Bihar

Bihar's most visible tradition, Chhath Puja, happens at riverbanks and ponds across the state at dawn and dusk — no priest required, just a family and the sun. It says something about how devotion works here: physical, communal, unglamorous.

Madhubani painting, done first on mud walls by women marking festivals, is now on paper and cloth but keeps its original grammar of fish, sun and fertility symbols, taught mother to daughter in villages around Madhubani district.