For those invited by President Droupadi Murmu for her customary evening reception or “At Home” this, the 79th Independence Day, the invitation sent out in her name will be showcasing the skill of craftspersons from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, a nod to eastern India after this year’s Republic Day bid a similar nod to southern India.

The invitations will be made by contributions of artisans from these four states and curated by the National Institute of Design. Most of the artisans, many of them women worked alongside NID team, out of these nine artists from Madhubani in Bihar and 15 bamboo artisans from Jharkhand worked out of the Bengaluru campus of NID, with the rest .

According Ashok Kumar Biswas, a Padma Shri awardee in 2024, and the man entrusted with producing the nearly 750 pieces of Tikuli art work from Bihar to be added to the invitation, the instructions from NID, that coordinated the effort with Rashtrapati Bhawan was clear.

“They wanted a lightweight example of Tikuli painting which is usually based on scenes of rural life in Bihar, or cultural and religious motifs, festivals etc. They asked for three types samples, of the traditional Tikuli base of MDA (dark brown in colour) with enamel paint, then on handmaid paper, and also little pieces of cardboard and plywood. I prepared a fourth sample, on paper, made to look like the dark brown Tikuli painting base, and sent it off. They approved the fourth sample and asked that 750 pieces be sent in 15 which we did at the Tikuli training centre that I run,” he said. “It is a matter of great pride for me to be asked to do this by the President of India’s office, for an occassion like indendence day, its a good initiative that places India’s folk art at the centre of the Republic,” he said.

The invitation will be encased in a Sikki Grass Box, made by artisans from Raiyam village in Madhubani district of Bihar, with 30 artists engaged in it. Woven delicately from Sikki grass, the box would contain a frame with the invitation itself, made of Bamboo with painting on the borders, with artists from Dumka in Jharkhand. This foldable frame can be reused as a photo frame after the event.

Apart from the box and the frame, small artifacts, like a bookmark with Madhubani painting etched on it, plus a tussar stole with, again Madhubani painting with traditional block printing of symbols like Matsya (fish), Kamal (lotus) and Basant (spring) Tala Patachitra paintings by artisans from Raghurajpur in Puri, Bengali Patachitra postcard size painting by artists from Pingla village in Midnapore in West Bengal, Paitkar painting from East Singhbum in Jharkhand and Tikuli art postcard size painting from Patna in Bihar are also included in the invitation box.