Vedic Katha
The colourful rangoli at the door is one of Diwali's oldest customs, a welcome to Lakshmi, a blessing of the threshold, and a living folk art passed…
Before the lamps are lit on Diwali, many homes are already glowing at the doorstep with rangoli, patterns drawn on the floor in coloured powder, rice flour, flower petals or sand.
The rangoli's first purpose is a welcome. Drawn at the entrance, it invites Lakshmi, goddess of fortune, to step across a threshold made beautiful for her. Motifs of the lotus, her flower;
Traditionally rangoli was made with rice flour, so that ants, birds and insects could eat it, a small daily act of feeding other creatures, folding care for all life into the act of decoration.
Diwali rangolis are at their most elaborate and colourful: concentric lotuses, peacocks, diya borders, and grids of dots joined into looping patterns.
Rangoli is usually made by the women of the house and passed from mother to daughter, a craft learned at the doorstep.
Rangoli folds art, devotion and daily life into one pattern, making the ordinary threshold of a home into a place fit to receive the sacred, and teaching, through its daily making and fading, generosity and…
Vedic Katha
The complete story, its characters and sources, on Vedic Katha.