Margazhi is also important due to the fact that the English New Year falls in this month and the month ends with Sankranti. Since our family lives in Tamil Nadu, we are lucky because we celebrate the English New Year, Ugadi (New Year celebrated in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra) and of course the Tamil New Year. On the new year's eve we find many rangolis big and small welcoming the new year. The words "Welcome 2013" or "Happy New Year 2013" will be written on the periphery of many margazhi rangolis heralding the arrival of 2013. Margazhi ends with Sankranti celebrations. It is celebrated for four days in Tamil Nadu. The first day is Bhogi, 2nd day is Thai Pongal, 3rd day is Maattu Pongal and the 4th day is Kaanum Pongal . Apart from other festivities rangolis play a very important role in celebration of Sankranti or Pongal.
The rangoli above is the first in our series ( I have not decided , how many) for New Year 2013 through Sankranti. It can be drawn free hand or with dots. The dot pattern is 13 dots to 1 dot, ner pulli. I have added the rangoli with dots. However I have drawn it with parallel lines instead of a single line version. It reduces the use of colour rangoli powder!.
![double-line-pulli-kolam.jpg]( "rangoli with dots pattern 13 to 1 with butterflies and flowers")
A video showing the steps involved in drawing the above rangoli.
Update: More rangoli with dots have been posted in simple kolam with dots collection and in pulli kolam designs. The first rangoli in this post and almost all rangolis in the previous post - Margazhi kolam collection demand a lot of filling up to be done with rangoli powder of various colours. Hence for a change, the rangolis below are simpler with very few colours, the first one a single line design and the next one a parallel line design, both of course with floral designs, leaves and symmetric patterns , the third one is a simple rangoli or rangoli border
A video showing the steps involved in drawing the above rangoli.
Update: More rangoli with dots have been posted in simple kolam with dots collection and in pulli kolam designs. The first rangoli in this post and almost all rangolis in the previous post - Margazhi kolam collection demand a lot of filling up to be done with rangoli powder of various colours. Hence for a change, the rangolis below are simpler with very few colours, the first one a single line design and the next one a parallel line design, both of course with floral designs, leaves and symmetric patterns , the third one is a simple rangoli or rangoli border
Let us start with a kolam with dots for New Year 2013.
A video showing the steps from dot pattern to final design for the above rangoli
My mother was born and brought up in Vizianagaram a town near Vishakapattinam. She learnt a lot of rangolis from her mother seven decades back!. In Andhra Pradesh, Sankranti is an important festival. My mother says that they call it Peddha Pandaga in Telugu. The above rangoli with dots is an important Sankranti muggulus (for my mother ) drawn by my mother, taught by her mother (confusing isn't it). She says it is called Mandra Kappa ( Telugu for black scorpion - please correct me if I am wrong) because a part of the design resembles the claws of a scorpion. Though the design is simple as we use rhombuses only, it will take a lot of time (90 minutes approx) to complete it because it is a relatively big rangoli with dots. Two stages of the rangoli are shown. The the dot pattern is 21 dots to 11 dots (in between dots or idukku pulli). Below a simple freehand rangoli with parallel lines but of two different colours for Margazhi kolams. (Margazhi is still not over!). The lines have been drawn simultaneously, as we do in plain rangolis with parallel lines but we have to use rangoli powder of two colours. It can be expanded with designs using white rangoli powder also.
Video of the above rangoli showing both lines being drawn simultaneously.
This rangoli above drawn using the above method i.e drawing parallel lines with two colours. The video below explains the steps involved in drawing this type.
Thai Pongal is only a few days away. So, one freehand rangoli for this Pongal season, of course with Pongal pots and sugarcane!
