Santosh Kumar Das (b. 1962; Ranti, Madhubani, Bihar) is an artist working within the Mithila painting tradition. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in English at Darbhanga before receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, in 1990. Returning to Ranti after his studies, Das developed a distinctive visual language that expands the expressive possibilities of Mithila painting while remaining grounded in its formal structures, narratives and philosophical traditions.
Drawing from mythology, memory, literature, and lived experience, Das has created major bodies of work including the Krishna series, the Gujarat series, and later explorations of Buddha, Yoga and the Mahavidyas. His practice engages with the symbolic richness of Mithila painting while introducing new approaches to composition, narrative and visual interpretation.
Das has exhibited widely in India and internationally. His work was recently included in The Meeting Ground: Scenes from the KNMA Collection, presented by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in collaboration with Christie’s at Christie’s King Street, London (2026). Earlier exhibitions include presentations at Banaras Hindu University, the Devi Art Foundation, and India Habitat Centre, as well as retrospective exhibitions in San Francisco, Western Australia and the United States. His works are held in collections including the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, USA; the Ethnic Arts Foundation, USA; the Devi Art Foundation; the Sarmaya Arts Foundation, India; and the Mary C. Lanius Collection, Denver, USA.
In 2017, Tara Books published Black, Das’s autobiographical account of his artistic journey and practice. His solo exhibition Rerouted Realities (2019), curated by Kathryn Myers, traced the evolution of his visual language through mythology, memory, and personal experience. In 2024, he was an artist-in-residence at the TicTac Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium. His 2025 exhibition Dasa Mahavidya, accompanied by a publication, explored the sacred feminine through the ten Mahavidyas and emerged from an extended engagement with Tantric philosophy and ritual traditions.
Das continues to live and work in Ranti, where he mentors younger artists while developing a practice that demonstrates the continuing evolution of Mithila painting as a living artistic tradition.
