In the past and may be even now in some of the villages and smaller towns of South India, women folk were in the habit of decorating the door posts of the entrance totheir houses with a great deal of creativity and aesthetic.
On the eve of any festival as also on every wednesday or thursday, the women of the household would apply turmeric paste to the cleaned lower foot or so of the door post on either side of the entrance. This would form a background on which intricate designs were drawn using rice flour and kumkum. The designs and motifs were highly symbolic and each family would have a special one. The turmeric may have helped to prevent attack of the wood by pests like termite, while the design themselves were like lamp posts identifying the family residing therein. Other women who came to invite them for religious functions would put the kumkum mark on the door post design if the mistress was not available in the home when they came to invite her. The top portion of the door post would be decorated with mango leaves as also flowers to give a festive look while doing their bit to purify the air within the house by the process of transpiration.
With change in occupation of the women as well as due to urbanisation door posts are now decorated with paint and the lintels with plastic flowers. Those of the younger generation are hardly aware of this custom and even if they are aware they do not know the traditional design that hall marked their family once upon a time.
