Blog Response #14: Assignment 3 Written Piece

 What is Kolam? Kolam is a form of traditional decorative art that is drawn using rice flour. It originated in Tamil Nadu, a province in the Southern part of India. Kolam is also known as Rangoli in the Northern part of India. Kolam is a geometrical artwork composed of straight lines, curves and loops drawn on or around a grid pattern of dots. The South Indian Kolam is all about symmetry, precision and complexity, while the North Indian counterpart, Rangoli is mostly about colour and flamboyance. 

Kolam is a 5000-year-old tradition usually done by the women of the household, where they would wake up early in the morning, sweep the front of their house, sprinkle some water and draw Kolam. The artists would use their three fingers (thumb, index and middle finger) to draw kolam, those who did it well free hand were professionals. 

There were some religious purposes to Kolam. Used for charity, following Hindu scriptures, where other living organisms such as ants and birds would eat the rice flour. It was believed as a means of inviting the Goddess Lakshmi into their homes to bring prosperity. It was a method believed to chase away evil spirits. Artists would bend their knees doing Kolam, so that was considered a posture of humility, some artists would pray and meditate while drawing Kolam. Health benefits were also a purpose for Kolam, where bending would strengthen one's joints and muscles. Finally, the last purpose was just for aesthetics where Kolams were used as welcome mats. 

Mathematical expressions of Kolam include Geometry, where shapes such as hexagons and squares were used. Grid dots and drawing lines by connecting grid dots were also involved. As well as the use of curves and loops. Drawing a Kolam involves 6 sets of mathematical skills — counting, identifying, measuring, designing, experimenting and explaining. To make a perfect Kolam, one needs to keep a count of the dots, the vertices, arcs, and lines while forming those beautiful geometric patterns. Kolam epitomizes geometrical properties of symmetry, periodicity/repetition, recursion and rhythm & fractals. Most kolam patterns frequently include the use of concepts from calculus and applied mathematics. For example, the use of continuous curve in two dimensions is a graph in which there are no holes or breaks and for which the beginning and ending points are the same. 

When bringing Kolam into the secondary math classroom, one can show students Kolam designs and ask them to: Identify and name the different polygons or identify the symmetry and transformations (geometry), identify the different patterns and sequences (algebra), decorate the Kolams with colors subject to specific constraints (combinatorics). Or one can provide grid dots and ask students to draw kolams of specific polygons, or symmetry, and draw specific patterns and sequences. 

When looking at the BC curriculum, we are including anti-racism pedagogy and connecting math to art. 

References 

Bapat, M. (2008, July). Mathematics in Rangolee art from India. In Bridges Leeuwarden: Mathematics,        Music, Art, Architecture, Culture (pp. 429-432) 

Chaki, R. (2019, May7). How an Ancient Indian Art Utilizes Mathematics, Mythology and Rice. Atlas

        Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/indian-rice-art-kolam 

Chenulu, S. (2007). Teaching mathematics through the art of kolam. Mathematics Teaching in the                 Middle School, 12(8), 422-428 

Financial Express. (2020, January 7). Tamil Nadu’s Iconic Kolam Tradition Involves Creativity  and             Mathematical Skill. Financial Express.  https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/tamil-nadus-             iconic-kolam-tradition-involves-creativity-and-mathematical-skill/1815822/ 

Kumari, A. (2018, July 18). Significance of Kolam in Tamil Culture.              

        Sahapedia. https://www.sahapedia.org/significance-of-kolam-tamil-culture 

Majumdar, M. (2020, January 16). Exploring Centuries of Kolams. The Hindu.  

        https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/exploring-centuries-of-indias-     

        traditional-kolams/article30573492.ece 

Nagarajan, J. (2019, July 15). Mathematical Art: Kolam. Thinking with Children.  

        https://thinkingwithchildren.com/2019/07/15/mathematical-art-kolam/ 

Naresh, N. (2015). The role of a critical ethnomathematics curriculum in transforming and empowering         learners. Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemática: Perspectivas

               Socioculturales de la Educación     Matemática, 8(2), 450-471 

Renuka, M. (2016). Kolam. Singapore Infopedia.                                                   

        https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_605_2004-12-                           

        23.html#:~:text=History%20and%20purpose,the%20dyes%20from%20vegetable%20colouring. 

Wikipedia. (2022, November 9). Kolam. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolam

Comments

  1. Amanda FritzlanDecember 20, 2022 at 11:05 AM

    Appu, Your presentation and artistic expression of Kolam is a fantastic example of transdisciplinary mathematics teaching. As such, you were able to consider teaching for anti-racism, teaching art and social studies, and geometry together. I was happy to learn about the many facets of the practice of Kolam from you and also about India. Thank you as well for sharing your personal artistic/mathematical process of creating a Kolam through photos and narrative.

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