Rama and Krishna

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Hindu women who live in villages near the market town of Madhubani in northern India maintain old traditions and teach them to their daughters. Painting is one of the traditional skills that is passed down from generation to generation in the families of some of the women. They paint figures from nature and myth on household and village walls to mark the seasonal festivals of the religious year, for special events of the life-cycle, and when marriages are being arranged they prepare intricately designed wedding proposals. The artist many a times are simple housewives, who have never been to any school to learn the art of painting. Hence the spontaneity in their art.

The painters do not seek to place objects or figures in a natural relation to each other. The figures may float in a tranquil aquarium or fragile angels against an aery background, creating an aura of fantastic strangeness.

It is the colors that create the mood, determine the pulse and tempo, divide the space and provide the background.

The artist starts with a rigorously selected subject-matter, without any attempt to transpose a literal scene or create a photographic semblance of an ordinary situation. Simplification leads to added intensity. The aim is towards a general radiance.

The paper itself is handmade and treated with cow dung and the colours used are extracted from vegetables. People of Madhubani have their own language and a sense of regional identity that goes back more than 2500 years. Among the most celebrated figures believed to have been born in the region are Mahavira (a great spiritual hero of the Jain religion), Siddhartha Gautama (better known to the world as the Buddha), and Sita (the legendary wife of Prince Rama and herself a central figure in the world's epic the Ramayana).

The upper half of this painting is dominated by Rama, and the lower half by Krishna. Both of them are incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu, the Preserver in Hindu thought.