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In his Ramayan, Tulsidas gives an elaborate description of how the
entire Mithila region of Bihar was decorated for the marriage of
Sita with Ram. These decorations consisted chiefly of vivid murals
depicting mythological personages, deities of the Hindu pantheon
and the flora and fauna of the region. This art of painting, an
established tradition even then, has survived to this day, passed
down for centuries from every Maithili (resident of Mithila] mother
to her daughter.
Today, these ceremonial decorations - popularly identified as Madhubani
paintings, after the town which is a major centre of their export
- can be seen on house walls in the districts of Champaran, Saharsa,
Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Madhubani (more profusely here
than elsewhere), Samastipur, parts of the districts of Monghyr,
Begusarai, Bhagalpur and Purnea, which together form the region
of Mithila.
The Forest of Honey
Well marked naturally by the foothills of the Himalaya in the north,
the river Ganga in the south and by the rivers Mahananda and Gandaki
in the east and west respectively, Mithila spreads over 25,000 sq
miles of rock-free alluvial plains. It is dotted over by thousands
of pools, and crops of cotton, indigo, sugarcane, wheat, rice, lentils,
maize and all the vegetables of a temperate clime are grown here.
It is this fertility which inspired people to name it Madhubani,
the Forest of Honey. Today, Madhubani is one of Mithila's two chief
towns (the other is Darbhanga).
The Domain of Women
The folk paintings of Mithila are-the exclusive monopoly ot women
artists. This is a communal activity and one in whicl young girls
are allowed to assist. This enables them to learn early to draw
and paint - skills which are put to the test when, as grown-up women,
they are expected to present the kohbar- a picture used as a marriage
proposal, to a man or their choice. Heavily charged with tantric
symbolism in its basic design and composition, a kohbar depicts
a pictorial intercourse using the lingam (phallus) and yoni (vulva)
symbols. Not only can this fresco be seen on every bedroom wall
in Mithila but the first kohbars in a courtship are used to wrap
various gifts.
The Divine Tapestry
Another central figure of Maithili paintings is Krishna, the eighth
avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu and one of the most popular gods
in India. The ecstatic circle in which he leads the gopis or his
cowherd-lovers is interpreted as the wheel of life, of appearances
revolving eternally. If the Shiva lingam represents mystic ecstasy,
and Krishna the passionate repetition of the act of love, Rama -
the seventh avatar oi Vishnu - is archetypal together with his wife
Sita (an incarnation of Vishnu's wife, goddess Lakshmi), of marital
devotion.
Other avatars of Vishnu; female deities like Kali, Durga, Parvati
- different aspects of the same power; Lakshmi and Saraswati are
all honoured at appropriate times. These divine beings are positioned
centrally or lineally in the framework. In the dense background
are depicted their consorts, their respective mounts, fruit bearing
trees, clumps of bamboo, floral motifs and numerous other symbols
to which the viewer can relate without mental strain.
Reflecting Nature's Fecundity
A scale is established to convey vastness by juxtaposing figures
of human beings, animals and birds - with towering forms. The smallest
of gaps is then filled with birds, leaves, flowers or ceremonial
objects to show the fecundity of nature. Viewed as a whole, the
harmony reflected in the utilization of space and in the picturisation,
conveys the artist's understanding of peaceful co-existence of man
and bird and beast.
Living in Harmony
This understanding of the importance of living in harmony was, in
the past, extended even to the practice of preparing colours from
plant extract. Three cardinal rules governed this : no one was to
destroy another's garden, no money was to be spent on the collection
of materials, and no colours were to be made out of edible plants.
The artists used the juice of locally available creepers and flowers
: henna leaves, the palash flower, bougainvillaea and the sap of
the neem
tree, to obtain a range of colours. For black,they ingeniously removed
the soot collected on the underside of their earthen cooking vessels
and fixed it by using the viscous substance surrounding the seed
of the be I fruit. The Artist's Tools
Nowadays, paints are generally bought in the bazaars rather than
prepared indigenously. Colours are available in powdered form, which
are then mixed with goat's milk. For black, the women rely on burnt
straw and for white, on powdered rice diluted with water. The colours
are usually deep red, green, blue, black, light yellow, pink, and
lemon. Two kinds of locally made brushes are used once the paints
-e ready. A small bamboo-twig with a slightly frayed end is sed
for outlines and tiny details. The filling in of space is .one with
the aid of a pihua, made from tying a small piece of cloth to a
twig. The outline is drawn in a single flow of the brush without
preliminary sketching.
Humble Canvases
Although to the outside world Maithili paintings are available on
paper, the usual base on which the women paint are the mud-walls
of their dwellings. However, the use of paper (as gift wrapping)
as a canvas was known long before these paintings acquired saleability.
It is also used to preserve the more elaborate or less frequently
drawn pictures on a smaller-scale, which then serve aide-memoires.
Tradition and The Individual
I- the Mithila murals convey a sense of timelessness, it is t'.ue
to the lack of significant variation in style from p^neration to
generation. Though new schools are born with e ich generation, the
similarities in the use of colour, form aid iconography appear like
strong currents of inherited knowledge. Many Maithili women have
received recognition fur being mistresses of their art and yet it
is not a unique n dividual sensibility that speaks through their
artistic creations. Visible in their offerings is an anonymous creative
mind with millennia of traditional knowledge.
