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Mithila Art

- By Ram Dayal Rakesh

For three thousand years, Maithili women have painted the mud walls of their homes with scenes of legends of Hindu gods and goddesses. The art was temporary, however, the images were erased when the walls were washed.

-Horizon: The Magazine of the Art, June 1985 Mithila is an ancient land on the map of Nepal with rich and renowned artistic tradition.

Janakpur, its capital, is a living museum of magnificent arts and crafts. Religious themes are the prime source of inspiration behind the emergence of Maithili art, and its religious reference often goes back to the Bhagawat Puran.

Shashibhusan Chaudhary, in his Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India, writes: “The Bhagawata refers to the Maithilas in general and says that they were skilled in the knowledge of the art man.”

However, it is impossible to trace the exact origin of Maithili art. The excavation and exploration at Murtiya of Saralahi didtrict, Simraungarh of Bara, Dhanushdham of Dhanusha, and Matihani and Jaleshwor of Mahottary, all located in the southern Terai belt of Nepal, apparebtly shows that the colossal folk images of various gods and goddesses are made of stone. And these images and idols found in these places obviously bear religious manifestations of the work of both imagination and spirituality.

Maithili people, reared long by religion, paint the images of their favoutite gods and goddesses like Shiva, Krishna, Hanuman, Kali, Ganesh, Vishnu and their vehicles too. The also paint pictures of newly married couples seated in palanquin surrounded by the wedding party.

As the wedding ceremony is a special occasion in Maithili society, which is also known as “Kohabar” within the community, a separate room is set and decorated tastefully with several monifs for its celebration. This painting is done in the inner as well as outer walls of the Kohabar Ghar (honeymoon house). As a popular social practice, its main motto is to increase the sexual potency and fertility of both the bride and bridegroom.

This special painting is drawn on the walls of the house in three places: the Gosaighar (special room for family god), the Kohabar Ghar (honeymoon room) and Kohabar-Gharak-Koniya (corridor or outside of the Kohabar Ghar).

These paintings are wonderfully depicted by the illiterate woman folk of Mithila, and are quite attractive to look at. They express their artistic sentiments and skills on various occasions. The outer walls of the Kohabar are decorated with walls of the kohabar are decorated with the paintings of rural life such as a palanquin with its carriers, shady fruit trees like those of mango, banana, Kadamba and Ashoka. They also paint love-scenes of Lord Krishna with the gopinis and his constant companion, Radha.

The use of the mango branch or leaves is frequent during the wedding rites of Maithili society. Mango twigs also used for lighting the sacred fire to purify the Kohabar Ghar. Tying the wedding booth with mango leaves customarily signifies the importance of the mango tree as a source of fertility. The newly married couple spends the night of “Chaturthi” (fourth day of marriage) in the Kohabar Ghar. Traditionally, it is mandatory for the married couple to celebrate their marriage at the Kohabar Ghar in the presence of all the deities and umpteen sacred symbols of fertility depicted around the walls of their housed. The bridegroom’s Kohabar has only “sat pattas” ( seven leaves) as against 15 leaves in the bride’s Kohabar. This motif of Mithila art is painted in a single color-yellow.
These paintings can be categorized into two types: Firstly, the depiction of favorite gods and their consorts like Shiva and Parvati, radha and Krishna, and Vishnu and Laxmi, who are believed to bring blessings to newly married couples; and, secondly, there are various sketches of animals and plants like elephants, fish, parrots, turtles, bamboo and lotus, whish imply fertility as well as peace and prosperity. It is believed that paintings of these symbols can bring good fortune to newly married couples, and also bless them to have progeny.

Nature, being the perfect and inspiration, is the main theme of Maithili art. So the women folk of Mithila often depict lovely flowers like the lotus and its leaves, bamboo and the betel leaf. Similarly, the also like to paint animals like horses, elephants, peacocks and so on as well as gods and goddess. All these carry symbols significance in Mithila art. The elephants, horse and palanquin, for example, suggest royalty and richness while the sun and moon are the symbols of goods luck. The bamboo represents future progeny and prosperity. It also stands for purity and innocence. It also stands for purity and innocence. As the humid climate of the Terai flatland is pertinent to bamboo cultivation, the traditional Mithila paintings depicting sparrows gamboling in bamboo groves is a popular motif.

Aripan: paintings of Mithila
The Aripan painting, derived from Sanskrit “ Alepan” (meaning “to smear”), is quite auspicious in the whole Mithila region. It basically refers to smearing the ground with cow dung and clay for ritual purification. Also known as “Mandala”, this art form comes into play on several religious occasions such as Brata Bandha (sacred thread ceremony), Chhatiyar (sixth day rites of a child after birth), Mundan (head shaving ceremony of a child), puberty, conception, initiation into learning, and marriage. Interestingly, this art is also practiced in various parts of India under different names like “Alpna” in West Bengal, “Mandala” in Rajasthan and “Rangoli” in Gujurat. In Nepal’s Bhojpuri areas, it is known as “Chaukapurna” while in Mithila, it is “Aripam’.

This Tradition of Aripan is found in Grihyasutra too. The Vastu Purusha Mandala is a schematic mental map, and the basis for nationalizing any site. It is not a measured drawing or a contour map, but a code that enables reading of the site and a resolution of its design. A piece of land, once assigned for a dwelling, becomes the Mandala within which the world of a man is organized. Its features become the Mandala, which in turn adopts its shape and terrain. The concept of the Vastu Purusha Mandala acts through a site without which it remains physically nonexistent, which means that an ordered field cannot exist without a field.
In Brahma Puran, the word Bhumishobha (beauty of land) has been used for Aripan. So also in Naisadha Charitra. Indeed, this art has a long and lovely tradition. Its original form is mixture of semi-geometrical and floral diagram with each diagram having a well defined center in which a sacred pot and a plate and kept fir ritual purposes. The designs and diagrams have a tantrik background. Thus, the Aripan art is naturally something more than mere decoration and floor paintings.

Aripan is drawn and depicted both for adornment and purification of a piece of ground. It is painted either on the main entrance gate of a house, or at thresh-holds and courtyards. Sometimes, it also finds place in the main residential room. Both young and old women are talented at this particular art form.
There are many kinds of Atipan art which are depicted and drawn for various purposes. One kind of Aripan is drawn on the auspicious occasion of Tusari Pooja in which young, unmarried Maithili girls draw it to get good husbands. Its duration is between Makar Sankranti and Falgun Sankranti. In this Aripan they draw a temple, the moon, sun, navagrah (nine planets and so on. Likewise, Sanjha Aripan, which is depicted in honor of Sandhya Devi (goddess of the evening) . And the whole cosmos are drawn and shown in the form of a temple. Panch Dev (five gods) and Shapta Rishis (seven sages) are also sketched in the shape of the lotus Aripan.

Similarly, Sasthi-pooja-Aripan is painted when young girls start menstruation. This Aripan signifies the creation and destruction of the universe. The Gatra-Sankrant Aripan is the symbol of birth and death, whereas the Kojagara Aripan is drawn on the leaf of Makhan on the full moon-day of Aswin (September). Diwali Aripan, which is known in Mithila region as Sukha-ratri Aripan, is depicted to welcome laxmi, the goddess of wealth. And Swastik Aripan is painted for blessing the young generation.

Aripan art is cosmic in nature and playful in expression. It is a bright and beautiful art. The material applied in such art is a mixture of powdered rice and water, known as “pithar”. The women folk, dipping two fingers into the pithar, produce graceful geometrical diagrams with different designs on the mud floor of their housed and courtyards and at the thresholds. This art tells of the magnanimity of the mother goddess. In order to make it more adorning, the women also smear red powder on it. Moreover, three inner triangles symbolize gauri, the favorite goddess of the Maithil maidens.

On Maithili art and more about Aripan, Lydia Aran aptly inscribes-“The Aripanas are drawn by various female members of the household, on ritually prescribed occasions, on the clean swept ground of the courtyards or inside the house.
Ideally, the design of an Aripana should be revealed to the lady-artist as a result of meditation and general yogic experience.

In practice, the details of the various Aripanas are learned by girls from watching the work of their mothers, grandmothers and other female relatives and neighbors”.