HISTORY OF POTTERY

Pottery is a measure of a country’s civilisation. Being one of the oldest

crafts, more than 10,000 years old, man has expressed his feelings and his
aesthetics in clay: in toys and in primitive deities, and in various vessels
made for the storage of water and grain. When he came to know of the
beauty of a pot thrown on the wheel and its decoration, pottery took on a
new meaning for him. History came to be depicted on it.

Clay is the most abundant of all materials which mother nature has in
store. It has the quality of taking any shape desired to be given to it.
Sensitive to touch, the impressions are permanent. After drying and
baking it becomes permanent in this impermanent world. Several
thousand years ago this quality came to be recognised by man, and he
delighted in making pottery. Thus a beginning of civilisation came into
being.

In the beginning pottery was made with the hand, as sun-dried bricks and
containers. It was some accidental fire which produced the knowledge
that clay hardened on firing and this shape stayed for all time. Thus clay,
water and wood have been the essential materials for pottery. Later on the
potter’s wheel was developed.

WATER JUG from Elephanta caves, 10-11th centuary.

KUMBH, old Maharashtrian water pot.

BURIAL JAR, Harappa.

History of Clay Crafts in INDIA has itz origin in the Indus Valley
Civilisation. The remnants of clay crafts that are found in the Indus
Valley Civilisation testify the fact that from the ancient age clay craft had
an edge in India.

The production of clay vessels in India is an ancient craft. The history of

clay crafts in India dates back to 6,000BC through remains found at
Mehrgarh, on the western bank of the Indus River. History of clay crafts
in India says that around 3,000BC, wandering tribes settled on this fertile
river land which became the Harappa civilisation and left behind
indications of a highly developed culture including pottery making. Many
of the forms, techniques and decorative designs from this period are still
being used today. During the Vedic period (1,500BC - 600BC) pottery
known as Painted Grey Ware was produced, whose characteristic grey
colour was obtained through the practice of reduction firing. This was
followed by the Northern Black Polished Ware of around 400BC, a
highly lustrous pottery developed during the Mauryan period.

PAINTED GREY WARE.

Pottery of the Gupta Empire in India (AD300 -AD600) was
characterised by decorative bricks, tiles and vessels embellished with
painting, stamping, incising and moulding. Sometime during the invasion
of Islam in the 11th century, glaze was introduced (and later by the
British) but until recently has never really penetrated beyond the major
urban centres. Glazing requires high-temperature kilns which are not
affordable to potters, and whereas white kaolin is uncommon in India,
there is an abundance of excellent low-firing clays in almost every
village.

The classic water pot form is round-bottomed, designed to be balanced on

a fibre ring on a woman`s head (sometimes several stacked one on top of
another) and carried long distances. A wide range of vessels for everyday
household use are made with regional variations on design, decoration
and ethnic preferences for black or red firing. There are separate shapes
for carrying on the head, at the waist or by hand, and special sizes of pot
to contain certain measures of rice, oil, milk and yoghurt. Cooking pots
also vary in size and shape from open dishes for cooking diapattis to large
round-bottomed bowls for boiling paddy (rice before the husk is
removed). Storage pots for water, grains and dried foodstuffs vary from
region to region, their shapes squat or tall, their necks broad or narrow
according to their use.

The potters and their work are based on a variety of geographic locations.
For instance the fine pots with distinctive character from Himachal
Pradesh in the Himalaya are different in form and decoration to the pots
of the Kutch desert where the potters are Muslim and produce work
reflecting their culture and traditions. The decorative vessels from Uttar
Pradesh, which are black fired with silver inlay, are examples of designs
produced primarily for the urban market. The cupboards and grain
containers built from unfired clay in the bhungas (round mud houses) of
Kutch use the same making and decorating techniques as pottery, and
represent the unfired vessels of India.