Muslim
Potters and Pottery of Khavda
The village Khavda is
situated in the Kutch district of Gujarat. In Khavda, there are 25 potter’s
family but presently only one family is carrying out their traditional
occupation. In Gujarat the Muslim potters are divided into several endogamous
clans like Mara, Lota, Dinara, Chhatra, Brayer, Kandiya, etc. During marriage
ceremonies, the potters are assigned the task of fetching and serving water. In
return they receive either two or three bags of grains, cloths, food or
sometimes payments. It is obvious that they have to depend on other communities
for selling their products and similarly other communities have also to depend
on them to buy the clay articles for domestic and ritual purposes.
Shaping
of pottery
Shaping of the pottery is either
wheel made or a combination of wheel and handmade. Earlier hand made pottery
was also prevalent among them. The handmade methods include the use of
pattering, dabber and mould techniques. The use of hand was only employed for manufacturing
big sized storage jars. The shapes of handmade pottery are generally
asymmetrical and uneven. On the other hand wheel made potteries are having
symmetrical shapes with equal thickness and even surface.
Paintings
on the pottery
In the pottery both geometric as
well as naturalistic paintings can be observed. They are generally executed
with white and black colours on red surface. Such types of paintings are known
as black and white painting on red ware.
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