Preparing for Navratras

Hi friends. I think you are all busy preparing for the festive season. Yesterday and today, I had a very hectic day sprucing up my home and garden. But alas! though every year I follow Navratras very religiously, keeping fast offering pooja morning and evening, this year this is not possible as I have to go out again tomorrow. As you know it is very difficult to keep fast and offer prayers while one is travelling. As a child I am a very ardent devotee of Mata and have never missed out on this occasion, except for this time. But that cannot be helped. Though I cannot follow the elaborate rituals, I do meditate as this period is very auspicious.

Any way, I  still have so much to do before I leave. Wanted to shop for a nice silk Kanchivaram for me, my mom and sis. But no time at all. Also have to buy furnishings before Diwali and have to stitch them. I don't know whether I can do all this. Well I am an optimist if I start now, I can at least complete it for Sankranti..:) :) Isnt it?

I have lots of projects. When I visited Pratima's blog- here is the address:

http://pratima-jackofalltrades.blogspot.com/

I remembered that I have to do a lot. Especially my saris..so many unfinished projects. But with all this travelling I dont have time or energy to do any thing. Oh by the way do drop in at her blog. You can see some very lovely works. I like her blog.

Oh I was busy with some kitchen projects today. I am posting some recipes on my other blog. So just have a look. 

Well one more thing. I have this very bad habbit of doodling. I carry a sketch pad, pencils and pens and when I am travelling i.e., in the bus or train or car I keep on doodling. And when I go back to my room after a days hard and tiring work, I take out my pad and keep on doodling till I relax and forget everything. 

Be it the towns, or villages, the greenery, the scenic beauty, all motivate me. But I am afraid I don't have the time to give them all a proper shape. I want to paint them in water colours or in oils some day. 

Any way, I keep collecting, rangoli patterns, motifs-mostly folk/tribal, also from the temple architecture and create my own designs for painting and embroidery. Well I have quite a large collection. I will share them with you. But that may take time as I have to properly pen them first, and then post them. But do keep a watch. I will certainly post them.

Rangoli 44

Yagya Vatika-2

Here is one more design of Yagya Kund. This is also very simple. The dots have to be placed as shown in the design.

This is also very easy. this can be expanded to make it more bigger. Try it out.

More to come....

Rangoli 43

Yagya Vatika 

The Rangoli patterns have names too. The same pattern may be called differently by different people. But some of the old ones have mostly the same name or similar names. 

Any way my granny used to call this pattern as Yagya Vatika or Yagya Kundam.

Yagya means sacrifice. This is performed by putting  certain specified things into the sacred fire depending on the reason for which it is performed. The offerings are usually ghee (clarified butter), flowers, herbs etc. This fire when burns these things has medicinal properties and cleanses the air, atmosphere. The bhasma or the ash that remains is also full of medicinal properties and is worn on the fore head or mixed in water and drunk.

Yagyas require Yagya Kundam or Yagya Kund or bins constructed with bricks, mud and plastered with cow dung. There are many designs of these bins. These have to be constructed very precisely according to the dimensions given in the sacred texts. How to construct, what materials to be used, what is the auspicious, time and place for such constructions, how to perform the Yagyas are all given in the sacred texts.

OK here is the Rangoli. There are many designs in this too. I am posting some here.

This is the first step. Simple designs. These are the basic ones. One can improve upon these as below.

This is the second level design. You can add as many outer rings as possible to make it big.

Here I have decorated the above design with lines and dots. This can further be expanded depending upon the space, creativity and time. Hope you like this simple design very easy to draw.

Some more in my next post. Keep a watch.....