India's Mithila Painting
A woman's art form transforms from home to high art

Since at least the fifteenth century, Hindu women in the Mithila region of northern India have been painting images of deities, flora and fauna symbolizing fertility and prosperity, and floor designs that sacralize sites for ritual within their homes. Their artwork remained ephemeral since its plant-based colors faded over time. In response to an extended drought that led to widespread crop failure in the 1960s, the Indian government's All India Handicraft Board provided high-quality paper to the women of Mithila to test the income-generating possibilities of transferring wall and floor artwork to a new medium. The unique Mithila aesthetic, novel compositions, and precise linework won enthusiastic buyers in New Delhi and abroad. The small number of women painters expanded across the ranks of the social hierarchy and even included a few men. They developed individual styles and depicted novel subjects such as village history, their own life stories, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, social justice, protecting trees, and changing social norms.

Major international museums now house Mithila collections, and individuals around the world own paintings. This volume, the first to present an up-to-date analysis of the history and practitioners of Mithila painting, includes contributions from Mithila artists, anthropologists, art historians, historians of Indian religions and specialists of visual culture, gender studies, and translation studies.

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India's Mithila Painting
A woman's art form transforms from home to high art

Since at least the fifteenth century, Hindu women in the Mithila region of northern India have been painting images of deities, flora and fauna symbolizing fertility and prosperity, and floor designs that sacralize sites for ritual within their homes. Their artwork remained ephemeral since its plant-based colors faded over time. In response to an extended drought that led to widespread crop failure in the 1960s, the Indian government's All India Handicraft Board provided high-quality paper to the women of Mithila to test the income-generating possibilities of transferring wall and floor artwork to a new medium. The unique Mithila aesthetic, novel compositions, and precise linework won enthusiastic buyers in New Delhi and abroad. The small number of women painters expanded across the ranks of the social hierarchy and even included a few men. They developed individual styles and depicted novel subjects such as village history, their own life stories, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, social justice, protecting trees, and changing social norms.

Major international museums now house Mithila collections, and individuals around the world own paintings. This volume, the first to present an up-to-date analysis of the history and practitioners of Mithila painting, includes contributions from Mithila artists, anthropologists, art historians, historians of Indian religions and specialists of visual culture, gender studies, and translation studies.

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India's Mithila Painting

India's Mithila Painting

India's Mithila Painting

India's Mithila Painting

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Overview

A woman's art form transforms from home to high art

Since at least the fifteenth century, Hindu women in the Mithila region of northern India have been painting images of deities, flora and fauna symbolizing fertility and prosperity, and floor designs that sacralize sites for ritual within their homes. Their artwork remained ephemeral since its plant-based colors faded over time. In response to an extended drought that led to widespread crop failure in the 1960s, the Indian government's All India Handicraft Board provided high-quality paper to the women of Mithila to test the income-generating possibilities of transferring wall and floor artwork to a new medium. The unique Mithila aesthetic, novel compositions, and precise linework won enthusiastic buyers in New Delhi and abroad. The small number of women painters expanded across the ranks of the social hierarchy and even included a few men. They developed individual styles and depicted novel subjects such as village history, their own life stories, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, social justice, protecting trees, and changing social norms.

Major international museums now house Mithila collections, and individuals around the world own paintings. This volume, the first to present an up-to-date analysis of the history and practitioners of Mithila painting, includes contributions from Mithila artists, anthropologists, art historians, historians of Indian religions and specialists of visual culture, gender studies, and translation studies.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295753225
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 04/22/2025
Series: Global South Asia
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Paula Richman, William H. Danforth Professor of South Asian Religions emerita at Oberlin College, has published multiple books and articles on the Indian Ramayana tradition. David L. Szanton, a social anthropologist and president of the Ethnic Arts Foundation, has curated Mithila painting exhibitions internationally. He is visiting professor at the Society, Work, and Politics Institute at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

What People are Saying About This

Partha Mitter

"Ritual wall paintings executed by Mithila women underwent transformation with the introduction of paper and contemporary subjects. Today Mithila painting is internationally admired, but there are few comprehensive accounts of the tradition. The present multidisciplinary volume brings together not only academic scholars but also the artists themselves to produce an indispensable source for all students of history, art history, anthropology, and related disciplines."

Forrest McGill

"India’s Mithila Painting is a beautiful and much-needed book that will attract both scholars and the art-loving public. It provides a thorough history of Mithila painting while emphasizing the voices of today’s artists and investigating the contemporary issues artists increasingly deal with in their works. Fifteen essays by a variety of specialists address subjects from the transmission of traditions, to artists’ creativity in forging new paths, to their struggle for recognition, to the dynamics of gender as male artists enter a woman-led field."

Richard H. Davis

"This volume is important and distinctive for the breadth of scholarly attention it devotes to a type of art with a fascinating recent history. Mithila painting is explored here historically, religiously, sociologically, art historically, and commercially."

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