April 2020
60
ISSN 2278 0742
Maithili Women: Sole Precursor of Mithila Art Santosh Kumar Singh
Abstract This article brings out Maithili women‘s assertiveness while creating their folk art. Basically, creating art provides them both space and time to liberate and meditate them away from worldly affairs. This phenomenon proves boon for all the Maithils as it begets tapestry of artistic life; a kind of inherent thread that connects people of all sorts in the geography. For this, religion, ritual and patriarchy of the region play interwoven role to create female centric activities in the realm of works of art. Plus it embarks an ethnic art exclusively heralded by the female folks of Mithila. While doing so, female folks do not only get economic benefit but also empowered themselves spiritually. In the entire world, only Maithili folk art exhibits women as its originator neither only the males perform such tasks to express their cultural nuances. Key Words: Maithili Art, Folk Art, Women‘s Assertion, Female Centric Activities
Introduction
Maithili women bring nature and culture at the artistic space to express their own world view. In the course of expression, they take help of nature as surrogate mother and traditionally acclaimed culture as discourse to lead society in the prescribed modality. Moreover, the approved modality is based on Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata where the role of men and women are balanced by the virtues set by mythological characters Ram, Sita, Krishna, Yudhisthir, Arjun, Dropati. More often than not, Maithili society strives for this age old tradition, but changing ethos of time abridges gap between the set modality and the contemporary change in life style.
Discussion/Analysis
In Mithila art, women as progenitor, fill the gap generated in the society. To achieve the end, they exploit agrarian social structure, flora and fauna, co-living beings and their own
Volume 9 Issue 1
www.ijells.com
