A 2500-year-old folk art, the history of Madhubani paintings is said to date back to the time of Ramayana, when King Janaka asked an artist to capture his daughter Sita’s wedding to prince Rama. These paintings were usually created by women on walls and floors of homes during festivals, ceremonies or special occasions. Having originated in the Mithila region, this form of painting is also known as Mithila art.
Though Mithila paintings are done by artists all over Mithilanchal and even in the far-off regions of Bihar, but villages in district Madhubani like Jitwarpur, Ranti, Raseedpur are more famous for being home to maximum number of world-famed Mithila Paintings artists. These paintings mainly depict mythological events which mainly revolve around the themes comprising of Hindu deities like Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, Lord Shiva, Goddess Durga, Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Kali etc. It also depicts natural objects like fish, parrot, elephant, turtle, sun, moon, bamboo tree, lotus, tulsi plant and social events like weddings. Madhubani paintings are characterised by figures that have bulging fish-like eyes, pointed noses and prominently outlined.
In this painting natural color plays an important role. Artist makes colors from various natural elements. Black color is obtained from soot (kajal), yellow from turmeric (haldi), green from plant leaves etc. View Vendor List...