Kolam

A Kolam ( Tamil: கோலம் Kolam ), Kalam malayalam, telugu Muggu, is a most centrally symmetric pattern that make many women in South India daily with white or colored rice flour at the entrance of her house.

Religious Background

Especially vivid is this Hindu custom in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Even in temples are Kolams - also women - freshly applied at locations that are used ritually (eg in the Minakshi Temple ). The auspicious downright blessing function of these motifs, which very likely has ancient roots and is to bring well with the known from other cultures maze designs in conjunction, is evidenced by the fact.

Production

The area is first cleaned with water and cow dung. Is then applied with rice flour, a number of points around which is entwined a continuous line attached. Here, the artist has the white flour between your thumb and forefinger trickle down. It also kolams without a dot grid and in different colors to run. In the temple, a tape dispenser was observed with the several parallel lines can be applied simultaneously in order to produce rapidly the complex subject with the approaching procession can. There are seemingly an infinite number of variants, each woman has a considerable repertoire handed down. Each day of the week and every holiday to be associated with specific designs. Originally from the Hindu culture, can be found in more recent times, occasionally, Kolams with Christian themes such as cross and candles. Even ornaments on a wall, which are painted with durable color, may belong to the type Kolam.

Importance

In the original sense Kolams should also promote mental disciplines, such as contemplation and concentration. This exerted by women art has a complex meaning. Thus one often interprets the points as symbols for the tasks of life, while the ornate lines represent the Yatra ( pilgrimage ), the life's journey. Other load with their Kolams a the Naga serpent deities, which are then exert their protective, luck and fruchtbarkeitverheißende force for the residents. The defense destructive influences is necessarily to be regarded as a primary function of the Kolam. The morning renewing the images belongs to many women today of the daily chores, others only take on holidays this time. Beautiful, complex Kolams are considered an expression of the skill and discipline of the woman.

Kerala

In Kerala, a Kalam is made in the ritual dramas Mutiyettu and Ayyappan tiyatta, which represents the deity for the duration of the performance. In a final act of protagonist destroys the portrait. The paint residues are collected and given to the faithful as prasadam ( beneficent gift ).

Another type of floor art is the Pukkalam provided with flowers in Kerala or Rangoli in northern India.

Mathematics

Mathematically, the Kolams describe lattice languages ​​as they developed venom Siromoney for example, the Indian mathematician. By means of these operations, it is possible to describe a Kolam so that a computer can trace it. The method Siromoneys makes for a branch of graph theory fruitful.