The Pongal Festival...and Rangolis (my absolute favorite Indian art!)

 One of the best parts about being in the state of Tamil Nadu--and the town of Auroville--in the month of January, is that it is the month of the Pongal festival in the south of India. Here is the description of this important Indian festival: 

"It is a celebration to thank the Sun, Mother Nature and the various farm animals that help to contribute to a bountiful harvest. Celebrated over four days, Pongal also marks the beginning of the Tamil month called Thai, which is considered an auspicious month. It usually falls on the 14th or 15th of January each year."

This being said, it was clearly celebrated for MUCH longer than that in Chennai, Pondicherry and the villages around Auroville. How could I tell that the holiday began much sooner? Simply because the most noteworthy aspect of it--the creation of the beautiful, ever-new rangolis-- started early on in January. Actually, I even started seeing them as early as the end of December, while still in Chennai.  

It was absolutely thrilling to ride through the villages and see new ones every single day. I should have had a sign on my back reading, "I brake for rangolis!"  I simply could not resist stopping and photographing them along my way. I was perpetually awed and  amazed by just how MANY skilled artists exist in this part of India!

 Evidently, it is the woman of the household who is typically assigned the task of creating a new rangoli each and every morning of the festival. Often, when stopping to photograph them, the artist would step outside of her house to talk to me, understandably proud of her work. Sometimes, the entire family would join her, and I would have the great pleasure of meeting and chatting with all of them. This is how I found out that the more complex ones could take upwards of 3 hours to create, and the woman might begin her rangoli as early as 5 a.m.! Wow! Really astounding, and so very wonderful. 

The most incredible thing about the rangolis is that they are made from very fine, colored sand, dripped through the fingers of the artist in the most arduously controlled manner. When you see some of the complexities of these figures,you will note how they contain some very detailed, minute parts to them. It is almost impossible to imagine how it can be done. I DID periodically come across one in the making from time to time, but felt awkward about being too intrusive, so did not watch for long. Still...long enough to get a sense of just how difficult they are to create. And no two are ever exactly alike! The artist must be infinitely patient, focused and careful...truly, it must be like a meditation of sorts.  Some, you will notice, are also made with flower petals rather than sand, or even a combination of both. Surely equally difficult and complex to construct! 

I have to say that, when selecting my photos for this blog, it was exceeding hard to choose which ones to include. I took dozens of photos over the span of about four weeks. These below are the best of them, I believe, and I really hope you will scroll through the whole blog to see them all. Trust me, it is well worth your time!