Madhubani painting
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Madhubani
Madhubani District
Madhubani District is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India, and Madhubani town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Madhubani district is a part of Darbhanga Division. The district occupies an area of 3501 km² and has a population of 3,570,651...

 painting
or Mithila painting is a style of Indian painting
Indian painting
Indian painting has a very long history, although the seasonally humid Indian climate was difficult for the long-term preservation of paintings and there are far fewer survivals than of other forms of Indian art. The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of pre-historic times, the...

, practiced in the Mithila
Mithila
Mithila was a city in Ancient India, the capital of the Videha Kingdom. The name Mithila is also commonly used to refer to the Videha Kingdom itself, as well as to the modern-day territories that fall within the ancient boundaries of Videha...

 region of Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

 state, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and the adjoining parts of Terai
Terai
The Terai is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests located south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya, the Siwalik Hills, and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and their tributaries. The Terai belongs to the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands ecoregion...

 in Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

. In the present time the main artists include Smt Bharti Dayal ' Ganga devi ' Smt Bua Devi ,late Smt Jagdamba Devi,late Smt Sita Devi,and Smt Mahasundari Devi and others. Madhubani painting got official recognition in 1970 when the President of India gave an award to Mrs Jagdamba Devi of Village Jitbarpur near Madhubani. Beside her, other painters, Mrs Sita Devi ' Mrs Mahasundari Devi Mrs 'godavari dutt, Mrs Bharti dayal and bua devi were also given NATIONAL AWARDS in this Art field by PRESIDENT OF INDIA. Smt Bharti dayal was awarded again by All India Art and Craft soceity for melleniumm award and, Smt Mahasundari Devi was again awarded, this time Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...

 by the government of India in 2011.
What is Unique in Bharti 's work is the fact that She centers her Art to HERITAGE style and yet manages to create an entirely Modern and Contemporary work from it .A surge of fantasy in her work makes them appear fresh and Graceful .Her work is Experimental and Authentic .She uses both realism as well as abstractionism in her work with a lot of fantasy mixed into both.Her work has impeccable sense of balance,harmony and grace. We need a whole army of Bharti to bring back The Beauty and GLory of Mithila painting.
A collection of some samples of Mithila's domestic arts may be seen in the Chandradhari Museum, Darbhanga. W.G. Archer has also a collection of Mithila paintings and so has Upendra Maharathi, the artist, under whose supervision a collection of Bihar's folk art and craft has been built up at the Bihar Government Institute of Industrial Design, Digha, Patna.Late smt yamuna devi,chano devi,yogmayadevi,anmanadevi and bachhadai devi has also contributed to this Art .
Asha Verma, born in Darbhanga, is dedicated to promote Madhubani art through her research work and her Madhubani paiting workshop popularily known as Ashas' creations at Sri Krishna Nagar, Patna.

Origins

The origins of Madhubani painting or Mithala Painting are shrouded in antiquity and mythology.

Madhubani painting has been done traditionally by the women of villages around the present town of Madhubani (the literal meaning of which is forests of honey) and other areas of Mithila
Mithila
Mithila was a city in Ancient India, the capital of the Videha Kingdom. The name Mithila is also commonly used to refer to the Videha Kingdom itself, as well as to the modern-day territories that fall within the ancient boundaries of Videha...

. The painting was traditionally done on freshly plastered mud wall of huts, but now it is also done on cloth, hand-made paper and canvas. Madhubani paintings are made from the paste of powdered Rice.бAs Madhubani painting has remained confined to a compact geographical area and the skills have been passed on through centuries, the content and the style have largely remained the same. And that`s why this has been given the coveted GI(geographical Indication) status. Madhubani paintings also use two dimensional imagery, and the colors used are derived from plants. Ochre
Ochre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...

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

Madhubani paintings mostly depict nature and Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 religious motifs, and the themes generally revolve around Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 deities like Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

, Ram
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

, Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

, Durga
Durga
For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...

, Lakshmi
Lakshmi
Lakshmi or Lakumi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity , light, wisdom, fortune, fertility, generosity and courage; and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm. Representations of Lakshmi are also found in Jain monuments...

, and Saraswati
Saraswati
In Hinduism Saraswati , is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts, science and technology. She is the consort of Brahma, also revered as His Shakti....

. Natural objects like the sun, the moon, and religious plants like tulsi
Tulsi
Ocimum tenuiflorum Ocimum tenuiflorum Ocimum tenuiflorum (also tulsi, tulasī, or Holy Basil is an aromatic plant in the family Lamiaceae which is native throughout the Old World tropics and widespread as a cultivated plant and an escaped weed. It is an erect, much branched subshrub 30–60 cm...

 are also widely painted, along with scenes from the royal court and social events like weddings. Generally no space is left empty; the gaps are filled by paintings of flowers, animals, birds, and even geometric designs. Objects depicted in the walls of kohabar ghar (where newly wed couple see each other in the first night) are symbols of sexual pleasure and procreation.

Traditionally, painting was one of the skills that was passed down from generation to generation in the families of the Mithila Region, mainly by women. The painting was usually done on walls during festivals, religious events, and other milestones of the life-cycle such as birth, Upanayanam
Upanayanam
Upanayana is the initiation ritual by which initiates are invested with a sacred thread, to symbolize the transference of spiritual knowledge .- Significance of the sacred thread :...

(sacred thread ceremony), and marriage.

It is one of the best Art and unique craft work. The paintings are simplistic manifestation of the philosophical heights achieved by India in yesteryear.

External links

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