Bright, elaborately designed bindis that 17th century women wore gave birth to the tikuli style of painting, which was hugely popular before fading into obscurity. Today the art form is seeing a revival, despite pandemic-induced setbacks.
Tikuli. The vernacular word brings to mind images of a gorgeous red-coloured bindi that married women in most parts of India wear on their foreheads between their eyebrows.
But do you know that tikuli art is also an age-old painting style of Bihar?
The bright images with glossy, thick paint flourished under the royal patronage of various rulers and offered livelihood to a large number of artisans.
With changing times, the tikuli style dwindled. But thanks to the state government and Bihari artisans, the art is seeing a revival.
To make the tikuli facial decoration, glass would be melted, colour added and patterns traced. It was then embellished with gold leaves to create a jewel-like dot to adorn the forehead of a woman.
It was a thriving art during the Mughal times.
“The art of making bindis commercially in such an elaborate manner flourished in the city of Patna. The tikulis used to be produced in a mass scale and were exported to cities like Kanpur and Delhi, besides others. Buyers also used to come to Bihar,” Manoj Kumar Bachhan, a Patna-based art critique, told Village Square.
Then around the 17th century craftsmen started making miniature art pieces in the same method, with the same tikuli motifs and thick, shiny paint. They received huge appreciation.
These art pieces were also called tikuli as they were made of the same material and had the same designs as the tikulis or bindis.
The art remained dormant until Upendra Maharathi, a renowned artist, tried to revive it in 1950. After his demise in 1981, artist Ashok Kumar Biswas continued the effort.
But the art came back into prominence in 1982 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gifted tikuli pieces as an official memento to all the 5,000 athletes participating in the Asiad games.
The art survived thanks to that.
But the serious revival really began in 2012 when the state government took active interest.
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“About a decade ago, there were only 300 – mostly women – artisans. The others had shifted to other professions because of lack of good income,” said Ashok Kumar Sinha, director of the Patna-based Upendra Maharathi Handicraft Research Institute. “A glorious chapter of our history was on the verge of extinction. We decided to revive it.”
They conducted training sessions and held fairs to make Tikuli art popular among art enthusiasts and the general public.
“Through these steps and various incentives we revived it,” Sinha told Village Square.
Credit for revival also goes to Ashok Kumar Biswas, for generating interest among artisans and training them.
“Tikuli has a shadow of the famous Madhubani art techniques. The artwork mainly depicts gods and goddesses. The themes are mostly based on mythologies, festivals, villages and customs,” said Biswas.
The enamel paints used in the craft are mostly bright crimson, yellow, cobalt blue and deep green, so that the designs come out vibrantly over a dark fibreboard.
“We have started making pen stands, mobile holders and the like to cater to customers’ interests,” he said. “They are of various sizes and the prices are fixed accordingly.”
Biswas said that tikuli is also a symbol of women’s empowerment as about 98% of the 7,000-odd tikuli artisans are women.
Sumitra Devi of the Nargadda village in the Bhojpur district of Bihar said that the art improved her family’s economic status.
Her husband’s income as an auto driver had not been enough to educate their four daughters. The family lived in a mud hut with a thatched roof.
“But the situation changed after we learnt the Tikuli art around two decades ago. My daughters studied in good schools and a cemented two-storey house has replaced our mud hut,” said Devi.
Three of her daughters are married. “But they continue to make Tikuli as they can make a decent livelihood by working from home,” she said.
Everyone agrees that the revival has been possible since it involves no outdoor work and offers flexible working hours.
“We work as per our schedule as we have families to look after. It takes around one day to make a single art piece depending on the availability of raw material,” said Aarti Kumari, of Phulwari village in the Madhubani district.
Her sister-in-law Sandhya Singh, who has been making tikuli products for over two decades, said that they sold the finished products directly to customers or wholesalers.
“We sell the pieces at a price as low as Rs 40 and as high as Rs 3,000 depending upon the size and artwork. The income is enough to run the family and also save small amounts.”
But it is not all smooth sailing.
Middlemen acting as agents, however, are a cause for concern, as they take a major chunk of the artisans’ income.
“It has been causing us losses. We need a mechanism to sell our products directly to customers to earn more,” said Sandhya Singh.
Also, the art took a severe blow during the lockdown.
“Earlier, we earned around Rs 25,000 per month in exhibitions and supplemented our family’s income,” said artisan Rupa Chandravanshi.
“The fairs were our main source of income as we could display our products and also book orders. But because of COVID our income is barely one-third now.”
A section of artisans believes that social media is the best solution to reach wider audiences and keep the art alive and flourishing.
“Undoubtedly, the pandemic has changed the world and we are not untouched by it. We have to now shift to digital platforms to make new customers for tikuli and to earn more,” pointed out Sabina Imam, an artisan.
Gurvinder Singh is a journalist based in Kolkata.
