Not so long ago, Shanti Devi, a Madhubani artist, had no pucca house. She had been married at a young age and remembers her struggles to even paint. <br />“I was chased by an upper caste man when I tried to paint scenes from Ramayana,” she says. <br />Shanti Devi, who belongs to the Paswan caste that comes under the Scheduled Caste category, says artists like her who were the so-called “untouchables” in the Mithila region weren’t allowed to paint gods and goddesses. <br />She had called a panchayat in her village many years ago to stress upon her freedom as an artist.<br />“An artist has no caste,” she says.<br />But freedom doesn’t come easy. She is a woman and for women, freedom is still a dream. <br />“There is that patriarchy that cuts across caste and class and I have seen how it can torment you,” she says.<br />In an interview with Outlook at the Bihar Museum where she was part of a contingent of 30 artists who are practitioners of folk art forms of Bihar, she says she decided to paint a scene from Ashok Vatika where Sita had been held captive. <br />Vaidehi Sita was curated as an ode to Sita from Ramayan at the Bihar Museum.<br />“Sita was powerful. She suffered. She was abandoned and she chose to return to nature and not suffer more indignities. That’s why I have painted the garden so beautifully,” Shanti Devi says. “Sita came from earth. And by returning to it, she freed herself.”
