FIFTH COLUMN

The Blues

By C K Lal
When one is sad, one lapses into silence. Happiness makes one whistle or sing. One writes to emote or to report, which can even be ambivalent. One paints to contemplate. However, those expressions impress most that can be interpreted in any way the viewer or the listener wants to. It is my belief that Maithili art is one such form

Normally, Maithili art is made for auspicious occasions like religious ceremonies, festivals or rites of passage. Aripans grace ceremonies and festivals, kobars and Bans are made for marriages, and festivals call for appropriate designs on the floor or on the walls. Therefore, one deduces, they are all about happiness.

But there is more to Maithili painting than meets the eye. There is a story behind every hue in the riot of colors, a meaning hidden in the intricate patterns of fine lines.

Black, for example, is made from the soot. It is said that best color comes from an auspicious oil lamp, lit in a particular way, and kept burning day and night during particular period of the year.

Moonless nights are considered best-one says that the darkness of the nature has been eaten by the lamp and deposited as soot, hence it is most appropriate to express dark moods, black influences and the omnipresent death that waits patiently for life to end. Black is a color that transports the artist from mundane to philosophical.

 Similarly, there is a story behind color green borrowed from green leaves of certain plant, the blue that comes from indigo and the brown of the cow-dung. Red comes from seeds, hence it represents life, continuity and eternity-the most vibrant of all colors.

Most of these colors age, fade and then vanish, even though the time frame is fairly long. Life in the villages of Maithila teaches humility, the necessity of enduring pain and the compulsion of being happy with an underlying belief that nothing is permanent, everything keeps changing and yet nothing ever ends completely. Fairly complex, no wonder, patterns on line drawings are so intricate, so full of interrelationship with so much of continuity despite having so many breaks. They overpower the onlooker.

Commercialisation has led from quill and bamboo pens to metal nibs and from improvised cotton brushes to fancy synthetic ones. Quest for permanency makes an artist choose manufactured artificial colors that overflow with appeal but lack the charm.

Probably the traditional Maithili painting shall soon become as extinct as the life style that gave birth to them. While there will be happiness at being freed from the agony of black, it will also be tinged with the sadness of being uprooted from the greens.

Those were the blues I got into after visiting the exhibition of Maithili paintings on display at the Indigo Gallery. Next time you see a Maithili painting, try to peep behind the visible .