Traditions

A tradition is a regional style-system: a body of conventions — materials, geometry, timing, vocabulary — carried by a community of practice. The same morning impulse takes different forms in different places: rice-flour kolam in Tamil Nadu, chukkala muggulu in Andhra and Telangana, alpana in Bengal, mandana in Rajasthan. The articles in this chapter describe the major traditions and how they relate — several are families with named branches of their own.