Thresholds

This chapter draws connections between the kōlam on the threshold and the pottu (or bindi) on the forehead. These ritual marks indicate the presence or absence of auspiciousness (or mangalam) and help prevent ritual pollution. The kōlam is an elaborate system of communication that provides clues to the powerful roles of female domesticity and householders living the moral and “good life.” Bringing together Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, good luck, and prosperity, and Mūdevi, the goddess of poverty, bad luck, and misery, the kōlam reflects auspiciousness and is a mapping of auspicious states of accepted forms of sexuality and reproduction as well as states of inauspiciousness and ritual pollution. The author analyzes how thresholds of time and space are punctuated in Tamil Nadu through menstruation and death.