Patna: Necessity is the mother of creation, as award-winning Sikki artist from Madhubani Muni Devi's example illustrates.
Muni's husband Vinay Kumar had a grocery store but it was not doing good business. Being a mother of four, she decided to do something on her own to tide over the financial crisis. She started making Sikki products and selling them in her village. Today, she is a name to reckon with in the field of Sikki art.
Sculptor Ishwarchandra Prasad, who has many awards to his credit, including one from the Uttar Pradesh government in 1965 for "Sita ki Khoj", a sculpture series, now leads a neglected life on Madhubani's roads.
Decades ago, Madhubani painting had become the life-support for Godawari Dutt, a Madhubani painter, when she was deserted by her husband.
Such nuggets on the lives of 17 handicraft artists from the state came to the fore when Bihar Ke Kaljayi Shilpkar, a 144-page book written by Upendra Maharathi Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan director Ashok Kumar Sinha, was released on Tuesday.
Industries minister Jai Kumar Singh, art, culture and youth affairs minister Krishna Kumar Rishi and principal secretary of the industries department S Siddhartha jointly unveiled the book at a programme held at industries department. Author Usha Kiran Khan, madhubani painters Godawari Dutt (whose description is also present in the book) and Baua Devi, were also present.
"There is no documentation of Manjusha artist Chakravarti Devi or Madhubani painter Sita Devi. New generations are unaware about the contribution of such artistes because they have not seen their work or read about them. The aim is to document the short history and work of handicraft artistes so that coming generations can seek inspiration from them. It took me around a year to get information for this book," Ashok said.
"The book has details of 17 handicraft artistes who live in different places including Madhubani, Ara, Bhagalpur among others. I stayed for around an hour or two at some artist's home and at other places I halted for a day. The book costs Rs 200 and is now available on the campus of Upendra Maharathi Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan. Soon it will be available at 2-3 book stores on Ashok Rajpath road too."
