Padma Shri Dulari Devi

Ms. Dulari Devi, who was born in the year 1968 in Madhubani district (Bihar, India)  is a prominent artist in the Mithila region. She received the Padma Shri award, a civilian honour granted by the Indian government, in the year 2021 for her contributions to art.

Ms. Devi lives in the village of Ranti in Madhubani and was born into the marginalised Dalit caste (a low social caste) named Mallaah. She got married at the age of thirteen, but returned to live with her family after the death of her child. She did not receive any formal education, and learned Madhubani painting while she was working as a domestic servant in the home of Madhubani Painting artist Ms. Mahasundari Devi. Further Ms. Mahasundari Devi introduced her to another artist, Ms Karpoori Devi, who also taught Ms. Dulari Devi Madhubani art and techniques.

Ms. Dulari's work mostly comprises of Madhubani painting, also called  Mithila art, a folk art school that developed in the Indian state of Bihar (in Mithila region). She practices both, the ‘Kachnhi' (line sketching) ‘and ‘Bharni’ (colored) styles of Madhubani , while she prefers the latter.

Ms. Devi has many accolades under her name. Before receiving the Padma Shri award, she was nominated in the year 2012 for State of Bihar Award for Excellence in Art. In 2018, her painting titled "Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi arriving at a village in a helicopter" was part of a cataloged exhibit of Madhubani painting at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA. Her recent paintings, which documened the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns in her community, have been obtained by Princeton University for their collection around Graphic Arts. In addition to painting, Ms. Devi has done a number of murals for both the Central and state governments in the country. Currently she is an instructor at the Madhubani Art Institute, based in Madhubani, Bihar and teaches Madhubani painting to the children.

We were very excited after meeting Ms. Dulari Devi and her family in March 2023 and happy to share some of her and her family member’s artwork on our platform.