Tucked away along the road from Darbhanga to Jitwarpur, a bustling town in the heartland of Bihar, stands a striking modern building. Its bold, brutalist architecture instantly reminded me of The Brutalist (2024), starring Adrien Brody. Curious, I stepped inside the Mithila Art Centre and found myself captivated by its refined contemporary spaces. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is the first art school in India to offer an undergraduate degree in Traditional Art. From Director Chandrashekhar Singh and faculty member Prateek Prajwal to Padma Shri awardees Baua Devi and Dulari Devi, artist Rani Jha, and the young students diligently learning under these accomplished mentors, the Centre buzzed with creativity.
To appreciate the significance of this institution, one must first understand Mithila itself. Spanning northern Bihar and parts of present-day Nepal, Mithila is one of India’s oldest cultural regions, revered as the kingdom of Raja Janaka and the birthplace of Goddess Sita. According to folklore, King Janaka asked the women of Mithila to decorate the walls of their homes to celebrate Sita’s marriage to Lord Rama, giving rise to what is now known as Mithila, or Madhubani, painting. These paintings are distinguished by bold outlines, intricate patterns, symbolic imagery, and vibrant natural colours.
Darbhanga has long been one of Mithila’s foremost cultural centres. During the British colonial period, the Raj Darbhanga was among the largest and most influential zamindaris in India. Its rulers were exceptional patrons of education, Sanskrit scholarship, music, and Maithili culture, supporting institutions such as Banaras Hindu University, Patna University, Calcutta University, and Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University.
The drive from Darbhanga to Jitwarpur is, in many ways, a journey into the living heart of Mithila painting. At the Mithila Art Centre, I had the opportunity to see works by both Baua Devi and Dulari Devi. While Baua Devi’s paintings immediately command attention through their vibrant colours, dense compositions, and powerful retellings of mythological narratives, Dulari Devi’s works draw their strength from the rhythms of everyday life while remaining firmly rooted in the Bharni and Kachni traditions.
Spending a day with the legendary Baua Devi was a privilege. Eighty-two years old, she looks every bit the proverbial grandmother. Surrounded by her four children, grandchildren, and an extended household of 18 members, she spoke with quiet pride about how almost everyone in the family paints. Her daughter-in-law, a graduate of the four-year programme at the Mithila Art Centre, is among those carrying the legacy forward. Baua Devi herself is preparing for a solo exhibition at Palette Art Gallery this October.
Baua Devi occupies a singular place in the history of Mithila painting as one of the pioneering artists who transformed what was once a domestic ritual practice into an internationally celebrated art form. Married at the age of 12, she was encouraged by her mother-in-law to paint. In 1966, she became the youngest artist selected by Bhaskar Kulkarni, working under Pupul Jayakar and the All India Handicrafts Board, to transfer Mithila paintings from mud walls onto handmade paper. What began with earnings of just `1.50 per painting eventually led to national and international acclaim. She received the National Award in 1984 and the Padma Shri in 2017. In 1989, she was the only woman artist representing India at Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Her artistic journey has since taken her to more than 30 countries. She has visited Japan 11 times and exhibited in Paris, Spain, Germany, and several other nations. Yet, despite this international recognition, her work remains deeply anchored in the landscape of Mithila. For decades, Baua Devi worked almost exclusively with natural pigments prepared from locally available materials. While she now also uses acrylics, her artistic vocabulary has remained remarkably consistent. Her works have been collected extensively by the Ethnic Arts Foundation (EAF), co-founded by Raymond Owens and David Szanton. Owens championed artists through fair patronage, while Szanton documented Baua Devi’s oeuvre extensively, including her celebrated Thagin (Female Thug) series, which transforms a local folk tale into a compelling visual narrative.
Her style is immediately recognisable. Working primarily in the traditional bharni style of Mithila painting, she combines bold outlines with dense compositions, intricate linear patterning, and a fearless command of colour. She paints on handmade paper and cloth, using a palette dominated by black, yellow, red, and white, though acrylics have expanded her range in recent years. Among the recurring motifs in her work are the Nag Kanya and serpent deities, alongside powerful depictions of Kali, Krishna, Rama, and, above all, Sita, whose story she often reinterprets through a distinctly feminine lens.
In Baua Devi’s hands, the stories of Mithila are not relics of the past; they remain vividly alive, one brushstroke at a time.