Rangavalli
Encyclopedia
Rangavalli Muggu in Telugu, Rangoli
Rangoli
Rangoli is a traditional decorative folk art from India. These are decorative designs made on floors of living rooms and courtyards during Hindu festivals and are meant as sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols have been passed on through the ages, from each generation to...

 in Kannada and Kolam
Kolam
Kolam is a form of painting that is drawn using rice powder. A Kolam is a geometrical line drawing composed of curved loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots. In South India, it is widely practised by female Hindu family members in front of their homes.-Purpose:Kolams are thought to bestow...

 in Tamil is an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n pattern based on mathematical grid structures, used to make a form of sandpainting
Sandpainting
Sandpainting is the art of pouring colored sands, powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, and pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed, or unfixed sand painting...

 for religious festivals. There is a symmetry to the designs and they are used in handicraft and stitching as well as in gardens and on ground using flour or powder.

These patterns or designs were once created using rice flour. Holding a handful of flour in their right hand, the woman will uniformly drop the flour to make a line through her thumb and pointer and keep on moving her hands to make the curve or the dots. Nowadays, women use powdered stones. (Stone is crushed and sold commercially).

The patterns are very complicated and huge during festival months. The temples will have complex patterns that will cover thousands of square feet. Sometimes, several women together will create one large design. The patterns are also called 'Muggulu' in telugu and 'Kolam' in Tamil'.

When the symmetrical pattern is decorated in colors using colored sand or flowers, then it is called rangoli
Rangoli
Rangoli is a traditional decorative folk art from India. These are decorative designs made on floors of living rooms and courtyards during Hindu festivals and are meant as sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols have been passed on through the ages, from each generation to...

.

The design or pattern is not always symmetrical. It could just be a continuous line that curves around to make a border or continuous line design. The "threshold" design, as it also referred to, is compared to African sand drawings.
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