Madhubani painting, also known as Mithila painting, is rich in art symbolism with a rare simplicity and beauty. Associated with Sita's home in Mithila (Bihar), stories of Ramayana are central to this form of painting. The Krishna lore with its inescapable romance has left its marks as well. Activities of life, ornate floral and geometric patterns, with inevitable Hindu icons forms, its distinctive style.

Baua Devi was born in 1942 in Rajnagar in Bihar. She has been awarded with the National Award in the year 1986 for her skills in the Madhubani form of art. Today, she is one of the senior most practitioners of the art and her style is clearly identifiable as one belonging to the first generation of artists. She works in the bharni (filling) style in Madhubani. She has taken one of the fertility motifs found in traditional kohbar-snakes-and developed it in her work. She is perhaps one of the first artists to render this traditional symbol in a contemporary manner through her useof colour and the spatial organization of the painting surface. Among several exhibitions, the major ones have been the ones held in Japan, London, France besides innumerable shows held within the country.