Contemporary Socio-Cultural Issues in Recent Mithila Paintings

Socio-Cultural Issues in Recent Mithila Paintings | 8

Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research

2019, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 8-27 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/sijssr.v1i1.26913 Open Access

Article History: Received: 12 January 2019; Revised: 16 June 2019; Accepted: 5 July 2019

Original Article Contemporary Socio-Cultural Issues in Recent Mithila Paintings

Santosh Kumar Singh

Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya, Bhaktapur, Nepal Email: [email protected] 0000-0003-3681-4973

Abstract This article examines how Mithila art functions as a window to Maithili values and its current innovations in the field which notes the change both in society and the canvas. Two illustrious contemporary Mithila painters, Rani Jha from India and S. C. Suman from Nepal, shows how Mithila art has swerved from traditional motifs and themes to the on-going socio-cultural and socio-political issues even as the aim of painting is commercial, that is, to earn money by making the art saleable among foreign tourists and art lovers. While Rani Jha mostly

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highlights women’s issues, Suman remains engaged with Nepal’s volatile political situation which sometimes makes him pessimistic and sometimes optimistic. It also makes the point that Mithila painting is largely women-centred, despite the hold of patriarchy. The one, controlling, socio-semiotic meaning of Mithila art is that it is an expression of women’s assertiveness and agency of their subjectivity within the Lakshman Rekha drawn by Maithili patriarchy. The objective of this research is to show how the geographically confined Maithili drawing happens to communicate larger issues at national and global levels at a fresh time. And to prove the main argument, this study makes use of the theoretical framework of socio- semiotic analysis. A semiotic analysis of the artwork in the light of the specific socio-cultural contexts of Mithila reveals that the art not only alerts and modifies the mindset of the stakeholders but also visualizes the socio-cultural troubles of the existing era.

Keywords: S. C. Suman; Rani Jha; feminist agenda; hope; despair

Introduction makes him pessimistic and sometimes optimistic. Of late, Maithili artists have been going beyond the traditional art-forms, traditional Moreover, due to the lack of industrialization motifs, and conventional styles. Two and unemployment problem, people are considerations—the commercial (Das, 2013) desperately in a search of household industry and the socio-political interests—have like Mithila painting. Because of work started to inform the contemporary renditions migration of male counterparts, women have (Das, 2013; Szanton, 2017; Thakur, 2017). a kind of mental pressure and have to depend Paintings from below—the low and the lower on themselves for the regular economic castes—have been competing with the crisis. However, this has proved a boon for productions from the upper-caste (Szanton, Mithila painting that reveals lots of hidden 2017; The Charticle, 2018). In Nepal, social problems. Individual artists observe particularly, current national and regional his/her community and the local issues even politics have caught the attention of some of happen to highlight the global ones. In this the artists. As democratization at the popular regard, Jha, Bsaies, and Zirnis (2018) assert, level has gained in pace, so responsiveness of “Although this used to be exclusively a lower Mithila art to the on-going socio-political caste issue, upper castes are now changes and challenges has been on the rise. experiencing the same pressures created by Among several prominent artists, Rani Jha under or unemployment” (para. 6). The from India and S.C. Suman from Nepal are family members of migrant workers both in the two exemplary painters whose works India and Nepal face certain social express amenability to the on-going changes constraints that add further complications to and challenges on both sides of the border. a difficult situation. And this socio-cultural While Rani Jha mostly highlights women’s troubles somersault day by day because of issues, Suman remains engaged with Nepal’s unrest political turmoil. The contemporary volatile political situation which sometimes Mithila paintings not only hover around these

Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019 Socio-Cultural Issues in Recent Mithila Paintings | 10 burning problems of common folks but also with the pragmatic concern at local and alert the concerned people for possible national level. The purpose of this paper is to solutions. highlight artists as agents which not only revolutionize the mental set up of the The rationale behind this research work is to traditional society through their indigenous visualize the current content of Mithila works of art but also hone their skills of painting which roots itself deeply in the local artistic creation. community and equip as well as ornament

Coast. Signs have diverse meanings in Methodology diverse social and cultural contexts. Thus, socio-semiotics is socio-centred, going from The analytical framework comes from socio- context to text, not from text to context. semiotics which re-orients mainstream semiotic analyses of sign systems towards Social semiotics investigates the social inclusion in discourse and social change in dimensions of meaning which are shaped by what is called the method of social semiotics. relations of power. So any cultural products, Social semiotics embraces meaning-making including literary works and artworks, are not as a social practice (van Leeuwen, 2005), that merely media of social meaning but also of is to say, it studies signifying practices in power dynamics. It is the contestation of the specific socio-cultural circumstances. In power relationships from which evolves other words, Lemke (1990) defines socio- ideology. About such an evolution of semiotics as: ideology, Hodge and Kress (1988) observe:

a synthesis of several modern approaches To capture the contradiction to the study of social meaning and social characteristic of ideological forms, we action. One of them, obviously is will talk of ideological complexes…. An semiotics itself: the study of our social ideological complex exists to sustain resources for communicating meanings. relationships of both power and … Formal semiotics is mainly interested solidarity, and it represents the social in the systematic study of the systems of order as simultaneously serving the signs themselves. Social semiotics interests of both dominant and includes formal semiotics and goes on to subordinate. (p. 3) ask how people use signs to construct the life of a community. (p. 183) Social semiotics supports a dialectically mediated approach that calls for a As every community is unique, the signs used multidimensional and complex by one community are likely to be unlike understanding of the interplay between those used by another, for instance, in much agency and structure, between lived human of Asia, including South Asia, red is the experience and the social power relations to traditional colour for a wedding dress which literary works or artworks are linked. (symbolizing joy and reproduction) whereas It aims at elaborating a new mode of analysis it is a mourning dress for people in Ivory

Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019 11 | S. K. Singh that places more emphasis on the roles of ‘under what circumstances’ and ‘with what socio-cultural contexts and the accosting modalities’. Logonomic systems as power conflict and resistance which not only define the identity of the community but ideological complexes “reflect contradictions which ultimately point toward a and conflicts in the social formations” transformation of the society. (Hodge & Kress, 1988, p. 5).When a logonomic system tolerates, for instance, a Processes of struggle and resistance, which statement insulting to women to be read as a shape the transformation of a society, have a joke, it refers to a male-dominated structure bearing on every level of semiotic systems, at of the society. the smallest level of which “power is put to the test in very exchange, and the logonomic Similarly, if a society, as does Mithila, puts system is typically a record of this” (Hodge up with female infanticide, this means, it is a & Kress, 1988, p. 8). The logonomic male-dominated society and a female writer system—a set of rules prescribing the or artist may be highly critical of it. Let us conditions for production and reception of have a basic illustration of the above-outlined meanings—is integral part of an ideological account of socio-semiotics by analyzing the complex as it specifies ‘who’ claims to following painting (Figure 1) by a initiate or know meanings about ‘what’ topic contemporary Madhuani painter, Rani Jha:

Figure 1: Rani Jha's female infanticide (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani- jha-feminist-perspectives-in-mithila-art).

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Rani Jha’s “Female Infanticide” painting, The socio-semiotic approach to the analysis displayed on a tableau on a large scale, of Mithila painting gains in legitimacy from evokes more a theatrical scene rather than a the central argument of a book like Reading naturalistic illustration. The choice of the Images: The Grammar of Visual Design by tableau immediately points to one set of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The book logonomic rules: the dramatic-ironic makes the point that the visual is an organized intensity of the unnatural behaviour. With and structured message, connected to the this rule underway, the societal precedence of verbal text but not dependent on it. This a boy (shown on a ladder) over a girl contention marks a departure from Roland (depicted by the cobra coiled around her feet) Barthes’s argument in “Rhetoric of the also turns out to be unnatural. Visually, this Image” that the meanings of images are too text receives two intense degrees of polysemous to be deciphered separately from illegitimation: the Maithili society’s the verbal text. The duo—Kress and oppression of the female and a grotesque Leeuwen—repeatedly stress the social and deconstruction of the Maithili marriage ritual ideological components of sign making, of matkor in which water from the well and interpretation, and valuation. Decoding soils near it are used to sanctify the marriage visuals requires attention to the reading mandap so that longevity of conjugal life is pattern and other cultural aspects of a ensured through regular fertility. Fertility is particular country: “The place of visual repulsively distorted through an ironic communication in a given society can only be dumping of the female foetus in the same understood in the context of, on the one hand, well. The whole procreation that is supposed the range of forms or modes of public to ensure matrimonial and familial bliss communication available in that society and, through legitimatization of sex via the system on the other hand, their uses and valuations” of marriage looks obnoxiously abnormal due (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 35). The to female infanticide, which is so strongly authors take this kind of understanding of suggested by the cobra out to bite the infant- visual images as figuring out what they call girl to death. Such a production and the “semiotic landscape”—“the features of a appearance of the text have direct impact on landscape (a field, a wood, a clump of trees, reception. The viewers are placed as audience a house, a group of buildings) only make in a drama and, like them, are directly hit by sense in the context of their whole the intensity of the monstrosity of the environment and of the history of its illegitimate action. The patriarchal ideology development” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, at work in female infanticide and the reverse p. 35). How a particular culture takes a ideology remains in ironic collision, so to specific kind of landscape remains central in say, with the latter winning out as the socio-semiotic analysis. In other words, monstrous unnaturalness of the action is socio-semiotics attaches importance to conveyed to the audience with dramatic cultural geography. After all, people and their intensity. cultural representations are controlled by the

13 | S. K. Singh geographical environment in which they She was entrusted with the task of listening develop. to the inmates’ stories. She took a step further and started painting their life stories on the Analysis and Discussion walls of the shelter home.

Rani Jha, a devoted artist and scholar of When Rani was growing up she had seen Mithila art, most often talks about women’s most of the women in her community as woes in family life and depict the same in her veiled lesser beings cribbed and cabined paintings so that the representation can act as within the four walls of the house. She had visual education for the common folk in the fantasized to tear apart their veil for their region (Sahapedia, 2016). She has been intercourse with the outside world. Wadley teaching students about the folk art for (2014) interviews Rani where the artist several years, and this researcher met her at conveys “And the things that I cannot Mithila Art Institute (Madhubani) while she convince society through fighting… I try to was training a group of girls in Madhubani show through my artwork.” She intends to art. reveal the pitiable condition of Maithili women and their excessive tolerant behavior Rani first found work as a painter in an NGO plus her paintings also assert how these where she was placed in a government Short women are coming up tearing the social Stay Home where women abandoned by their barriers the way she has empowered herself. families or for those who took refuge there to It is this fantasy which finds expression in her escape abuse from families were sheltered. following painting (Figure 2):

Figure 2: Together tearing the veil (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani-jha- feminist-perspectives-in-mithila art).

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The above painting encourages women to vision the artist aspires for the betterment of join hands together against the veil system women in the community. As a consequence, which remained one of the social obstacles the veil system seems almost having waned for ages and this painting reveals this public in the town. The artist gives the practical evil on the part of Maithili ladies that awakes impression in this sense because women people against this genuine problem and hardly talk with the strangers but basically it gradually the community opens up and is her high qualification that boosts her up to accepts the assertion of art in this regard. As unveil the social discrimination against the a result, womenfolk uncover their faces and female. feel comfortable to work outside their homes. This is a kind of freedom for the women the However, the following piece by Rani Jha artist seeks to evoke through her art. still represents the reality for most women in Scattered eyes in the portrait demonstrate that Mithila:

Figure 3: Gazing at the moon (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani-jha- feminist-perspectives-in-mithila-art).

Despite the fact that Maithili society is on the has all the physical luxuries which mean little way towards women empowerment, most to her inside her golden cage; she wants to women still have a very constricted traverse limitlessly like the moonshine. existence. The woman, in the above painting,

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Not only do the age-old social restrictions are often forced to leave and look for work cause women disempowerment but so do far away from home, thereby causing the economic stringencies, since their husbands pangs of the swan-like separation (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Husband leaving for work (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani-jha- feminist-perspectives-in-mithila-art). The entire Maithili society faces migration have an integrated personality. This defect for work problem where male members go damages the whole society and people at outside to work and their female members large cannot lead a happy and satisfied life. stay at home waiting for him for months and years fearing whether they would come or One of the most serious drawbacks eating not. Such a psychological torture disturbs into the vitals of the Maithili society is female family life and its ill effect redounds on the feticide through abortion (Figure 5): coming generation who becomes unable to

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Figure 5: Abortion clinic (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani-jha-feminist- perspectives-in-mithila-art). This piece criticizes the society for gender as a means of earning and contravenes the discrimination where preference of male government regulation. child appears huge in comparison to female ones, most of whom are killed in foetus- Subjecting women to abortion, however, has stage. This further affects the psychology of directly exposed Maithili women to girls who find themselves insecure not to modernity which, however, also contributes travel anywhere alone. Likewise they lose to the relaxing of the restrictions on confidence to perform anything womankind. In this context, Rani Jha in an independently and it leads to a family cart interview entitled “Visual and Material Arts: pulled solely by male members. This On Mithila Painting in Conversation with phenomenon makes the ladies fall behind Rani Jha” narrates her self -empowering than their male counterparts, thereby story and how she reflects that in her visual affecting the community negatively. But the art. The next painting (Figure 6) uses focus of this painting centres on the image of women’s dress to illustrate the change in doctor inside a cobra which validates the societal norms over the last half century, saying ‘doctor as dacoit’ who takes abortion resulting in greater freedom for women.

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Figure 6: Changing women (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani-jha-feminist- perspectives-in-mithila-art). The first (from right) panel shows a veiled society where they occupy more space woman heavily ornamented with eight creating nuclear family. This gives young children.This represents as if women were couples more freedom but at the same time child producing machines, confined within their children lack moral guidance as the old the four walls and with their body being parents are forced to be away from them. burdened with substantial jewelries. As the Besides, their children deviate from the right time passes, the veil lifts up, number of path and cannot get maturity at emotional jewels decreases along with children, development. Such a subtle view the artist consequently, a woman at the far left has no fosters through her following painting veil and bracelet but a daughter. This shift (Figure 7): points towards women’s freedom in the

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Figure 7: Parents forced from the home (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani- jha-feminist-perspectives-in-mithila-art). In addition, the artwork depicts pitiable Mithila, but bonding among women is still a condition of the present-day Maithili family reality (Figure 8). Maithili women love to where elderly members are forced to be away gossip and usually have close friends to share from their own sons and grand-children who ills and wills that provide them a kind of basically need their support in the gasping freshness after tedious family chores. years of their life. The artwork also points to Basically, their conversation ends nowhere the cultural deficit that the grandchildren but proves a boon to them physically and face, since they are deprived of the traditional psychologically as it empties their mind of tales and stories that the seniors tell the trauma and refreshes their tired body so that juniors. they again take to their tasks with renewed vigour. Attachment between the older and younger generation may be a far cry in contemporary

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Figure 8: Two women gossiping (Source: http://peterzirnis.com/post/58303202722/rani-jha- feminist-perspectives-in-mithila-art). Mithila painting shows that the ancient art, which is almost monopolized by women, can Gossiping creates congenial environment be exploited to spread women empowerment. that helps maintain cordial relationship Finally, Rani Jha’s paintings show that the between the women. Ornamentation, gesture ancient art of Mithila painting can be and overall decoration make the painting a successfully utilized to express contemporary masterpiece work of art. The three coloured concerns. border adds a concluding remark which demonstrates how women find space to A male counterpart of Rani Jha, who express themselves away from their male similarly utilizes Mithila art to highlight counterparts. contemporary issues is S. C. Suman from Nepal. He comes up with such artworks Thus, Rani Jha’s contemporary paintings, which are deftly done on any topics that which have feminist perspectives, show the interest him. He performs by using any changing faces of Maithil women with all styles—shading, hatching, tattoo, etc.— their problems, desires and resistances. Her prevalent in the region and sometimes he addressal of the women’s issues through mixes other indigenous—Tharu, Rajbanshi,

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Newar, etc.—styles too to make his works of finest painters of Mithila art. Suman’s art cohesive and comprehensive. Some of his versatility extends to his ability to integrate a paintings give the impression of Paubha or wide range of subject matters (religious, Thanka painting (Buddhist art), popular in political, national, the Kathmandu Valley. The fusion is accomplished with such dexterity that some international, ecological, and environmental) of his contemporary colleagues—Mithila to make his paintings pioneering both at artists like Indrakala Nidhi, Sudhira Karna aesthetic and the pragmatic levels. The and Madan Kala Karna—take him as a living beauty his art enfolds catches the attention of legend of the folk art of Nepal. About this, the viewers and leaves an indelible stamp in Yadav (2016) remarks: S.C Suman is both an their mind even as it conveys a social oddity and an icon, as he has gone against the message, for example, the following piece tide and established his name as one of the (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Public health (2015) (Source: Collection: S.C. Suman).

The above painting highlights the uses both male and female characters and significance of sanitation in the rural area of mother guides her son towards the lavatory, Mithila where people prefer to pee and carrying pail in the left hand and holding her defecate in the open area, thereby causing son by her right hand. Such gestures several communicable diseases which demonstrate to the onlookers the public ultimately affect the entire community. It enthusiasm towards the changing pattern at shows common folks discussing the the local level. At the right end of the portrait importance of cleanliness to the younger a young boy washes her hand at the tap after generation and fixing tap, wash room so that coming from the latrine, while the other two children right from the young age will learn men are depicted as being curious about the to use them properly. Hence, the painting changes. On top of all, the setting looks quite

Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019 21 | S. K. Singh natural and pastoral amid the open field while Moreover, Suman’s meticulous attention to a green tree stands on the far left with curly detail is amazing. His detailed carefulness is border at the bottom that identifies Suman’s also evident even when he tries his hand at unique style where vegetation from one way various media including acrylic, natural or the other prevails. The canvas exerts pigment and mixed media. As Nishimura magical effect on the spectators who feel (2017) rightly remarks, “With mandalas inspired towards maintaining appropriate nestled among the leaves of tree branches, hygiene in the family. The artist’s tessellated fish swimming in celestial ponds legerdemain lies in his ability to create a and the use of short brush strokes to create textile-like design. His deep meditation on variegated constellations, there is no limit to the content coupled with his fabric skill that Suman’s imaginative spirit” (The Mithila helps him hone in his hatching style make Avatar). He cleverly uses the imaginative him a master artist. spirit for political messages. Let’s have a look at the following piece (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Urging for peace (Source: Artist's Own Collection. Photo by Santosh Kumar Singh in 2015). The above painting, drawn at the time of peace in the country. The artist takes account Maoist insurgency when Mother Nepal was of the prevalent Maithili symbol of white weeping for her children’s safety, urges for palm with red dot that signifies protection

Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019 Socio-Cultural Issues in Recent Mithila Paintings | 22 with life energy which suggests fertility children of this country, and it forecasts more among the common folks—a usual scene violence for the future. The upper palm during marriage as a blessing to the impression with red dot symbolizes the focal newlyweds but here the white palm indicates point of all the citizens. The use of these peace and harmony, as the colour white colours in the form of resembling powders, denotes purity and red dot points towards the according to Yadav (2016), “[. . .] complete” victory of truth over evil. The juxtaposition the traditional Mithila artwork “patterns” of both the colours tellingly creates an image made with a paste of finely ground rice. of Mother Nature as a nurturer—a role Suman completes his artwork with the use of ironically mocked by the mayhem caused the red mark which underscores the power of during the insurgency. The irony allows the life in the midst of mayhem. political message to get conveyed with dramatic intensity. On the very left of the Suman excels as an artist with his acute sense painting, Nepal aama (mother) finds herself of details and functional use of colours in his bulleted due to the ongoing war in the country compositions which look so natural with his which reveals whoever wins mother will folk-like imitation of folk narratives in the suffer. The black heads scattered below at the context of the problems brought about by centre represents the dead people who were modernity in the contemporary world (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Expectation belied (Source: Artist's Own Collection. Photo by Santosh Kumar Singh in 2015).

In the above painting, the expectation of insurgency seems to be a far cry. Suman peaceful, developed and delightful life which captures this bitter reality by using symbols the people aspired after the Maoist like lotus flower, distorted image of Gautam

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Buddha, and the common folks at the lower for in the Kalpavriksha series of artworks, he position in the portrait. The lotus flower, conveys a message of hope. Kalpavriksha, a situated at an elevation, is intended for divine wish-granting tree as per Hindu torchlight to people at the difficult time for a mythology evolved from water during fruitful result. Despite the expectation of a Samundra Manthan — the churning of the fruitful result, the overall impression created ocean by gods and demons. Shiva and particularly by the distorted image of the Parvati, after much painful discussions while Buddha and the fuzzed figures of the parting with their daughter Aranyani, gave citizens—male and female—at the lower her away to the divine Kalpavriksha for portion of the portrait is one of hope belied. bringing up her with safety, wisdom, health, The atmosphere of despair is further and happiness so that she could become Vana deepened by the irony generated by the Devi (the protector-goddess of forests). For political representatives who are shown the Hindus, trees are at the centre of life: wearing expensive clothes and heavy besides the fruits that they provide, it is under ornaments but are with hollow heads— the tree that people take shelter, and gather to unable to solve the burning problem. The be with each other; lovers meet for amorous final nail in the coffin, so to say, is driven by moments and the sage contemplates. The tree the ironic figure of the pregnant fish which of life thus becomes not only the stands for fecundity and life: vibrant Nepali Kalpavriksha, the wish-fulfilling tree, but life is being so grossly mismanaged by the also the bodhi tree, the tree of knowledge. inept but corrupt political class. Let’s have a look at the following piece painted in 2013: It will be, however, wrong to take S. C. Suman’s paintings as being merely defeatist,

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Figure 12: Tree of Life with Peacocks (Source: Mithila Cosmos: Circumambulating the Tree of Life (2014).

The above piece depicts the much-valued the naked maidens bathing in the Yamuna kadam tree (burflower) in Mithila which River. In this work, the kadam tree’s provides a serene, cool shelter to the branches are full of ripe fruits and vivacious travellers battered by heat apart from peacocks. The overall ambience that obtains providing plenty of food to monkeys and in is one of halcyon times, splendid beauty, birds. It is the same tree, on one of the ecological harmony, and romantic love—a branches of which Lord Krishna is believed brimming joyfulness at odds with the to have sat and plucked up the garments of

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25 | S. K. Singh melancholy despair underpinning most of A similar kind of blissful harmony is Suman’s 2011 paintings. available in the following Kalpavriksha piece (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Celebrations around the tree of life (Source: Mithila Cosmos: Circumambulating the Tree of Life (2014).

The above piece displays the complementary life for the Maithils. The Maithils connecting triad of roots, trunks and branches that mirror with each other on the ground seem to be in the three realms of subconscious, rapport with the fish beneath and the consciousness and transcendence—a balance peacocks above, thereby enhancing a sense of among which ensures a righteous course of living in harmony with Nature—an

Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019 Socio-Cultural Issues in Recent Mithila Paintings | 26 ecological co-existence at a time when https://www.sahapedia.org/conversation- modernity is out to undermine it. artist-rani-jha Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Suman’s Kalpavriksha artworks stem from Reading images: The grammar of visual his hopeful contemplation of Nepal’s language (2nd ed.). London, England: Routledge. political situation at a time when Lemke, J. (1990). Talking science: constitution-making, after the second Language, learning and values. New Constituent Assembly, seemed to arrest the York, NY: Ablex Publishing freefall in the aftermath of the Maoist Corporation. revolution and the fiasco of the first Nishimura, M. (2017, December 1). The Constituent Assembly. Mithila avatar. Retrieved from /http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali- Conclusion Times-Buzz/mithila-avatar, 2861 Wadley, S. (2014, January 28). Rani Jha: An Wrapping up, two of the celebrated artist's approach to Mithila painting. exponents of contemporary Mithila art are Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X6 Rani Jha from Madhubani (India) and S. C. 7LvQc3Lc Suman (Nepal). Their artworks show Yadav, R. (2016). S.C. Suman continuity and increasing responsiveness to socio-cultural change in Mithila painting. In S. C. Das and political issues in their respective (Ed.), Mithila Cosmos IV: Kalpavriksha. countries. While Jha’s paintings broach the Jha, R., Bsaies, C., & Zirnis, P. (2018). Rani topic of Maithil women’s empowerment Jha: Feminist perspectives in Mithila art. Retrieved from through a dramatization of their aspiration, /http://peterzirnis.com/post/rani-jha- obstacle and defiance, her Nepali feminist-perspectives-in-mithila counterpart’s artworks, which fuses art.html/. traditional Mithila style of painting with Das, N. (2013). Madhubani paintings: Its Thanka style, zero in on Nepal’s current existence and possibility. International political problems. While his 2011 paintings Journal of Scientific and Research are ironically defeatist, the 2013 paintings Publications, 3(2), 1-7. Retrieved from http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper- under the overarching title of Kalpabriksha 0213/ijsrp-p1428.pdf are metaphorically exuberant, exuding hope. The Charticle. (2018, September 13). Mithila paintings: From a Dalit perspective. Competing Interests Retrieved from http://thecharticle.in/mithila-paintings- The author declares that no competing from-a-dalit-perspective/ interests exist. Thakur, M. (2017). Mithila – A globalized art form. International Journal of Research References – Granthaalayah, 5(2), 208-212. Retrieved from Hodge, R., & Kress, G. (1988). Semiotics. http://oaji.net/articles/2017/1330- Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 1491312877.pdf Sahapedia. (2016). In Conversation with artist Rani Jha. Retrieved from

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Szanton, D. (2017). The politics of Mithila painting. Retrieved from https://orias.berkeley.edu/sites/default/fil es/the_politics_of_mithila_painting_2- 2017.pdf van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing social semiotics. New York, NY: Routledge.

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