Muggulu for Sankranthi

Sankranthi (also written Sankranti) is the Telugu harvest festival of mid-January, when muggulu grow into the largest designs of the year.

This collection brings together 92 Sankranthi muggulu videos — pot designs, Bhogi favourites and dot-grid classics — each a complete drawing to follow from start to finish.

The days of the festival

Sankranthi marks the sun’s entry into Makara (Capricorn) and the start of Uttarayana, its northward course. The Telugu festival runs across several days: Bhogi clears out the old with dawn bonfires (see Bhogi Muggulu, 51 designs), Makara Sankranti is the main day, Kanuma honours the cattle — and in many regions Mukkanuma extends the celebration to a fourth day.

The month of muggulu

Muggulu build toward the festival through the Dhanurmasam month (mid-December to mid-January): larger designs each dawn, gobbemmalu — small decorated balls of cow dung — placed on the finished muggu, and rangavalli colours filling the white outlines as the festival days arrive. The Chukkala Muggulu guide (106 designs) explains the dot-grid art behind it all.

The pot and the chariot

Two designs belong to this season above all. The kunda (pot) muggu of Bhogi and Sankranthi is this collection’s strength, led by Chukkala Muggulu for Sankranthi (over 2.5 million views) — more pot designs live in Kunda Muggulu (43 designs). The ratham (chariot) muggu — the sun’s chariot turning north — is the season’s other emblem, searched for by name; this collection currently holds a single ratham design, and the tradition is bigger than any one collection.

One harvest, two traditions

The same mid-January harvest moment is Pongal in Tamil homes — kolams in place of muggulu, a pot at the heart of each. One season, two languages, the same threshold art. The Kolam for Pongal guide (109 designs) tells the Tamil side.

What you’ll find in this collection

There are 92 designs here, each a step-by-step video. Pot muggulu lead, roughly a fifth of the titles name their dot counts, and Bhogi designs form their own strand — festival showpieces beside quick daily patterns.

Quick answers

When is Sankranthi? Mid-January — the sun’s entry into Makara, beginning Uttarayana, its northward half-year.

Why are muggulu drawn for Sankranthi? The Dhanurmasam month of daily muggulu peaks at the festival, when the year’s largest designs mark the harvest.

What is the ratham muggu? The chariot design of Sankranti — the sun’s chariot turning north — traditionally drawn as the festival arrives.