Sita Devi : Biography ( Bihar's Great Padma Sri Awadee Artist ) - 2024

सीता देवी की जीवनी हिन्दी में पढ़ने के लिए यहाँ क्लिक करें।

SITA DEVI : INTRODUCTION

SITA DEVI : In the folklore of Mithila, Bihar, there are two ‘Sitas’. One is the universal mother ‘Sita’, whose origin dates back thousands of years, and the other is the ‘Sita’ of the 20th century, credited with reviving Mithila painting. Both personalities share remarkable similarities. Both belong to Mithila. Both are associated with Mithila painting. Both endured suffering throughout their lives, yet their sacrifices, austerity, and dedication continue to resonate with people today. The origin and antiquity of Mithila painting are attributed to the Ramayana era. It is believed that Sita herself was a skilled artist who depicted mythological figures on the walls of her palace in Mithila. Hence, the universal mother Sita is also called the ‘Mother of Mithila Paintings’. Modern-day Sita continued to depict various subjects such as birth, the union of Ram and Sita, Sita’s swayamvara, and Sita’s agnipariksha amid challenging circumstances. She also sang ‘samdaun’ songs related to Janaki (Sita). Samdaun songs are very popular in Mithila and often depict the pain of Sita’s family when she went to her in-laws’ house. During the singing of these songs, she would often say that if Sita, being the daughter of King Janaka, could endure so much suffering, then she was just an ordinary woman. She gained fame during her lifetime due to the subject matter, powerful colors, and skilled lines of her paintings, based on mythological stories and religious beliefs.

Birth and Married Life of Sita Devi

Sita Devi was born in May 1914 in a modest family in the village of Vasaha in the Supaul district of Bihar. Her father’s name was Chuman Jha and her mother’s name was Son Devi. She received primary education in her village and learned to make wall paintings from her mother and grandmother. According to the prevalent custom of the time, she was married at the age of 12 to Shobhakant Jha from the village of Jitwarpur in Madhubani district.

Sita Devi’s in-laws were extremely impoverished, but her father considered them well-off and agreed to her marriage. There was a shortage of food. Her father and later her elder brother sent some bags of rice to help. However, the shortage of food persisted. Eventually, Sita Devi sold her jewelry. The family was burdened with debt. Due to malnutrition and poor health, Sita Devi’s two daughters and eldest son passed away. The middle son, Ramdev, survived. Then the third daughter also passed away in her childhood. Overwhelmed by family crises, Sita Devi sought refuge in the goddess Durga. She constantly chanted Durga’s hymns and continued to sing ‘samdaun’ songs related to Sita, finding solace in them. Three sons survived eventually. However, the financial hardship persisted, leading Sita Devi to leave Jitwarpur and go to her elder brother’s house in Saharsa with her children. Her brother was affluent. Thereafter, she returned to Jitwarpur with her three sons.

Selection and Fame for Madhubani Painting

In 1964, there was a severe famine in Mithila. The crops failed, and people were in dire need of food. To cope with this famine, the Handicrafts Board of the Indian Government sent designer Bhaskar Kulkarni to Madhubani to commercialize the existing wall paintings in the rural life of this region. Until that time, it was common for women of the Brahmin and Kayastha castes to make wall paintings. Their paintings were mainly based on mythological stories. Kulkarni encouraged local women to paint the traditional wall paintings on paper. However, this was a difficult and challenging task. There was a purdah system in the contemporary society. Women of the Brahmin and Kayastha castes hesitated to come before men. Painting on walls and canvases was a religious duty for them, and earning money from it was considered a sin. Kulkarni was very troubled. He learned that Sita Devi, from the Mahapatra family of Jitwarpur, was skilled in wall painting and was leading a life of poverty. Kulkarni contacted her. Initially, Sita Devi hesitated, but after much persuasion from Kulkarni, she agreed. She had received the gift of Mithila painting from her mother and grandmother. Along with Sita Devi, Jagdamba Devi of Jitwarpur and some other women also came forward to help. Thus began the commercialization of Madhubani painting, which was originally wall paintings. Sita Devi’s paintings were displayed along with those of other artists in New Delhi’s Janpath. They were viewed and greatly appreciated by experts and the general public.

Inspired by these paintings, the founder of the Chanakya Art Gallery in Delhi, Mehandiratta, came to Jitwarpur with Kulkarni, especially impressed by Sita Devi’s paintings. He gave Sita Devi canvas papers measuring 5′ x 5′ and 5′ x 10′. His goal was to organize a solo exhibition of Sita Devi’s paintings. He told Sita Devi, “Paint any figure or design you want.” Sita Devi, with the help of her two sons, Ramdev and Suryadev, and the aid of fine lines, filled the paintings with red, purple, black, yellow, blue, and orange colors. This marked the rise and fame of Sita Devi. The demand for her paintings grew day by day.

Delhi Invitation, and Awards

Her son Suryadev’s talent had also blossomed — his mother had trained him well. Both of them went to Delhi with their paintings. At the Chanakya Art Gallery, Sita Devi exhibited her paintings. The media was invited. Sita Devi became a sensation in newspapers with her photos. All her paintings were sold. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was also informed about it. She invited them for tea and snacks. Sita Devi was sitting in a car for the first time. Indira Gandhi requested, “Make a painting in front of me.” Her family was also present. Sita Devi sat on the ground. With a brush made of bamboo stick, she depicted a grand picture of Durga. Sita Devi said, “I am dedicating the powerful Durga to the all-powerful Durga.” This is where the miracle of her fame and contribution began to flourish. India’s richest woman, Gira Sarabhai, invited her to Ahmedabad to paint murals on the walls of her new house, then invited her to paint at the Madhuban Coffee Shop in the Akbar Hotel in Chanakyapuri, Delhi, which became quite popular. In 1972, the mural painting made by her in the progress field in Delhi received much praise. The paintings made by her on the walls inside the main gate of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi also remained in the headlines. During this time, she participated in exhibitions held in various cities across the country, including Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi, showcasing her art. Her paintings began to gain fame both nationally and internationally. For her notable contribution to Madhubani painting, the Bihar government honored her with the Best Artist, Skillful Artist, and State Awards in 1969, 1971, and 1974, respectively. In 1975, she received the National Award from the Government of India.

Her paintings such as Ardhanarishvara, Sita-Haran, Sita-Swayamvar, Mahakali, and Krishna-Katha became so popular that in 1976 she received invitations from America, Germany, and Japan. Exhibitions of her paintings were held in ten countries around the world, including America and Japan, where her artistry was praised. In the same year, her paintings were highly appreciated in the city of Berlin, Germany. It was suggested to paint on wooden panels in first-class train compartments in Varanasi. In this work, she used brush and oil-based colors for the first time. Her paintings started fetching high prices. In 1981, the Government of India honored her with the ‘Padma Shri’ award. Many renowned art critics, including Erika Smith of Germany, Yves Vico of France, Raymond Owens and David Famous of America, and Tokyo Hasegawa of Japan, examined her paintings and also made portraits. Her fame spread far and wide, both nationally and internationally. Her income increased. With financial assistance, she bought land in the village, built a solid house. According to her, all this was the glory of the Goddess Durga. She went back to America. This art diva of the ‘filling style’ kept her foundation in subtle, delicate lines, filled with vibrant colors. Her paintings of Krishna, Radha, other deities, and their stories reached the pinnacle. She gained national and international fame. Along with her rise, she also took care of the village and society, empowered it economically, made her underdeveloped village self-sufficient, paved the village’s roads and streets, and built a high school in the village – instead of primary. She mostly stayed in Delhi since 1971. When she met senior politicians, she did not forget her village. She would demand something for the village. Thanks to Sita Devi, Jitwarpur is an incomparable village today.

In Mithila painting, Sita Devi developed her own unique style. First, she made sketches of the paintings with cow dung, then filled the expected colors between the sketches with torn cloth pieces tied in bamboo sticks. This was her creative process. There was no design in the borders of her paintings; instead, she filled them with a special color. This created an elevation in her paintings, and its clarity emerged. The combination of colors in her paintings was marvelous. Among the abundance of orange and yellow colors, the use of purple color between them created a magical effect. She used red, pink, and blue colors very sparingly; however, the subtlety of these two colors provided a vastness and expansiveness to the beauty of her paintings. In Madhubani painting, she first experimented with mixing some natural colors to create new colors. These experiments were more effective than those based solely on clean and primary colors. The presentation of colors in Madhubani painting is so beautiful and magical that it is hardly seen elsewhere. This was Sita Devi’s unique style, which created a separate identity for her among contemporary Madhubani artists.

It is said that the reflection of the artist’s personality is somehow visible in their paintings. Sita Devi was quite tall herself, and the human figures in her paintings were also tall. Her long hands and feet were distinctive. Large eyes, sharp nose, slender waist were everywhere with the same perspective. The arrangement of hair and ornaments of the female characters in Sita Devi’s paintings also had a special kind of charm. The portrayal and ornamentation were such that the viewer, experiencer, could easily identify with them. Artists of Madhubani painting still imitate her portrayal of hair, and as a result, her style of arranging hair has become an established style today.

Renowned author and thinker Mulraj Anand wrote about her in his book ‘Madhubani Painting’ — “I found her as a natural and simple artist. Her skilled hands move on the lines of the paintings. She effortlessly creates the edges of the circle, then delicately embellishes them or makes them into a sun – with big eyes and a sacred red mark on its forehead, and then around it she creates a small world, where there are lotuses, various flowers, and dancing peacocks. Anyone can see the natural process of paintings being made with her agile fingers. Her eyes are focused. There is a fundamental rhythmicity in her paintings, which is an expression of her body and soul. This is a special style of her Mithila painting (Madhubani painting).”

During Sita Devi’s time, religious conservatism was at its peak. Society was filled with casteism, discrimination, and untouchability. People from lower castes were looked down upon with disdain. Sita Devi herself was a devout follower of Mother Janaki and Durga. Despite not being highly educated, she was filled with humanitarian values. glimpses of these qualities can be seen in the reminiscence of the renowned Madhubani artist Shivan Paswan. This incident is from the 1980s. Shivan Paswan went to meet Sita Devi at her residence one morning. At the same time, Sita Devi’s daughter-in-law brought tea and upon seeing Shivan Paswan, she said, “You should move a little aside, I need to give tea to grandmother.” Sita Devi didn’t like this and scolded her daughter-in-law, saying, “Such words do not suit you. Shivan Paswan is also an artist, and artists belong to the same community. Go and make tea for them as well.” This was the generous nature of Sita Devi.

During her lifetime, Sita Devi trained hundreds of people from Jitwarpur and surrounding villages in Madhubani painting, making them self-reliant. Anyone who came to her for training never returned empty-handed—they achieved perfection. There was no fee—everything was free. Many artists who were trained and nurtured by Sita Devi are still among us today. She used a special gesture of holding the brush with her fingers. She held the brush with her thumb and index finger and kept the middle finger on the paper or canvas. She placed the remaining two fingers above the paper. This was her disciplined art. She also taught her students to hold the brush in the same way. While scolding those who made mistakes, she would say, “Not like this, hold it like this.”

Sita Devi’s time was an era when women had no independent identity. They were confined to their homes and were not allowed to go out. Even the original name given by their parents was left behind at their maternal home. Their address in the in-laws’ house was as the daughter-in-law, wife, or mother. But Sita Devi changed that centuries-old tradition with her artistry. From the local to the national and international level, she became known by her original name, which was a significant event in contemporary society. Today, in every household of Jitwarpur, there are artists of Madhubani painting, with women taking the lead. In this way, the village is not only glorifying beauty but also providing employment. The credit for this women’s empowerment goes to Sita Devi.

Death

After being actively involved in Madhubani painting for almost five decades, Sita Devi passed away on December 12, 2005, at the age of 91. The shining star of Madhubani painting had forever set, but her name still shines today and will continue to shine in the future. Her paintings adorn the walls of several museums and art galleries worldwide, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, and the Mithila Museum in Japan, among many others. She will always remain prestigious in her paintings, and her influential images will continue to inspire contemporary and future generations of artists. This immortal legacy is named ‘Sita Devi’.