Wonderful Indian Folk Art Illustrations Of Marine Creatures By Rambharos Jha

Until the devastating Bihar earthquake of 1934, no one knew about the elaborate painting ritual that existed in the small region of Mithila that lies beyond the Ganges. When a British colonial officer, William. G. Archer, went to inspect the damages in the area, he stumbled upon beautifully painted walls within the homes that had broken down during the calamity and rightfully awestruck by its beauty, he clicked a few black and white photos of them. He then went on to have them published in an Indian art journal in 1949. That was when the world first saw the Mithali paintings.

Until a second disaster struck Bihar in the form of a drought in 1968, the women from the area painted vibrant auspicious images on the interior walls of their homes–a ritual that has been in existence since the 14th century. Even today, during weddings and other festivals, women gather and paint the walls with elaborate, auspicious paintings. When the drought stuck, a few women began to paint on paper for sale, as a new source of income and for the first time these paintings went from the walls to paper.

Growing up in Madhubani, Rambharos Jha had the opportunity to watch the women as they worked and he was captivated by it. He took to the lines, shapes, palette and pictures so deeply that eventually, Jha learned the intricacies behind it and began adopting them into his own artwork.

When Tara Books approached him about a possible project, the idea of painting aquatic creatures using the motifs of the Mithila style was born. It took him all of two weeks to finish all the paintings and in 2012, Tara Books published Jha’s first book, Waterlife.

The book has since been silk-screen printed by local artisans in Chennai, by hand, on handmade paper using local Indian dyes, which is why the book comes in a limited edition of just 3,000 copies.

The first image that he painted for the book was the one featured above with the fish and their babies. “It gave me great pleasure to imagine the fish as this, as human, perhaps because I had just become a parent myself with the birth of my son. I began using blue, green and orange colours in my work to express this deeply felt joy,” said Jha in an interview with Peter Zirnis.

The intricately painted pictures are a treat to the eyes, not just for children but for adults, as well. It is not just the precise geometrical drawings, painted using carefully mixed colours that make the book special, but also the playful text that accompanies each image, which has been drawn from his childhood memories and cultural beliefs.

The book even received international acclaim when the jury of BolognaRagazzi Award gave a special mention to this work in the New Horizons category. Due credit must be given to the team at Tara Books too, who have been doing a great job at promoting marginalised Indian art forms through their handmade books, thereby giving us a chance to understand the various traditions and cultures of our country that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and under-appreciated.

Waterlife by Rambharos Jha is available on Amazon.