कला और शिल्प परंपरा

Bihula-Bisahari performanceअनुष्ठान

The story of Bihula, who floats her dead husband's body down the river to win his life back from the snake goddess, is sung over several nights while Manjusha paintings of the episodes are displayed and, at the end, immersed.

कौन करता है: Household women and hereditary singer-painters. मौका: The Bisahari puja in Bhadra

Jhumar and jhumtaलोक

Circling dances to dhol and jhaal, shared across the Bihar-Jharkhand-Bengal meeting point.

कौन करता है: Village groups, including Santhal neighbours. मौका: Monsoon and harvest

Domkachलोक

A night-long women's performance after the baraat leaves, with role reversal and bawdy song.

कौन करता है: Women of the household. मौका: Weddings

Santhal dance of the southern fringeजनजातीय

Line dances with flute, tamak and tumdak drums, performed in the Santhal villages that begin where the plain meets the Rajmahal hills.

कौन करता है: Santhal communities. मौका: Sohrai, Baha and seasonal festivals

Bisahari geet

The sung narrative of Bihula and Bala Lakhindar, performed over successive nights of the snake-goddess festival — the same story that Bengal sings as the Manasamangal.

Angika folk song

Sohar, vivah geet, jhumar and barahmasa in Angika, sung by women's groups; the language's principal surviving literary form is oral.

Surjapuri and Kishanganji song

The song traditions of the border belt, in a language that sits between Bengali, Maithili and Assamese and is spoken by several million people who are usually counted under Hindi.

Chhath geet and kirtan

The Chhath repertoire on the Bihar side, and Vaishnav kirtan in the Bengali-influenced districts — often in the same town.

Kanwar songs of the Shravani Mela

Devotional songs sung by pilgrims on the 105-km walk from Sultanganj to Deoghar, with a repertoire that turns over almost completely every few years as recorded music replaces the older forms.

Manjusha narrative performance

Painted panels of the Bihula story displayed in sequence while the episode is sung — a scroll-and-song form related to Bengal's patachitra performance and to the Rajasthani phad.

Ramlila and jatra

Ramlila on the Bihar side, and jatra — the Bengali travelling theatre, played at volume on an open stage — in the eastern districts, sometimes in the same week.

Bhagalpur silk weaving जीआई पंजीकृत Bhagalpur

Tens of thousands of looms across the city and its villages, producing the textured wild silk sold across India as Bhagalpuri. The trade has been badly squeezed by power looms and by cheaper imported yarn.

सामग्री: Tussar and mulberry silk, ghicha and matka yarn. तकनीक: Cocoons boiled and reeled or spun, warped, and woven on pit and frame looms; dyed in the piece or the yarn.

Manjusha art जीआई योग्य Bhagalpur

One of the few Indian folk painting traditions that is explicitly narrative and sequential — the panels tell the Bihula story in order, and were traditionally made for the festival and then immersed.

सामग्री: Paper, cloth and bamboo-and-jute boxes; three colours — pink, green and yellow. तकनीक: Figures drawn in a distinctive x-shaped human form with borders of snakes, waves and lotuses, filled in a strictly limited palette, and composed as a sequence of episodes to be read in order.

Sikki and bamboo craft Purnia, Katihar, Araria

Household craft across the wetland districts, including the conical fish traps used in the flooded fields every monsoon.

सामग्री: Sikki grass, bamboo, cane. तकनीक: Coiled grass basketry, and split-bamboo weaving for winnowing trays, fish traps and screens.

Makhana processing Purnia, Katihar, Araria

Seemanchal has become the largest producing belt in the country alongside Mithila, with processing units now appearing beside the traditional village work.

सामग्री: Euryale ferox seed. तकनीक: Diving, drying, grading, roasting and hand-striking.

Munger metalwork Munger

A metalworking town since the eighteenth century, when it supplied the East India Company's arsenal — a skill base that also produced a long-running illicit small-arms problem the town is very tired of being known for.

सामग्री: Iron and steel. तकनीक: Forging, filing and small-scale machining.

Tea cultivation in Kishanganj Kishanganj

Bihar's only tea belt, an extension of the Dooars and Nepal terai plantations, grown largely by small farmers since the 1990s.

सामग्री: Camellia sinensis. तकनीक: Plucking and CTC processing at small factories, on smallholdings rather than large estates.