A cluster is defined as a geographic concentration (city/town/few adjacent villages and their adjoining areas) of units producing near similar products and facing common opportunities and threats. An artisan cluster is defined as geographically concentrated (mostly in villages/townships) household units producing handicraft/handloom products. In a typical cluster, such producers often belong to a traditional community, producing the long-established products for generations. Indeed, many artisan clusters are centuries old Artisan.
 
About Rajnagar Cluster:-
 
Rajnagar Cluster falls under Bihar  State in Madhubani district.
 
The Rajnagar cluster is able to form 315 plus Artisans & 9 SHGs supporting the strong work force. The mobilization gains momentum day by day.
 
Folk Painting:-
 
Madhuban, in the Himalayan foothills of Mithila, is the home of the Madhubani paintings. Traditionally, on festive and religious occasions, and during social celebrations, the women of Mithila decorated their homes and courtyards with images that were vibrant, colourful, and deeply religious. The subjects of these paintings were gods and goddesses, mythology and nature. The women use rich earthy colours --- reds, yellows, indigoes, and blues --- in their lyrical paintings of gods and goddesses like Rama-Sita, Krishna-Radha, and Shiva-Gauri. These were intended for shrines and in the khovar, the innermost chamber of the house where the bride and bridegroom began their married lives. The women used basic materials like gum, thread, and matchsticks or fine bamboo slivers wrapped in cotton to execute these wonderfully eloquent paintings.
 
The women passed on this traditional art form to their daughters over generations and this art is still alive and thriving. During a severe drought in the 1960s in the normally fertile region of Mithila, the people of Mithila were forced to look at something other than agriculture as a source of income. They got the women of Mithila to execute their art on paper and cloth, and today Madhubani is one of the most popular works of folk art all over the world. The themes and techniques used for the painting are still the same. The canvas has changed from walls and floors to cloth and paper and papier mache.
 
On auspicious occasions, and at festivals, marriages, and births, women paint aripan and dhuli chitras or dust paintings on the mud floors of their huts. Geometrical and highly stylised, these paintings are open astrological charts, a storehouse of the wisdom of the ages. Folk paintings are done by a community of tribesmen called the chitrakars, in the Santhal Parganas,. They paint scrolls in the traditional manner, depicting stories and moral lessons. They carry the scroll paintings from one Santhal village to another and sing the story, for which they receive some remuneration.

 
Raw Materials Used :-
 
1. Plywood (water proof)
2. Longcloth / pipline
3. Fevicol
4. Yellow oxide
5. Chalks
6. Arabic gum
7. Gold foil
8. Stones
9. Poster color Paint
10. Round brush-0, 00,000,1,3,6
11. Flat brush-2
12. Yellow carbon
 
Process:-
 
The characteristic of Thanjavur painting is that the figures in the paintings have a round body and egg shaped effulgent eyes and are surrounded by curtains and arch. These paintings will illuminate in the dark room.

From the humble canvas and brush the ultimate form of the beauty, the Tanjore paintings, is made. The Canvas used for this painting previously was wood of the Jackfruit tree but the modern artist uses plywood. A layer of cloth is pasted over this plywood using the Arabic adhesive. A uniform coating of limestone paste and a binding material is applied and the cloth is let to dry. The artist then sketches the meticulous pictures on the canvas while the paste of limestone and fastening substance is used during adorning and engraving ornaments into the paintings.
 
Techniques:-
 
1. Remove starch from the cloth ( soaking it in water for 1 hr and then dry the cloth).
2. Take 60 ml approxmatily Fevicol and mix it with 1/2 cup water well (to get milk consistency)
3. Dip the cloth in this fevicol paste and squeeze it. Repeat this process 5 to 6 times (so that the cloth absorbs and gets coated with fevicol well)
4. Squeeze the cloth slightly and stick it on the plywood board.
To stick:- First stick cloth one one side of the board well and then pull the cloth on the opposite side well and stick the cloth well. Use palm to remove the air bubbles and wrinkles by pressing the cloth from center to the edges.
5. Now stick the third side and fourth side in the same procedure.
6. Pour the remaining fevicol-water mixture (if left out) on this board and spread out evenly.
7. Dry this board in Sun till dry.
 
How to Reach:-
 
By Air:-
 
The nearest airport is at Patna from where regular flights are available to all important towns and cities across the country.

 
By Road:-

Madhubani is linked with Darbhanga district by National Highway 104.

 
By Train:-

Madhubani Railways station is directly connected with Darbhanga junction.