Flour paintings (Rangoli)
Southern, India
In southern India, one of the morning chores for women is decorating their steps, porches, and walkways with patterns made by dribbling rice flour. These are very ephemeral patterns, that will hardly last the day. Yet they are marvelous art.
Share your story
Naina Marbus writes:
This is a picture of the early-morning routine in front of every home in southern India. Refer to the following website for more details about this practice:
http://www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/articles/02articles/Ascher.html
Tripti Bhaskaran writes:
The art the lady stoops down to put is called Rangoli, a popular art genrally seen in Southern Inida but also has some variations in other parts of India.
Genrally the lady of the house will wake up early in the morning and sweep the area in front of the main door of the house and apply some simple designs. This is considerd like a welcome to the Gods to your home and its best to give it respect and not tramp on it by mistake.
Usually white chalk is used but during festivals more elaborate and colourful designs are also made.
They are very easy to apply and genrally the experts take less than 5 minutes. Most young girls are trained from their childhood in the art of Rangoli application
Ramkumar writes:
Rangoli is an art which has different names in different languages. (In tamilnadu it is called Kolam.) Usually "Kola Maavu" ( Rangoli Powder) will be used to put these patterns in the front of the house. But on special occasions (like Festivals) rice flour will be used to draw this so that the ants and other insects which live in the doorstep and adjacent areas can make that as their food.