8 pulli 8 varisai kolam 8 dots muggulu

What is kolam - Kolam means beauty, beauty due to symmetry.  The opposite of kolam means not in order, haphazard.   Hence kolam means in order, symmetry etc.  Neli kolam category and symmetry are synonymous.

When you view a nelivu kolam (one of the many names for this variety of rangoli - called melikala muggulu in Telugu, gantina rangoli in Kannada) from any direction you will find symmetry -

 it can be bilateral or quadrilateral and sometimes radial too in circular designs. There may be software for creating kolam particularly sikku kolangal, since I understand that there is Mathematics involved in this type.

Frankly, I do not know the Math part to draw or create this art, I would request anyone making the software to ensure that the patterns produced strike a chord with the awesomeness of the art. 

Let us start this post with a sikku kolam with 8 pulli first 

chikku kolam simple or made simple 

We can draw it for weekdays (Monday to Thursday, except Friday).  I do not draw these on Fridays.  There is no specific reason.  

sikku kambi kolam

Next kolam is also a 8 dots sikku kolam , seems easy but can be a bit tricky and demands lots of concentration like almost all kolangal of this type

 

medium size sikku kolam

old sikku kolam

After sikku kolangal let us try a regular dot kolam with 8 dots 

medium size rangoli designs

Since I do not draw chikku kolam on Fridays, in Pooja rooms or for Tulsi plant.  I also do not draw them for festivals except Pongal. Hence, I do not draw God sikku kolam or Gopuram sikku kolam too.

Step by step pictures for this pulli vacha kolam - an eight dots rangoli 

medium size kolam with dots

Chukki rangoli with square dot pattern 

medium size muggulu

 We all love to draw birds.  The beauty of kolam is that we do not draw them exactly but only a representation.  The way they are presented as birds depends upon our imagination.

 What is more important is that simple designs are sufficient to represent the birds.  As usual add colour to enhance the beauty.  Please use it as a daily kolam or for festivals like New Year, Pongal 

It is ten years since I started to blog on kolam, I have shared lots of kolangal.  In 2012, that is the first few months after commencing to blog, I shared 40 plus colourful muggulu in the post Margazhi kolam collection. 

 

 There were colourful designs before and after that too.  Adding colours takes a lot of time.  Imagine how much time I must have taken to colour 40 plus kolam .

  Of course, it was not done in one day.  It was done whenever I had time, the photos were taken and stored and added to the draft post before publishing on one fine day before the commencement of Dhanurmasam.

So, this and many other posts are with white muggulu only.  Please feel free to have a look at my older posts and probably a few newer posts where colour kolam designs are available. This bird muggu can also be made colourful.  What are birds without colours :)

Let me add one more image for an 8 dots rangoli easy and beautiful.  No intermediate steps have been added since it is quite simple.  Since lamp patterns have been provided it can be used for Karthigai Deepam.

Beautiful rangoli Karthigai Deepam kolam