Kolam by Sudha Balaji

Kolam can also be drawn with mandala as a theme (one of the meanings is round or circle -  rangoli is commonly referred to as mandala in some countries).   Drawing a circle (or a near circular shape) without using a piece of chalk tied to a thread comes with practice.   As I often say, in rangoli practice may not make us perfect but can reduce the number of mistakes.  Margazhi kolam drawn during the month of Margazhi including Pongal kolam (aka Sankranti muggulu ) is the great time  when we see big and bright and different types of designs. It is easy to draw a free hand mandala or rangoli if we draw a baisc floral petal pattern as the centre. Invariably in rangoli the length of the petals are almost the same except for slight differences  so that we can join the edges of the petals to form a circular pattern.   After all, a circle is a polygon with infinite sides (Credit - my children!   Whenever I refer to geometry in Rangolisansdots cred...

Freehand plain rangolis are relatively simple and one should find them easy to draw with practice. Rangoli that are drawn on a daily basis are generally without dots and there are some competitions that permit only white rangoli images to be drawn without any colourful decorations so that judges  have an idea of the intricacy with which a rangoli was drawn ( because it is possible to cover-up some mistakes done during drawing a rangoli with colours added ).   People who are aware of the culture of Tamil Nadu will know that kolam is daily in the morning and in the evening ( we can see two or more kolam designs also at the entrance of some houses and invariably they are drawn plain with white rangoli powder. Kolam designs like padi kolam , sikku designs and arisi maavu ( rice flour paste ) are drawn plain and at the most decorated with a red border in case of auspicious occasions.    Hence plain rangoli design are very important for learning rangoli, practi...