Traditional Madhubani Paintings from Bihar

Bihar is proud of Madhubani, its traditional painting. This painting style gets its name from Madhubani, a district of Bihar, which is the hub of this painting tradition. The painting can be done anywhere , on walls, on paper, cloth and on wood. Till about 50-60 years ago , it was merely a decorative art, which was used to decorate the house walls of the villages.

The raw materials used for these paintings are papers, satin cloth, fabric cloth, cotton, cloth etc. For painting on paper, they use natural colours and natural powders (holi powder), which are locally abstracted. On walls and cloth, they use fabric colours.

The themes of these paintings are religious, secular, natural and village scenes and flora and fauna. Tattoo symbols are also used in painting. These beautiful Madhubani paintings are exhibited at Surajkund Crafts Fair an annual fair held at Haryana to promote traditional art and architecture of India.