This post is a curation of kolam and rangoli pictures I have clicked on the streets of Tamil Nadu during the month of Margazhi culminating in Pongal / Sankranti. The designs are typically made with dots and filled with colored rangoli powder.
We’d been to Trichy for the Pongal weekend. Pongal marks a new beginning and end of margazhi – a month I fondly remember for the huge colorful kolams adorning the streets. There was a time when I used to leave for school on my cycle a few minutes early, a few minutes to revel in new color combos and twists to age-old rangolis.
The dexterity with which the ladies draw kolams never ceases to amaze me; it seems so easy but you realise the intricacies only when you soil your hands with colors. The perfect intersection of lines and the angled curves comes with years of practice.
It’s not just about colorful kolams – a wide array of colors complement each other beautifully – be it huge bunches of orange turmeric, white mango ginger, stacks and stacks of black sugar canes, or the greenish white bouquets of teeny tiny neem flowers. They all come together.
Beautiful Pongal Kolam Designs With Dots
Rangoli Designs For Pongal
The primary difference between rangoli and kolam is that the former is drawn freehand without dots. There are stencil prints readily available that can be repeated to create intricate patterns or you can replicated this kind of a rangoli using a traditional kozhakola – which is a cylindrical tube in which the rangoli powder can be filled and rolled flat to create a design of your choice. The tube has pre-designed and cut holes in it.
