What is a pulli kolam?

A dot kolam. The dots are set first in a grid, and one line is drawn around them. Pulli is the Tamil word for dot.

How is it traditionally drawn?

In rice flour at the threshold, most often in the morning. The practice sheet shows the same kind of design as a thin pen line on white.

How do the three styles differ?

Rice flour is a soft white line on black, the practice sheet is a thin black pen line on white with bolder dots, and colour fill keeps the black line and fills the closed spaces with flat colour.

Can I ask for a different kolam?

Yes. The direction field takes a design such as a star kolam or 21 dots. A direction you type is a request, not a promised result.

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/pulli-kolam · faith

Pulli kolam: sikku kolam, Pongal pot, lotus kolam

Pulli kolam — a sikku kolam on a seven-by-seven dot grid, one unbroken line looping around every dot and closing on itself, drawn the traditional way in a thick soft white rice-flour line

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every sample — three subjects, three styles ↓

Reading 1Sikku kolam

Reading 2Pongal pot

Reading 3Lotus kolam

Pulli kolam is the Tamil dot kolam, drawn at the threshold each morning in rice flour, and larger in the month of Margazhi and at Pongal. Each picture is a kolam to copy: a grid of dots and the single line that loops around them without crossing a dot. The three designs are a sikku kolam, a Pongal pot and a lotus, each in rice-flour white, as a practice sheet and in colour fill.

a daily kolam at the threshold
a larger design for Margazhi or Pongal
a practice sheet for a child learning the line
a dot grid to follow before drawing in rice flour

Frequently asked questions

What is a pulli kolam?: A dot kolam. The dots are set first in a grid, and one line is drawn around them. Pulli is the Tamil word for dot.
How is it traditionally drawn?: In rice flour at the threshold, most often in the morning. The practice sheet shows the same kind of design as a thin pen line on white.
How do the three styles differ?: Rice flour is a soft white line on black, the practice sheet is a thin black pen line on white with bolder dots, and colour fill keeps the black line and fills the closed spaces with flat colour.
Can I ask for a different kolam?: Yes. The direction field takes a design such as a star kolam or 21 dots. A direction you type is a request, not a promised result.

About toile

This page is a showcase and a starting point: nine samples already rendered, three readings of the pack crossed with three styles, each shown at the size and ratio it was made for. Take any of them further on the wall with a few words, or ask for all nine again under your own direction; a sign-in keeps what you make, and it is free while Toile is new. The recipe behind each sample — the subject, the style, the palette, the framing — travels with the image rather than staying private to the render: it is in the alt text of every sample and in the page's own structured data, so a search engine reads the same handles a person would.