This is Karpuri Devi, 86, younger sister-in-law of the renowned Madhubani artist, Mahasundari Devi, whose name is synonymous with this folk style. Sitting in the veranda of her single storey home, which she has painted with ornate patterns and figures in Madhubani, Karpuri reminisces about the days when she had first picked up the brush, “Decades ago, women in the village were not allowed to step outside the confines of the home. We had to be very discreet about our work. Typically, we used twigs, brushes, matchsticks or nib-pens to make paintings with themes from the Ramayana or what we saw of daily life around us. For years, the wall was our canvas. Paper came much later.”
