Kolam is pride of the house in Tamil Nadu. Ladies here have competition within themselves about whose kolam is biggest in their neighborhood. Before it was just a big pulli kolam but these days they are coloring it with various colors. Colors are also considered in the competition. The kolam are drawn with the help of all the ladies of the house even small girls put their effort. It has become a biggest part of our culture. Usually drew the kolam as big as the road.
The center of the kolam is six petaled flower. Star encompasses the flower design. Star is surrounded by buds of flower which forms a hexagonal shape.Front face of lotus and flower design surrounds it. Lotus faces outside and flower towards the center. Overall shape of the design is also hexagonal. It can be drawn as a rangoli too with the help of colors. Dots are used as guidance to draw this floral kolam.
This kolam comes under the category of dots kolam, flower kolam, pulli kolam, star kolam and lotus kolam. It is proportional; and is symmetrical. It has balance.
Kolam or rangoli is design made by common house wives. We call them home maker and they were true to the name. Am an interior designer pursuing education. But truly they did all jobs of a interior designer, house keeping, baby sitting, cooking and what not. They were all multitasking and handled it all very well. They were also very observant of everything around them. Mainly nature inspired them.
Our ancestors were very close to nature. They studied them from very less distance than we do. Water bodies were much attractive to them as they usually lived near water bodies to fulfill their water needs. Thus, Lotus and water lilies became part of their floral designs. This rangoli design consist of flowers and lotus.
The center of the design is six petaled swastik shaped flower. Surrounded with vines with flowers and leaves. Further surrounded with big swastik flowers and lotuses. The overall shape of the kolam is hexagonal. It comes under the category of flower kolam, pulli kolam, dots kolam, apartment kolam, lotus kolam and festival kolam. One should not forget ones culture whatever the reason.
"A woman should be like a single flower, not a whole bouquet"- Anna Held.
"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life"- Jean Giraudoux.
Floral design goes naturally with exteriors. Flowers are most colorful and beautiful part of plants. Many plants are grown just for their flowers. These flowers are used to ecorate rangoli or kolam in many areas of our country. Flowers are also used as accessories by woman and a sign of respect in temples.
This kolam or rangoli as you can see uses floral motifs. It is drawn using dots as the guidance. These dots are first placed and then the pattern is drawn over it. This like solving a puzzle and is meant to help problem solving in ladies. That is another reason the kolam or rangoli should be given importance.
Like other folk arts of India which is getting famous in other countries, this should also become known to all. It’s the best way to create puzzles and solving it. The process gave flexibility and good posture to backbone. It was traditionally drawn with rice which fed insects. See how thoughtful our ancestors were. Kolam or Rangoli has so deep meanings to it. And it beautifully decorated our houses. It was drawn even inside the house in mud houses. White color on d earthly tones is very attractive.
Flora and fauna are the mostly used motifs in early art works. Deer is an adorable animal. There are many songs and stories related to deer in Indian literature. Even in the Hindu literature 'Ramayanam' there is a part were Seeta sees a golden deer and asks Ram to catch it for her. And parrot is something which is related to deities for a long time. Madurai Meenakshi temple had many parrots when I was a kid. Most of them used to repeat what they heard.
The center of the kolam design is a shell flower. The petals of the petals look like the tail part of sangu. Parrots sitting on small red flower suround the central design. In its beak we can see another small flower. Deer and lotus flower form the last layer of the kolam.
There is symmetry in the design. Kolam is made with formal balance. The overall shape of the design is hexagonal. The colors are well balanced. It made with the guidance of dots and colored to form a rangoli. This kolam comes under the category of animal kolam, bird kolam, deer kolam, flower kolam, parrot kolam, lotus kolam, rangoli and other kolam.
Lamp or deepam is sign of light which drives away darkness. Lotus motifs are mostly seen in traditional Indian paintings. The flower in the center is shell like and in bit different shade than that of all others. There is a green color star that encloses the central design.
Center is a shell like flower. There is a traditional shape as the base of central flower. The under base is a green star. Lamps on the vertex of the star stands triangular structure. Inner vertex there are small beautiful pink lotus flowers. Design is completed by flowers surrounding it.
Overall shape of the design is hexagonal in shape. It comes in the category of Kathigai deepam kolam, Lamp kolam, Lotus kolam, Flower kolam and other kolam. The design is well balanced both color wise and symmetrically. There is contrast in this design as well as emphasis in it.
