ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how knowledge about kolam emerged within initial literature studies of Hindu conceptions of society and cosmos and developed through one year fieldwork in rural and urban settings of Tamil Nadu in 2005-6. It illuminates how the conventional methodological focus on verbal articulations expanded into visual and visceral ways of working and hereby produced knowledge constituted by dialogue as well as sensuous experience. The majority of women in Tamil Nadu, South India, draw a kolam outside their house. Kolam creates an auspicious atmosphere and the practice is part of women’s daily chores for the well-being of their family members and surrounding community. Kolam is made and seen in a context where vision has decisive tactile dimensions. Kolam images drawn at entrances of houses, at altars in temples and homes, or beneath a tree where the Goddess resides, visualize sites where people and deities constantly re-establish their relations.
