Madhubani Paintings: Finest Painting in Ancient Art
Indian art has the richest treasure of Traditional Paintings. Each region of India has its own way of expressing their beliefs. Madhubani Paintings are one of the earliest forms of Indian Paintings. This art is an expression of day to day experiences and beliefs which is carried by symbolism, simplicity, and beauty in Traditional Art. There is a living tradition in the art field of Bihar that is called Madhubani painting which enlightened about the social structure, as well as the cultural identity of Bihar. The styles of painting have been changing from generation to generation.
Madhubani is a district of North Bihar situated at a distance of 190 kilometers from Patna city, Where artwork has evolved and reached its level of fineness. This place is famous for its indigenous tradition or dying art like Wall Paintings, Canvas Painting, floor paintings, and decorative crafts. Wall-painting and the floor-painting are very vintage traditions within the Mithila region. People express their affection towards nature, god and knowledge of epic and spiritual concepts through the paintings.
Madhubani paintings are practiced by women. Jitwarpur, Ranti, Rasidpur, Simri, Bacchi, Rajangarh, are major centers of the Madhubani Paintings. Communities like Bramhana, Kayastha and Scheduled Caste are traditionally practicing Madhubani paintings. Each community has a different style of painting. The artisans of Jitwarpur play an essential role to develop their own cultural creativities. Their tradition is going on from generation to generation.
Madhubani Paintings are classified into distinct categories like Bharani, Kachani(Line paintings), Gem, Gobar, Gonda, and Tantrik. Brahmin women’s paintings showcase the bright colors applied in flat areas which are called Bharni style. Kachani paintings are done by Kayastha women In which artisans use maximum lines than colors. Kayastha women also follow the Bharni style. The Gonda painting is done by Harijan Women.
Distinct art has a unique symbolic expression of day to day experiences, feelings, thoughts. Symbols like Fish is used to express fertility, procreation and good luck, Peacocks are associated with romantic love and religion, and Serpents are the divine protectors. In Madhubani Paintings, one can find several visuals of Ramayan as Mithila is the birthplace of Ram-Sita and event related to the stories of Hindu deities like Krishna, Shiva, Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati, etc. The faces of the human figures have large bulging eyes and a jolting nose emerging out of the forehead. Except for human, motif, flora and fauna, curve linear devices, circle in series, short lines, peacock, fish flower, birds, animal, and other natural life.
One of the major aspects of Madhubani painting is that artisans do not leave any empty space in a painting. After drawing the main theme, they make several linear designs of natural and geometrical as well as specious motifs in the background.
Artisans use handmade paper as a surface to make the painting. Tools like Marker, ink, nib, thin brushes are used for painting. It is essential to mention that artists of Madhubani don’t use any chemical colors. Artisans use colors directly from nature. Each color is made from different objects like Green from leaves of the apple tree and Tilcoat leaves, White from powdered rice, Black from lamp soot, blue from seeds of Sikkot plant and indigo, yellow is drawn from the parts of Jasmine, saffron from boiled bark of pipal, red is made from Kusum flower and red sandalwood. To make the painting last long as well as retain brightness they mixed gum with color. In recent years some artists have started using watercolors on handmade papers but have maintained the traditional characteristics, style, and themes of paintings.
Training centers in Bihar play a vital role in the development of traditional art. Objectives of the training centers are to develop the skills of artisans, give assistant for capacity building, training workshops, etc. Office of the Development Commissioner (handicraft) located in Madhubani is giving chances to express artisans’ own cultural activity in different places. This center is facilitating the different type of government schemes like design and technology, up-gradation, training, and extension, marketing support and service, etc
Over a period of time, this painting style evolved with practitioners from different social backgrounds bringing their personal views, experience and aesthetics understanding into their paintings. Madhubani painting has successfully carved out a niche in the heart of every artist on the designer dresses, home furnishing items, walls of the public buildings, drawing rooms, etc. One should know that in the absence of folk painting there is no identity of human life. Folk paintings remind us of our native life through colorful drawings. These paintings have also acquired economic value. Today good quality Madhubani Painting has succeeded in creating a place in India and Worldwide and nowadays they make painting according to customers’ demand with premium prices.
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