Kolam: Beautiful Drawings in India

Continuing with our series on Myths and Legends,  India Country Manager Stephen Raja talks about Kolam, a  tradition of making beautiful drawings in India. 

What does yoga have to do with drawing? And what does drawing have to with prosperity? According to the Hinduism, a lot. India Country Manager Stephen Raja explains this:

If you walk through the streets of South India in the morning, you will see many beautiful drawings in the ground in front of houses. Although the drawings are based on simple dots and lines, you may find many complex and colorful drawings that include animals, flowers, and many other religious and magical motifs.

It is the women who make the beautiful drawings in India

These beautiful pieces of art are made by the women in India. As the day goes by, the drawings disappear since they are made with flour, chalk or some sort of powder. But that is no problem as many Indian women wake up early in the morning and make these drawing every day. Do they just want their houses to look beautiful in the mornings? Thy do, but Kolam has nothing to do with this. Kolam isn’t really about decorations but about prosperity.

Indian woman making a Kolam drawing with chalk.

Why would they do that?

Many Hindus believe that goddess Lakshmi (goddess of money) passes by your street everyday early in the morning. If she sees a beautiful drawing in front of your house (Kolam), she will walk into your house. If she walks in, then being the goddess of money she will bring in prosperity to your house.

Wait a minute. . .

That is all nice, but why would they make a drawing that fades away everyday? Why don’t they just make a permanent drawing and enjoy prosperity everyday? That is a great observation. Stephen will explain this on the next post.