Madhubani Art form

8/10/2019 Madhubani Art form

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Recognition as an art form

Hindu women who live in villages near the market town of Madhubani in northern India

maintain old traditions and teach them to their daughters. Painting is one of the traditional

skills that is passed down from generation to generation in the families of some of the women.

They paint gures from nature and myth on household and village walls to mark the seasonal

festivals of the religious year, for special events of the lifecycle.

!ut even though women in the villages around Madhubani have been practicing their folk art

for centuries, the world at large has come to know about these women and to consider them

to be "artists" only in the last thirty years. #ven now, most of their work remains anonymous.

The women, some of them illiterate, are in any case reluctant to consider themselves

individual producers of "works of art" and only a few of them mark the paintings with their

own name.

$mong the rst modern outsiders to document the tradition of Madhubani painting were

%illiam $rcher, a British civil servant the local Collector, inspecting the damage in

Mithila's villages, saw these wall and oor paintings for the rst time and

subsequentl photographed a number of them. &ecogni'ing their great beauty, he and

his wife, Mildred, brought them to wider attention in several publications. %orks that the

$rchers collected went to the India &ecords ()ce in *ondon +now part of the !ritish *ibrary

where a small number of specialists could study them as creative instances of India-s folk art.

In the /01s and early /21s several Indian scholars and artists visited the region and also

became enamoured of the paintings. !ut it was not until /22, in the midst of a ma3or

drought, that the $ll India Handicrafts !oard sent an artist, !askar 4ulkarni, to Mithila to

encourage the women to make paintings on paper that they could sell as a new source of

family income.

%hat led the women painters to share their work with the larger world was a ma3or ecological

and economic crisis that resulted from a prolonged drought in /2225 that struck Madhubani

and the surrounding region of Mithila.

In order to create a new source of nonagricultural income, the $llIndia Handicrafts !oard

encouraged the artists to produce their traditional paintings on handmade paper for

commercial sale.

(ver time, aside from the growing diversity of people painting, the sub3ect matter of the

paintings has e6panded to include ancient epics, local legends and tales, domestic, rural, and

community life, ritual, local, national, and international politics, as well as the painters- own

life histories. $rtists of di7erent castes and genders are now borrowing themes and styles

from one another. Mithila painting has demonstrated e6traordinary vitality and become a

vibrant and aesthetically powerful tradition.

!ince then, painting has become a primar source of income for scores of families"

#roduction and initial mar$eting have been regulated b regional craft guilds"


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Characteristics

Madhubani art is usually done by filling the colours with brush. This process is carried out either by filling or

hatching. Hatching refers to the use of line in the paintings. Many paintings use both filling as well ashatching.

This style of painting has been traditionally done by women of the region, though today men are also

involved to meet the demand.

These paintings are popular because of their tribal motifs and use of bright earthy colours.

Madhubani paintings are characterized by the vibrant and bold use of colours and traditional geometric

patterns that supports the main theme.

Some of the main attributes of all the Madhubani paintings double line border, ornate floral patterns, abstract-

like figures of deities and bulging eyes and a olting nose of the faces of the figures.

These paintings are done with mineral pigments prepared by the artists. The work is done on freshly plastered

or a mud wall.

!bstract-like figures, of deities or human. Scenes of royal courts and social events such as celebration of

wedding are also beautifully depicted in Madhubani paintings.

The main categories in Madhubani paintings are" Traditional, Monochrome, Tattoo, #ontemporary, !nimals

and $irds.

%ou can even find beautiful Madhubani paintings of sun, moon and tulsi or the sacred basil plant revered very

much by the Hindus. Scenes of royal courts and social events such as celebration of wedding are alsobeautifully depicted in Madhubani painting.

Medium of painting

%all Painting +!hitti 8hitra

8anvas Painting +Pata 8hitra

9loor Painting +$ripan%rt shifted to &rawing #aper in ()*s"+his brought with it a new freedom and creativit as

paper is moveable" #ainting on Clothes and !un mica"

ow Bihari women use the stle of Madhubani #aintings on !arees, &upattas with fabric

paint etc"


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Motifs

The painting was usually done on walls during festivals, religious events +pu3as, vratas, andother milestones of the lifecycle such as birth, :panayanam +sacred thread ceremony, andmarriage.

The walls were decorated for main purposes as; The sacred thread ceremony +when a boy became an adult member of his caste

The dedication or renovation of the family shrine +the gosain ghar

9estivals such as 8hhath, 8hauth 8hand, and the marriage when the bride and bridegroom were formally linked.

The >second> marriage when they entered their actual married state.


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Human Forms

In this painting include various Bods Boddesses. The sub3ect matter varies according to theoccasion. Bod Boddess such as Aishnu*akshmi, @hivaParvathi, &ama@ita, 4rishnaradha etc.

Other Forms

In other forms, the Eora, fauna, myth legend, social customs e6pressions giving ritualisticsymbols are painted. In these paintings include Eower +lotus, tree, bamboo, forest etc..

@ome of the famous and common Madhubani paintings as part of wall hanging dcor orframes include;

Male &ivine Beings - .uman Male /deals &ama Hunts the Bolden


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Rites of the .uman 4ife2Ccle

4ohbar (r Marriage Proposal !ride Transported by PalanFuin

%ithin the Honeymoon 8hamber

The Married 8ouple as (ne

The


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&ice paste is used as pigment and a twig is used as a brush.

Bosain Bhar paintings +room for kuladevata or the deity of the family are also prevalent.

Bharni 9 3Brahmin +radition520illing art5:nlike the 4ayastha, the !rahmin style of painting lavishly deals with rich variety of colours.

Their easy access to Hindu sacred literature has helped them immensely in portraying the rich

Hindu iconography and mythology.The !rahmin tradition mainly deals with themes of gods and goddesses and magical symbolsconnected with deities. This school usually used pigments on paper for their art.

8achni 9 38aastha +radition5 9 4ine artThe uniFue feature of the 4ayastha tradition is the use of mainly two colours, black and red.The 4ayastha style of painting basically was a practice of elaborate wall paintings +4ohbarBhar of the nuptial chamber. These paintings were line drawings of sacred symbols.

They represented the lotus plant, bamboo grove, sh, tortoises, parrots, birds and all thatsymbolised fertility. Thus even when this style is conceived in paper, single colour line workdenes the 4ayastha style of painting even today.

1odhana 9 3+he +attoo +radition5 9 tattooart

There is a third group of painters of Paswan community other than 4ayasthas and !rahmins.This third group of Hari3ans came forward much latter.


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The painting is originally in the form of a line drawing and is divided into several hori'ontalmargins.

Their themes are normally based on the legend of &a3a @alhesh 8onsidering its rich use ofcolour it is closer to the !rahmin school of painting.

&i:erence between Mithila painting and 1odhanapainting

1odhana #ainting is done b the #aswans where Mithila painting is done b the

women of Brahmins and 8aasthas"

1odhana #ainting is a lower casts 3.ari;an5 painting where Mithila #ainting is an

upper casts painting"

1odhana painting is a tribal painting where Mithila painting is painted b the land

lords"

Mithila painting got a worldwide recognition earlier than the 1odhana painting"

+he origin of Mithila painting seems ver ancient than 1odhana painting"

%ith the introduction of the Pan3i system in GD2, which laid down the rules for !rahmin and4ayastha women, di7erences in style appeared based mainly on the caste. :ppercastewomen, who had a relatively conned e6istence, were made to adhere strictly to specicthemes and symbols pertaining to the rituals. It is possible that with the lack of variety inthemes, their paintings became more stylistic and intricate in their patterns, which led to thedevelopment of the !harni and the 4achni style.

8achni !tle of Blac$ and


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Madhubani can be described as a style of painting, rather than a set of pictures. The colours,which are mostly bright, are used to impart twodimensional imagery to the paintings. Theartists still stick to the traditional way of making colours from the 3uices of locally availablecreepers and Eowers, natural sources like plants, charcoal soot, ochre etc.

Traditionally, natural colours were obtained from plant e6tracts like henna leaves, Eower,bougainvillea, neem, etc. Then, to make the paint stick to the painting medium strongly, thesenatural 3uices are mi6ed with banana leave?s resin and ordinary gum.In recent times, syntheticcolours, which come in powdered form, are easily available in the market. However, artists stilluse colours derived from natural sources.

!lack colour is obtained by mi6ing soot with cow dung burnt 3owar or ka3al.

Nellow colour is obtained from turmeric or pollen or lime+chunam mi6ed with the whitee6cretion of the banyan tree.

!lue from Indigo

&ed from 4usuma Eower 3uice, red sandalwood or rose.

Breen from the leaves of apple treesObilva leaf or the saim creeper.. !el Trees

%hite from rice powder.

(range from Palasha Eowers.

(chre and lampblack are also used for reddish brown and black respectively.

+he raw materials were mi?ed with goat@s mil$, gum arabic and ;uice from beanplants"

There has also been a tradition of !rahmins and 4ayasthas using Holi or ba'aar colours in theregion.

.ow it is doneA

8ow dung paste and mud is applied on the walls and Eoors to give a perfect blackbackground on which pictures are drawn with white rice paste bright vegetable colours arethen applied on the gures making them more vibrant.

$ great number of Madhubani painters still apply a thin layer of cow dung and mud pasteon their canvases to give a more authentic look and also because it helps in properabsorption of colour.The mud walls were plastered with cowdung. The colours were directly applied on tothese walls or the walls would be white washed.Powder paints were readily available from the ba'aar and were mi6ed with goat?s milk. Thecolours commonly used were pink, yellow, blue, red and green. !lack colour was made bythe painters from burnt straw and white colour was made from ricepowder mi6ed withwater.

The brushes were made from a piece of rag tied to a twig for painting the bolder shadesand for painting the delicate lines they attached a sliver of bamboo at the end of the twig.


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+raditional Method

#6perienced women from the neighbourhood would come for help. The most skilled woman ofall would draw the shapes. If at all she makes a mistake she would Fuickly wipe out.

Mistakes were rarely committed. $s a rule the e6perienced woman would have the whole

design 6ed in her mind.

Preliminary marks were not made on the wall e6cept when the great lotus circle was beingdrawn.

Then a pair of bamboo dividers would be used to trace the circumference.

(nce the circles are outlined, the women would ll in the shapes with colour.

It is the duty of little girls to hold the pots of paint and prepare the brushes.

$t times these girls had to ll a small part of the design themselves. In this way, at a very

early age the girls of the family would learn the family designs by heart.

They were not allowed to direct the operation until they were middle aged. !y the age of 0 or2 the girls were e6perts in Maithili paintings. The girls could draw parrots, a tree and awoman in the traditional Maithili style when they were in the :pper Primary @chool.

@ome families kept a stock of paper patterns on which the family?s current designs wererecorded, which were painted in penandink or and watercolours. These patterns providesymbols for the bride and bridegroom and their attendants, for the god !rahma, for the lotusring, for 4rishna and the circular dance. These were preserved as family possession and thebride takes this when she leaves to her husband?s home. @o that she could continue her

family?s tradition of painting and at the same time add it to the stock of her motherinlaw.

In the paintings made by Maithili !rahmin women, there was an attempt to place gures orob3ects in a natural relation to each other. They depicted the gures as aimless creaturesEoating in a tranFuil aFuarium. The paintings depicted showed 4rishna and a peacockstanding above the head of a bridegroom?s attendant, a bride and bridegroom walk below alotus ring, parrots perch at any angle. They depicted a sh as big as a tiger and a monkey wasdepicted larger than a man.

The paintings were rela6ed collections of images, which however gracefully combined withone another in the picture space. The gures and ob3ects are depicted on a single Eat plane

which is dened by a thin and wiry line which bounds large segments of bright colour. Thebodies were depicted in triangular, rectangular and semicircular shapes that gave them ageometric dignity. 9or e6ample, goddess


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%rtists and awards

Madhubani painting received o)cial recognition in /Q1, when the President of India gave an

award to Cagdamba

Documents

Madhubani Art form