Traditional Kolam Designs with dots

Design facts

Dot grid

3 to 3 dots — 3 rows of 3, 9 dots

Structure

Dot-Grid

Tradition

Kolam

Video

2 min 46 s, uploaded 26 May 2023

Views

18,000 on YouTube as of 7 October 2026

Step by step: how to draw Traditional Kolam Designs with dots

1. Mark a 3-to-3 dot grid and join the four dots around the centre dot — top, bottom, left and right — into a diamond.
2. On each of the four sides of the diamond draw three nested half-circles bulging outward, giving the outline four rounded lobes.
3. At the top, bottom, left and right corners draw a pointed petal with a dot inside, pointing outward and flanked by two spiral curls.
4. Join opposite corners of the diamond with straight lines to make a cross through the centre, and add a row of dots between the two outer arcs of each lobe.
5. Beyond the left and right petals draw a small circle followed by a short dash, and set a dot beyond the top and bottom petals.
6. In each of the four diagonal corners draw a small flower of rounded petals around a spiral centre, with a curling tendril.

Related designs

• Simple Puja Kolam Designs
• Rangoli Muggulu Easy
• Adhika Masa Rangoli

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

Read more

• Grids, Lattices, and Thinking in Space
• Counting the Grid
• The Kolam Style Families
• Tamil Nadu