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EveryCow

Dung, hide and horn

Cow-dung floor plaster (lipai)

Fresh dung mixed with clay and water and spread over mud floors and courtyards for a smooth, renewed surface.

In village homes with earth floors, fresh cattle dung is mixed with clay and water and smeared over floors, walls and courtyards with the flat of the hand or a cloth. The coat dries to a smooth, firm surface that settles dust and is renewed every few days or before festivals. The work is called lipai or leepna in Hindi, and the yard is often decorated afterwards.

What goes in

Fresh cattle dung: 46%46%Clay or fine earth: 31%31%Water: 23%23%3parts
  • Fresh cattle dung646%, The binding and smoothing agent.
  • Clay or fine earth431%, Gives body.
  • Water323%, To a thick, spreadable slurry.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Serve Sweep the floor or yard clean.
  2. Step 2: Shape Mix fresh dung with clay and water into a smooth slurry.
  3. Step 3: Shape Spread it thinly over the floor with sweeping strokes of the hand.
  4. Step 4: Dry Leave it to dry to a firm, even finish.
  5. Step 5: Serve Draw kolam or rangoli on the fresh surface.
  6. Fresh cattle dung: 46%46%Clay or fine earth: 31%31%Water: 23%23%
    Finished Cow-dung floor plaster (lipai), by share.

A clean slate

Plastering is part of the morning routine in many villages, and a freshly plastered floor is a sign of a cared-for home. Before Diwali, weddings and pujas, the whole house is re-coated. Many believe the dung coat keeps insects away and cleanses the space, a belief rooted in the cow's sacred place in Hindu custom. Kitchens and prayer corners are given special care.

Ground for art

The plastered surface is the ground for floor and wall art. In Tamil Nadu the front yard is sprinkled with dung water, chaanam, before the morning kolam is drawn in rice flour. In Mithila, Bihar, wall paintings of the Madhubani tradition were made on dung and clay plaster. In Kutch and Rajasthan, mud and dung walls carry relief work set with small mirrors.

Where it is used

Earth floorsCourtyards before kolamWalls for Madhubani painting

The breeds behind it

Malnad GiddaDwarf cow of Karnataka's hill homesteads.KangayamTamil Nadu breed of the Kongu farms.KankrejKept across Kutch and north Gujarat.

Also part of it, and being written: Badri (Small hill cow of Garhwal's villages.).

More on EveryCow

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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