The Madhubani painting or Mithila painting can be dated back to the Ramayana era when King Janaka commissioned artists to mark the wedding of his daughter Sita to Lord Rama. Madhubani painting is traditionally done on newly plastered mud wall of huts. At present, it also adorns on cloth, hand made paper and canvas. The usage of two dimensional imaging, obtaining colors from plants, following the traditional pattern of themes woven around Hindu deities Rama, Krishna, Durga, Shiva, Saraswathy, Lakshmy etc has helped Madhubani painting to preserve its unique style even now. Established objects like the sun, the moon and also religious plants like Thulsi also find their unique place in most of the Madhubani painting. Another special feature of Madhubani painting is that one cannot find even a small empty space in the painting. The gaps are filled by painting of flowers, animals, birds and even geometric designs. The raw material used for this type of painting such as bamboo sticks, cotton vegetable etc can be easily located in the villages. Various vegetables are used for obtaining various colors. For example, black color is prepared from the blend of soot and cow dung, yellow color from turmeric, pollen, lime, milk of banyan leaves, blue color from indigo, red color from kusum flower juice or red sandal wood, green color from wood apple tree leaves, white color from rice powder, orange from palasha flowers etc., are mainly used in this type of painting. Due to its unique colors and style, Madhubani or Mithila painting is recognized world wide.
Following are the madhubani painting ebooks or tutorials available in world wide web.
- Madhubani Painting By govt of bihar
- Madhubani Painting
- Ancient Gods and modern politics: Mithila Painting
- Silliness, Stories & Skills Hanuman Mithila Painting
- Imaging The Goddess: Visual Folk Narratives from the Mithila Region
- The Interplay between Marriage, Ritual, and Art in Mithila
- Videos on Mithila Painting
- Mithila Paintings: Past, Present and Future
- Mithila Painting : About Madhubani Painting
- Madhubani Paintings