Auspicious wall paintings of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, mandanas are meant to protect the home and hearth as well as to welcome gods into the house. Mud and cow dung are usually plastered on the walls which are then painted white. The women of the house paint symbols like the swastika, the sun or the tree of life in black and red. Auspicious diagrams are drawn on the floor with rice paste, coloured powder, flower petals or grains of rice, often with symbolic motifs set within floral and geometric patterns. |
