District/Area  Committee in Bihar

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General Information about Bihar

History

   

Gautama Buddha undertaking extreme ascetic practices before his enlightenment on the bank of river Falgu in Bodh Gaya

   

Emperor Ashoka the Great(was born in Patna,Bihar)

Bihar was called “Magadha” in ancient times. From Magadha arose two traditions, Jainismand Buddhism. The greatest Indian empire, the Maurya empire, originated from Magadha, with its capital at Patliputra (modern Patna) in 325 BC. The Mauryan Emperor, Ashoka, who was born in Patliputra ( Patna ) is believed to be one of the greatest rulers in the history ofIndia and the world. After seeing all the carnage that war causes he was placed on the path of Lord Buddha by his spiritual guide Manjushri.^[29] According to indologist A.L. Basham, the author of the book The Wonder that was India,

Bihar remained an important place of power, culture and education during the next one thousand years. TheGupta Empire, which again originated from Magadha in 240 CE, is referred to as the Golden Age of India inscience, mathematics, astronomy, religion and Indian philosophy. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors. Historians place the Gupta dynasty alongside with the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Roman Empire as a model of a classical civilization. The capital of Gupta empire was Pataliputra, present day Patna. The Vikramshila and NalandaUniversities, were among the oldest and best centres of education in ancient India. Some writers believe the period between the 400 CE and 1000 CE saw gains by Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism.^{[31][32][33][34]}Although the Hindu kings gave much grants to the Buddhist monks for building Brahmaviharas. A National Geographic edition^[35] reads, “The essential tenants of Buddhism and Hinduism arose from similar ideas best described in the Upanishads, a set of Hindu treatises set down in India largely between the eighth and fourth centuries B.C.”

   

Kalidasa’s Sanskrit playAbhijñ?na??kuntala is one of the Legacy of the Gupta Empire.

The Buddhism of Magadha was finally swept away by the Muslim invasion under Muhammad Bin Bakhtiar Khilji, during which many of the viharas and the famed universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila were destroyed, and thousands of Buddhist monks were massacred in 12th century CE. ^{[36] [37] [38] [39]}

The region saw a brief period of glory for six years (1540 -1546 CE) during the rule of Sher Shah Suri, who built the longest road of the Indian subcontinent, the Grand Trunk Road. The economic reforms carried out by Sher Shah, like the introduction of Rupee and Custom Duties, is still used in the Republic ofIndia. He revived the city of Patna, where he built up his headquarter.^[40][41] During 1557-1576, Akbar, the Mughal emperor, annexed Bihar and Bengal to his empire.^[42] With the decline of the Mughals, Bihar passed under the control of the Nawabs of Bengal. Thus, the medieval period was mostly one of anonymous provincial existence.

The 10th and the last Guru of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh was born in Patna.

After the Battle of Buxar (1764), the British East India Company obtained the diwani rights (rights to administer, and collect revenue or tax) for Bihar, Bengaland Orissa. From this point, Bihar remained a part the Bengal Presidency of the British Raj until 1912, when the province of Bihar and Orissa was carved out as a separate province. In 1935, certain portions of Bihar were reorganised into the separate province of Orissa.

Babu Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur and his army, as well as countless other persons from Bihar, contributed to the India’s First War of Independence (1857), also called the Sepoy Mutiny by some historians. Resurgence in the history of Bihar came during the struggle for India’s independence. It was from Bihar thatMahatma Gandhi launched his pioneering civil-disobedience movement, Champaran Satyagraha. Bhumihar Brahmins in Champaran had earlier revolted against indigo cultivation in 1914 (at Pipra) and 1916 (Turkaulia) and Pandit Raj Kumar Shukla took Mahatma Gandhi to Champaran and the ChamparanSatyagraha began.^[43] Raj Kumar Shukla drew the attention of Mahatma Gandhi to the exploitation of the peasants by European indigo planters. Champaran Satyagraha received the spontaneous support from many Biharis, including Sri Krishna Sinha, the first Chief Minister of Bihar, Rajendra Prasad, who became the first President of India and Anugrah Narayan Sinhawho ultimately became the first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of Bihar.^[44]

   

Ruins of ancient Nalanda University

In North and Central Bihar, peasants movement was an important side effect of the freedom movement. The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights.^[45] Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest ofIndia. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first President.^[46] This movement aimed at overthrowing the feudal (zamindari) system instituted by Britishers. It was being led by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati and his followers Pandit Yamuna Karjee,Rahul Sankrityayan, Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Baba Nagarjun and others. Pandit Yamuna Karjee along with Rahul Sankritayan and a few others started publishing a Hindi weekly Hunkar from Bihar, in 1940. Hunkar later became the mouthpiece of the peasant movement and the agrarian movement in Bihar and was instrumental in spreading the movement.

Bihar’s contribution in the Indian freedom struggle has been immense with outstanding leaders like Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Sri Krishna Sinha, Dr.Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Brajkishore Prasad, Mulana Mazharul Haque, Jayaprakash Narayan, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Basawon Singh, Rameshwar Prasad Sinha, Yogendra Shukla, Baikuntha Shukla, Sheel Bhadra Yajee, Pandit Yamuna Karjee and many others who worked for India’s freedom relentlessly and helped in the upliftment of the underprivileged masses.^[47] Khudiram Bose, Upendra Narayan Jha “Azad”, Prafulla Chaki and Baikuntha Shukla were active in revolutionary movement in Bihar.

On January 15, 1934, Bihar was devastated by an earthquake of magnitude 8.4. Some 30,000 people were said to have died.

The state of Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in the year 2000.^[48] 2005 Bihar assembly elections ended the 15 years of continuous RJD rule in the state, giving way to NDA led by Nitish Kumar. Bihari migrant workers have faced violence and prejudice in many parts of India, like Maharashtra, Punjab and Assam.^[49][50][51]

[edit]Geography & climate

   

Topographic map

   

Flooded farmlands in northern Bihar

Geography: Bihar is mainly a vast stretch of very fertile flat land. It is drained by the Ganges River, including northern tributaries Gandak and Koshi originating in the Nepal Himalayas and the Bagmati originating in the Kathmandu Valleythat regularly flood parts of the Bihar plains. The total area covered by the state of Bihar is 94,163 km². the state is located between 21°-58′-10″ N ~ 27°-31′-15″ N latitude and between 82°-19′-50″ E ~ 88°-17′-40″ E longitude. Its average elevation above sea level is 173 feet (53 m). The Bihar plain is divided into two unequal halves by the river Ganga which flows through the middle from west to east. Other Ganges tributaries are the Son, Budhi Gandak, Chandan, Orhani andFalgu. The Himalayas begin at foothills a short distance inside Nepal but influence Bihar’s landforms, climate, hydrology and culture. Central parts of Bihar have some small hills, for example the Rajgir hills. The Himalayan Mountains are to the north of Bihar, in Nepal. To the south is the Chota Nagpur plateau, which was part of Bihar until 2000 but now is part of a separate state called Jharkhand. Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 km², which is 7.1 per cent ^[4] of its geographical area.

Climate: Bihar is mildly cold in the winter (the lowest temperatures being around 5 to 10 degrees Celsius; 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Winter months are December and January. It is hot in the summer (with average highs around 35-40 Celsius; 95-105 Fahrenheit). April to mid June are the hot months. The monsoon months of June, July, August, and September see good rainfall. October & November and February & March have pleasant climate.

[edit]Flora and Fauna

   

Gangetic Dolphins are known as Sois locally

   

Peepal tree (The Bodhi Tree at theMahabodhi Temple is also Peepal tree)‘

   

A tiger and Gaur(State Animal) in Tiger Reserve of Valmiki National Park

   

Bauhinia acuminata locally knowns as Kachnaar

   

Bihar State bird : Indian Roller(locally known as Neelkanth)

Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 km², which is 7.1 per cent of its geographical area.^[4] The sub Himalayan foothill of Someshwar and Dun ranges in Champaran district another belt of moist deciduous forests. These also consists of scrub, grass and reeds. Here the rainfall is above 1,600 mm and thus promotes luxuriant Sal forests in the favoured areas. The hot and dry summer gives the deduous forests. The most important trees are Shorea Robusta (Sal),Shisham, Cedrela Toona, Khair, and Semal. This type of forests also occurs in Saharsa district and Purnia district.^[52]Shorea Robusta (sal), Dispyros melanoxylon (kendu), Boswellia serrata (salai), Terminalia tomentose (Asan), Terminalia bellayoica (Bahera), Terminalia Arjuna (Arjun), Pterocarpus Marsupium (Paisar), Madhuca indica (Mahua) are the common flora across the forest of Bihar.

The Ganges River dolphin, or “sois” occur in the Ganga and Brahmaputra, south Asia’s largest river systems. It can now be considered amongst the most endangered mammals of the region.

The Ganges River dolphin ranges from 2.3 to 2.6 meters in length. The tail fluke is on average 46 cm in width. females are larger than males. The color of this dolphin varies from lead-colored to black. The undersides are lighter in color. The rostrum is 18 to 21 cm in length and the forehead is steep and rises abruptly from the base of the snout. The dorsal fin is rudimentary and ridge-like, and the ends of the pectoral fins are squared instead of tapered. The neck is visibly constricted and the blowhole is a longitudinal slit. There are 28 to 29 teeth on either side of the jaw. The eye and optic nerve of the Ganges river dolphin are degenerate. The eye lacks a lens and is therefore incapable of forming images on the retina. However, it functions in light-detection. It is believed that the lack of a true visual apparatus in the river dolphin is related to its habitat; the water in which it lives is so muddied that vision in essentially useless.

Valmiki National Park, West Champaran district, covering about 800 km² of forest, is the 18th Tiger Reserve of India and is ranked fourth in terms of density of tiger population.^[53] It has diverse landscapes, sheltering rich wild life habitats and floral and faunal composition, with the prime pro tected carnivores.

[edit]Demographics and Religion

Bihar is the third most populated state of India with total population of 82,998,509 (43,243,795 male and 39,754,714 female).^[55][56] Nearly 90 per cent of Bihar’s population lives in rural areas. Almost 58 per cent of Biharis are below 25 years age, which is highest in India. Hinduism is practiced by 83.2% of the population and forms the majority religion in the state.^[57] Islam is practiced by 16.5% of the population, and other religions less than 0.5%.^[57] Since ancient times Bihar has attracted migrants and settlers including Aryans, Bengalis, Turks from Central Asia, Persians, Afghans and Punjabi Hindu Refugees during the Partition of India in 1947.^[58] Bihar has a total literacy rate is 47% (59.7% for males 33.1% for females).^[59]

Largest cities in Bihar								view • talk • edit
	City	District	Population			City	District	Population
1	Patna	Patna	1,866,444	Patna Gaya	8	Munger	Munger	203,380
2	Gaya	Gaya	385,432		9	Chapra	Saran	179,190
3	Bhagalpur	Bhagalpur	340,767		10	Katihar	Katihar	175,199
4	Muzaffarpur	Muzaffarpur	305,525		11	Purnia	Purnia	171,687
5	Darbhanga	Darbhanga	267,348		12	Danapur	Patna	131,176
6	Biharsarif	Nalanda	232,071		13	Sasaram	Rohtas	141,176
7	Ara	Bhojpur	203,380		14	Banka	Banka	35,416
Source: Census of India 2001[60]

[edit]Government and administration

Bihar State Symbols [61]
State bird		India roller
State animal		Gaur
State flower		Kanchnar
State tree		Peepal

   

Vidhansabha Building, Patna

   

Patna high court, Patna

The constitutional head of the Government of Bihar is the Governor, who is appointed by the President of India. The real executive power rests with the Chief Minister and the cabinet. The political party or the coalition of political parties having a majority in the Legislative Assembly forms the Government.

The current incumbent, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, succeeded Rabri Devi, wife of the Former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (also known as Laloo Prasad) (currently Cabinet Minister for Railways) in 2005.

The head of the bureaucracy of the State is called the Chief Secretary. Under him is a hierarchy of officials drawn from the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and different wings of the State Civil Services. The judiciary is headed by the Chief Justice. Bihar has a High Court which has been functioning since 1916. All the branches of the government are located in the state capital, Patna.

The state is divided into 9 divisions and 38 districts, for administrative purposes. The various districts included in the divisions - Patna, Tirhut, Saran,Darbhanga, Kosi, Purnia, Bhagalpur, Munger and Magadh Division, are as listed below.

   

District map of Bihar

[edit]Politics

   

Dr. Rajendra Prasad, 1st President of India.

Bihar was an important part of India’s struggle for independence. Gandhi became the mass leader only after the Champaran Satyagraha that he launched on the repeated request of a local leader, Raj kumar Shukla, he was supported by great illumanaries like Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Brajkishore Prasad. After independence also, when India was falling into an autocratic rule during the regime of Indira Gandhi, the main thrust to the movement to hold elections came from Bihar under the leadership of Jaya Prakash Narayan.

This resulted in two things:

1. The identity of Bihar (from the word Vihar meaning monasteries) representing a glorious past was lost. Its voice often used to get lost in the din of regional clamor of other states, specially the linguistic states like Uttar pradesh, Madhya pradesh etc.
2. Bihar gained an anti-establishment image. The establishment oriented press often projected the state as indiscipline and anarchy.

   

JP called for Sampurna Kranti – total revolution – at a historic rally of students at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on the 5th of June, 1975.

Since the regional identity was slowly getting sidelined , its place was taken up by caste based politics, power initially being in the hands of the Brahmins, Bhumihar Brahmins and Rajputs. After Independence the power was shared by the two great gandhians Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha who later became the first chief minister of Bihar and Dr.Anugrah Narayan Sinha who decidedly was next to him in the cabinet and served as the first deputy chief ministercum Finance Minister of Bihar.In late 60’s death of late Mr. Lalit Narayan Mishra (who was killed by a hand grenade attack for which central leadership is blamed most of the time) pronounced the end of indigenous work oriented mass leaders. For two decades congress ruled the state with the help of puppet chief ministries hand in glove with the central government (Mrs. Indira Gandhi) ignoring the welfare of the people of the state. It was the time when a prominent leader like Satyendra Narayan Sinha took sides with theJanata Party and deserted congress from where his political roots originated, following the ideological differences with the congress. Idealism did assert itself in the politics from time to time, viz, 1977 when a wave defeated the entrenched Congress Party and then again in 1989 when Janata Dalcame to power on an anti corruption wave. In between, the socialist movement tried to break the stranglehold of the status quoits under the leadership of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha and Karpoori Thakur. Unfortunately, this could not flourish, partly due to the impractical idealism of these leaders and partly due to the machinations of the central leaders of the Congress Party who felt threatened by a large politically aware state. The Communist movement in Bihar was led by veteran communist leaders like Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Indradeep Sinha, Chandrashekhar Singh and others.

   

Nitish Kumar has received Indian of the Year 2008 (Poltics)^[62]

Janata Dal came to power in the state in 1990 on the back of its victory at the national stage in 1989. Lalu Prasad Yadav became Chief Minister after winning the race of legislative party leadership by a slender margin against Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from the Janata Party and close to eminent Janata Party leaders like Chandrashekhar and S N Sinha. Later, Lalu Prasad Yadav gained popularity with the masses through a series of popular and populist measures. The principled socialists, Nitish Kumar included, gradually left him and Lalu Prasad Yadav was the uncrowned king by 1995 as both Chief Minister as well as the President of his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was a charismatic leader who had people’s support and Bihar had got such a person as the chief minister after a long time. But he couldn’t bring the derailed wagon of development of the state on to the track. When corruption charges got serious, he quit the post of CM but anointed his wife as the CM and ruled through proxy. In this period, the administration deteriorated fast.

   

Lalu Prasad at a political rally in January 2007, at Kesariya, Bihar, India.

By 2004, 14 years after’s Lalu’s victory, The Economist magazine said that “Bihar [had] become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronise, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties”.^[63] In 2005, the World Bank believed that issues faced by the state was “enormous” because of “persistent poverty, complex social stratification, unsatisfactory infrastructure and weak governance”.^[64]

In 2005, as disaffection reached a crescendo among the masses, middle classes included, the RJD was voted out of power and Lalu Prasad Yadav lost an election to a coalition headed by his previous ally and now rival Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar has regained Bihar’s true identity, which is the place from where people who changed the world come like Gautam Buddha or Asoka or Sher Shah Suri or the Sikh Gurus. Despite the separation of financially richerJharkhand, Bihar has actually seen more positive growth in recent years.

Currently, there are two main political formations: the NDA which comprises Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal led coalition which also has the Indian National Congress. There are myriad other political formations. Ram Vilas Paswan led Lok Janshakti Party is a constituent of the UPA at the centre, but does not see eye to eye with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD in Bihar. Bihar People’s Party is a small political formation in north Bihar. TheCommunist Party of India had a strong presence in Bihar at one time, but has got weakened now. CPM and Forward Bloc have minor presence. Ultra left parties like CPML, Party Unity etc have presence in pockets and are at war with the state.

See also Political parties in Bihar

[edit]Economy

   

Bihar accounts for 65 per cent of India’s annual litchi production.^[67]

   

Farm workers in Bihar

The economy of Bihar is largely service oriented, but it also has a significant agricultural base. The state also has a small industrial sector. As of 2008, agriculture accounts for 35%, industry 9% and service 55% of the economy of the state.^[68] Manufacturing has performed very poorly in the state between 2002-2007, with an average growth rate of 0.38% compared to India’s 7.8%.^[69] Bihar has the lowest GDP per capita in India, although there are pockets of higher than the average per capita income.^[70] Between 1999 and 2008, GDP grew by 5.1% a year, which was below the Indian average of 7.3%.^[71] More recently, Bihar’s state GDP recorded a growth of 18% between 2006-2007, and stood at 942510 Crores Rupees^[72] ($21 billion nominal GDP). This makes Bihar the fastest growing major state. In actual terms, Bihar state GDP is ranked 14th out of 28 states. Corruption is an import hurdle for the government to overcome according to Transparacy International India, who highlighted Bihar as the Union’s most corrupt state in a 2005 report. Despite many recent economic gains, significant challenges remain to do business in the state and the government has also stated that combating corruption is now the biggest challenge facing the administration.^[73][74] Life expectancy in Bihar (61 years) which is almost on par with the national life expectancy of 62.7 years.^[75]

   

A village market

Bihar has significant levels of production for the products of mango, guava, litchi, pineapple, brinjal, cauliflower,bhindi, and cabbage in India.^[76] Despite the states leading role in food production, investment in irrigation and other agriculture facilities has been inadequate in the past. Historically, the sugar and vegetable oil industries were flourishing sectors of Bihar. Until the mid fifties, 25% of India’s sugar output was from Bihar. Dalmianagar was a large agro – industrial town. There have been attempts to industrialize the state between 1950 and 1980: an oil refinery in Barauni, a motor scooter plant at Fatuha, and a power plant at Muzaffarpur. However, these were forced to shut down due to central government policy which neutralized the strategic advantages of Bihar. Hajipur, near Patna, remains a major industrial town in the state, linked to the capital city through the Ganga bridge and good road infrastructure.

The state’s debt was estimated at 77 per cent of GDP by 2007.^[77] The Finance Ministry has given top priority to create investment opportunities for big industrial houses like Reliance. Further developments have taken place in the growth of small industries, improvements in IT infrastructure, the new software park in Patna, and the completion of the expressway from the Purvanchal border through Bihar to Jharkhand. In August 2008, a Patna registered company called the Security and Intelligence Services (SIS) India Limited^[78] took over the Australian guard and mobile patrol services business of American conglomerate, United Technologies Corp (UTC). SIS is registered and taxed in Bihar.^[79] The capital city, Patna, is one of the better off cities in India when measured by per capita income.^[80]^ 

[edit]Education

   

Patna Women’s College

Historically, Bihar has been a major centre of learning, home to the ancient universities of Nalanda University (Estd. 450 CE) and Vikramshila University (Estd. 783 AD) ^[81]. Unfortunately, that tradition of learning which had its origin from the time of Buddha or perhaps earlier, was lost during the medieval period when it is believed that marauding armies of the invaders destroyed these centers of learning.^[82]

Bihar saw a revival of its education system during the later part of the British rule when they established Patna University(Estd. 1917) which is 7th oldest University of the Indian subcontinent^[83]. Some other centers of high learning established by British rule are Patna College(Estd. 1839), Bihar School of Engineering (Estd. 1900 ,now National Institute of Technology, Patna), Prince of Wales Medical College (Estd. 1925, now Patna Medical College and Hospital), Science College, Patna (Estd. 1928) and many more.

After independence Bihar lost the pace in term of establishing center of education. Modern Bihar has a grossly inadequate educational infrastructure creating a huge mismatch between demand and supply. This problem further gets compounded by the growing aspirations of the people and an increase in population. The craving for higher education among the general population of Bihar has led to a massive migration of the student community from the state. This has prompted many students to seek educational opportunities in other states, such asNew Delhi and Karnataka, even for graduation level college education.

Literacy Rate from 1951~2001^[84]

Year	Total	Males	Females
1951	13.49	22.68	4.22
1961	21.95	35.85	8.11
1971	23.17	35.86	9.86
1981	32.32	47.11	16.61
1991	37.49	51.37	21.99
2001	47.53	60.32	33.57

Bihar has the lowest literacy rate in India, with women’s literacy being only 33.57%. At the time of independence women’s literacy in Bihar was 4.22%. It is a pleasant surprise to find that in spite of the meagre investment on education in Bihar, specially compared to other Indian states, the students have done very well. Famed national institutes of learning such as IITs, IIMs, NITs and AIIMS have always have had a good representation from Bihar which is usually higher than their proportion of the population, though none of these institutions are physically located in Bihar. Other institutions of higher learning, and coveted positions in the government also show a greater share than the percentage of their population. A recent survey by Pratham^[85] rated the absorption of their teaching by the Bihar children better than those in other states.

Bihar established several new education institutes between 2006-2008. BIT Mesra started its Patna extension centre in September 2006. On 8 August, 2008 IIT of India was inaugurated in Patna with 109 students from all over India.^[86]. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER)^[87] is being set up in Hajipur. On 4 August, 2008, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Patna was established as 9th NIFT of India. ^[88] Chanakya National Law University a law university and Chandragupt Institute of Management a management institute was established in later half of 2008.

Teacher absent rate in public schools in Bihar is 37.8%.^[89][90]

Bihar e-Governance Services & Technologies(BeST) along with the Government of Bihar has initiated a unique program to establish a Centre of excellence called Bihar Knowledge Centre,a finishing school to equip students with the latest skills and customized short term training programs at an affordable cost. The centre aims to attract every youth of the state to hone up their technical, professional and soft skills and prepare them for the present industry requirement/ job market. ^[91]

[edit]Culture

[edit]Arts and crafts

   

A simple Madhubani Painting.

Madhubani paintings is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region of Bihar. Tradition states that this style of painting originated at the time of the Ramayana, when King Janak commissioned artists to do paintings at the time of marriage of his daughter, Sita, to Lord Ram. The painting was traditionally done on freshly plastered mud wall of huts, but now it is also done on cloth, hand-made paper and canvas. Madhubani painting mostly depict nature and Hindu religious motifs, and the themes generally revolve around Hindu deities likeKrishna, Ram, Shiva, Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. Natural objects like the sun, the moon, and religious plants like tulsi are also widely painted, along with scenes from the royal court and social events like weddings. Generally no space is left empty. Traditionally, painting was one of the skills that was passed down from generation to generation in the families of the Mithila Region, mainly by women. The painting was usually done on walls during festivals, religious events, and other milestones of the life-cycle such as birth, Upanayanam(Sacred thread ceremony), and marriage.

Popularity: 13% [?]