Shivaratri Kolam

Hello folks,

I hope you could draw the Kolam for Rathasapthami sent by me last time.

I now give tips on Kolam for another important Hindu festival, Shivarathri falling on the 9^th March in North America and on the 10^th March in India.

You all know Lord Shiva is highly pleased if someone offers him a Bael/Vilvam/Bilva leaf (as may be known in various regions). The green leaf consisting of three leaves also resembles the Trisool in the hands of Lord Shiva.  Then why not draw a Kolam representing this shape.  Here are the tips for the same.

As you will see from the below drawing, I have initially drawn a diamond shape dots, 5 in the middle and tapering off to one above /below the middle line. In order to convert this diamond shape into a star like shape, in the second picture I have drawn on right upside one line of two dots and tapering to one after that.  The same way you can do it on all four sides. After that you can join the dots to get a three leaved Bilva as shown below.

You will observe from this, in order to draw this type of Kolam, the dots in the middle of the Kolam should be five, eleven or seventeen.  Initially, to get the diamond shape it should tapered off to one on both sides as mentioned above.  Further for converting into star shape, adding dots on all four sides should be in the combination of 2&1 for 5 dots in the middle, 5,4,3,2 & 1 for 11 dots in the middle and 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 &1 for 17 dots in the middle.

I have shown below, two Kolams with 11 and 17 dots.

Do you like the idea?  If so why not try it and offer it as our humble prayer to Lord Shiva on Shivarathri.

Do leave your feedback on the blog or message me on Google+ at +R. Venkataramani with your thoughts or special requests.

I will talk to you all with more Kolams for beginners in the next post.

Hara Hara Mahadeva