Indian folk art exhibition opens at indian cultural center in damascus

Syria's Minister of Culture Mahmoud al-Sayed will on Monday, December 22nd at the Culture Center of the Indian embassy building, open an exhibition of "Madhubane Paintings," a folk art of Madhubani District of Bihar, State of India.

The exhibition, will however, give a rare insight to the rich traditional art of rural India.

The Madhubani painting, also known as Mithaila Painting, is traditionally a woman's ritual art composed of geometrical forms and magico-religious symbols which are part of rich folk art tradition of India, and handed down through generations from mother to daughter.

The painting is traditionally done on mud, and done on plastered walls, walls of the Devargan ( Temple) i.e. the room where the family deity is installed. They are also done on floors to invoke the blessings of Goddess, inside a Kowar, the bridal chamber at the bride's home where the newly married couple resides for at least one week, to endow them with fertility.

The colors are derived from minerals like Cinnabar orpiment and vegetable matter, rice mixed with oil, water and milk, and applied with a traditional brush called "Pihua" made of rag or white grass. Lamp black is used for dark shading, and the sticky core of the wood apple is applied as a fastener. The paintings and drawings that mainly represent Hindu deities, animals, and human beings.

The exhibition depicts art forms of various Indian communities characterized by intricate line drawings, scenes from Hindu mythology and ancient tattoo, motifs and rural life.