Kolam by Sudha Balaji

  Mother's Day is as important as Women's Day.   The thousands of rangoli designs I have shared in this blog I owe them to my mother.    She was an expert in free hand rangoli.  She drew very big rangolis with and without dots particularly for Sankranthi.  She lived in a town called Vijayanagaram near Vishakapattinam.   Pedda Panduga as she called Sankranti was very important to her. She was very much fond of double stroke rangoli.   For those who are following me on social media like Blogger, YouTube and Instagram may have noticed I also love double line rangoli designs.  In fact I share only a few of them because it may not be easy for many particularly for those who want to learn this simple Indian art .  So for Mother's Day I have shared a parallel line rangoli with and without colours.  In fact, this was also one of her favourite designs.                   Double strok...

9 dots Sankranti pot rangoli designs with dots  | Pongal panai kolam | pot , sugarcane , sun designs Margazhi is also important due to the fact that the English New Year falls in this month and the month ends with Sankranti.  Since our family lives in Tamil Nadu, we are lucky because we celebrate the English New Year, adi (New Year celebrated in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra)   and of course the Tamil New Year.    On the new year's eve we find many rangolis  big and small welcoming the new year.   The words "Welcome 2" or "Happy New Year " will  be written on the periphery of many Margazhi rangoli heralding the arrival of  " Puthaandu ( New Year ) ".  Margazhi ends with Sankranti celebrations.  It is celebrated for four days in Tamil Nadu.  The first day is  Bhogi,  2nd  day is Thai Pongal,  3rd day is Maattu Pongal and the 4th day is Kaanum Pongal .    Apart from  othe...

Double stroke or parallel line kolam are a beautiful variety of kolam  ( kolam itself means beauty ) that can be tried for a different type of New Year kolam The rangoli below the first in this series of parallel lines has a design with many curved arms terminating in simple motifs.   The circumference of the rangoli has simple designs that represent birds!.  Drawing birds can be made so simple.  Since this post is devoted only for plain rangolis colours have not been used on any of the designs. These double like kolam designs either with white lines and colours filled inside or drawn with colour kolapodi can be drawn for occasions like weddings, festivals like Navratri, Diwali or Varlakshmi Vratham. The second design is also one that I will use quite often in the early stages of Rangoli-sans-dots.  It has a floral design evolved from a central pattern expanded with petals.  The design is completed with semicircular petals decorated with spiral designs al...

White rangoli - double line kolam Rangolis adorn our home .  Thousands of designs are possible. Rangolis without dots is my style. Rangoli-sans-dots will focus primarily on free hand rangolis without dots for all auspicious occasions, pooja rooms, mantaps and festivals like Navrathri, Dussehra , Diwali, Sankranti (Pongal).  Most Indians believe drawing of rangolis in homes is auspicious.   This is the first post in Rangoli-sans-dots. More plain rangolis are in plain free hand rangoli , free hand plain rangolis  and   Rangoli literally means rows of colours and hence they are expected to be colourful.   However we cannot totally avoid plain designs (without colour) and hence I will post only a few.    Rangoli-sans-dots has arrived.  It was born on an auspicious day.  It had been there in my mind for a long time. The form and nature could not be decided.   I am thankful to my family members for making it a reality, fo...