Patna just got a Madhubani makeover, and it’s a new city altogether

Patna is looking prettier than ever these days, thanks to the gorgeous and colourful Madhubani paintings and murals adorning the city walls! The capital of Bihar just got a makeover; now, the historically rich city of Patna is painted in traditional Madhubani colours. In this initiative by the Bihar government, a number of folk Madhubani painting artists were employed.
The initiative was also a medium to inform and educate people about Bihar’s rich cultural diversity and golden past. By painting the city walls, the government is also discouraging people from spitting and dirtying public areas in general. Not only this, some of the most prominent and globally-acclaimed artists are also associated with the state government in this initiative and are creating meaningful murals together.

The murals are conveying some great messages; one of these, commissioned under the greenery campaign, is called Jal, Jeevan aur Hariyali, meaning water, life and greenery. It aims at reconnecting people with the environment. These inspirational campaigns are inspired from a series of murals at the Lodhi Estate in New Delhi.
Pratyaya Amrit, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bihar State Power Holding Company (BSPHCL) narrated the story of the ideation. He said that once, while he was crossing through Lodhi Estate artwork, he wondered if something could be done on similar lines of an energy-specific theme in Bihar too. They took around three months to conceptualise before finalising the theme and idea.

The other mural narrates the story of a little boy and a girl holding a goraiya (house sparrow which is also Bihar’s state bird), in their palm. The mural is called We are light and shows that everything in this universe is connected to one other, from humans to plants. Not only this, the murals on the city walls also depict endangered species like the famous Bengal Tiger and Asiatic Elephant.