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Artists discuss the history and origin of Madhubani painting

BHOPAL: Prominent artists from Mithila region of Bihar , Sheetal Devi Jha and Alka Devi Jha are in Bhopal for a Madhubai painting workshop at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalay. The two artists discussed the origin and history of Madhubani art with the participants.

"The painting goes back to the time of Raja Janak, the king of Mithila and father of Sita.

During Sita 's wedding to Lord Rama , the king asked the residents to decorate the whole city in unique ways. The artists together painted the walls of the city with geometric patters and made some depiction of the rituals of wedding, birth and celebration in the whole city. The ancestors then passed on the art form to their children and with time the art evolved", said Sheetal Devi.

Alka Devi added, "Earlier, ladies of the house used to make the paintings on the walls of their mud-houses with rice-paste. The repetitive geometric patterns were the main attractions in the paintings. Then the style evolved with time and some artists started depicting episodes from the life of Radha-Krishna in their paintings and started the use of natural colours."

The two artists further said that it was due to the high demand and love for the style that some foreigners started asking them to make the paintings on cloth and thus the artists started making madhubani-print sarees and dupattas.

"It was the need of the artists that they started doing the painting on cloth. Today we make designs on sarees which are appreciated by a lot of people. The design is hand-made, not printed by machines. So each piece is unique in itself. The popularity of the art has increased since the time artists started doing it on cloth. We also started making the paintings on canvas, and now do it on paper too", added Sheetal Devi.

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