I was introduced to the concept of a mandala when I started painting and drawing at the starting of lockdown in order to practice meditation through drawing mandalas. I started coloring mandalas and drawing mandalas. I loved doing the intricate designs inside the mandalas. Practicing this helped me increase my focus and concentration. By the end of the process, it would give me peace and satisfaction. My interest in these designs made me do little research on these designs and here is what I got to know:

In layman’s language, a mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing the attention on practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction.

In layman’s language, a mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing the attention on practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction.

Sanskrit: मण्डल, Romanized: maṇḍala, Literary meaning:  'circle' or ‘center’

Once you discover what a mandala is you’ll begin to see them everywhere!

In the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, mandalas are an object of meditation to aid in one’s spiritual development. The imagery depicts the universe and the symbols represent one’s spiritual journey, the cycles of birth-life-death, and the interconnectedness of all living things. Mandalas are quite common in India, Tibet, Japan, and China.

History and Geography

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born in what is today Nepal in 563 B.C.E. While we know that his followers spread the message of Enlightenment after his death, the presence of Buddhist art is often the earliest proof of the existence of Buddhism in a given place.

The first traces of Buddhist art were produced in India during the first century B.C.E.

Buddhist missionaries transported doctrines from India along the Silk Road (through the Karakorum and Hindu Kush regions, Kashmir, parts of present-day Pakistan, and northern Afghanistan) as early as the third century B.C.E. Artifacts followed sometime after. Literary and archaeological evidence indicate that Buddhism arrived in China by the first century C.E. From China, Buddhism reached Korea in the fourth century C.E. and from Korea, it spread to Japan in the middle of the sixth century C.E.

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