Madhubani art, traditionally painted by women in the Mithila region primarily in Bihar on the walls of their homes, is characterised by horror vacui; every square inch of the ‘canvas’ is filled. Large motifs are surrounded by smaller ones, each one of them meaningful.
Contemporary Madhubani art has moved from being restricted to domestic murals to becoming corporate art and, often enough, saree embellishment whether printed or painted. The women at the borders of this image on a Tussar saree represent the vitality of the community, and the preservation of cultural heritage.
A peacock, possibly the vehicle of Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, is its heart; although Her vehicle is usually a swan or goose, in some Eastern traditions, it may be a peacock. However, the art isn't limited to just one peacock; the central motif is hemmed in by other peacocks towards the bottom of the piece representing the dance of life.
Goddess Saraswati is, in Devi Bhagavata Purana and Vaisnava literature, described as one of the three wives of Vishnu, alongside Lakshmi and Ganga. Lord Vishnu is the sustainer of life, and Lord Krishna is one of His avataars. It is said that once, when Lord Krishna began playing His flute in the forests of Vrindavan, the peacocks nearby who heard His divine melody danced in bliss to the rhythm of the music, and, later, their leader, dropped his plumage at the Lord’s feet, a gift which Lord Krishna accepted, which is why so many images show Him wearing a peacock's feather.
Schools of belief vary but the symbolism goes further back: the Goddess Saraswati is also the Goddess of Music, of sound and speech, and Lord Krishna’s flute is, in some traditions, said to transmit the purest form of Her energy, the primordial sound itself often being attributed to the Lord which, according to the Gopala-Tapani Upanishad, enabled the Lord to enchant the universe. And, in the cyclical nature of life, even as Lord Krishna’s flute emits the primordial sound, it comes to be that the Lord himself is reached through the grace of the Goddess Saraswati: learning and speech are needed to understand the scriptures and to chant His name, the latter often considered an inalienable facet of devotion, of Bhakti.
Pairs of birds sharing a head, possibly parrots, symbolising love, make an appearance beside the central peacock. In addition to the obvious allusion to marital harmony, the motif also expressed the advaita philosophy, the idea of non-duality. All that is truly real is Brahman, the universal soul and the ultimate reality; one's own soul, Atman, isn't just connected to Brahman, it is Brahman according to this school of belief which owes much to the 8th century scholar, Adi Shankara. It is only Maya, the illusion of life, that can blind one to the truth of one unified reality.
This is further supported by the birds, all of them, their large eyes representing divine watchfulness, being embedded in the tree of life, and surrounded by motifs drawn from nature; the triangles yellow representing mountains, the blue hatched triangles reminiscent of ripples of water, both images drawn from the foothills of the Himalayas stretching into the Gangetic plains where the art is practised. The geometric four-petalled lotus, a motif of abundance from all directions coupled with less stylised flowers which signify divinity.
The saree is one which speaks of abundance, of harmony, the oneness of all life, not just its interconnectedness.