Tikuli Art : Introduction and History [टिकुली कला का इतिहास] - Ashok Kumar Biswas www.ARTSofINDIA.in

Описание: Hello Friend, Today I will talk about the folk art of Bihar(India) : TIKULI ART. Tikuli means Bindi, a decorative dot worn in the middle of the forehead by ladies, specially in India. It is believed that Tikuli Art initially started during the Maurya Dynasty (323 BC - 183 BC).

Myself Ashok Kumar Biswas (Tikuli Artist), I was born in Dehri-on-sone town in Bihar, India. I was inclined towards arts since my childhood, that brought me to Patna (Patliputra)..

After coming here, in 1973-74, I started getting trained in Tikuli Art at Bihar State Government's Upendra Maharathi Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan, which was earlier known as Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan. Since then, it has been 46 long years that I have been associated with this art.

I trained around 6000 people on this art and most of them are ladies. some of them are still associated with me. They are making our country and culture proud.

After getting associated with Art, I wanted it to grow further. That motivated me to start giving training on Tikuli Art. While giving training, it came into my mind that why not create employment through this art and training.

I conducted more than 100 Exhibitions across India to promote this art and 4 times, I represented India on global stage including South Korea, Bhutan, Spain & Mauritius. For this I was given State Award and National Kalashree Award.

Most proud moment for me was in the 1982 Asian games, when Indira Gandhi decided to give Tikuli painting to all the 5000 athletes, and I was chosen for making those paintings. This helped take Tikuli Art forward.

Tikuli Art is 2000 years old Cottage industries in Patna City (old Patliputra). Around 500 families, comprising Approx 5000 people were associated with this art.

Since the time, we have more clear references, Glass material was used for this. Glass was being melted and given a solid cylindrical shape to it. After getting cold, the same used to be cut into circular plates, very similar to Bindis. This whole process used to be carried out by Muslim males. Once Bindis were ready, Hindu Males used to take them and apply gold foil on top of that. After that they used to hand it to Hindu Females, who then used to make designs on the gold foil surface by applying force using sharp wooden pencils. Later, babool's gond (Acacia's gum) used to be applied on the back side of it. Once processed, it was sold as Bindis in the markets. Ladies used to buy it to wear on their forehead.

This cottage industry was growing very fast until Mughal era. When British came to India, due to industrialization, the whole process was done by using machines. Because of this the demand for original Tikuli art made with gold foil started going down and machine made Tikuli started to grow fast.

This brought the question of survival for the traditional Tikuli artists. To overcome this, they changed the whole idea and started making bigger Tkulis, which people used as Home decor products like table top, wall hanging etc.

But this was still a costly process, as time passed, people stopped using gold foil and replaced it with enamel paint on glass bindis. This process went on for some time during the 20th century.

During the mid of 20th Century, Upendra Maharathi, one of the greatest artists from Bihar, came to know about this art and he met people from those families who were making this art for centuries.

Upendra Maharathi, brought these people to Shilp Anusanthan Sansthan, which was established in 1956, so that they can train others and help grow this art.

During 1960, while touring to Japan, he saw artists applying enamel paint on wood and making very beautiful art pieces. That gave him ideas to try the same with Tikuli Art by replacing Glass material with Wood. After returning back, he and Lal Babu Gupta experimented and finally brought the required changes. They started making Tikuli Art using wood and enamel paint. But it was still not easy to get right shapes from wood, and further improvements were required

As time passed, wood was replaced by hard board and later by MDF as base material.

The main goal of Tikuli art is to make beautiful artistic designs that depicts a story or any theme from daily life or mythology. Nowadays Tikuli art is using Madhubani art for adding minute detailing into it to make it look more beautiful.

One more specialty of this art if dark brown background. Many different background were tried during experimental stage and it was found that darker background provides better look and add beauty to the painting. As mentioned earlier, the use of enamel is mandatory and benefit of using enamel paint is that it makes the painting waterproof. Since, we make lots of utility products, it can keep the painting intact even after multiple and heavy use. It enables the artists to make utility items like coasters, card holder, jewelry box, wall hangings which can be used in day to day life and which has good demand from other countries.