Design facts
- Dot grid
- 11 to 1 dots — tapering from 11 dots across the middle down to 1
- Tradition
- Kolam
- Occasion
- Diwali
- Video
- 7 min 49 s, uploaded 23 October 2021
- Views
- 1 million on YouTube as of 1 October 2026
Step by step: how to draw Rangoli Kolam for Diwali Special
- Mark the 11-to-1 dot grid — rows tapering from 11 in the middle down to 1 at the top and bottom.
- In the centre draw a diya — a rounded bowl with a teardrop flame on top and a small petal motif on its body.
- Around it draw eight more diyas in a diamond — one at the top, two in the next row, one on each side of the centre lamp, two below and one at the bottom — nine lamps in all.
- Link the lamps with sweeping curved lines that run from the base of each lamp down to the lamps below, so the nine diyas join into a branching lamp tree.
- Give the upper lamps pointed spouts on their outer sides, and on the left and right lamps add a spiral curl and a fan of short strokes.
- Set the bottom lamp on a small flared stand.
- Along the two curves beside the bottom lamp add a fringe of small dots.
Further reading
- Venkatraman Gopalan & Brian K. VanLeeuwen, “A topological approach to creating any pulli kolam, an artform from South India”, Forma 30, 35–41 (2015). doi:10.5047/forma.2015.005
Leave a Reply