Dulari Devi (b. 1968), born into a marginalised Mallah family in Ranti, learned Madhubani painting while working as a domestic helper in the home of the master artist Mahasundari Devi. From those beginnings she rose to national honour, painting the life of her community — and even the COVID lockdown — in the Mithila idiom.
Awarded the Padma Shri (2021), with work collected by Princeton University, she embodies the way Mithila’s art has lifted its women across the lines of caste and class.