The town of Madhubani— literally “forests of honey”— is a traditional center in Bihar for a distinctive form of painting.

As a young man Chandra struggled in school. His mother, Girija Devi, encouraged him to master Madhubani painting as a means to “a good life.”

The tools of a Madhubani painter’s trade are a bamboo stick, a holder, a nib, a brush, natural vegetal paints, and paper or canvas.

With these simple materials, a painter such as Chandra retells the revered Hindu myths of the Ramayana, in imagery that traditionally graced freshly-plastered walls.