“In the best art there is an inescapable element of strangeness, the sense of a novel wonder, a mystery burning at the heart of life, and it is the strangeness this incandescence which above all the painting of Mithila transmits”. The overwritten statement is the words William G. Archer chose to end his article on Mithila art titled ‘Mithila Painting’ which was published in 1949 in Marg Vol. 3, No. 3. This article grabbed the public attention towards Mithila painting. Archer gave a detailed account of the social and ritual context, conventions, sources of variation, and uses of line and colour in the ancient wall-painting tradition in Mithila region of Bihar.

1. Mithila Art: Reincarnated from the rubbles of an earthquake
“In the best art there is an inescapable element of strangeness, the sense of a novel wonder, a mystery burning
at the heart of life, and it is the strangeness of this incandescence which above all the painting of Mithila
transmits”. The overwritten statement is the words William G. Archer chose to end his article on Mithila art
titled ‘Mithila Painting’ which was published in 1949 in Marg Vol. 3, No. 3. This article grabbed the public's
attention towards Mithila painting. Archer gave a detailed account of the social and ritual context, conventions,
sources of variation, and uses of line and color in the ancient wall-painting tradition in Mithila region of Bihar.
Kohbar ghar, 1935, photograph by William Archer
Courtesy- Sarmaya

2. Going back to January 19, 1934, Mithila art was reincarnated from the ruins of a deadly earthquake that ripped
through Northern Bihar. William Archer, a civil service official stationed in Madhubani, Bihar discovered several
wall paintings that were not only eye-catching due to the extensive use of various colors but also astounding in
depiction of male and female lines and various gods and goddesses giving their blessing. He recounts the events
in his dairy, “I had ridden out one evening to a village close to Madhubani itself and chanced upon a small white
temple. The mahant (priest) invited me to see the image. It was a black stone dressed in doll-like clothes.” He
actually stumbled upon a marriage chamber (kohbar ghar). The central point of the paintings was a kohbar, a
representation of a lotus pond with flowers, fish, turtles, snakes, parrots, peacocks and lovebirds as symbols of
female beauty and fertility. A stylised bamboo grove next to it represented male fertility and the male family
line. Paintings of Durga, Krishna, Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu, Lakshmi and Ganesh were placed around these to create
a safe and auspicious environment for a marriage. In his article Archer quotes, “I must confess that for at least
an hour, I forgot the earthquake and its horrors. I was entranced by what I saw in these murals we somehow
electrically met. What they took for granted, I considered superb…the art was there and made us one… I saw
the beauty in the mud.
Untitled, early 21st century, unidentified artist
Courtesy- Sarmaya
Despite the Mithila murals' obvious differences, Archer considered them as comparable to ‘modern European
art’ in terms of inventiveness and imaginative conception. Firstly he discovered the wall paintings in Brahmin
homes on the cracked walls of the kohbar ghar, the marriage chamber. Later on after his discovery of the
paintings in Kayastha homes, he noted that while the imagery was similar, “the style of their murals was quite
distinct. It presupposed the same liberties, the same repudiation of truth to natural appearances, and the same
determination to project a forceful idea of a subject rather than a factual record. But in contrast to Brahmins,
Kayastha women were vehement. They portrayed their main subject with shrill boldness, with savage
forcefulness…. If Maithil Brahmin murals resembled Miro or Klee, here was Picasso naked and unashamed.”
What he discovered was just a glimpse of a thriving age-old art form, but it left him captivated.

3. A Kohbar-style Madhubani Painting showing aspects of daily life
Courtesy- Housenama
In 1966-67 during the Bihar famine, the baton was shifted from Archer to Pupul Jayakar. She was the head of
the All India Handloom Board. With instruction from Archer she tried to get in touch with Brahmin and Kayastha
families in Madhubani with an aim to compile a video record of Mithila art. When the plan crumbled down, she
along with the help of Bombay artist Bhaskar Kulkarni trained local women of Jitwarpur and Ranti (villages in
Madhubani) to transfer the wall painting to paper for sale. The first paintings garnered accolades in 1967 during
an exhibition at New Delhi. From there on two Kayastha painters, Ganga Devi and Mahasundari Devi, and two
Brahmin painters, Sita Devi and
Sita Devi
Courtesy- Saffron Art
Sita Devi’s and Ganga Devi’s exposure in Japan, Europe, the USSR and the US in the 1970s gave Mithila art
worldwide recognition. The success of the art form encouraged and inspired many artists to take up the art

4. form and practice. Hundreds of women began painting on paper moving away from the conventional wall
painting. Mithila painting afterwards spanned across several caste communities. Artists such as Lalitha Devi,
Chano Devi and Shanti Devi from Dusadh community and Jamuna Devi from Chamar community, and male
artists like Santosh Kumar Das, Batohi Jha, Krishnanand Jha and Gopal Saha came into picture.
Many international filmmakers, journalists and
influencers became the reason for its further
evolution. Erika Moser, a German
anthropologist and filmmaker, Yves Vequaud a
French journalist and filmmaker and Raymond
Owens an American anthropologist contributed
significantly to the professionalization of Mithila
art. Major credit to the commercial success of
Mithila art is given to Owens, who started
visiting the region in late 1970s buying art from
local artists at a higher price, then selling it in
the US and returning half the profits to the
women. It boosted the incomes and created an
enterprise.
Today, MIthila art has grown and evolved in
many ways over a period of time. Even though
it has detached from the ritualistic meanings, it
is still rooted in tradition. Many artists have
flocked towards the art form and are expanding
it not only on commercial platform but for
education purpose too with messages in the
Raymond Owens form of art. From hiding under the rubbles during
Courtesy- Twitter the earthquake of 1934, Mithila art has traveled
a lot in time to gain the recognition that it actually
deserves. Many thanks to the people and artists involved in this journey of opening up to the world in a way it
was never done before.
Ram wedding Courtesy- Housenama
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