“It was a wintry morning four decades ago on my first trip to India when I saw this elaborate and intricate drawing on the granite floor in front of the entrance to the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai,” recalls Chantal Jumel, freelancer research, traveler and writer, specialized in Indian Visual and Performing Art. “Though the drawing intrigued me, I left without much thought after taking a few pictures. Five years later, I watched an Indian film in which a scene showed Bengali women drawing designs on the doorsteps. That’s when it struck me that traditional floor paintings in India should be an interesting subject for research.”
However, on her successive trips to India, Chantal was drawn towards classical dance and signed up for Kathakali and Mohini-attam under master Sri Kalamandalam Krishna Nair. While pursuing dance in Tiruvananthapuram, she again happened to observe the few Tamil women drawing kolam on their door steps every morning. “They would do it meticulously every single day and I found it amusing as the other Keralite women wouldn’t do it.” But to her surprise, she learnt that Kerala too has a tradition of painting on the floor. “I understood that various kinds of ephemeral floor paintings thrive as traditions across India. Though the Kolam of Tamil Nadu was the starting point, I branched out into the Mandana of Rajasthan, Alpona of Bengal and Kalam Ezhuthu of Kerala and my research grew into a larger context of ephemeral floor paintings.”
That’s how Chantal embarked on a journey of exploring these designs drawn on the floor. She got scholarships through the Indo-French Cultural Exchange Program and an allowance of the “Centre National du Livre” (Paris), which enabled her to travel extensively across India in search of floor paintings. “The world of ephemeral paintings and its symbolism as well as Indian philosophy constitute the background of my artistic research. I learnt from the Tamil women the repertory and symbolism of kolam and from Sri Parameswara Kurup, a ritual painter attached to the prestigious temple of Ambalapuzha in Kerala, the technique and spirit of kalam ground painting,” says Chantal.
Kolam
“Kolam is a Tamil visual patrimony and is the only form of traditional floor art to be done as an everyday ritual,” says Chantal. She refers to poet Andal’s Natchiyar Thirumozhi, in which a verse records Andal sweeping the floor and decorating the doorstep with a kolam as a devotion to Lord Vishnu. “So, kolam had been a form of expression of love. It’s to welcome guests, an announcement that the house is alive and inviting.” However she feels rangoli competitions are killing the real beauty and essence of the traditional pulli kolam. “Every kolam is a rich tapestry of parallel and curvy lines criss-crossing each other creating intricate patterns. But in cities, due to lack of space and time, kolams are becoming mass-produced designs, dismissed off as something that’s easy to be drawn and for the sake and compulsion of drawing on the doorstep. It’s losing the time, patience and design details that come along with it.”
Kolam is an art form that cuts across castes, observes Chantal. “There are also various techniques of drawing kolam which I have recorded among women. The powder is either pushed through two fingers, made to fall in dots or sometimes drawn with a freehand to achieve different designs. The highly intricate chikku kolam and neli kolam are fast vanishing, as the knowledge and expertise to draw these masterpieces is getting restricted to the older women.”
Kalam Ezhuthu
The kalam Ezhuthu of Kerala is predominantly a temple art form, in which colourful, animated and anthropomorphic images of Gods and Goddesses are painstakingly drawn for hours on the floor of the Kalam (a central courtyard used to thrash paddy, found in temples or Nair tharavads). “It’s mostly done by men and the purpose is religious. Images of Bhadrakali or Aiyyappan and other deities are drawn with natural colours. “Pulava and Kurups are the communities who generally do it by starting with axes to achieve symmetry. The image is drawn inside a panjara – a square box and some paintings are also given a three-dimensional effect. The powder is dropped in conical mounds, dabbed or pressed or smeared as miniscule craters with a filling and also pushed through holes made in coconut shells to achieve patterns. Twigs and thumb impressions are used to create textures,” says Chantal. The colours used are all natural – burnt paddy husk for black, turmeric for yellow, vermillion for red, rice powder for white and dried and powdered leaves for green.
“The eyes of the deities are done at the end, infusing life into the painting. In northern Kerala, the images of Kamadeva, yaksha and yakshi are more common. After the puja, the drawings are removed from feet to head, with a coconut bloom,” she says. Chatal sees Kalam Ezhuthu as a the root for traditional theatre and dance in Kerala. “Many pujas are followed by music and dance recitals and an animated enactment of the attributes of the deity through words and touch. One could see the dramatic colours and expressions of Yakshagana and Kathakalai taking shape in these Kalam Ezhuthu rituals. The crown shows in the image of the Yaksha is exactly the same as the one used in an Yakshagana performance. The bigger the crown, the dominant the character.”
Alpona
In districts of Northern West Bengal, women in villages draw traditional designs known as Alpona during Makar Sankranti. “Unlike the kolam, it’s occasional and covers a larger area in front of the house and can be in any shape. Alpona is a beautiful medley of a wide range of motifs and designs. The common designs are millet flowers, farming tools, kitchen utensils and things associated with prosperity in an agrarian society,” says Chatal. “It’s a depiction of the natural world. A typical Alpona drawing has a motif of concentric circles in the centre which symbolises the granary in tribal villages. It’s supposed to propitiate tribal deities. Modern-day Alopna also depict a gas cylinder or stove.”
Mandana
In Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district, Diwali is the time for decorating homes with intricate drawings on walls and floors. The women sit for hours and do free-hand drawing. Non geometrical motifs of tigers, monkeys, peacocks, cats and stylized designs of Lakshmi’s feet are drawn with white chalk or limestone on floors and walls plastered with red clay. “Mandana is more tribal in nature, where the motifs are heavily stylized with designs. The most common design is a triangle with floral borders, called as the ‘Lakshmi’s feet’, a symbol of prosperity,” says Chantal.
After years of artistic research, Chantal now combines the different techniques, motifs and traditional aspects of all these floor paintings and arrives at avant-garde designs. “The common factor in all of these floor paintings is that they are domestic art forms. There are no written texts or books on how they must be drawn. They are instant, short-lived and that makes them unique and one-time art pieces. They are ephemeral and hence are at risk of getting lost or forgotten easily, unlike a framed artwork that’s going to hang on the wall forever,” notes Chantal. “Kolam, Mandana or Alpona should be taught in art schools. But, since they are a self-expression of women, they haven’t evolved as an independent art. If it were a man’s ritual, these floor paintings would have got prominence.”
Chantal Jumel was in town for a workshop organized by INTACH Madurai Chapter.
Books written by Chantal Jumel on floor paintings
A graduate of Sorbonne University, Chantal Jumel has authored two books in French and English Voyage dans l’imaginaire Indien, Kolam, dessins éphémères des femmes tamoules (A journey through graphical India, Kolam, ephemeral drawings by Tamil women) and Kolam et Kalam, peintures rituelles éphémères de l’Inde du Sud ( Kolam and kalam, South Indian ephemeral and ritual paintings), Geuthner, Paris, 2013-2010. She gives lecture demonstrations, organizes workshops in various structures forms and creates ephemeral paintings and murals within the framework of exhibitions and festivals or on a purely individual basis. She is also a part of the annual Mylapore festival. Website http://www.chantal-jumel-kolam-kalam.com/en/
What she does
“I have been taking part in creative art festivals and expos and I weave together the spirit of ephemeral paintings, cosmograms, symbolic and ritual designs, deities images inscribed with letters and mantras inspired by Indian spiritual traditions. Whether, it’s on rice, bamboo or mulberry tree paper, I use and repeat the syllable Om as a unique script character to create visual poetry between drawing and writing. I believe my work is a combination of art and spirituality and I see it as meditative in nature through which I explore concepts and aesthetics. My work is a celebration of the universal need for connection with something greater than oneself and the expression of humanity.”
Published - February 16, 2017 06:30 pm IST
