According to a Thane-based NGO, rangoli can help unite communities, which is why they're encouraging you to step out of your home, dip your fingers in powdered colour, and help save a dying tradition
According to a Thane-based NGO, rangoli can help unite communities, which is why they're encouraging you to step out of your home, dip your fingers in powdered colour, and help save a dying tradition
Twice a year, during Diwali and Gudi Padwa, about a hundred people congregate in Thane to spend ten, painstaking hours sprinkling coloured powder to form various patterns. Their group has been churning out massive carpet rangolis since 2002u00a0-- the year it was founded. 
While for most of us, rangolis are restricted to the diyas and geometric designs we drew on our doorsteps during the Festival of Lights, Thane-based NGO Rangvalli Parivar is striving for public recognition of the ancient art form.
"Every Indian state has a different name for rangoli and a different style of designing it. We study all these styles and incorporate them into one design," says Vedavyas Katti, who's known better as Ved, the founder member and chairman of the group. "Today, we don't even know our neighbours. Group rangolis help unite the community, by not just connecting the dots, but our hearts and minds as well."
Rangvalli Parivar conducts monthly one-day workshops to teach freehand group rangolis, as well as advanced workshops in portrait rangolis. While the advanced classes require one to have reasonably good drawing skills, the regular rangoli workshops are open to anyone who'd like to try their handu00a0-- literallyu00a0-- at the art form.
Volunteers from the group also deck up the courtyards of the many temples that dot Thane with religious motifs including the Omkar, mace (Gada), Swastik and lotus.
They source the colours from Gujarat, most made from natural sources like cornflower and white rock, while the brighter ones are usually made from non-toxic dyes. They also make floating rangolis on trays filled with water and layered with coal that helps keep the colours afloat, as well as underwater rangolis that use insoluble colours fused with wax.
In a bid to further merge art forms, they have made rangolis using motifs from Warli art, and on one occasion, used the leitmotif of the foot to explore the idea of migrants and their passage through our city.
"Apart from serving an ornamental purpose, the crystals in rangoli keep inauspicious rays from entering homes," says Ved. While it may take more on Ved's part to convince us, given how pretty the colours are, we'd gladly settle for their ornamental purpose.
Meanings behind motifs
It is said that the motifs used in rangolis have meanings attached to them. Some of the popular ones are:
Dot (Bindu): The point where theu00a0 identity of the individual and the universal soul is realised, the point where all living beings unite.
Circle (Vartul): Fullness, also serves as a protective fortress against evil spirits, quite like the Lakshmanrekha.
Cow's feet (Gopadma): Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, resides here.
Swastik: A motif of ever-changing energy, it denotes the speed and progress that pervades the universe.
Omkar: A revelation of Brahma and the primordial form of the universe.
Wheel (Chakra): The wheel of time and change
One for the record books
Hindus celebrated their New Year, Gudi Padwa, on March 16 this year. On the occasion, a hundred members of the Rangvalli Parivar worked for ten hours at a stretch, using almost 1,000 kilograms of coloured powder to make a gigantic rangoli measuring 21,000 sq feet. With elephants dotting the border and a circle enclosing paisley designs, Ved informs us that the rangoli got a mention in the Limca Book of Records, though the group hasn't claimed it yet. "Our aim is set at one lakh sq feet," he says.
The legend of rangoli
The ritualistic, age-old art of rangoli finds a mention in Chitralakshana, the earliest Indian treatise on painting. It states that the death of a high priest's son caused considerable grief to the kingdom. The people prayed to Lord Brahma to bring the boy back to life. Brahma asked the king to paint a portrait of the boy on the floor and then breathed life into it. These floor decorations then went on to become a form of thanksgiving for the earth that nurtures us. The Kamasutra lists rangoli as one of the 64 arts to be mastered by women. In the Mahabharata, it was the humble rangoli that made gopis forget the anguish of their separation from Krishna.
To be part of the Rangvalli Parivar, organise a group rangoli session with your friends or to know of their upcoming workshops, contact Ved Katti on 25415545 / 9820414823
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