About Rangoli Art

What is Rangoli?

Rangoli is a hindi word. The term is derived from words: rang (colour) and aavalli (row ) so rangoli is row of colours.It is one of the most popular and traditional art forms in India. It is not much known to the other countries . Traditionally, Rangoli is drawn usually in front of the house - doorway and around a holy plant tulsi (basil) on holy occasions and festivals (specially Deepawali). It is daily practice to draw some rangoli in front of the doors in south India.It uses different natural and synthetic mediums and colours(marble,sand,grains,sawdust,flowers etc.)

History of Rangoli

The origin of rangoli painting is traced to a legend recorded in the Chitralakshana, the earliest Indian treatise on painting. When the son of a King's high priest died, Brahma(Lord of the universe) asked the king to paint the likeness of the boy so that Brahma could breathe life into him again.It is believed that the first painting was made in this way.

The Chola rulers made extensive use of floor paintings. These floor paintings are known by different names in different parts of the country;Aalpana in Bengal, Madana in Rajasthan, Rangoli in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, Chowkpurana in Uttar Pradesh, Muggu in Aandhrapradesh and kolam in Kerala,Tamilnadu and Pondicherry . In Buddhist Mandalas, the reason for using powder or sand as a medium for creating rangoli is sometimes thought to be a metaphor for the impermanence of life and maya.

Rangoli patterns

The designs of rangoli generally includes geometrical patterns, with lines, dots, squares, circles, triangles; the swastika, lotus,fish, footprints (supposed to be of goddess Lakshmi), leaves, trees, flowers and animals.The colours used are derived from natural dyes (from leaves, indigo etc.) as well as synthetic dyes.The materials used for rangoli take on either a flat appearance, when a uniform monolayer of powders are sprinkled or three dimensional effect when different sized grains like cereals, pulses etc are used. For detailed work, generally the material is a coarse grained powder base into which colors are mixed.Coarse powder is used so that it can be gripped well and sprinkled with good control. The base can be sandstone powder, marble dust, saw dust or other materials. The colors generally are very fine pigment podwers like gulal/aabir available for Holi festival or colors specially sold for rangoli. Various day to day colored powders like indigo used for cloth staining, spices like turmeric,chilli, rice flour, flour of wheat etc. can be used. Powder colors can be simply mixed into the base or sometimes water is used to mix the colours & sandstone powder and then dried.Some fine filter mash (those used for flour or tea )is used to extarct the fine rangoli powder .Some artists can make the Rangoli which looks like a painting/ poster.(see the rangoli paintings in another post).Sprinkling powder by hand is a very laborious and difficult process but it gives immense pleasure to the artist after the completion of rangoli painting.