Dulari Devi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Known for | Madhubani Art |
| Style | Bharni, Kachnhi |
| Awards | Padma Shri |
Dulari Devi (born 1968) is an Indian artist and illustrator, working in the Mithila art tradition. In 2021, she was a recipient of the Padma Shri, a civilian honour granted by the Government of India, for her contributions to art. [1]
Devi lives in the village of Ranti, in the State of Bihar, in India, and was born into the marginalised Dalit Mallaah caste. She was married at the age of thirteen, but returned to live with her family at the age of eighteen, after the death of her child. She did not receive any formal education, and learned to draw and illustrate in the Madhubani style while she was working as a domestic servant in the home of Madhubani artist Mahasundari Devi. Mahasundari Devi introduced her to another artist, Karpoori Devi, who also taught Dulari Devi Madhubani art and techniques. [2] [3] [4]
Dulari's work follows the Madhubani art tradition (sometimes called Mithila art), a folk art school that developed in the Indian state of Bihar. She practices both, the ‘Kachnhi' (line sketching) ‘and ‘Bharni’ (colored) styles of Madhubani but has indicated a preference for the latter. [2] [3] Although the usage of these styles has traditionally been confined to membership in specific castes, critic Sunil Kumar has described her work as being able to move between traditional stylistic divisions and occupy both fields, praising her "immense skill." [2] [5] In addition, her choice of themes and description has been cited as an example of the increasing expression of empowerment among women. [5] Her work has also been described as "...combining community traditions with modern themes". [6]
Her work has been featured as part of course material in the Maithili language at the Indira Gandhi National Open University. [3] [7] In 2005, her work was curated as part of an exhibition focusing on the use of traditional imagery in Madhubani art by Narendra Narayan Sinha. [8] In 2010, Devi and several other folk artists recorded tribal folklore in their art, which was anthologized by publisher Tara Books in a volume of silk-screen prints, titled Sun and Moon. [9] In 2018, her painting titled "Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving at a village in a helicopter" was part of a curated exhibit of Madhubani art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition, titled 'Painting is My Everything', curated by Qamar Adamjee, was named after a quote taken from Devi's description of her own career as an artist. [10] In addition to painting, Devi has completed a number of murals for the Central and state governments in India, and teaches Madhubani art techniques to children. [2] She is an instructor at the Madhubani Art Institute, located in Madhubani, in Bihar. [11]
In 2011, Devi published an illustrated autobiography titled Following My Paint Brush, which she co-wrote with writer and publisher Gita Wolf. [12] [6] Her recent paintings, documenting the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns in her community, have been acquired by Princeton University for their Graphic Arts Collection. [13] Her work has also been featured at an exhibition called 'Tradition and Transformation: Mithila Art of India' at the William Benton Museum of Art following a donation of her art pieces from the Ethnic Art Foundation and Katherine Myers. [14] [15] Director Nataša Urban is in research to build a documentary starring her, called "Better to be a tree than a girl". It is a documentary about a group of young women painters from Bihar, India, who use the ancient Mithila painting style to fight discrimination and patriarchy. [16]
Mithila is a proposed state in India, comprising the Maithili speaking region of Bihar and Jharkhand. The Maithili language has own traditional script, known as Mithilakshar. It is part of the historical Mithila region. The proposed state will also include Whole Angika and Bajjika speaking districts which are considered to be dialects of Maithili. What will be the capital city of Mithila, India is still to be decided. Historically the capital cities of Mithila have shifted between Janakpur (Nepal), Vaishali, Simraungadh (Nepal), Rajnagar (Madhubani) and Darbhanga to now Begusarai.
Madhubani is a City Municipal Corporation and headquarter of Madhubani district. Madhubani is situated in the Indian state of Bihar. It comes under Darbhanga Division. It is situated at 26 km northeast of Darbhanga City. The Madhuban Raj in Madhubani was created as a consequence. The word "Madhuban" means "forest of honey", from which Madhubani is derived, but sometimes it is also known as "madhu"+"vaani" meaning "sweet" "voice/language".
Madhubani art is a style of painting practiced in the Mithila region of India and Nepal. It is named after the Madhubani district of Bihar, India, which is where it originated. Artists create these paintings using a variety of mediums, including their own fingers, or twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchstick. The paint is created using natural dyes and pigments. The paintings are characterised by their eye-catching geometrical patterns. There is ritual content for particular occasions, such as birth or marriage, and festivals, such as Holi, Surya Shasti, Kali Puja, Upanayana, and Durga Puja.
Maithils, also known as Maithili people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group from the Indian subcontinent, who speak the Maithili language as their native language. They inhabit the Mithila region, which comprises Northern and Eastern Bihar and Northeastern Jharkhand in India and some adjoining districts of Nepal constituting Madhesh Province in addition to some terai districts of Bagmati and Koshi Provinces. The Maithil region forms an important part of Hinduism as it is said to be the birthplace of Sita, the wife of Ram and incarnation of Lakshmi.
The National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum (NHHM) commonly known as National Crafts Museum in New Delhi is one of the largest crafts museums in India. It is run by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. The museum is situated on the corner of the Pragati Maidan, facing the Purana Quila complex. In 2015, the Government of India announced that a Hastkala (handicrafts) Academy would be established in the museum premises, converting some galleries into classrooms. Initial renovations destroyed one of the museum's most well-known artifacts, a room of murals painted by Madhubani artist Ganga Devi, leading to widespread criticism. As of 2019, renovations are still ongoing.
Mahasundari Devi was an Indian artist and Madhubani painter. She was awarded the Tulsi Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1995, and in 2011 she received the Padma Shri award from the Government of India.
Ganga Devi was an Indian painter, considered by many as one of the leading exponents of Madhubani painting tradition. She is credited with popularizing the Madhubani painting outside India. She was born in 1928 in Mithila in the Indian state of Bihar in a Kayastha family and took to the traditional painting craft, specialising in the kachni style. She traveled abroad with her art and was a part of the Festival of India in the United States, which yielded a number of paintings under the title, America series, including Moscow Hotel, Festival of American Folk Life, and Ride in a Roller Coaster. The Government of India awarded her the National Master Craftsman Award and followed it up with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1984.
Mithila Student Union (MSU) (Maithili : मिथिला स्टूडेंट यूनियन) is a non-political student organisation whose sole purpose is the development of Mithila and Maithils living in India. It is one of the largest student organisations in Bihar. It is a registered organization under the provisions of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the Indian constitution. Anup Maithil is the founder president of Mithila Student Union.
Gopal Jee Thakur is an Indian Politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party, and a Member of Parliament representing Darbhanga in Bihar, India. He is a Member of Standing Committee on Railways, Member of Consultative Committee, Ministry of Railways, and the special invitee Member of BJP's National Executive committee.
Godawari Dutta is an Indian painter, well known for Madhubani Painting and patron of Mithila Kala Vikas Samiti. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri.
Rajkumari Devi is an Indian farmer. She was awarded with India's fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri. Kisan Chachi was born in a poor Bihari family and due to family poverty she was get married in young age. After her marriage she formed self help groups and with the help of biological farming she gave job for many poor families. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar recognized her and awarded with Kisan Shri.
Baua Devi is a Mithila painting artist from Jitwarpur village of Madhubani District in Bihar. Mithila painting is an ancient folk art that originated in the region. It is recognized as a series of complex geometric and linear patterns traced on the walls of a house's inner chambers. It was later transferred to handmade paper and canvases. Baua Devi won the National Award in 1984 and received the Padma Shri in 2017.
Aman Singh Gulati is an Indian visual artist. He paints artworks on multiple miniature objects including almonds, matchsticks etc. He achieved multiple national and international awards including multiple world records, including Guinness World Records. Some of Gulati's works promote various social causes. In 2019, he created a portrait of each of the 44 soldiers who died in the then-recent Pulwama attack.
Gita Wolf is an Indian author, publisher, and curator, and one of the founders of Indian publishing house, Tara Books.
Karpoori Devi was an Indian folk artist, painting in the Madhubani art tradition and creating textile art in the Sujni tradition. She belonged to an early generation of artists who sold Madhubani art with critical and commercial success, and her work has been archived in collections in India as well as Japan, Australia, and the United States of America.
Ambika Devi is an Indian artist, who works in the Madhubani art tradition. In 2009, she received the National Handicrafts Award for her contributions to art.
Mithila Makhana is a special variety of aquatic fox nut cultivated in Mithila region of Bihar and Nepal. In Mithila, Makhana is also termed as Makhan. It is the one of the three prestigious cultural identity of Mithila: Pond, Fish and Makhan "पग-पग पोखर, माछ, मखान ". It is also very famous in Kojagara festival of Maithil Brahmins and Kaysath celebrated for newly married couples. Makhana contains protein and fiber, along with micronutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron, and phosphorus.
Sita Devi (1914–2005) was an Indian artist, specializing in painting in the Madhubani tradition. She is one of the most well-known Madhubani artists from India, and was one of the first to receive national recognition for the art form, receiving a number of awards for her work including the Padma Shri in 1981, as well as the Bihar Ratna Samman in 1984. She was influential in activism for local development in her village of Jitwarpur, in the state of Bihar, and taught Madhubani art to local residents, especially women, during her career in an effort to encourage financial stability. Her paintings have been praised for their individual style, particularly their use of color, have been widely exhibited, and are archived in India as well as in museums in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
Mithila State Movement is a 300-year-old movement advocating a separate Mithila state in India. This movement gained momentum in 1902 AD when Sir George Grierson, an official of the British Indian government, prepared a map of Mithila state by conducting a language-based survey. In 1881 AD, the word Mithila was added to the dictionary of the British India government. According to the founder, president Dr. Dhanakar Thakur of the International Maithili Council in the proposed Mithila state, 24 districts of Bihar and six districts of Jharkhand, a total of 30 districts, have been included, which has a population of about 70 million. At the same time, the area is 70 thousand square km.
Subhadra Devi is a Mithilia artist from Bihar and known for Madhubani Painting and patron of Mithila Kala Vikas Samiti. She is awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2023.