Showing posts with label Threshold Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Threshold Art. Show all posts

Friday, September 14, 2012

Threshold Art-4

My previous posts on the subject are here:


Here is a picture of the doorway sent by Ranjana Shankar:
It looks quite old. The massive doorway, the fine carving on it prove that. It would be made of teak I think. It is really beautiful. 
I remember, that in my childhood I use to see such beautifully made doors, very huge and highly carved. The carvings could be that of Ganesha(elephant God), Lakshmi(Goddess of wealth), or elephants, peacocks etc. The most common  would be floral vines, lotuses etc.

The rich, landlords, or the business community would have their homes full of such beautiful doors,doorways, windows, cupboards, furniture and four poster beds.
Now a days except for the rich, one cannot afford such beautiful things.

Thank you Ranjana for sharing it with us. 


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Threshold Art-3

My previous posts on the topic are here;


Significance and Traditions:

As I mentioned earlier in my posts , it is believed that the threshold symbolises Goddess Lakshmi and also that she resides there. It is believed that beautifying the house and its surroundings will attract Her into the houses and the occupants will have health, wealth, prosperity and happiness. That is why the thresholds are decorated and offered prayers.

So many traditions are related with thresholds. Here are some:

1. On auspicious occasions: All the thresholds are smeared with turmeric and decorated with vermilion especially or Tuesdays and Fridays and also on all festivals or auspicious occasions celebrated by the household like marriages etc. 
Flowers are placed on either side of threshold as a mark of respect daily, or on Tuesdays, Fridays and on all auspicious occasions.
There is also the tradition of offering Tamboolam (2-3 betel leaves, areca nuts, fruits and flowers) to the Threshold considering it as Goddess Lakshmi or Goddess Gauri. 

This is done to all thresholds if not to all at least to the one at the main entrance  and the one which is leads to the back yard (in olden days many households had only two doorways-one main entrance from outside into the house and one leading from the house to the backyard-that is from inside the house to outside). All this is done by the lady of the house or women/young girls of the house.

In olden days when oil lamps were used, these were placed on either side of the thresholds in the evenings.

2. New House: When a new house is constructed or bought and the family is celebrating the house warming function Known as Ghriha Pravesham, first yellow pumpkin and ash gourds are broke open as a ritual symbolising the sacrifice or offering at the thresh hold of the main door. At each threshold coconuts are offered.

A cow with a calf is made to cross the main threshold and enter into the house. Only then the couple owning the house, enter carrying Lord Satyanarayana Swami's photo. Daughters of the house (including paternal aunts) carry vessels(silver copper or bronze pots) with water. Then come the other family members and friends carrying all auspicious things like turmeric, vermilion, flowers, fruits, milk etc used for Puja (offerings). 

3. Children crossing the thresholds: When a child of the house crosses the threshold for the first time, it is celebrated with much fervour among the family. Special dish called Vada (or Garelu) made of black gram flour is prepared (something like a Doughnut) and distributed among family and neighbours.

4. Bride: When a bride enters the house hold for the first time after the marriage, there is a ceremony at the threshold. Before crossing the main threshold, the couple have to say the name of each other. 

Groom's sisters stop the couple at the threshold for this. They will not allow unless the couple say each others name and their brother give them some hefty amount or gifts. Usually a newly wed bride is shy and may not tell her husband's name. There is also a tradition in our regions where a wife never calls her husband by his name. She would not even utter that name in front of others. Many still follow this. Well there are many ways in which the bride indirectly hints at her husbands name with out actually saying it. There are so many riddles or short verses we come across in our literature where in women have hinted their husband's name on such occasions. These are fun to read and decipher that name.

Now the smearing of turmeric has been replaced by painting it with yellow red, white and green colours at least in big cities and towns. I am fascinated by the art that is displayed on these thresholds. 

Here is one that caught my eye at the entrance of one of the temples. See the floral design.
In fact there will be vary massive thresholds in big temples.

Here is one where you can see one more design painted on the threshold.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anandgona/2476672057/

Some more of this art next time......Hope You can get a glimpse of our Indian customs and  traditions and enjoy reading them.....


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Threshold Art-2

My previous post on this topic was here:
Just to jog your memory..

Now a days turmeric and vermilion have been replaced by paints. Who wants to scrub their thresholds every week and apply turmeric and vermilion especially those living in cities who don't have even time to breathe. More over getting it painted is almost a permanent solution, needs repaint once in 5 or 10 years. Still the art of decorating is very creative.

Here is an example: 
This is the main threshold of an old traditional house in the coastal region. See the design of the flowers and the leaves. See the hibiscus flowers placed in the corner  worshipping the threshold.
See the scenery in the center. The paint has peeled off a little. But we can still make out the scenery. Blue mountains in the distance, orange and yellows of the sky denoting the sun rise, birds flying on their way to start their day.  We can also make out a house with slanting roof. These are tiled roofs (terracotta tiles) which is quite common in the region. The house is situated on the banks of a river. The most common tree is coconut. So the artist has added a few of them along with a boat in the water. The artist had captured the essence of the local region with just a few strokes.

I wish the scenery had not peeled off. It brought back memories of my child hood, my roots, my maternal grandma's  house and so much more when I visited the house.....I will share those moments with you in some other posts....

Oh by the way can you share with me any pictures of threshold art of your homes, if you have anything different? Send those pictures via email with a little description about it...We all would be very glad to see them please.....

Watch out for more on threshold art.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Threshold Art-1

Threshold means an entrance or door way. Threshold (door frame) for us Indians has lot of significance. Especially the threshold of main door. In olden days, houses of rich and royalty or those houses which were very big, temples and forts had huge doors and huge thresholds ie., the main doors leading into the house. I remember in my child hood, all the houses had thresholds (the main one) that were one foot wide and one foot high at the bottom. Even the rooms inside the house had thresholds but were in smaller size.The doors and thresholds were generally made of fine quality teak wood. 

Decorating the upper portion of the doorways with torans, I am already covering that  under the head "Torans". Here I am talking about the bottom portion of the door ways. Here after when I mention threshold, it refers to the bottom portion of the door frame. This is known as Chaukhat in Hindi and Gadapa in Telugu.

The threshold (bottom portion) is considered as a place where Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity) resides. 

Threshold art is the art of decorating the threshold with turmeric and vermilion. Since my child hood I have been fascinated by this art. Each household or rather lady of the household has its/her own way of decorating the threshold which has been handed down over generations.

How to apply turmeric and vermilion:

First of all the bottom portion and the sides of the frame (upto 1-2 feet) are washed with water to clean dirt and also to wet the wood. Turmeric is mixed with water or with sour curds (this gives a beautiful colour) into a paste and applied. Then it is decorated using red coloured vermilion and rice flour.

Here is one of the ways:
Side bottom of threshhold
Bottom of the threshold.


Watch out for more...in my next post....