Terracotta

¤ Indian Pottery

Potters pottering about on their wheel and fashioning all kinds of pitchers and earthenware are a common sight in India. While pottery for daily use – like gharas (water pots), surahis (pitchers), diyas (lamps) and gamlas (flower pots) – is made all over India, certain areas specialize in a particular type. There are different types of pottery you are likely to see in shops.


¤ Destination Famous For Terracotta Art

Perhaps the most common form of pottery in India, terracotta pops up in almost every state. Votive figures of elephants, serpents, birds and horses are made in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and the Jhabua and Bastar regions of Madhya Pradesh. Quite similar to these are the horses of Darbhanga in Bihar which are painted in bright rainbow colors once they are made. Another place known for its magnificent, six-metre high terracotta horses is Tamil Nadu.

Terracotta panels and storage jars painted white and decorated with tiny mirrors are common in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Molela in Rajasthan excels in sculpted terracotta plaques and icons of Rajput heroes and Hindu deities.

Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have a charming tradition of decorative roof top tiles, made partly by hand moulding and partly on the wheel. These tiles, shaped like half tubes, have perched on top of them figures of elephants, monkeys, bears, reptiles, gods and goddesses and are considered a status symbol among the rural people.

The terracotta pottery of Madhya Pradesh is simply remarkable, especially that practiced by the tribals of Bastar. Traditional statues of elephants, serpents, birds and horses from Bastar are incomparable in their simplicity and are offered to the local deity as an offering in lieu of sacrifice. The Bhils of Jhabua and adjacent Chhota Udaipur in Gujarat also trust in animal offerings made from clay. Their potters mould distinctive clay horses, camels, elephants, tigers and bullocks that are then offered to a village deity or to a revered animal itself such as the tiger. Set down in the sacred grove that always lies in a secluded spot near the settlement, the terracotta animals are clustered together in a jumble of new and old, all eventually disintegrating and returning to the earth in their turn.

Sarguja, Raipur and Raigarh have a charming tradition of decorative roof top tiles, made partly by hand moulding and partly on the wheel. These tiles, shaped like half tubes, have perched on top of them figures of elephants, monkeys, bears, reptiles, gods and goddesses and are considered a status symbol among the rural people.