Manisha Jha was born in the village of Satlakha in Bihar. Manisha is a Mithila painter by tradition and an architect by profession. Her mother and grandmother introduced her to Madhubani art, creating ritual paintings on walls and floors of their village during festivals and wedding ceremonies.

This painting is the elaboration of the kohbar, the core image of Mithila marriage rituals. Historically it is painted on the wall of the kohbar ghar, a specific room in the bride’s home where a couple consummate their arranged marriage on the fourth night of the wedding ceremony. The central figure represents the lotus pond symbolizing the beauty and fertility of the bride, while the small bamboo grove (center left) stands for the groom’s family line. In both lower corners and just under Ganesh, there are four naina joguns (guardian spirits) only seen at weddings and below the lotus pond is the woven mat on which the marriage is consummated; to the right the bride is thanking the goddess Parvati for finding her a good husband, and on the left, she is being carried to her husband’s home in a palanquin.