Rangoli is a traditional art of decorating courtyards and walls of Indian houses, places of worship and sometimes eating places as well.
Traditionally they are painted or created out of coloured sand/rice powder. A symmetrical design or picture is drawn and coloured rice powder/sand is then layered on top to form
a picture. A symmetrical design like the one opposite can be drawn on paper or card and then decorated by children with crumpled tissue paper. Also sand could be used, mixed with paint or coloured with food colourings.
In a traditional household, the lady of the house starts her daily chores with purifying herself, drawing some Rangoli lines in front of the pooja room and the tulsi. Her regular routine begins after this ritual. With this, her entire day remains fresh and lively. How to create the rangoli?
Choose a design that you want to draw. You may find designs from books and magazines or you may try to create your own design. Rangoli designs are symmetrical in nature and geometric in shape.
If you want to try out a design of your own, first draw it on a piece of paper and fill in the design with coloured sketch pens to get an idea about how the rangoli will look.
Wipe the floor (where you want to create the rangoli) with a wet cloth and wait for the area to dry.
With a piece of chalk, first draw the outline of the rangoli design.
Now it's time to fill in the outline with rangoli powder, the most challenging part of the whole exercise. Pick up some powder with your thumb and index finger and fill in the design by rubbing the two fingers together and sprinkling the powder on the floor. Take care to sprinkle the powder carefully, don't let powders of two different colours merge with each other.
You may create spaces within the rangoli design to place diyas. You could also use flower petals of different colours (golden marigolds, bright red roses) to add that extra dimension to your design.
With a little bit of imagination, a dash of aesthetic sense and dollops of patience, you can create a piece of art that will add lots of colour to your diwali celebrations.
