THE VEDIC SQUARE

Islamic Art
According to Islam, Muslims are forbidden from creating images of people.
Most traditional Islamic art is based on the following 3 aspects:
Calligraphy usually consisting of extracts from the Quran.
Arabesque free flowing lines
Geometrical designs
We are going to look at one type of geometric design that is often used in
traditional Islamic art.
The Vedic Square
Copy and complete the
multiplication grid below by
multiplying the number at the top
of each column by the number on
the left of each row. The first row
has been done for you.

10 12 14 16 18

3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Copy the grid below. Take your

answers from the multiplication
square above, add the digits
together for each number, and
write your new number in your
second grid. The first row has
been done for you.

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Drawing your design

Step 1: Choose a column from your grid. In this example we are going to
consider the column starting with a 3.
Step 2: Starting in the centre of a piece of paper, draw a vertical line with a
length of 3 units. If you are using a different column, then the length of your
line should be the number in the top box of your column.
Step 3: Now turn through angle, e.g. 90. Draw a line in your new direction
that is the length of the number in your second box. In this example your line
would be 6 units long.
Step 4: Now turn through the same angle and direction as in step 3 and draw
a line the length of the third number in your column.
Step5: Continue to do this until you get back to the point where you started.
If you get to the bottom of your column before you get back to your original
point return to the top of the column and keep going.
Step 6: Colour it in!
For the example above you should get a shape that looks like this!

Experiment using different columns of the grid and different angles to see
what patterns you get.

Completed Squares
2

10 12 14 16 18

12 15 18 21 24 27

12 16 20 24 28 32 36

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54

14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63

16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72

18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81
2

10

12

10

13 11

12 11 10

Logo
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