The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
I have always been fascinated by the Maharashtrian way of drawing rangolis. While I love drawing the traditional 'kolams' with rice paste, I am no good at using the kolam powder or rice flour. These are typical Maharashtrian patterns drawn at Jalgaon, where, as I mentioned earlier, we attended a puja.
The girl was young, must have been younger than me, and she drew these two rangolis in a matter of minutes!
Normally, when we use rice flour, we can only draw one line at a time. Here, in the next rangoli, she drew 4 at a time!!! It was fantastic to watch her, and I tried taking a pic of her drawing the rangoli. Unfortunately, it was dark and they did not come out well. These pix were taken the next day, and I wasn't able to locate her and ask her to pose next to her creations.
A wonderful job,isn't it? what do you say????
These are beautiful. Kudos to that girl. I could never learn doing complicated designs.
ReplyDeleteBut I still feel that south Indians make faster rangolis. In Chennai during festivals seasons they make big ones on the road... each better than the other one.
I am sure I will never be able to make these even in days! My teachers used to give me passing marks in drawing because I used to do well in other subjects :P
ReplyDeletelovely
ReplyDeleteactually Yu must visit vilages in Tamilnadu during Marghazi(if yu have, then do tell!)...entire streets with wonderful elaborate kolams...
its beautiful
and so were these...
beautiful creation, from the professional girl :) and as story teller said if u visit agraharams of south during margazhi that would be a virtual delight :)
ReplyDeleteLoved the rangoli designs. Very creative.Love to feature these rangoli designs here http://www.3mik.com/group/rangoli
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing artwork! I am always feeling awed everytime i see these Rangoli designs made for the festivals, so amazing! thanks!
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