when some art enthusiasts finally brought out this Mithila art form on paper. The famine in Bihar in that year was so extreme that people had to do something to be out of this misery. This was the time when the Mithila or Madhubani art form found a commercial purpose.

The women were the real artist behind the colourful murals in their homes. Because of poverty, many of the art forms were recreated on paper and brought to the notice of the public thereafter. This is how the art got its deserved recognition.

Every art can be seen as a matter of expression: the expression of thought, desires and anxieties of the women in the house. The uniqueness of these paintings was that they were not drawn with paintbrushes but with fingers and reeds. Also, they used various natural made hues to decorate their households during any kind of festivities. Originally, they were drawn on the floor as Aripana or on the walls as Kohabar, before they became quite popular on paper and canvas.

The main purpose of these paintings was to decorate the house. So, the themes were never static; they changed based on the occasion. But, the common theme in every painting was love and fertility. The intelligent use of floral motifs, bright colours, and fish-shaped eyes and each motif separated by the colour white made it one of the pioneering art forms of India.

In present times, this art form has reached different parts of the world. The greatest achievement in the promotion of the Mithila art or Madhubani painting is the creation of the Mithila Museum in Tokamachi, Japan, by a famous Madhubani art lover, Hashegawa. It exhibits around 1000 Madhubani paintings of various themes and styles.

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