SPARROW

Rangoli

Rangolis have been traditionally seen as ritual designs drawn at the threshold every day or during festive occasions. There are many types of rangolis - the straight dotted ones, the slanted dotted ones, rangolis with hidden dots and so on. Some traditional rangoli patterns can be seen in one of our Annual Reports (2001-2002). But the way women engage with these traditional designs has changed over the years. There are rangolis which look like paintings and there are those that deal with birds, flowers, animals and images of gods. Rangolis have become a way of expressing women's artistic creativity. And rangolis are not restricted to ritual celebrations or ritualistic in style any more. In our Annual Report you will find a rangoli with images of cricket, and other games to commemorate the Asiad games. There was a time when women who drew rangolis at the threshold of houses in Tamilnadu had started incorporating slogans praising M.G.R. Christmas and New Year have become part of these rangoli designs in the last two decades. Innovative designs with candles, balloons, flower vases and musical instruments appear quite frequently in journals which are part of SPARROW collections. We give below some innovative designs made to mark the Independence Day.