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Bihar has its usual assortment of rural handicrafts of hand painted wall hangings, wooden stools, miniatures in paper and leaves, stone pottery, bamboo and leather goods and appliqué work. But Bihar’s most famous indigenous art is Madhubani paintings. Originally humble expressions of the sheer creativity of the rural women, this village wall paintings now adorn gracious city homes and are exported.

This art is a strict monopoly of the women of Mithila. Done in primary colours of natural origin on paper and cloth, they narrate mythological and religious events. However, the ancient designs in bright colours can still be seen on the mud walls in the districts of Champaran, Saharsa, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Samastipur. Begusarai, Purnea, Bhagalpur and of course, Madhubani the trade centre for this unique art.

Paintings
Floor Painting
The origin of painting is traced to a moving legend recorded in the Chitralakshana – the earliest Indian treatise on painting. The Chola rulers in the south, made extensive use of Kolam, floor designs. Only women do these decorations.

Wall Paintings
The paintings on walls have deeper themes, also narrative in a series of panels. Wall paintings are usually made at festivals and special occasions like marriages. Folk paintings attain a high standard and artists won a great fame in this art.

Mughal Miniature
Of all the art forms in the Mughal period, miniature paintings are painstakingly painted creations that depict the events and lifestyle of the Mughals in their magnificent palaces.

Madhubani
The wall paintings of Madhubani are joyous expressions of the women in Madhubani. The lively compositions and the vibrant colors used to paint them are generally drawn from Indian mythology.

Bangle Making
In Muzaffarpur, the principal city in this domain, bangle making is a cottage industry, in the truest sense, for every household is a manufacturing unit of these lac turnery beauties. The adjoining forests of the state provide the basic raw material for bangle making. With the help of simple domestic fire, and vivid imagination, the craftsman breathes life into roundels of lozenge pink, flaming orange, brilliant vermilion, regal purple or even dignified ochre circles, to ornament the wrists of a bride. In fact, there is a special ritual of bangle wearing, where the bride-to-be is made to wear turmeric colored bangles that are suitably embellished with pieces of glinting mirrors, brilliant tinsel and painted stripes. The other women of the household too keep a large variety of bangles to suit every outfit they plan to wear for the occasion.

Stone Work
Bihar was the land of the Buddha's nirvana, a land where he received the divine inspiration to propagate Buddhist path of Middle Living. The stone images of Gaya regenerate Lord Buddha's messages. The pearly luster of the gray-green stone provides an interesting patterning on the image surface. The alternative black variety, quarried from the adjoining hills, is ideal for tableware. Stem handled drinking glasses, smoothly turned out coasters and large platters customarily used to serve offerings to deities at temples, keep the Gaya stone masons constantly innovating and creating. In recent times they have veered from the traditional Buddha figurine to that of the elephant god Ganesha.

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