The Tantrik style turns Madhubani toward the esoteric — built around yantras, mandalas and sacred geometry, and the deities and symbols of Tantric worship. Where Bharni and Katchni depict story and ornament, Tantrik painting is diagrammatic and meditative, a visual instrument of the sacred.
Often the work of Brahmin practitioners versed in ritual, it reveals the deep religious substrate of Mithila’s art — paintings made not only to be seen, but to be used in worship and contemplation.