Madhubani
Art from a Sacred Land
October 15, 2020 / Spotlight
Welcome to the historic land of Mithila, home to a beautiful art that is part-myth and part-memory. Today a town called Madhubani in Bihar houses some of the most gifted artists of this tradition. We are proud to present our second film Madhubani – Art from a Sacred Land, which travels to a tiny hamlet in Bihar, home to three generations of women who have dedicated themselves to Madhubani art. Moti and Jyoti Karn have a personal and emotional connection with the art that defines them and flows through their brush. Hear their story, visit their home and fill up your senses in Mithila.
The stories, histories and personalities behind our short film on the many-layered art of Madhubani
Photographer and author Chirodeep Chaudhuri curates a virtual exhibition of photographs taken during Sarmaya's trip to Madhubani
A brief look at the techniques, symbols and themes to which Madhubani artists return again and again for sustenance and grounding. These are the artistic and spiritual leitmotifs of Madhubani paintings
Richly detailed paintings full of colour and beauty that turned simple homes into wonderlands and told fantastical tales — Mithila has a history of tradition, quietude and rapid change, as much transformed by the outside as from within
How a matriarchal art practice emerged in response to conservatism and the patriarchy. Locating the divine as well as the human in Madhubani art
Leaping off a firm grounding of artistic legacy, Das has created a space that feels fluid, open and wholly his own. In conversation with the Madhubani artist
Dalit and Bahujan artists always have infused creative genius into Madhubani painting and kept it relevant. As their struggle for equality rages vigorously in society at large, it flows too through the veins of this art
In this digital collaboration with the Mithila Museum in Japan, Sarmaya presents a breathtaking selection of works by the first-generation of Mithila artists to stun the global art world
The flowers of Bihar are both a symbol and an essential ingredient in traditional Mithila or Madhubani paintings
When an earthquake hit Bihar’s Jitwarpur in 1934, it exposed a most exquisite form of art that had remained hidden for well, no one knows how long