Indian Painting B.A. II

1. Indian PaintingB.A. II Dr. O. P. Parameswaran, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Post Graduate Govt. College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh.

2. Unit-1: History of Indian Painting (BA-3) • 4. Folk style • 4.2 Maithil(Madhubani) Paintings, (Bihar)

3. Introduction: • Maithil or Madhubani paintings were practiced in Mithila a region in North Bihar. • The paintings were done as purely domestic act as natural as sweeping the courtyard of fetching water. • Whenever certain ceremonies needed to be performed, paintings were made. • These were left on the wall until they become too damaged or shabby. They were then repainted or completely renewed.

4. In 1940 painting still flourished in this area as an integral part of village life. • Of the various castes who practiced it, Maithil Brahmins and Maithil Kayasths were its chief exponents. Rajputs, Sonars, Ahirs and Dusadhs also painted their houses from time to time but it would seem that they had adopted the practice from their neighbours. • Among Brahmins and Kayasths, paintings were done by the women of the household and took various forms.

5. Designs (aripan, alpana in Bengal) were made on the floors and paper fans, earthen pots, dishes and elephants were painted for marriage ceremonies. • It was primarly wall paintings, however, which most concerned them.

6. There were 5 main purposes for which walls were decorated- the sacred thread ceremony (janau), festivals such as chhath, chauth chand, and the Devasthan Ekadasi, the ‘first marriage’ when the bride and bridegroom were formally linked and the ‘second marriage’ when they entered their actual married state. • For the first three occasions, the corridors and gosain ghar where family deity was worshipped were decorated with paintings of Gods and Goddesses.

7. For the two wedding ceremonies at the bride’s house, mural paintings were executed in the Kohbar, the marriage chamber (known as ‘the room of varieties’) where the newly married couple stayed for about a week, and an oil lamp was kept burning day and night.

8. Subject matter: • Two types of subject were favored for the bridal chamber- gods and goddesses, and auspicious symbols. • It was essential to associate all the main gods and goddesses with the event so that they might shower their blessings. • Equally important were designs incorporating a number of auspicious symbols:

9. Symbols: • A ring of lotuses (kamalban or purain), flowers, a ‘bamboo tree’ (bans), parrots, turtles, fishes, the sun and moon, flowering trees and elephants

10. Meaning of the different symbols: • Of these symbols, the lotus ring and the ‘bamboo tree’ figured most prominently. Both symbolized fertility because of the speed with which they proliferated. • The other images are equally general. • The moon, source of heavenly nectar, amrit, is thought to give long life and sun to fertilse and even impregnate. • Parrots in Indian poetry and painting are constantly employed as symbols for the bride and bridegroom and are thus Indian equivalent of lovebirds.

11. Turtles, as aquatic denizens, associate water and all its beneficent power with the marriage, and at the same time, their very shape, like the lotus ring and bamboo, symbolize the marriage act. • Fishes too are constantly associated with water and fertility. • The two chief styles can be readily identified

12. Maithil Brahmins: • In paintings by Maithil Brahmins women, no attempt is made to place figures or objects in a natural relation to each other. • The figures float like aimless creatures in a tranquil aquarium. • Krishna and a peacock stand above the head of a bridegroom’s attendant, a bride and bridegroom walk below a lotus ring, a child trips along a ribbon floating from Shiva’s headdress, fishes drift in the sky etc.

13. The paintings are, as it were, casual collections of images which nevertheless gracefully combine one with another in the picture space. • The various figures and object are depicted in a single plane. • All are defined by a thin and wiry line, which bounds large segments of bright colour. Colours have a vivid brilliance.

14. Some, such as the blue or black of Krishna’s skin, are dictated by religions canons, but most bear no relationship to life. • Parvati may have a pink head or Shiva a yellow body and it is these distortions, which give the figures an air of gentile fantasy.

15. Maithil Kayasth: • Maithil Kayasth paintings have a totally different character. • Although painted in a flat plane and with the same irrational relationship of figures and images, colour plays little part and their strength lies rather in their line. • They have used colours like bluish grey, ochre, madder and black, and the last two colours being predominant. • The figures no longer float in space but are tightly bound into panels with patterned frames or ranged in long processions round the wall.

16. Each panel is filled with a strong vigorous designs executed with energy and precision. • The figures instead of being wraithlike fairy-tale shapes are fleshy, muscular and round and have an air of sensual energy and quick compulsive power. • Firm lines bound the forms which are decorated with hatching and spotting. • The chief subjects are pictures of the gods, elaborated lotus circles and complicated patterns.