The origin of painting is traced to a moving legend recorded in the Chitralakshana--- the earliest Indian treatise on painting. When the son of a King's high priest died, Brahma, Lord of the universe, asked the king to paint the likeness of the boy so that he may breathe life into him again. This is how, it is believed, the first painting was made.

Another popular story is that God in one of his creative provocation extracted the juice from one of the mango trees as paint, and drew the figure of a woman so beautiful that it put the heavenly maidens to shame.

The Chola rulers made extensive use of floor paintings. They are known by different names in different parts of the country; Alpana in Bengal, Aripana in Bihar, Madana in Rajasthan, Rangoli in Gujarat and Maharashtra, Chowkpurana in Uttar Pradesh and Kolam in the south.

Decorating the floor in different parts of the house is believed to be a good omen. The entrance decoration is a gesture of welcome. Elaborate designs are made on all occasions.

The designs are symbolic and basically common to the whole country like: geometrical patterns, with lines, dots, squares, circles, triangles; the swastika, lotus, trident, fish, conch-shell, foot-prints (supposed to be of goddess Lakshmi), creepers, leaves, trees, flowers, animals and anthropomorphic figures. These motifs often are modified to fit in with the local images and rhythms. One important point is that the entire graph must be an unbroken line, with no gaps to be left anywhere between the line for evil spirits to enter.