Kolam Designs & Rangoli Patterns

[m1thr0s]

This is a traditional east-indian art form I just recently found out about. One of my own magickal mirror designs reminded a friend of some of the patterns she has seen in India. This appears to be most popular in Southern India where virtually everybody creates these things, partly "protective" talismans, partly festive, partly devotional, but virtually always very geometric in nature...sacred geometry being pretty much the universal theme in these kinds of designs...

First a general definition:
(1): Kolam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolam)
(2): Rangoli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangoli)

and a few sample links displaying popular paterns:
• kolam dot patterns (http://www.ikolam.com/node/496) (includes some flash presentations)
• kolam & rangoli patterns (http://www.sysindia.com/kolam/index.html)
• more advanced kolam designs (http://www.blueavatar.com/Kolam/Designs/ImageSelector.php)

I find this all very interesting from a number of different angles. To begin with it is fascinating to me that such a rich tradition might already exist in India that here in the west we know virtually nothing about. I find it interesting that what we might typically call sacred geometry is very much at the root of this art form. I find it interesting that the creation of these designs is already understood as a form of meditation invested with magickal properties. This is a very fundamental form of "magickal mirror" work as I have defined it in other places...nearly completely off of our radar screens here in the West but already a well-established and highly versatile magickal art form in the East...

m1thr0s

[MythMath]

wow, spiderwebs and swastikas...

I dig the toolessness of the griddots...

Lay down the frame, then weave in the serpents... :yes:

________________________

The weaving in the flash animation reminded me a bit of this:

http://www.etereaestudios.com/docs_html/snakes_htm/snakes_movie_index.htm

[m1thr0s]

yeah...there must be hundreds of thousands of unique patterns developed by now. In India this art form has been typically performed by women. Initially it was purported to be a kind of food offering to the "lowly" creatures of the earth that also helped somewhat keeping them away from preserved food supplies etc...but it has evolved beyond that and now entire families will have their own family Kolam, or "crest" patterns, typically displayed at the front of their homes.

In Tibet we find Thangka art which is very similar to this but more confined to religious iconography, so not as stylized but very intricate and very geometric.

and of couse mandala art generally, follows very similar themes...

m1thr0s

[MythMath]

I like the intended evanescence of the design's daily lifecycle...

Each morning the floor is purified and a fresh image is made...

As the day wears on the kolam wears out...
______________________

And I like the original AntChow angle...

[m1thr0s]

it's all a "weaving" form, really. Some of the patterns are unicursal, others are not. For me this all comes as a kind of reminder how inherently connected to things our own creative instincts very often are, even if we don't know that at the time. I never picked up magickal-mirror working in any book...what book? There's just nothing there on it at all. But I found this form and persisted with it because it just made sense to me on an intuitive-artistic level. Now I begin to see its roots linked all over the planet, coming at me from very ancient times and from all points compass...

Yet, 20 years ago anybody here in the West would have probably called me crazy, misguided, misinformed etc... too weird...

I like this one just for its shear "fractal" qualities...there's a form of Abrahadabra that looks like this flipped 90 degrees...only it would have 11 stars at the base (middle) of course... This one has 36 stars so it corresponds to the Key of Sol (http://www.hermeticfellowship.org/GDRef/Qamea6.html).

http://abrahadabra.com/images/kolam001.jpg

m1thr0s

[MythMath]

I couldn't resist...

Mitsubishi meets the Flower of Life...

,
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q48/MythMath/HEXABRAboard.jpg

[m1thr0s]

lol...that's the one...

man, you're quick MM!

So let's see...that one has 121 stars = 11²

m1thr0s

[Radiant Star]

I couldn't resist...

Mitsubishi meets the Flower of Life...
,

Ah, the Abrahadabra diamond :tbiggrin:

[Radiant Star]

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/kolam.html

My favourite is second one from the bottom.

[m1thr0s]

so...using the dot system it's easy to see you could work with just about any arrangement of dots that interested you and construct...not one...but a potentially infinite arrangement of Kolam patterns from that one matrix. I am assuming that the more complex the dot pattern, the more possibilities there might be. Abrahadabra consists of 66 points arranged in an equilateral triangle, so who knows how many patterns that one matrix might yield. Tracing these patterns on such a matrix all by itself amounts to a kind of alternative energy "field" working. If you can manage to keep your patterns unicursal and also assign mantra properties to them in some way...so much the better, but even without these additional qualities, the dot-matrix itself being perfectly aligned to the Body of Light, anything you build on it will do.

I bring this up primarily to demonstrate how readily available and how fundamentally diverse energy field work itself can be. I haven't got too far into the trigrammal fields yet on these forums but it is important to bear in mind that this is essentially a specialized application of a much broader *physics*. Here in the Kolam patterns, we can begin to get an idea how that more generalized physics operates...

m1thr0s

[imagenerator]

This makes me jump for joy. More fun puzzles to plot a-way on !

[Naomi]

it's all a "weaving" form, really. Some of the patterns are unicursal, others are not. For me this all comes as a kind of reminder how inherently connected to things our own creative instincts very often are, even if we don't know that at the time. I never picked up magickal-mirror working in any book...what book? There's just nothing there on it at all. But I found this form and persisted with it because it just made sense to me on an intuitive-artistic level. Now I begin to see its roots linked all over the planet, coming at me from very ancient times and from all points compass...

Yet, 20 years ago anybody here in the West would have probably called me crazy, misguided, misinformed etc... too weird...

I like this one just for its shear "fractal" qualities...there's a form of Abrahadabra that looks like this flipped 90 degrees...only it would have 11 stars at the base (middle) of course... This one has 36 stars so it corresponds to the Key of Sol (http://www.hermeticfellowship.org/GDRef/Qamea6.html).

http://abrahadabra.com/images/kolam001.jpg

m1thr0s


Wow I like this one alot. :eek:

[MythMath]

To the 'unregistered guests' who frequent this Kolam thread:

I'm fascinated that someone is nearly
constantly viewing this topic... :yes:

What are you into...?

I'd like to encourage you to register here and interact...

It's certainly your right to remain anonymous,
but we're a friendly (and curious) bunch... ;)

Cheers,

MythMath