Friday 1 June 2018

Mithila Dish

I love to travel and spend life of a foodie  ,to be foodie with ethnic version of flavors makes me more happy day by day.This week I got the opportunity to be in Mithila pradesh of Nepal and have the cuisine there with friends,all of the mithila food is prepared in mustard oil and important ingredient includes coriander, turmeric and red chili powder.Maithil dinner/lunch food plate has essentials including but not limited to Chawal/Roti, Dal, Primary Sabzi/Rohu fish/Meat, Bhujia/Chokha, Chatni.

 Rohu Fish Fry:
Rohu is an auspicious staple food for Maithili people and at occasions, Rohu fish fry is presented to guest just like someone serve sweets to people in other culture.Rohu fish fry is prepared by mixing pieces of Rohu fish simply with turmeric powder and garlic paste and frying it in wok at high flame.

Rohu Fish Curry:

Rohu fish curry in mithila style is essentially prepared with mustard paste mixed with garlic.Preparation: After frying fish in above mentioned manner, curry is prepared separately by frying mustard and garlic paste in mustard oil just perfectly and water is added. Only turmeric, corriander and cilli power is used as spices.Under fry or over fry causes different types of bitter taste. Fried rohu is dipped in boiling curry and fish curry is ready to serve. 

Sukhua : Sukhua means something which is sun dried. So some vegetable like cauliflower are sun dried like adauri and papad and are preserved in jars so as to prepare later in the same manner as any vegetable.

 Meat: Mutton curry is called meat in Bihar/Mithila and is prepared in different style from rest of India using mustard oil and same set of spices i.e turrmeric, chili powder and coriander powder on chopped onion.

Dal puri: Dal stuffed pan fried puri. 




Mithila painting

I met my tutor on the way to University of Kirtipur named Tribhuvan University and he told me to do some surfing in internet or visit the library ,I am going to discuss same topic.I really like his attitude of teaching something which he liked most ,his smile made me eager to know about the text.It was awesome feeling to know about Mithila .We got the chance to visit Mithila and have mithila dish too.Everything was like the dream we just try during our sleep and keep as memory as a book to revolve around.

We started our journey from Kathmandu in group .Dhanusadham is in Dhanusha region and Janakpur zone. Janakpur is roughly 390 metric linear unit and 10-hour drive from Kathmandu. One will likewise take Forty -minute flight to Janakpur town from Kathmandu. Dhanushadham that is eighteen metric linear unit is hr drive from Janakpur. Open transportation administrations area unit accessible to Dhanushadham from the town zone.We took two micro bus which reached Janakpur via Kavre ,Sindhuli ,Mahottari and Dhanusha Route to Jankpur and we stayed in Rama Hotel situated to Murali Chowk of Janakpurdham.

The Janakpurdham, an important human destination of Terai plain, is settled at intervals the Dhanusha area of Janakpur at intervals the Central Development Region. The chronicled town lodging previous sanctuaries, cloisters, expressions and art of numerous divinities is additionally regarded as a big religious focus. the town that won’t be the capital of the people of previous Mithila Kingdom is additionally home to numerous vital journey destinations.

After having talk about Mithila by SUBODH CHANDRA DAS (S.C. SUMAN) Council Member, Head, Department of Folk Arts, Nepal Academy of Fine Arts Sitabhawan Naxal Kathmandu who narrated about artists in Mithila to us with the role of painting in lifestyle of Mithila Pradesh  we moved to JWDC ,Kuwa ,Janakpurdham ,Nepal. 

According to history ,Mithila painting, as a domestic ritual activity, was unknown to the outside world until the massive Bihar earthquake of 1934. House walls had tumbled down, and the British colonial officer in Madhubani District, William G. Archer, inspecting the damage "discovered" the paintings on the newly exposed interior walls of homes. Archer - later to become the South Asia Curator at London's Victoria and Albert Museum - was stunned by the beauty of the paintings and similarities to the work of modern Western artists like Klee, Miro, and Picasso. During the 1930s he took black and white photos of some of these paintings, the earliest images we have of them. Then in a 1949 article in the Indian art journal, Marg, he brought the wall paintings to public attention.

Madhubani is a folk painting done by hands, twigs pen nibs and matchsticks with natural colors and dyes. This art has its roots in the Mithila region, hence it is also known as Mithila art or Mithila Painting.It is believed that this art form was originated during the times of Ramayana when Raja Janak, father of Sita called artists to capture the wedding of Lord Ram and Sita in the form of Madhubani paintings.

Madhubani designs essentially depict scenes of royal courtyard, and Indian weddings, marriages and symbols of fertility and prosperity with dominance of motifs like fish, parrot, elephant, turtle, sun, moon, bamboo tree, lotus, etc. To maintain the creativity and precision, Madhubani paintings are made from the powdered rice paste, using fingers, nib-pens, brushes, match sticks and twigs, Dyes obtained from trees, fruits, flowers and spices are used to add colors. Women of Mithila spend dedicated hours every day to create these meticulous designs using two styles of coloring – Bharni and Kachni. The latter is used to outline the designs with fine lines while the Bharni process is used to fill in colors.

After talk show we reached to JWDC,Kuwa ,Janakpurdham.At this art studio in the village of Kuwa, about 1km south of Murali Chowk, around 40 Maithili women produce paper paintings, papier-mâché boxes and mirrors, screen-printed fabrics and hand-thrown ceramics. The bright colours and animated imagery are both unique and delightful, and the money raised goes directly towards improving the lives of rural women.We all loved green mango trees and house designs of mud which gave ethnic terrain vision of Nepal and the smell of air made us feel fresh ,I noticed a hand pump nearby the the mudhouses where they decorated the crafts with friends they have,the artists were communicating about the products and role of paintings in their life and significance of those painting in life style of Maithili women and I got the chance of taking selfie too.Any way I loved the paintings.