Kōlam
Sahapedia-UNESCO Research Project 2017-18
The kōlam is a daily women’s ritualistic art form created by Tamil Hindu women throughout Tamil Nadu in southeastern India. Each day before dawn, and sometimes before dusk, millions of women in the villages,towns and the cities of Tamil Nadu (and Pondicherry) draw kōlam on the thresholds and floors of houses, temples and businesses.
A symbol of auspiciousness and divinity, kōlam is made with rice flour- finely ground rice powder /paste or at times vegetable and mineral based coloured powders on carefully swept grounds (revered as Bhudevi or Mother Earth). In the contemporary time to cut down costs white chalk or stone powder (available in packets in market) is mixed in a certain proportion with rice powder.
The kōlam patterns are drawn deftly by women with the tips of their fingers using pinches of flour . The patterns of lines and curves are based on a grid of pullis (dots) that are encircled, looped or joined using straight or curved lines. The process involves concentration, memory and a series of disciplined hand and body movements. Working with great dexterity and speed, the women make highly intricate and complex designs that vary in accordance with current events or days of the Hindu calendar .
The designs vary daily, from a simple star pattern of opposing, interlocking triangles to highly complex labyrinth designs that are not easily comprehended (Brooke 1953; Kramrisch 1983, 1985; Layard 1937; Nagarajan 1993, 1998a, 1998b, 2012; Pillai & Saroja 1987; Saroja 1992; Steiman 1988; Thiruvenkatampillai et al. 1884). The knowledge of Kōlam patterns is transferred orally through generations amongst women as they learn by observing their relatives perform this ritual daily. At first glance though the patterns appear quite simple, but it takes years of practice and training to master the complex Kōlams. In most households, women carefully store their practice notebook -a record book of kōlam drawings in pencil, pen or coloured pencils and share the most complicated and difficult traditional patterns with one another .
Perhaps, what is most striking about kōlam is that much of the time it is ephemeral, transitory and impermanent . Depending on the ritual occasion, and the time of the day, the kōlam is created in a few minutes or a few hours, and after only a few hours, it disappears under the feet of a passerby. In kōlam making the process of putting and getting lost is repeated as a rhythm, wherein fresh patterns are made as old ones get lost in some moment of the day. As ants, birds and tiny insects feed on the rice flour, wind and people’s footsteps further disturb and eventually erase the kōlam; the cycle is repeated again the next morning. It is almost like a renewal visual performance in which both tradition (continuity) and change (innovation) exists simultaneously. Krishnaveni (a resident of Velachery area in South Chennai and an avid participant of the Mylapore kōlam competition) says ‘several patterns can be made from the same grid of pullis by just making some small changes. It all depends on the spur of the moment and the mood of the women at that moment in time’.
From a broad perspective the kōlam can be seen as one of the several women’s ritual art practice performed as ephemeral designs on thresholds by Hindu women throughout the different states in India. These parallel women’s floor art traditions exist in several regions of the country and are known as : rangōli in Karnataka (Hacker 1975), muggu in Andhra Pradesh (Kilambi 1986), sathayā in Gujarat , madnā in Rajasthan (Saksena 1952, 1972, 1985), ālpanā or aripan in West Bengal (Das 1957, 1943; Das Gupta, 1960; Chatterji 1948; Gupta 1983), aippan in Himachal Pradesh, chita in Orissa, Pookalam in Kerala . Interestingly, although these various women’s ritual drawings created in different regions of the country have much in common, in terms of purpose, intention and symbolic value; the design patterns are distinctive to each region, place and community.
Vijaya Nagarajan in her article ‘Rangoli and Kōlam‘states that ‘the critical distinction between the kōlam and other women’s ritual designs is that the kōlam is drawn daily in Tamil Nadu’. Most of these other women’s ritual patterns are drawn occasionally to celebrate, to honor and to mark various occasions – a sacred day or time, annual festivals like divālī or puttāntu (Tamil new year), a birthday of a god or goddess or , a vrata (a vow) and so on (Archana 1981). It is important to note that women from other religious communities like Jains and Roman Catholic community (like the Paravar) also draw Kōlam on special ritual occasions. Besides these, other ritual art forms like mandalas and yantras are performed in highly ritualized contexts such as in building temples and houses rather than everyday life (Hudson 2008; Tucci 1973).
Kōlam is also more geometrical and involves an intrinsic mathematical aptitude as compared to Rangoli or other popular floor art traditions. There is definitely a strong mathematical thinking in kōlam as the arrangement of pullis is based on Fibonacci series, algebraic and numeric principles. Kōlam epitomizes geometrical properties of symmetry, periodicity/repetition, recursion and rhythm (Ascher 2002a, 2002b; Siromony 1985).Most kōlam patterns frequently include the use of concepts from calculus and applied mathematics. For example, the use of continuous curve in two dimensions is a graph in which there are no holes or breaks and for which the beginning and ending points are the same. Such curves appear in many kōlam designs (Ascher 2002a). This is particularly true about Kambi kōlam, sikku kōlam, and chikku kōlam, created by looping the dots by a single, continuous line or several lines crossing one another, forming intertwined patterns. These knotted kōlam involves drawing a line looped around a collection of dots (pullis) placed on a plane such that three mandatory rules are followed: all line orbits should be closed, all dots are encircled and no two lines can overlap over a finite length.
The kōlam patterns are one and many things intertwined, exemplifying geometrical symmetry, precision and an understanding of the complex, interconnected existence of human beings with nature and the cosmos. Kōlam patterns have been referred to as labyrinth ritual(Layard 1937), ethomathematics( Ascher 1991), as materialisation and embodiment of rhythms (Laine 2013), visual ethnographs , infographics( Abraham and Chacko 2017) and as designs overlapping narration, metaphor, philosophy, religion and community culture by different researchers. Academic research interest in kōlam borders social anthropology, community interaction, functional mathematics, gender aesthetics and identity.
Kōlam variants
Some of the prominent kōlam types are listed below:
1. Kōlam made during important festivals and religious celebrations
· Kōlam on Pongal: Pongal is the harvest festival of Tamil Nadu celebrated during the month of Margali/Margazhi (the ninth month of the traditional Tamil Calender that extends from mid-December to mid-January, considered as the most auspicious).Tamilians offer thanks to the environment which helped in the harvest. Therefore, the Kōlam done on this day is around chullah( stove) in the kitchen also and they make a figure of Surya, sugarcane or kalash. The figure of Surya is also made on this day symbolising the beginning of Uttarayan. Rice powder is generally used to create Kōlam on this occasion.
· Kōlam on Janmashtami-/Gokulashtami :On this festive occasion, a large Kōlam on the entrance is made to celebrate the birth of Krishna, the eight avatar (incarnation) of Lord Vishnu. Alongside motifs of little footsteps are also made from entrance to the place of worship in the house. It denotes the footprints of Lord Bal Krishna entering the house. A large kōlam is also made in the worshipping room of the house.
· Kōlam on Deepawali: Usually a big Kōlam is made with rice powder along with Kaavi (brick red powder, used as a border for enclosing the Kolam, believed to prevent evil spirits from entering the house), Yellow Mud or other powdered ingredients. The most popular motif is the lamp and lotus.
· Kōlam on special occasions –vrats( sacred vows) :There are also some rarely done kōlams, such as the navagraha kōlams, which are done only in front of household shrines, and only on special occasions.
2. Kōlam made during specific events in the family
· Kōlam on Birth- Thottil Kolam- On the naming ceremony of the newborn child this kōlam is made. The paddy (rice bundle) is kept in the middle of the Kolam. Then a song is sung which prays for the good health and long life of the child.
· Kōlam on Marriage- Manai /Kanya Kolam-The Kōlam made on this occasion is usually large and intricate. Kōlam experts in the family lay the main part and the outside portion of the kōlam which were to elongate was done by the other womenfolk. Everybody is involved. A binding. Mostly Rice powder, Rice paste (The paste was prepared by soaking the rice overnight then making a paste of it) is used along with Kaavi and Manjal(Turmeric)
· Kōlam on 13th day ceremony of the departed soul- Kalyana kolam–A very big Kōlam is made in the house on the 13th day of the ceremony of the departed soul. The grih shanti hawan(ritual wherein offerings are made into a consecrated fire) is done. For a year, till the same tithi (date) arrives of the death ceremony no Kōlam is supposed to be made since it is the mourning period.
3. Kōlam on special days of the week and for welcoming friends, family and good spirits
· Kōlam on Friday- Padi Kolam- It is specific Kōlam specially made for Goddess Lakshmi. Friday is very important for Tamilians. Friday is the day for Goddess Lakshmi( the goddess of bounty and prosperity)and the kōlam is made to welcome and invite her into the house.
· Welcoming kolam- Nalvaravu Kōlam-This kōlam is drawn to welcome friends, guests at home or at some other venue to welcome them on some celebration. The elements like lotus, conch, lamp, etc are used in this Kolam.
4. Everyday Kōlam, made as a symbol of auspiciousness , spirituality and prosperity of family members
· Chikku/Sikku (Knot or twisted) kōlam - In this kōlam design the curved lines are made around the dot making an intricate pattern where one can not figure out where the design begins from and where it ends.
· Pulli kōlam -– The kōlam is drawn after putting dots in a grid/matrix. Then as per the choice of the maker the design is made around the dots forming a pattern. A range of kōlam patterns like Kambi (line) kōlam , Neli(curve) kōlam , Kodu (tesselated) kōlam Woda pulli(loop kōlam with hexagonally packed dots) kōlam, Ner pulli (loop kōlam with square-packed dots) can be created.
Significance of kōlam
There are multiple interpretations of the ritual, symbolic and cultural significance of kōlam. When Tamil women are asked why they perform this daily ritual of drawing the kōlam, they give various reasons.
Most say they draw the kōlam to honour, invite, welcome, host and express gratitude to particular gods and goddesses –Bhudevi(representing the earth, soil, and sacred geography) , Lakshmi(→ Shri Lakshmi , Goddess of wealth , prosperity , good fortune, good health, and good luck) , Surya (→ Sun god , God of good health and wisdom) and Ganesha (→ Ganapati/Ganeśa , the elephant-headed god, who is considered to be the remover of obstacles.). The kōlam acts as a visual device to remember and ask for forgiveness for walking, stepping and burdening her (Nagarajan 1998a, 1998b, Nelson). It is also believed that the kolam is performed to fulfill one of the daily obligations of a Hindu household –‘to feed a thousand souls’ (Nagarajan 1998a, 1988b, 2000, 2001).
Interestingly, the kōlam is also drawn to banish the evil - Mūdevī, Lakshmi’s sister, believed be a fore bringer of poverty, illness, laziness, sleep, and ill luck (Nagarajan, 2012). The absence of a kolam signifies either the household is not Hindu or an inauspicious event like death has occurred in the household.
In that sense the kōlam can be seen as an underlying visual mapping of the auspiciousness and inauspiciousness; ritual purity and ritual pollution for Tamil households in the context of ritual space and time (Nagarajan 2007). For instance, the kōlam is not drawn during the three days of menstruation cycle and 12 to 13 days after the death of a close family member or close kin (Nagarajan 2012).
Besides, the ritual resonance, there are a host of other layered meanings ascribed to the kolam. It is considered as a matter of pride and satisfactions for Tamil Hindu women to be able to draw the traditional one-curve kolam in one go rather than in pieces. Traditionally, Kolam skills are considered as a sign of the talent and prowess of a woman in her capacity as the proprietor of the household. During the sacred Margazhi month women compete with one another in a spirit of playful competition in the various Kolam contests organized in cities, towns and villages in Tamil Nadu (see images and video of the Mylapore Kolam contest).
From the point of ethnomathematics, Kolam is known to have ‘embedded mathematical properties’ that a range of mathematicians have attempted to decode (Asher 1991, 2002; Siromney 1974, 1985; Subramanian 2006; Prusinkiewicz & Hanan 1980; among others). In the making of Kolam all the six categories of mathematical skills: counting, locating (identifying), measuring, designing, playing (experimenting) and explaining are involved (Bishop 1988). In order to be able to make a perfect design, the women need to keep a count of vertices, the numbers of curves and the points at which the curves or lines meet.
Scholars have also explored the relationship of kolam with ecology (see allied article 1 and video –Ecological connect in kolam’) (Nagarajan 1998, 2000, 2001b), gender (see allied article 2) (Dohmen 2001) and the symbolic mapping of the cosmos (Beck 1976).
Thus the practice of Kolam is a truly diverse and experiential one that can be fully appreciated only when seen from the wide perspective of everyday life.
References
Nagarajan, Vijaya. 2012. ‘Raṅgolī and Kōlam’. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Edited by: Knut A. Jacobsen, Helene Basu, Angelika Malinar, Vasudha Narayanan.
Nagarajan, V. R. 2007. ‘Threshold designs, forehead dots, and menstruation rituals: Exploring time and space in Tamil kolams’. Women’s lives, women’s rituals in the Hindu tradition. 85-105.
Dohmen, R. 2004. The home in the world: Women, threshold designs and performative relations in contemporary Tamil Nadu, South India. Cultural Geographies 11, 7-25.
Siromoney, G., R. Siromoney and K. Krithivasan. 1974. Array grammars and kolam. Computer Graphics and Image Processing 3. 63-82.
Further reading
Gilsdorf ,Thomas E. 2015. ‘Gender, culture and ethnomathematics.’ Published in Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Mathematics Education and Society (MES-8) Edited by Swapna Mukhopadhyay. Brian Greer.
Alaine M. Low, S. T. (2001). Women as Sacred Custodians of the Earth? Women, Spirituality and the Environment. New York: Berghahn Books.
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