A moment of grace

UNESCO Courier, Dec, 1996 by Stephen P. Huyler

Exquisite rice-flour designs

In the foothills of the Himalayas, women paint their homes only once or twice each year: for Deepavali, the annual festival honouring Lakshmi, and for special birthdays or weddings in the family. They usually use organic pigments such as rice flour for white, mineral ochre for yellow and rust for red, vermilion for bright red, and henna for green. The powders are applied directly to the ground for floor designs, or mixed with water to decorate windows and doors.

They generally employ floral motifs similar to those that embellish their colourful shawls. In the extremely dry desert of western Rajasthan bordering Pakistan, the wives of camel and goat herders decorate their homes only once each year for Deepavali. They cover the entire front walls of their homes in bold geometric designs reminiscent of (but not influenced by) mid-twentieth century Western geometric abstraction. A village which for most of the year is barely distinguishable from the drab landscape of the surrounding desert is transformed into a powerful visual invocation to the goddess on this important occasion. The colour will last only a few weeks until it is bleached out by the incessant sun.

In contrast, the women living in the eastern section of the same state repaint their homes often. They resurface their walls and floors with locally-mined red ochre for every important occasion (religious festivals and important family events, such as conception, birth, reaching puberty, betrothal and marriage). They then cover both surfaces with decorations specific to the event using pigment made from white lime.

Every single day of the year in more than a million houses in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu women paint decorations on the ground outside their front doors. On regular days they use rice flour or ground white stone powder applied to the dampened surface of dirt or pavement. Some first mark out a grid of dots which they connect in fluid designs, while others work entirely freehand. On festival days or during auspicious months, brilliant commercial coloured powders are used to fill in the complex patterns.

The women pride themselves on never repeating a design and the streets are transformed into endless galleries of colourful artistry. Most paintings are completed before sunrise, at which time the artist usually walks past her neighbours to compare their productions and to gather inspiration for the following days' paintings. Within an hour or two all the paintings are gone - blown away or kicked into dust by the ongoing traffic of the day.

In the eastern state of Orissa women grind parboiled rice into a paste which they apply to the mud walls of their houses using many different techniques (by hand, rag and brush). Many festivals herald the repainting of walls; but the most important paintings are created during the two months from mid-December until mid-February dedicated to the special worship of Lakshmi. Both walls and floors are covered with exquisite floral and animal motifs on the most important day.