Bihar - Sarmaya

Age of Empires – Reading List

Understand Indian empires through their temples, art and even hairstyles in this reading list drawn from the Sarmaya library

Empire of Faith: Into the realm of the Buddha & the Mauryas

Most Indians are familiar with the great emperors and exploits of the Mauryan empire. But until a few hundred years ago, their legacies lay buried in ruins, their faith forgotten by time. This is the story of a remarkable resurrection

Bodhgaya Temple, Gaya (Mahabodhi Temple)

Bodh Gaya is an important Buddhist site, known primarily as the place where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment. The Buddhist complex at Bodh Gaya has a history of worship that goes back 2300 years. The oldest monumental remains here date back to the Mauryan period, during the reign of Asoka. The first Director-General of the Archaeological… Read more »

Untitled

Mithila art traditionally uses motifs from nature like birds and elephants, or depicts themes of love both eternal and mortal, or scenes from Hindu mythology. In the centre of the composition, the painting shows a bountiful tree, under which are seven women. In between and above the heads of the women, floral motifs – similar… Read more »

Untitled (Krishna and Gopis)

Mithila art traditionally uses motifs from nature like birds and elephants, or depicts themes of love both eternal and mortal, or scenes from Hindu mythology. This painting showcases an episode from the Bhagavata Purana where Krishna steals clothes of gopis (cow herding women) who were bathing in river yamuna. He is shown here seated atop… Read more »

Untitled

Mithila art traditionally uses motifs from nature like birds and elephants, or depicts themes of love both eternal and mortal, or scenes from Hindu mythology. But, Santosh Kumar Das makes use of these motifs to say something new. Coming from Ranti, he was trained in the Kachni style of Madhubani art, which focuses on the… Read more »

Untitled

Mithila art traditionally uses motifs from nature like birds and elephants, or depicts themes of love both eternal and mortal, or scenes from Hindu mythology. But, Santosh Kumar Das makes use of these motifs to say something new. Coming from Ranti, he was trained in the Kachni style of Madhubani art, which focuses on the… Read more »

Nature & Nurture in the Art of Pushpa Kumari

Mithila artist Pushpa Kumari’s aesthetic genius combines the traditional with the contemporary, and the personal with the political

Latpatiya Sugga

Mithila art traditionally uses motifs from nature like birds, elephants, or depicts themes of love both eternal and mortal, or scenes from Hindu mythology. Santosh Kumar Das makes use of these motifs to say something new with it. Coming from Ranti, he was trained in the Kachni style of Madhubani art, which focuses on the… Read more »

Drawing Strength – How Madhubani Artists Have Challenged Caste Oppression

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

Untitled (Lion)

Mithila art often uses motifs from nature to capture the excitement of rural life. This painting depicts three elements – a sole lion, a flower and a bird but the flower is positioned high and the bird low, beside the hind legs of the lion. The artist Santosh Kumar Das is very interested in merging… Read more »

Untitled (Man with a Pankha)

This is a painting by Santosh Kumar Das in the Madhubani tradition. His art draws inspiration from Hindu mythology and iconography, nature, events from Indian history and anecdotes from his everyday life. ‘A Man With a Pankha’ explores a theme from Das’ life, and his love for art and mythology. A Brahmin man wearing an… Read more »

Art of the Unexpected – In conversation with Santosh Kumar Das

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

Untitled [Kohbar and Religious episodes]

Mithila or Madhubani art originated as a ritual wall painting in Mithila region, primarily done on the occasion of marriage. Traditionally, it has been a woman’s preserve. With modern times the medium of art shifted to canvas, and on rare occasions to cloth. Depicted here is one of the most popular and iconic of these… Read more »

Untitled [Kohbar]

Mithila or Madhubani art originated as a ritual wall painting in Mithila region, primarily done on the occasion of marriage. Traditionally, it has been a woman’s preserve. With modern times the medium of art shifted to canvas, and on rare occasions to cloth. Depicted here is one of the most popular and iconic of these… Read more »

On The Road in Madhubani

Photographer and author Chirodeep Chaudhuri curates a virtual exhibition of photographs taken during Sarmaya’s trip to Madhubani

Divine, Human, Feminine, Feminist – Mithila art and its women

How a matriarchal art practice emerged in response to conservatism and the patriarchy. Locating the divine as well as the human in Madhubani art

Madhubani

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… Read more »

“Our books are like a room out of a museum”

Dulari Devi is an artist but she wasn’t always one. This is how the story begins in her autobiographical children’s book, Following My Paint Brush, published by Tara Books, an independent publishing house that brings art by Indian women, folk and indigenous artists to young readers. Coming from a community of fisherfolk in Bihar, Dulari… Read more »

The Walls Have Eyes: The discovery and evolution of Mithila art

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