Mahasundari Devi (Benipatti, Madhubani, Bihar, 1922 – 2013) was an Indian painter of the Madhubani tradition, a folk style from the Mithila region. Her work helped bring this art to wider attention and earned her official honours from the Indian government.
Born into a Maithil Karna Kayastha family, she learned the technique from her aunt, although she was barely literate. At 18 she married Krishna Kumar Das, a school teacher, and settled in Ranti village in Madhubani district, where she raised five children.
In 1961 she gave up the purdah veil system, still prevalent at the time, and built a career as an artist in her own right. She founded a cooperative, the Mithila Hastashilp Kalakar Audyogki Sahyog Samiti, to support local crafts and artists. Besides Mithila painting, she worked in clay, papier-mâché, sujani and sikki.
She received her first felicitation in 1976 from the Bhartiya Nritya Kala and a National Award from President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy in 1982. Considered a "living legend" of painting, she was awarded the Tulsi Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1995 and the Padma Shri in 2011. According to her family, her last painting dates from that same year.
Her daughter-in-law, Bibha Das, and her sister-in-law, Karpoori Devi, are also Madhubani painters, carrying the family's tradition forward.