Alpona and Kolam as thresholds in the cultural ecology of India

Bhattacharya, Arunima

Abstract

This paper explores the cultural and spiritual significance of alpona and kolam in eastern and southern India. Both these forms are rooted in local folk-art traditions (Mitter 2008) that connect socio-economic contexts and community life with seasonal change. Kolam and Alpona both are made with a mixture of rice powder that heralds new harvest seasons and changes in local culinary patters. It also communicates the passing of seasons such as the threshold of monsoon and winter crops in both these regions. This paper will read alpona as marking the threshold of the outside (public) and the inner (domestic/private) worlds of households. I will be using Giorgio Agamben’s notion of “threshold” and draw examples of the folk-literary importance of this art form from the works of Abanindranath Tagore (1921), Ratnabali Chatterjee (1987) and Sawati Sengupta (2019). The paper will further explore the gendered aspect of this art-form and its association with domesticity and plenitude. I will argue that drawing alpona offers the ritual act of performing our rootedness to local agricultural and ecological traditions, making evident how our historical understanding of community life is shaped by global and local climatic affairs, in this case the importance of monsoon in India.

Citation

Bhattacharya, A. (2024, July). Alpona and Kolam as thresholds in the cultural ecology of India. Presented at ICAS 13 (international Convention of Asia Scholars), Surabaya, Indonesia

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: ICAS 13 (international Convention of Asia Scholars)
• Start Date: Jul 28, 2024
• End Date: Aug 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 21, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4128123