NEPAL, June 8, 2007: In a historically and religiously rich territory spanning a portion of northeast India and southern Nepal, a requisite household ritual has won some women world renown. The region is commonly known as Mithila, and the rite of repute, painting, is performed by virtually all women of the area. With a karmic nudge, and through the inevitable expanded global awareness of our times, their localized, private ritual has become recognized as a distinguished skill. For some it is an honored career. For most women in this sub-Himalayan paradise, the ritual of painting maintains its simplicity and functionality. It is religious first and foremost. The unique and distinctive style of Hindu religious art that developed long ago in this province is called Mithila in Nepal and Madhubani in India.
The art has survived due to tradition. Women have been teaching daughters the Mithila technique for 3,000 years. Only recently has it become public and famous. Even with this recognition, few women seriously consider making a career of it. For the majority, painting remains their homemaker duty, their worship, their prayer. In Mithila, every woman is an artist, regardless of education. Primarily crafted upon the walls of their mud homes, paintings are done for all manner of events. They are sometimes created on the ground, similar to India’s rangoli, and on pottery, fans and earthen dishes. It was not until the 1960s that it was suggested to the women that they do paintings on paper so they could be sold and distributed. Paper was slowly adopted. There is still no formal school where training is given. Thus, art connoisseurs from outside Nepal and India who value the artwork highly deem the shift to permanent and portable media as essential to the perpetuation of the style. More recently, artists with extraordinary skill have been sponsored abroad. A Mithila museum has arisen in Tokamachi, Japan, and there have been exhibitions in the U.S. To read more on this art form see source above.