Kalighat Painting vs Madhubani
カーリーガート絵画 / ミティラー画（マドゥバニ）
Both sit in Indian Painting, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Kalighat Painting
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Pilgrims bought these paintings by the sheet at the temple gates of Calcutta, where thick contours and bold omission rendered gods and social satire in the same hand.
Madhubani
Women of the Mithila region in Bihar have painted these festival images on walls and floors for generations. Pattern crowds out every empty space, and the mythic imagery is still alive and still being updated.
| Kalighat Painting | Madhubani | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century–1930s | traditional–present |
| Family | Indian Painting | Indian Painting |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Thick fluent contours / Bold omission / Watercolor transparency / Gods beside satire | Pattern filling the plane / Double outlines / Mythic imagery / Natural pigments |
| Best used for | Work needing figures built from few lines, printed cheap and fast · Satirical illustration that mocks authority in a familiar, friendly hand | Festive decoration needing dense pattern that leaves no empty ground · Walls and picture books that tell myth through line and pattern alone |
| Type | Hand-lettered captions in the margin, stroke weight matched to the figure | Draw lettering with the same line and ring it with pattern |
| Composition | No background, one or two large figures, the rest left white | Place the main figures first, then fill every gap with fish and flowers |
| Material | Thick contours drawn in one motion, thin washes modeling inside | Double outlines separating figure from ground, a limited natural palette |
| Caution | Neatening the contour and adding modeling kills the speed of the omission, and the momentum of a mass-made sheet turns into mere naivety. | Tiling the pattern as pure material strips the imagery of its blessing and prayer, and the work sinks to decorative texture. |