Subhadra Devi
A Mithila artist known as the mother of Madhubani papier-mache, who brought Madhubani painting to papier-mache toys, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2023.
Subhadra Devi is an artist of Madhubani papier-mache, a craft in which waste paper is turned into useful and decorative objects. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Bihar [1].
Painting to support the family
Subhadra Devi was born on 29 February 1936 in Balour village, Darbhanga district, and learned traditional painting from her mother [2]. Her husband earned little, so she began making Madhubani paintings to support the family [2]. She would walk 12 kilometres to the handicraft office in Madhubani to sell a single painting, and she made her own colours from flowers and leaves gathered in the forest [2].
A new life for papier-mache
She began making toys and other objects in papier-mache and painting them in the Madhubani style [2]. Papier-mache was then associated with Jammu and Kashmir, but her work gave it a new form, and she came to be known as the mother of Madhubani papier-mache art [2]. Her designs drew on the culture of Mithila [2].
With help from the government’s handicraft department and bodies such as the Crafts Council of India and Dastkar, she demonstrated the craft across India and also in Spain [2]. She formed a group of women in her village and taught them the craft, and it spread across Madhubani district; it now gives a livelihood to thousands of people [2]. A short account of her life appears in an NCERT textbook for class XI [2].
She received a state award in 1980 and a National Award in 1990 [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2023: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 21 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2023: citation for Subhadra Devi — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 21 October 2026.
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