Imagine this scenario. The lavishly decorated homes and establishments shine brightly of radiant colours forged from the bewildering lights and colourful streamers. The once matt charcoal sky was soon taken over by an array of vivid and spectacular booms made by vibrant fireworks, exploding thunderously that dimmed the stars. A quick glance at the picturesque view at the parade of illuminations could only mean one thing. That special time of the year was approaching. A unique occasion to celebrate triumph over evil and lights over darkness, the joyous celebration that is Deepavali. 

On one of the most recognised festivals found within Indian culture, one of the most popular decorations used are kolam designs. The Tamil term “kolam”, which means ‘beauty’, refers to a piece of floor art typically made with white stone powder and is used for ornamental or ceremonial designs during traditional festivities. At times, it is mixed with rice flour to achieve smoothness when illustrating the design. Rangoli, a variation of this floor art, is a free-flowing art which encourages the artist to unleash their creative spirit while kolam designs are geometric in most cases and are constructed with dots. 

The tradition of painting a kolam is believed to have originated from 5,000 years ago during the pre-Aryan period. Back in the olden days, people have adapted a unique way of creating a suitable canvas to draw the design on. For starters, this was done by creating a thick paste, primarily made of cow dung and water, to spread onto the muddy floor. This was to help create a smooth yet damp surface so that the design will withstand longer and also to provide a shining contrast for the white powder being used. 

The act of designing a kolam right outside the entrance is to welcome Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity, into the home and also represents as a sign of welcome to anyone entering the establishment. It is also believed to drive away any evil spirits. Traditionally, these motifs were made using edible grains, naturally coloured dyes or with just rice flour so that any hungry insects and birds can feed on the edible granules. The secondary purpose of the kolam is to add aesthetic value to the home. Creating the kolam is usually done by women, as it is considered the responsibilities for the females to maintain the household. In India, girls were required to learn the act of creating a design at a young age. The females would have to bend their waist and knees, stretching her arms and legs and upper torso to draw out the kolam. Philosophically, the bending of the body symbolizes humility. 

Spiritually, the artist has to silently concentrate on her creation, as if meditating. During festival season, the kolam has become so focused on the deity being worshipped where it could almost take up hours to finalize the creation. There is a myriad of kolam designs that exist, with each of the designs that has an attached meaning to it. Thottil kolams, for instance, are created to signify that there is a newborn baby in the household during the naming ceremony. 

Kolam design 1: I hopped onto the web and did some kolam searching. There were a lot to choose from, but I finally settled with this particular one. What caught my eye about this specific design was the selection of colours they chose as the shades of pink and green complemented each other well. I initially started off with a more difficult design but halfway completing it, I realised that I wasn’t really taking my time to sketch it nicely and the lines that connected with the other parts of the design were hard to ensure that it was even in size in terms of length and thickness. The overall sketch I drew was not uniform as some parts were bigger or smaller than others. Hence, this design seemed like a relatively simple one to start off with. 

Kolam design 2: I wanted to try out something a bit more challenging than the first design I tried out, so I kept scrolling the list to search for one that had a lot more strokes and curves. I stumbled across this particular one after a few minutes of scrolling. I tried to choose one that did not involve a lot of straight lines as I wanted to try out something more that revolved more towards curves and swirls. 

Kolam design 1: I spent a good half an hour trying to make any necessary alterations to ensure that each of the individual elements of the design were uniform in terms of size and thickness. I also found out that working in complete silence was the key to greater concentration as listening to music while working did tend to distract me by quite a fair amount. Overall, the design was not entirely hard to draw, and I hardly encountered any pitfalls. 

Kolam design 2: The first difficulty I encountered were the seven petals that surrounded located in the centre which were surrounded by two little circles. To me, it seemed easy at first glance, but it was rather troublesome to say the least. I eventually solved this issue by using a ruler to measure the width and length of each of the petals. I also used it to ensure that each of them had the same distance from each other. The huge droplets that surround the inner ‘flower’ were also quite hard to draw. I had to take on multiple attempts as either the size did not match the others or that it looked fairly deformed. 

Kolam design 1: Around two and a half hours 

Kolam design 2: Around three hours and ten minutes 

Kolam design 1: The design certainly lacked a great capacity of bright colours. I could have made great use of colour pencils or paint to colour in my design in order to make my piece match the design I referenced. Otherwise, I also had the choice to take on my own approach and used another colour scheme. I also wished that the kolam could have been drawn on a bigger sheet of paper as the design would have looked more captivating and on top of that, it is hard to compare what I drew to the original design since it is much bigger. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the design I created but there is definitely room for improvement. 

Kolam design 2: I did not have space to add in the little daisies as my large droplet shapes were too wide in size. I also wished that the heart-like shapes connected to the large droplets as I did not manage to replicate that specific part. I also wished that I could have used red and yellow colours in my design, but I unfortunately did not have any colour pencils or paint, so it was not possible. Overall, I am really happy that I managed to complete this design but definitely will take a bit more practice in order to make my piece match the original design. 

To sum my overall thoughts, I was genuinely happy that I got an opportunity to take on this article. As a person who does not celebrate Deepavali, I was still glad that I was able to pick up a better understanding of kolam culture and gain interesting insights of how it was brought about from the olden eras up until now. I certainly now have a lot of respect for those that take their own precious time to create such a beautiful design. Coming from personal experience, it does require a lot of concentration and technique, accompanied with a combination of patience and practice. If I had really had the chance, I would love to sit down with someone who professionally designs kolams to enquire more about what each of the designs represents, how important it is to them and especially how was their experience like at first when learning the art of making kolam. It has definitely changed my way of viewing a kolam design whenever I see one outdoors at a shopping mall or on the streets. Rather than seeing the bigger picture, I feel it is important to notice the little intricate details they added, and also the creativity and the thought that was put into the design. 

Happy Deepavali and hope you guys have a good one this year!