Alpana
Flowing white floor designs painted with rice paste in Bengal for festivals and rites.
Also: alpona
Alpana is made in West Bengal, Bangladesh and Assam. A paste of ground rice and water is taken up on a scrap of cloth and squeezed along the fingers to draw on the floor. The motifs are curving and plant-like: lotuses, creepers, fish, conch shells and the footprints of the goddess Lakshmi leading into the house. It is done for Lakshmi Puja, weddings and seasonal vows kept by women. At Santiniketan, the school founded by Rabindranath Tagore, alpana was developed into a refined decorative art.