The Madhubani Form of Art

chillibreeze writer — Ina Goel

Delhi has more layers of culture, civilization and history in it than any other city in India. It is in this, the enthralling and enigmatic features of the ancient- modern city, that I sited Bihar. This was when I met Bhogendera Paswan, a Madhubani painter at the Delhi Crafts Museum.

Reminiscent of the diversity of India, its folk art also presents a huge canvas and depicts the cultural mosaics of this country in a very colorful style. The Mithila Paintings can rightly be termed as an ocean of folk art, which since earlier times, has been fed by rivers of popular artistic creativity – rivers that have flowed into it from all cultural - geographical pockets of the Indian subcontinent.

Mithila was one of the first kingdoms to be established in eastern India and Mithila paintings, in its originality, is an art form practiced by the women of all the castes and communities of the region of Mithila.

It is a kind of parallel literacy by which they communicate their aesthetic expressions.

Coming from the Jitwarpur district of Madhubani in Bihar, Paswan finds delight in portraying animals and fishes in his paintings. He is self taught and no rules apply to his work as such.

The tradition of wall and floor paintings in Mithila is believed to have survived from the epic period. Tulsidasa in his magnum opus The Ramacharitamanasa gives a vivid account of such Mithila paintings decorated for the marriage of Ram – Sita. Being the folk of the villages, the artists rely on the kindness of nature for colors. With a wonderful range of natural hues to choose from clay, bark, flowers and berries there are two kinds of brushes that come in use. One that is used for the tiny details is made out of bamboo twigs and the other for filling in the space is prepared from a small piece of cloth attached to a twig. The paintings are based on mythological themes and tantric symbolism. Also the central subject of all the paintings is love and fertility, though the approach may vary. And that is why the symbols of fertility and prosperity like fish, parrot, elephant, turtle, sun, moon, bamboo, tree, lotus, etc. are more prominent.

Paswan was by now walking down the memory lanes to his childhood times when he actually got inspired by the traditional wall and clay paintings of his aunt.

The present form of Mithila paintings is called Madhubani, which are a translation of the wall and floor paintings onto a paper or canvas. What led the women painters to shift their medium was a major ecological and economic crisis that resulted from a prolonged drought in 1966-68 that struck Madhubani and the surrounding region of Mithila. In order to create a new source of non-agricultural income, the All-India Handicrafts Board encouraged the women artists to produce their traditional paintings on handmade paper for commercial sale. Since then, the painting medium has diversified.

Paswan is able to finish his paintings within 2 days on an average depending upon the size and nature of his paintings. Many of his paintings could be viewed upside down which showed a total freedom from the conventions. According to him this kind sells well and are quite in demand especially with the firangee(foreign) customers.

Commercialization of the folk art has been a mixed blessing. The themes and designs of the paintings are now, in most cases decided by the buyers. The buyer – centric approach has caused a serious threat to the originality of color, design, motif and sensitivity of this great art form. It has become an industry where anybody can easily find a job opportunity.

Paswan performed these acrobatics of storytelling with the ease of a trapeze artist. He has scores of art enthusiasts learning the art from him. He just hopes via this method, the art goes new places every time.
Looping and whirling in circles and parabolas of past and present I stood there outside his stall wondering how this art has been made a maidservant to the moneyed people.

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—About our writer: Ina writes for chillibreeze.

 

 

 

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