Gift Siromoney1932–1988
Formal grammars for kolam
Indian mathematician who studied kolam as a formal language, describing the drawings with array grammars and putting a folk art on a footing with computation.
Kolam
A line that threads a field of dots, never crossing a dot and never leaving a loose end. Drawn at dawn on doorsteps across South India, and closed by arithmetic rather than by eye.
About this pattern
Sikku kolam · South Indian threshold drawing
The line runs diagonally between the dots and turns whenever it reaches the edge, which makes it a billiard path on a lattice. Whether it closes into one continuous loop or several depends only on the grid's proportions, the greatest common divisor of its sides, so a practised hand knows before starting how many strokes the drawing will take.
Rounding sets how far the turns are eased, from a folded ribbon to the flowing sikku line.
Behind the mathematics