Just About Everything

A Godavari Dutta painting on the wall of her house Did you know that there is a museum in Japan devoted to Madhubani paintings? Well, I didn't either, but that was before visiting Madhubani. Ranti village in Madhubani is home to quite a few famous madhubani artists like Mahasundari devi and Godavari Dutta.We wanted to meet at least one of them, and as luck would have it we did meet with Godavari Dutta. Godavari Dutta is over 80 years old but she is so active at this age that you will find it hard to believe that she is over 80! A Rashtrapati award winner for her excellence in painting and social welfare, She is quite a well known name in Madhubani. Love this one Godavari Dutta's Madubani painting in a museum in Japan We reached her place around 1 pm, and she was actually resting then. We did not want to disturb her because it was after all an odd time to call on anyone. But then we did not have an option to visit her later:( Her daughter- in- law...

A wedding scene depicted on a wall Madhubani style In continuation to my earlier post on Madhubani paintings , on our way out of the village, we came across several more beautiful Madhubani paintings on the walls of buildings, homes and even huts. I am posting some more of these beauties. I especially like the one on the hut. We also visited a village by the name of Saurath. We wanted to visit Saurath because it has a rich history. This village was earlier known as Saurastra; it was supposed to be a cultural centre. It seems Sita's swayamvar happened in this village!  Madhubani painting on a hut Krishna with Gopis  This village is also popular because of an age old tradition. Every year during the marriage season maithili brahmins would meet in order to fix the marriage of their daughters and sons. There would be panjikars present who would have the list of generations of maithili brahmins. There is an interesting old Shiva temple in Saur...

Madhubani Painting by school children  We left Darbhanga at around 10.30 am and started for Madhubani. We wanted to go to village and meet artists and see Madhubnai paintings...we were informed that a village by the name of Jitwarpur is home to some artists who are actively involved in Madhubani paintings. We set off and soon after reached the village. We were caught off guard and were very pleasantly surprised when we suddenly chanced upon a painting on the wall of a house, wow! We stopped the car and started clicking, up ahead we saw a school, and really that school was something. It has paintings on the walls by school children. We stopped the car and we were wondering if there was some way we could take a closer look at those paintings. We did not want to disturb the school's normal functioning.  We got noticed after some time, and they gave us permission to go around the school without disturbing any school proceedings. I was thrill...