Sita Devi and the women who put Mithila on the world map

When drought struck Bihar in the late 1960s, the government encouraged Mithila's women to move their ritual wall paintings onto paper so they could be sold. Among the first to answer was Sita Devi of Jitwarpur, and within a decade her bold, fish-and-lotus bharni style had travelled to galleries abroad and earned national honours.

Art as household economics

Sita Devi used her standing to argue for roads, electricity and schooling for her village. Painting was never just decoration in Mithila; it was a dowry of skill passed from mother to daughter. When it became income, it changed who held power in the household.

A Madhubani proverb: “The wall forgets by the next monsoon. The daughter does not.”

The Madhubani motifs in our drops are licensed from women's collectives working in this same tradition, named, credited and paid, every time.