Godawari Dutta: The Model Woman Of Mithila Painting

Godawari Dutta (1930-2024), the renowned Mithila artist, was among the galaxy of fine artists that Mithila has produced in the past sixty years. With her death, an important chapter of this traditional art form comes to a close, but her legacy lives on. In 2019, when she was awarded Padma Shri, the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Twitter handle aptly noted: “A Mithila artist, she has contributed to promoting the traditional art form and has been imparting training and guidance to budding artists.” Besides being an ace painter, she was also an accomplished Shilpa Guru.

Her granddaughter, Preeti Karn, herself an artist and state awardee, said to me that she was her guru too. “Till her last days, she was very eager to take this traditional art form forward. Since childhood, I have learnt painting under her guidance and participated in many programmes along with her.”

In 2015, I went to meet Dutta in her village, Ranti, near Madhubani. It is true that since time immemorial, across the Darbhanga-Madhubani region of Bihar, paintings adorned the walls (kohbar) and floors (aripan). However, in the last five decades, the Ranti and Jitwarpur villages of the Madhubani district have emerged as prominent hubs of Mithila painting, which is why the art form got the name ‘Madhubani painting’. So far, six artists from these two villages have been awarded Padma Shri.  I saw a big Kohbar on the walls of Dutta’s drawing room. She explained to me in detail about the intricacies of Kohbar where newlywed couples spend the first four days after marriage. She had shown me her various paintings, including the one on Buddha and the depiction of a Japanese folk festival which she had recently finished.  

Dutta was born in Bahadurpur village in Darbhanga district. Her mother Subhadra Devi, herself a well-known artist, was her guru. She told me: “My mother’s paintings, and those of Padma Shri awardee Jagdamba Devi of Jitwarpur, had a ‘folk touch’ in them. With the advent of modern education, there has been a change in both the subject matter and style.” She said: “No wedding ceremony can be completed in Mithila without painting.”

In the 1960s, Madhubani paintings transitioned from wall paintings to paper, making them easier to buy and sell. Thanks to pioneer artists such as Jagdamba Devi, Sita Devi, Ganga Devi, Mahasundari Devi, Godawari Dutta and Baua Devi, very soon, it caught the attention of art connoisseurs across the world.

Like the legendary Mithila artists Ganga Devi and Sita Devi, Dutta’s life was full of hardships. Her father died when she was 10, and after she got married in 1947, her husband left her to marry another woman in Nepal. She raised her son on her own in the village.

Born in a Kayastha family, her painting followed the famous Kachni (line drawing) style. The specialty of Godawari Dutta’s art lies in the clarity of the lines. The use of colours is minimal here.

When she was awarded Padma Shri, I had interviewed her at length in Maithili. When I asked her what her specialty was, she laughingly replied: ‘How can I say that? You should find it yourself. It’s mother Sita’s blessing.” She travelled to Japan, Germany and various parts of India with her paintings. The Mithila Museum in Japan has many of her paintings. She told me: “I have travelled to Japan seven times. I made a painting of Ardhanarishwar there in which Lord Shankar has a trishul trident and damru in his hands. Tokio Hasegawa, the director of the Mithila Museum, liked that painting very much. I also liked it.”

The trishul is 18 feet long. She told me: “After making it, my mind became light and after that I said that the power of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh is contained in this trident.”

Even though the subjects of her paintings are related to traditional narratives from Ramayana and Mahabharata, her paintings are close to modern sensibilities. A film named Kalakar Namaskar has also been made on her life. The bitter reality of Dutta’s life in the feudal society of Mithila, combined with her imagination, made her art truly extraordinary.

(Arvind Das is an author and researcher.)

 (Views expressed are personal)