What is Alpana?

Many stories about alpana are told in the Puranas. The first Indian treatise on painting, the "Chitra Lakshana", relates one of them: "A king's priest lost his son." Brahma told the king, "Draw the boy's likeness on the ground so that life can be breathed into it." The king drew a few lines on the ground, and that, it is said, is how alpana began.

In the same vein, another story says that Brahma, in a frenzy of creation, extracted the juice of a mango tree and used it to draw the figure of a woman on the ground. Her beauty outshone the apsaras, and she later came to be known as Urvashi. This figure drawn by Brahma is said to be the first form of alpana. There are other mythological references too: where the Ramayana describes the wedding pavilion of Sita, alpana is mentioned. In the South, alpana flourished culturally in the era of the Chola rulers.

Traces of painted alpana have been found at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa as well. Alpana is one of the sixty-four arts described in Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra. It is a very ancient folk art. As for its origin, it is generally held that the word "alpana" comes from the Sanskrit "olampen", meaning to coat or plaster. In ancient times people believed that these artistic drawings could keep towns and villages full of grain and wealth and, by their magical power, protect property. It was with this belief that alpana came to be made on religious and social occasions.

Many of the vratas and pujas in which alpana is drawn predate the Aryan age. Ananda Coomaraswamy, regarded as the great scholar of Indian art, held that the modern folk art of Bengal is directly linked to the art of Mohenjo-daro of 5,000 years ago. According to Gurusaday Dutt, founder of the Bratachari movement and a scholar of Bengali folk art and culture, the lotus that Bengali women draw at the centre of their alpanas is a replica of the lotus of the Mohenjo-daro period.

Some other scholars believe alpana came into our culture from Austric peoples such as the Munda tribes, who lived in this land many years before the Aryans arrived. In their view the ancient, traditional folk art of Bengal goes back to the agricultural age, when people believed in certain gods and goddesses and in magical practices that brought good harvests and drove away evil spirits.

This should not be taken to mean that alpana was or is found only in Bengal. Under different names and in different forms it is practised across India: satiya in Gujarat, rangoli in Maharashtra, chowk purna and sanjhi in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, chowk puran and in places aipan in the hills, mandana in Rajasthan, aripan, Madhubani and kohbar in Bihar, muggulu in Andhra Pradesh and kolam in South India.

Though the alpana of different states differs in some respects, there are many similarities.

What alpana across the states has in common

Generally it is closely associated with women, and it is women who make it. At big festivals groups of women do it together. It is said that the shapes that emerge carry the love, dedication and devotion of those who make them. As the women draw their lines, figures take shape, and they also express their feelings in the lines of the songs they sing.

The decoration reveals the inner purity of its makers. From a young age, girls pray while worshipping that they may find a husband and a home full of wealth and grain, so alpanas include all kinds of adornments and household things such as paddy, fish and combs. When a new bride enters her home, in many places she has to stop at the door and draw an alpana; the figures she creates reveal her personality. Many families regard the bride as a form of Lakshmi, and to welcome her, lotuses are drawn in the alpana for her to walk on.

Alpana is made with body, mind and faith. Even knowing it will be washed away tomorrow, what matters most is the wish that its purpose be fulfilled. It is made at social celebrations, at times of grief, at festivals and at cultural events. Some religious symbols have been drawn in the same form for generations, and drawing them is considered essential. Daughters and daughters-in-law learn this art from their mothers and mothers-in-law and so keep their families' traditions alive.

The materials used are easily found everywhere, so the art is practised even in the poorest households: a paste of ground rice, colour made from powdered dried leaves, charcoal, burnt earth and so on.

The art is also linked to the Austric peoples. Many of its patterns are taken from their designs, so it is clear that we have inherited many of our social and religious customs from them.

Inspired by these traditional designs, Acharya Abanindranath Tagore made this art a compulsory subject alongside other forms of painting at the Kala Bhavana in Shantiniketan. Today it is known as Shantiniketan alpana. The name of Gauri Devi Bhanja will always be remembered in this art; she is regarded as the mother of Shantiniketan alpana.