Mithila and Warli painting

Mithila or Madhubani painting comes from the region of ancient Videha, in Bihar. For a very long time it has been painted by women on mud walls, for ceremonies, especially weddings. Local people trace it back to the marriage of Sita and Rama.

It is painted in the courtyards; in the eastern part of the house, home of the Kuladevi (family goddess, usually Kali); and most splendidly in the kohbar ghar, the inner room of the newly married couple, where the kohbar (a lotus in bloom on its stalk) and the gods are painted.

Its themes include the Bhagavata Purana, the Ramayana, Shiva and Parvati, Durga, Kali and the Rasa-Lila. Every empty space is filled, with birds, fish, snakes, the Sun and moon: symbols of love, fertility and prosperity. The women paint with bamboo twigs, and colours made from flowers, leaves, kajal and turmeric.

Warli painting is made by married women of the Warli tribe in Thane district, Maharashtra. They paint the chowk for marriages, and for fertility, harvest and sowing. At the centre is the mother goddess Palaghat (the corn goddess), in a square frame decorated with chevrons, guarded by the headless Panch Sirya Devata.

Around her are lively scenes: hunting, fishing, farming, dancing, tigers, and even buses and Mumbai life. They are painted in white rice flour paste on earth-coloured walls, with a chewed bamboo stick as a brush.