Colour in society
Rangoli and kolam
Patterns drawn on the ground at the doorstep in rice flour, coloured powder or petals. Made to welcome, and gone by evening.
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Across India, people draw patterns on the ground outside the front door. In the north and west it is called rangoli and is usually made in coloured powders for festivals. In Tamil Nadu it is kolam, drawn each morning in white rice flour. Bengal has alpana, painted in rice paste. The designs welcome guests and good fortune, and they are meant to be walked away by the day.
Kolam
In Tamil homes a woman of the household sweeps the threshold before sunrise, sprinkles it with water and draws the kolam by letting rice flour run between thumb and forefinger. Many designs start from a grid of dots, called pulli. A single unbroken line then loops around the dots and closes on itself. The flour feeds ants, birds and squirrels, which is part of its purpose: the first act of the day is a gift. Kolams grow large and elaborate in the month of Margazhi, in December and January, and for the harvest festival of Pongal.
Rangoli and its relatives
Rangoli is made for Diwali, weddings and other celebrations, in coloured powder, dyed rice, sand or flower petals, with motifs such as lotuses, lamps, peacocks and geometric stars. The word comes from Sanskrit rangavalli, a row of colours. Every region has its own form. Muggulu in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are close to kolam. Mandana in Rajasthan is painted in white chalk on red ochre walls and floors. Alpana in Bengal is painted with the fingers in rice paste. For Onam in Kerala, families lay a pookalam, a round carpet of fresh petals that grows by a ring each day.
Skill and pattern
The art is passed from mother to daughter and practised daily, so skilled makers draw complex figures freehand in minutes. Mathematicians and computer scientists have studied kolam because its looped figures follow strict rules of symmetry and can be described as a kind of formal grammar. Tamil communities in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore keep the practice. In cities, flats without thresholds, chalk, stencils and stick-on plastic versions have changed it, and community competitions help to keep it going. It remains a daily art made mostly by women.
How to do it
- Sweep a patch of floor or ground and sprinkle it lightly with water.
- Mark a small grid of dots in rice flour or chalk, such as five rows of five.
- Draw one line that curves around each dot and returns to where it started.
- For rangoli, outline the design in white first, then fill each section with coloured powder or petals.
Colours on this page
Sources and further reading
- Rangoli on Wikipedia
- Sahapedia: Significance of Kolam in Tamil Culture
- The Hindu: Floored by an art tradition
- The Hindu: Reviving a vanishing folk art form in Bengal
Original text by the Rang desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Meanings of colour vary from place to place and person to person. If we have something wrong, tell us.