Kolam Culture

For the past one month all the houses in West Mambalam

had a colourful frontage. I was enjoying the creativity

of women while passing through those streets.

Having been brought up in a house with spacious frontage

kolam drawing was a daily ritual, contesting with all women

in the family.Girls from the age of four or five were

trained in kolam.During temple processions when deities are taken out

through residential streets, we used to draw very big kolam

sometimes dashing through the kolam of the opposite house.

Drawing imaginary border lines was an interesting affair.

We may be under the wrong impression that drawing kolam

started from vedic age.We are wrong.

There is no reference to the kōlam either in the Tamil word-lists

(called Nigandus), Tamil literature, in ancient paintings or in any

travellers' account.

Contrary to popular belief, the common threshold patterns are not

very ancient. The practice of decorating the floor may go back to about

six hundred years and not more. A few designs may be traced to the Jain

temples of South Kanara and at least one to Mahayana Buddhism…

In Tamil literature the use of the word kōlam for drawing patterns on

the floor is met with for the first time in a Kuravanji called Madurai

Meenatchiammai Kuram and a little later in Kutrala Kuravanji.

These works relate to 16th or 17th century only.


However some geometric patterns, yantra or Tantric designs that

are used in kōlam are of quite ancient origin and have a reference in Vedic texts.

Though the word kōlam appears several times in ancient Tamil Sangam literature,

it does not convey the meaning of what we say as kolam .The word is used

with the meaning of disguise,play, beauty, form etc.

In some of the inscriptions of Tirunelvel district

it is mentioned that the threshold of homes should not be left blank;

they should be filled with ritual designs,

An opportunity to draw kolam within the prakaram of the temple

was a boastful event.Completion of a design covering nearly 300 s.ft

was a task in itself.During week long festivals kolam insired everybody.

During summer festival of Pancha Prakaram

of Thiruvanaikoil some ten or 15 girls formed a team to discuss

about various designs in different prakaramsAn entire week was spent for the activity..

The main job went to the expert Mami.

. Each day before dawn, during the Brahma muhurtam

(believed to be the time when Brahma and all other deities

descend to the earth) and sometimes before dusk, millions of women in

the town, villages and the cities of South IndiaTamil Nadu draw kōlam on

the thresholds and floors of houses, temples and businesses.

In Tamil culture, the threshold is of great significance .

If you observe closely, the kōlam patterns are drawn deftly by women

with the tips of their fingers using pinches of flour held between

the thumb and the first finger and letting the powder fall in a

continuous line by moving the hand in desired directions .

The process involves concentration, memory and a series of disciplined

hand and body movements.

On the face of it, the patterns appear quite simple,

but it takes years of practice and training to master the complex Kōlams.

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 making and getting lost is repeated as a rhythm, wherein

fresh patterns are made as old ones get lost in some moment of the day.

Kōlam is also more geometrical and involves an intrinsic mathematical

aptitude as compared to Rangoli or other popular floor art traditions.

Many kolams are based on Fibonacci series, algebraic and numeric principles.

Kōlam epitomizes geometrical properties of symmetry, periodicity/repetition,

recursion and rhythm though the rustic village women,

why even the educated ones, do not know the science Most kōlam

patterns frequently include the use of concepts from calculus and

applied mathematics. But women do it as REFLEX ACTION.


For special occasions to make the kōlam hold longer, the rice flour is made

wet by adding water. A small cloth piece folded over (or a paper towel) is

dipped into the liquid rice paste and placed between the thumb,

the forefinger, and the middle finger and pressed until

drops of wet white rice flour

pours through the front end of the three fingers. The kōlam is created,

almost as if the fingers were acting as an ink pen. These semi-permanent

kōlams are called mākōlam. Basic geometrical shapes are combined

and overlapped in increasing complex designs to represent particular

forces or qualities embodied in some aspect of creation, evolution or dissolution.


. There are special kolams for various occasions like

Deepavali,Pongal, Janmashtami, New year etc, Birth Days etc

• Kōlam on special occasions–vrats( sacred vows) :There are also

some rarely drawn kōlams, such as the navagraha kōlams, which are

done only in front of household shrines, and only on special occasions.

Kalyana kolams are unique.

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 to

a consecrated fire) is done.

• • 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.

Many kolams can be made out of plus and double plus symbols

and X designs.Unless you see the kolam in process, you cant find out

how the final figure has arrived. Interesting.


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

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 satisfaction

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

proprietrix 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

Kolam displays all the six categories of mathematical skills: counting,

locating (identifying), measuring, designing, playing

(experimenting) and explaining

are involved . 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.


Though physically at the age of 81,I am not able to sit at

a place to draw large kolams, I am able to put it in writing.

Practically I took a longer time to write an essay

rather than to depict a kolam of the largest size of 15 ftx 15ft.

Kolam is really a grand KOLAM ( BEAUTIFUL SIGHT)

Jayasala 42