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Kolam: Symmetry
in Threshold Design in Tamil Nadu
"..a glimpse of the richness and diversity of
Tamil culture.."
Courtesy - Manorama Talaiver
April 25, 1995
What is threshold design?
 When
I was a little girl, my aunt used to get up early in the morning.
She would have a shower and then created a symmetrical pattern in
the front yard, after cleaning and sprinkling water. Some women in
Madras still create these designs. I must admit that I had to drive
ten miles from downtown before I found a row of houses with the
threshold design. These patterns are normally called "Kolum." O
sounds like Oh. U sounds like bun. Kohlum. When the symmetrical
pattern is decorated in colors using colored sand or flower, then it
is called rangoli.
The design or pattern is not symmetrical sometimes, but it is
just a continuous line that curves around to make a beautiful border
or design at the Center of the yard. . The threshold desing is
compared to African sand drawings.
These patterns or designs were created in the olden days
(according to Tamil literature) using rice flour. Holding a handful
of flour in their right hand, the woman will uniformly drop the
flour to make a line through her thumb and pointer and keep on
moving her hands to make the curve or the dots. Nowadays, women use
powder made out of stone. (Stone is crushed and sold commercially).
The patterns are very complicated and huge during festival
months. The temples will have complex patterns that will cover
thousands of square feet. Sometimes, several women together will
create one large design. As a child, I have always wondered at the
complexity of the pattern and the creativity of the women.
The pattern normally starts with putting the dots as follows:
. . .
. . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . .
. . .
.
This is a very simple design. You start with seven dots
in the middle and you skip two to count down. Then, you will use
your creativity to circle around the dots (in most cases) or connect
the dots (rarely). When a mother is creating this design, a girl
tends to watch this from the time she is a baby.
My thesis is number concept comes very naturally to girls by
observing. When the girl grows up, girls have competitions on who
can create a complex pattern and with maximum number of points. Skip
count, multiplication, geometric design, function concept and
concept of closed curves - all of these can be introduced in math
classrooms using the threshold. Based on the concept of Kolum, I
will be providing lessons here that can be used in math classrooms.
A multicultural Mathematics lesson for Elementary Grades
Objectives:
1. To discuss the life of a little third grader in the morning
while she watches her mom doing the symmetrical design.
2. To
draw a simple symmetrical design as given in this page.
3, To
extend this design to a larger number of points.
4. To create
other designs for odd number of points.
5. To explore the design
differences that can affect symmetry with the use of odd and even
number of points.
Materials needed:
pencil, paper, crayon, (if you are bold, try rice flour in the
kitchen floor) Procedure.
Look at the picture. My first design was drawn using 3, 1 points.
My second design was drawn using 5,3,1 points.
My third design was done with 7,5,3,1.
Practice the symmetrical design.
Extend the design to 9 points.
Questions:
How can you extend this further?
When you create the design for larger number of points, what can
you infer from the patterns?
Extension:
The next pattern is called Brahma's knot. This design is more
complicated to draw.
This is the first level of Brahma's knot
Can you draw this on a sheet of paper?
This is the second level of Brahma's' knot
Can you try the second level?
Now a challenge
What is the next level of Brahma's knot?
Can you draw the design and fax it to me?
These were some designs on the pavement in front of a house.
These are permanent. These were not created with flour but with
paint.
Slowly the tradition of creating threshold design seems to
disappear. After five days of my travel in South India, I found this
woman creating the threshold design in front of her hut early
morning. I hope this tradition that I love and appreciate continues
for ever! I found a few houses with permanent designs in the cities.
This means that the women do not create the designs every day. They
use white paint to create permanent designs.
Something to think about! I was surprised to hear about
gender differences in mathematics achievement when I first arrived
in the United States.
In India, gender differences and related discussions exist about
career choices. Female children are normally advised to become
teachers, bank tellers, or even bank officers. However, this is not
true today.
I have never heard a mother telling a girl, "Oh well, you are a
girl. You cannot do math." Or I have never heard a teacher talking
about gender differences in mathematics achievement.
In my school days, girls scored better in all classes than boys.
The names of the top five scorers were listed on the blackboard in
my classroom every month. When I was a student, two or three of my
girl friends including myself were always listed among the top five
in math classes.
My conviction is that number concepts come naturally to girls
in South India. I have no research to support this statement.
However, I can argue that the girls watch the mothers create the
threshold design in the front yard or in the kitchen. These
designs involve numbering, skip counting, symmetry and so on. Is
it possible for me to say then that arithmetic or logic is part
of a girl's life in India?
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