Mithila art is one of the religious and cultural practices of the women of the Maithili region of Nepal, and India. Religious theme and background is linked to the ancestral past. Mithila Art originated about three thousand years back when Aryans started a settled life in this region and started making pictures on the walls for decoration.
Maithili culture has its own language and richer literary diction, and a women’s tradition of painting and handicraft which is passed down from generation to generation. Examples of the women’s arts can be seen in the small houses and huts in the villages of the region.
The painting tradition varies from caste to caste. The art of Brahmins and Kayastha is closely tied to religious ritual, as exemplified in the making of aripana. To make aripana a woman grinds rice with some water into a paste called pithar. Dipping two fingers into the pithar, she makes graceful lace-like designs on the mud floor of her home or courtyard. She then dots the designs with red powder. Women have a repertoire of such designs that may be drawn for worship of the house deity or for rituals related to marriage or a particular full moon day. The arts of the women are transient. Rains destroy the mud and painted designs or in the spring during a New Year festival, paintings are covered over with mud. For most Maithili women the practice of painting on paper is fairly new.
The art on paper has come to be called Madhubani art, because Maithili culture in Madhubani India was particularly strong and because the painting tradition was invigorated during a project for drought relief in the 1960s in which women were encouraged to paint.
Maithili culture has its own language and richer literary diction, and a women’s tradition of painting and handicraft which is passed down from generation to generation. Examples of the women’s arts can be seen in the small houses and huts in the villages of the region.
The painting tradition varies from caste to caste. The art of Brahmins and Kayastha is closely tied to religious ritual, as exemplified in the making of aripana. To make aripana a woman grinds rice with some water into a paste called pithar. Dipping two fingers into the pithar, she makes graceful lace-like designs on the mud floor of her home or courtyard. She then dots the designs with red powder. Women have a repertoire of such designs that may be drawn for worship of the house deity or for rituals related to marriage or a particular full moon day. The arts of the women are transient. Rains destroy the mud and painted designs or in the spring during a New Year festival, paintings are covered over with mud. For most Maithili women the practice of painting on paper is fairly new.
The art on paper has come to be called Madhubani art, because Maithili culture in Madhubani India was particularly strong and because the painting tradition was invigorated during a project for drought relief in the 1960s in which women were encouraged to paint.
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