Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Dots and numbers
|
What’s the link between the Fibonacci series and kolam patterns? Ask physicist S. Naranan
|
Photo: M. Karunakaran
Pretty patterns Naranan with his designs
What happens when a retired experimental physicist becomes intrigued with kolam designs? Well, if that physicist is Dr. S. Naranan, he builds a new hierarchy of kolam patterns, using a mathematical formula. It was about two years ago that the 77-year
-old cosmic ray physicist and X-Ray astronomer came across a supplement on kolams from the Kumudam Snehidi magazine. Where everyone else saw pretty designs, Dr. Naranan saw a mathematical pattern — the Fibonacci series, to be precise. “The supplement mentioned that these 5 X 5 square kolams were composed of four 2 X 3 grids,” recalls Dr. Naranan. “Two-three-five — I was immediately reminded of the Fibonacci series, in which each number is generated by adding together the previous two.” The result is a systematic method of generating numerous variations of single-loop square or rectangular kolams of any size.
Myriad possibilities
“Most of these Fibonacci designs are completely unique — you won’t find them in any kolam pattern book,” he says, indicating the pages and pages of beautiful hand-drawn designs that are scattered around him. “There is enormous creativity among the women who come up with new kolam designs. The difference is this formula allows you to explore the myriad possibilities of any given design to its fullest extent.”
Dr. Naranan isn’t the only one studying kolams. The ancient folk art has attracted the attention of researchers around the world, including a group in Japan that currently applies Knot theory (also used to study DNA molecules and chemical polymers) to unravel its mysteries. “There is a lot of mathematical beauty to this 1000-year-old art form, and people are realising now that it can be mathematically analysed,” says the physicist, who was with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research until his retirement in 1992. Nor is it the first time the Fibonacci Series has been linked with art.
“The series helps generate the ‘Golden Rectangle’ (its sides are in the ratio of 1:618) that Western writers have claimed can be found in the painting of the Last Supper, the Parthenon in Athens and even the Pyramids of Egypt,” says Dr. Naranan. That ‘Golden Rectangle’, incidentally, is what he has used as the building blocks of his designs: “There’s no conjecture in this case!” he laughs. The physicist, who has worked on statistical linguistics (English and Tamil), evolutionary genetics and cryptography among other things since retirement, has produced two papers on kolams (including one using Group theory to analyse symmetries).
But his hope for the future is to see his Fibonacci designs being generated through computer programming. “Since my method is modular, programming and graphics can easily be used. That would have tremendous creative potential,” he explains.
With Margazhi around the corner, it seems like a good time to dabble in some kolam mathematics. If you need unique designs, you know where to look — under ‘F’ for Fibonacci!
DIVYA KUMAR
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
