The motifs in rangoli are usually taken from nature — peacocks, swans, mango, flowers, creepers, etc. The colours traditionally were derived from natural dyes — from barks of trees, leaves, indigo, etc. However, today, synthetic dyes are used in a range of bright colours. The materials used for rangoli take on either a flat appearance, when coloured powder such as rice, brick, chilly, turmeric, etc is used or a 3-D effect when dhaniya, cereals, pulses, dals , either in their natural colouring on tinted with natural dyes are used. Some artists use the 3-D effect for borders alone while others create beautiful designs using grains and beads entirely.

Originally, rangoli was done in small patterns — 2 b’y 2’ — but now entire floor areas of rooms and hotel foyers are covered in intricate, detailed designs.

The rangoli patterns are usually made with rice powder that has been coloured with dyes. You can get lovely, bright colours to make your designs with. Most shops that sell Divali-related items like diyas and crackers stock rangoli powder. You can even use flower petals, cereals (the orange and yellow-coloured dal), turmeric powder, to lend colour to your rangoli.

The flowers commonly used for rangoli are marigold, chrysanthemums, jasmine, etc., whose flowers may be used as borders to outline the design.

You will also need a piece of chalk to draw the outline of the rangoli design on the floor.

The powder of white stone, lime, etc, can also be used to create traditional motifs.

Choose a design that you want to draw. You may find designs from books and magazines or you may try to create your own design. Rangoli designs are symmetrical in nature and geometric in shape

If you want to try out a design of your own, first draw it on a piece of paper and fill in the design with coloured sketch pens to get an idea about how the rangoli will look.

Wipe the floor (where you want to create the rangoli) with a wet cloth and wait for the area to dry.

With a piece of chalk, first draw the outline of the rangoli design.

Now it’s time to fill in the outline with rangoli powder, the most challenging part of the whole exercise! Pick up some powder with your thumb and index finger and fill in the design by rubbing the two fingers together and sprinkling the powder on the floor. Take care to sprinkle the powder carefully, don’t let powders of two different colours merge with each other.You may create spaces within the rangoli design to place diyas. You could also use flower petals of different colours (golden marigold, bright red roses) to add that extra dimension to your design.

If you are using pulses to create your rangoli, you can first chalk out the outline of the design. Then place of handful of the coloured pulse at the required place and spread it out with your fingers in the area earmarked for it. The good thing about using pulses is that even if the pattern goes awry somewhere, you can reshape it.

With a dash of innovation you can create a myriad of colour combinations to give your rangoli that distinct look and actually have your Divali guests floored!

— Chetna Banerjee