Wall art to Ward off the Evil eye

A homemaker living in an apartment these days is relieved of her ‘labour’ of sprinkling gobar mixed with water and drawing kolam (ornate patterns) in front of the home every morning.

At the same time, keeping the tradition alive, an indelible, ‘permanent’ kolam appears in front of each house door at most apartments in the city. The kolam is printed on a small, square-shaped floor tile, which is laid at the entrance of the home to give it an auspicious get up. However, the tradition of manually drawing the ornate patterns, not just at the courtyard, but even on house walls, continues at Aattukalkudi, a tribal village near Udumalpet in Tirupur district.

S. Ravikumar, director of the Tirupur-based Veerarajendran Archaeological and Research Centre set off to the tribal village in search of a dolmen and cave paintings. But what he and his history peers stumbled upon were the tribal people’s homes, whose walls are decked with colourful kolams.

“The ornate patterns drawn on the walls of the houses remind me of ancient rock paintings and the drawings on the temple walls, which are called murals” says Ravi.

The history enthusiast points out that in ancient times, kolams used to be drawn on the walls of a house in a rural pocket only when a wedding took place in the house.

“The residents of Aattukalkudi call the ornate patterns on their house walls as ‘Pachchai Kolam’. The paint for drawing the kolam is the powder obtained by crushing together Vagai Ilai and Vadhamadakki Ilai. The powder is, then diluted in the mixture of gingelly oil and castor oil mixed in equal ratio and dried well in the sun. The people use sola kuchchi (Corn stalk) or kambu kuchchi (Rye stalk) as brushes to draw the kolams on the house walls” explains Ravi.

Ravi informs that the kolams are drawn also on the inner side of the house walls, as the inmates want them to be seen everywhere in their home.

“According to the different groups of the tribal people – the Kadars, Pulayars, Irulars and Mudhuvars, living in the hamlet, such kolams are their performance of rites to ensure good weather, good harvest of crops and perpetuity of the tribes. Moreover, the tribal people believe that the kolams ward off the evil eye. They also believe the herbal elements in the juice used for painting the kolams prevent the venomous insects from entering their homes” adds Ravi.

Explaining that wall art is a common tradition with many tribal groups of the country, Ravi compares the kolams drawn on the house walls at Aattukalkudi with the wall art of the people at Mithila in Bihar.

“While the kolams on the house walls reflect the fertility cult of the tribes at Aattukalkudi, the Mithila paintings depict nature and the deities described in their mythologies,” says Ravi.