Godawari Dutta (1930-2024), the
renowned Mithila artist, was among the galaxy of fine artists that Mithila has
produced in the past sixty years. With her death, an important chapter of this
traditional art form comes to a close, but her legacy lives on.
In 2019, when she was awarded Padma
Shri, the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Twitter handle aptly noted: “A Mithila artist,
she has contributed to promoting the traditional art form and has been
imparting training and guidance to budding artists.” Besides being an ace
painter, she was also an accomplished Shilpa Guru.
Her granddaughter, Preeti Karn,
herself an artist and state awardee, said to me that she was her guru too.
“Till her last days, she was very eager to take this traditional art form
forward. Since childhood, I have learnt painting under her guidance and
participated in many programmes along with her.”
In 2015, I went to meet Dutta in her
village, Ranti, near Madhubani. It is true that since time immemorial, across
the Darbhanga-Madhubani region of Bihar, paintings adorned the walls (kohbar)
and floors (aripan). However, in the last five decades, the Ranti and Jitwarpur
villages of the Madhubani district have emerged as prominent hubs of Mithila
painting, which is why the art form got the name ‘Madhubani painting’.
So far, six artists from these two
villages have been awarded Padma Shri. I saw a big Kohbar on the walls of
Dutta’s drawing room. She explained to me in detail about the intricacies of
Kohbar where newlywed couples spend the first four days after marriage. She had
shown me her various paintings, including the one on Buddha and the depiction
of a Japanese folk festival which she had recently finished.
Dutta was born in Bahadurpur village
in Darbhanga district. Her mother Subhadra Devi, herself a well-known artist,
was her guru. She told me: “My mother’s paintings, and those of Padma Shri
awardee Jagdamba Devi of Jitwarpur, had a 'folk touch’ in them. With the advent
of modern education, there has been a change in both the subject matter and
style.” She said: “No wedding ceremony can be completed in Mithila without
painting.”
In the 1960s, Madhubani paintings
transitioned from wall paintings to paper, making them easier to buy and sell.
Thanks to pioneer artists such as Jagdamba Devi, Sita Devi, Ganga Devi,
Mahasundari Devi, Godawari Dutta and Baua Devi, very soon, it caught the
attention of art connoisseurs across the world.
Like the legendary Mithila artists
Ganga Devi and Sita Devi, Dutta’s life was full of hardships. Her father died
when she was 10, and after she got married in 1947, her husband left her to
marry another woman in Nepal. She raised her son on her own in the village.
Born in a Kayastha family, her
painting followed the famous Kachni (line drawing) style. The specialty of
Godawari Dutta’s art lies in the clarity of the lines. The use of colours is
minimal here.
When she was awarded Padma Shri, I
had interviewed her at length in Maithili. When I asked her what her specialty
was, she laughingly replied: ‘How can I say that? You should find it yourself.
It’s mother Sita’s blessing.” She travelled to Japan, Germany and various parts
of India with her paintings. The Mithila Museum in Japan has many of her
paintings. She told me: “I have travelled to Japan seven times. I made a
painting of Ardhanarishwar there in which Lord Shankar has a trishul and damru
in his hands. Tokio Hasegawa, the director of the Mithila Museum, liked that
painting very much. I also liked it.”
The trishul is 18 feet long. She told
me: “After making it, my mind became light and after that I said that the power
of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh is contained in this trident.”
Even though the subjects of her
paintings are related to traditional narratives from Ramayana and Mahabharata,
her paintings are close to modern sensibilities. A film named Kalakar Namaskar
has also been made on her life. The bitter reality of Dutta’s life in the
feudal society of Mithila, combined with her imagination, made her art truly
extraordinary.
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