Madhubani (Mithila Folk Painting)

Madhubani — the women-painters' folk tradition of Bihar's Mithila region — turned mud walls into Hindu mythology billboards for at least four centuries. Every figure is outlined twice and filled with parallel hatching; every ground is choked with vine, lotus, fish-scale and bamboo motifs. There is no empty space.

After the 1966 drought drove the All India Handicrafts Board to commission paper paintings for cash income, Sita Devi and her peers carried the tradition into international collections. The discipline is saturated mineral pigment — vermilion, indigo, saffron, lampblack — laid as flat blocks on warm handmade-paper cream, never gradient, never pastel.

马杜巴尼（Madhubani），又称米提拉绘画（Mithila Painting），是印度比哈尔邦北部米提拉地区世代相传的女性民间画派。村中妇女在土墙、地面与新人婚房上以朱砂、靛蓝、姜黄、煤黑等纯矿物颜料绘出湿婆、罗摩、悉多、太阳与月亮、孔雀、莲花与鱼。每一根轮廓线都画两次（**double outline**），双线之间填以平行斜线或交叉网格；背景从不留白，铺满藤蔓、竹叶、鱼鳞般的微纹样。

1966年比哈尔大旱后，印度全国手工艺局鼓励村妇将壁画移植到手工棉浆纸上换取现金，从此马杜巴尼走向国际收藏圈。希塔·黛维、甘加·黛维等大师将这门妇女工艺带入世界博物馆。这套设计语言要求**饱和、扁平、双线轮廓、密铺纹样**——绝不渐变，绝不留白，绝不素淡。