The mystique of Madhubani paintings of India

Godawari Dutta, icon of the specialised style of painting, Madhubani, which is bestowed with the Geographical Identification (GI) status, passed away recently on August 14 at the age of 93, leaving behind a strong legacy of art she loved, nurtured, and nourished since the tender age of six.

Named after a district of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, where it originated, Madhubani art is a distinct style of painting that is practised in the Mithila region of India and also in the adjoining areas in Nepal. It is believed that the art originated in the mythological Mithila when the king asked the subjects to decorate their houses to capture the moments of rituals and celebrations held to mark the marriage of his daughter, Seeta ,with the Hindu god Rama, prince of Ayodhya. The art, serving as a timeless bridge from the past, was traditionally practised by female members of the families. Thus, Godawari was initiated into it by her own mother. She dedicated all her life to it by teaching the art to local communities for its preservation and also promotion of economic self-reliance of the women, and also brought international acclaim to it by propagating it in the distant lands of Japan and Germany.

A profound testament to India’s artistic heritage of cultural diversity and artistic ingenuity, Madhubani painting serves as a cultural identity for local women, preserving their history and traditions through visual storytelling. It acts as a medium for narrating tales, myths, and legends while richly incorporating symbolism and folklore.

The novelty of the art is that artists create these paintings using a variety of mediums, including their own fingers, or twigs, nib-pens, and matchsticks as its structure is defined through fine lines usually in black colour. Traditionally, villagers decorated walls and floors of their mud huts with these paintings as part of the rituals on certain festive occasions like marriage, the birth of a child, and religious festivals.

CHOICE OF COLOURS

Another speciality of the art has been the choice of source of colours. Artists used natural dyes and pigments to create colours. The paintings are characterized by their vibrant colours, mythological scenes, natural elements, and eye-catching geometrical patterns with divisions of different subjects by vertical and horizontal sections. As the art got popular, over the years, mediums like handmade paper, cloth, and finally, canvas were added, though this change occurred only in the 60s for expanding the incomes of women in the impoverished region of Mithila. With these variations, and easily available and economical synthetic colours, brushes from hair along with the conventional choices of bamboo slivers, twigs, and rags also came up as choices of convenience. But then such compromises don’t make a genuine Madhubani and can easily be caught by a discerning eye.

The specialised style of Madhubani paintings owes its GI-status to the fact that it has remained confined to a compact geographical area, and the skills and methods of mastery have been passed on to successive generations over the period of centuries. The content and style have remained largely the same. Madhubani paintings adorn many museums across continents. These also figured in a UNESCO Christmas card collection though initial international recognition to it was given by British Colonial Officer William C. Archer when he discovered this distinct art in 1934. The Indian Postal Department featured Madhubani paintings on a series of stamps for the first time in the year 2000.

POWDERED RICE

Madhubani paintings have traditionally been made from the paste of powdered rice, using two-dimensional imagery and colours that are derived from pigments available in nature like pastes of turmeric, mustard seeds, rice, indigo, red clay, flower petals, and even cow dung, with the use of Gum Arabic and goat’s milk as binders, depending upon the choice of surface to be painted. They mostly depict people and their association with nature and scenes from the ancient epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana and deities. Celestial bodies like the sun and moon and religious plants like Tulsi or Holy Basil are also widely painted, along with animals, including revered cows, and scenes from the royal courts and social events like weddings. In this style of painting, generally, no space is left empty. The gaps are filled by paintings of flowers, leaves, animals, birds, fish, and even geometric designs.

Madhubani in Bihar has since not only become a major export centre of these paintings, lifting social and economic status of the women in the Mithila region and giving them a cultural identity of their own, but the association of the art with nature and the Hindu religion and culture has played a significant role in efforts towards conservation of forests in the region. As the forests were depleting due to developmental projects, during 2012, Madhubani artists from the region painted tree trunks with figurines of gods and goddesses with mixtures of lime and synthetic enamel, which served as deterrents for those engaged in the cutting of the trees.

Godavari Dutta was appropriately honoured in her lifetime with a national award (1980) – the Shilp Guru award – the highest honour for excellence in handicrafts (2006), and a Padma Shri, the fourth-highest national award in India (2019). Even after her death, she would continue to inspire many women in Mithila and elsewhere to uphold her legacy of the Madhubani art of painting.

Bimal Saigal is a former Indian diplomat. He served as the second secretary at High Commission of India in Jamaica in 2006.