The miserable girl did not play with her friends at the grove near the seashore that morning. She did not pluck the honey-fragrant water lilies, weave them with leaves and wear it as her skirt. Near her home, stood the tall Palmyra trees, on whose fronts the herons built their nests and rested in dark nights. On the bright sultry days, the herons flew in rows and fed in the backwaters. Despite all such beauties on the seashore, the poor girl was upset over the separation from her lover, and had little enthusiasm to play with her friends by building small houses in sand and drawing Kolams in front of them.
The miserable girl did not play with her friends at the grove near the seashore that morning. She did not pluck the honey-fragrant water lilies, weave them with leaves and wear it as her skirt. Near her home, stood the tall Palmyra trees, on whose fronts the herons built their nests and rested in dark nights. On the bright sultry days, the herons flew in rows and fed in the backwaters. Despite all such beauties on the seashore, the poor girl was upset over the separation from her lover, and had little enthusiasm to play with her friends by building small houses in sand and drawing Kolams in front of them.
The routine game was common to all other women of the seashore town. They too plucked water lilies from the vast backwaters and adorn their Kolams drawn in front of their little sand houses.
The vivid portrayal of the scenes with rich imagery is found in the two lyrics numbered 123 and 283 of Natrinai, a Sangam period work. Kanchi Pulavanar and Madurai Maruthan Elanaakanar- the Sangam age poets, who wrote the two respective lyrics, hint at the ancient practice of girls drawing the ornate patterns called Kolams even centuries before the Common Era. The bards of the yore mention the little sand houses with Kolams drawn in front of them as ‘Vari Punai Chitril’and ‘Akal Vari Sirumanai’.
Tamil researcher Prof Rukmani in her essay Thamizhar Panpaattil Kolangal (Kolams in the culture of Tamils) traces the origin of Kolams to the Stone Age. Identifying the artistic elements present in the Kolams drawn today with the ones seen in pieces of ancient rock art, Rukmani says:
“In the days when a proper system of writing was yet to be born, the only medium for the Stone Age man to convey his ideas was art. The style of drawing circles and placing dots in the middle of the circles in a Kolam, has its roots to the rock paintings of the Stone Age. One is sure to find such circles and dots in the pre-historic rock paintings.” She adds.
Citing from a chapter in the book Pandai Thamizh Varaivugalum Kuriyeedukalum by Rasu. Pavun Durai, published by the International Institute of Tamil Studies, Rukmani opines that such circles and dots in rock paintings must be the beginnings of the writing system.
“Moreover, the lines drawn on both sides of the courtyard before drawing a Kolam have close affinities with the similar lines used by the proto-Dravidian people of the Indus valley to symbolize a vacant piece of land or a house. By following the tradition of drawing such lines as part of the Kolam, we have carried the culture of our Harappan ancestors for these many centuries” adds Rukmani.
Though the lyrics in Sangam literature and the later period devotional works like Thirupaavai and Thiruvempavai depict the art of drawing Kolams from an aesthetic perspective, the question is why Kolams have been drawn only by women and are about women.
Gods are said to descend on the Kolams drawn to ward of the evils. Nevertheless, no woman of the present political world would have imagined that drawing Kolams would seldom bring her good.