Madhushravani

A local monsoon festival for newly married women, who listen to serpent legends and make offerings of patterned leaves.

In the Mithila tradition, Goddess Gauri began this cycle of worship and storytelling in the month of Shravan to please Lord Shiva, and newly married women of Mithila have kept it unbroken ever since.

For fourteen days, newly married women dress in sarees bearing Madhubani motifs, gather flowers each morning for the puja, and assemble in temple courtyards each evening to hear the traditional tales.

Each day a priest or elder recites the stories of Shiva-Parvati and the Naga deities. On the final day comes the Temi ritual, in which a burning cotton wick briefly touches the bride's knee or foot as a symbol of endurance.

It is believed that when the bride calmly bears the burning wick during the Temi ritual, her husband's life is lengthened and lasting good fortune settles on the household.

An ancient festival that has continued unbroken for centuries alongside the distinctive way of life of the Mithila region, drawing on traditional Madhubani art and a strong tradition of oral storytelling.

A Mithila festival for women in their first year of marriage, kept through Shravan. They sit on aripan — floor patterns drawn in rice paste — while the naga stories are read out across two weeks, with clay serpent figures and Madhubani work around them. Madhubani and rural Darbhanga are where to see it, and it happens indoors.