Paper Title
Techniques and Styles of Panchmura’s Local Pottery, West Bengal, India
Abstract
Pottery and clay work boast of a long history in West Bengal. Natural low-lying lands of Bengal make for rich and good quality clay for pottery and terracotta works.Panchmura is a village where is a home to around more than 80 families of terracotta artists who are called “Kumbhakar” means potter in Bengali. Making terracotta votives and pottery is considered a family profession and all members of the family are involved in it. Similar to pottery clusters elsewhere, the potters do not receive any formal training; knowledge transfer is in the form of legacy or inheritance. Men usually work as the main potters, while women assist by preparing clay, decorating, coloring, firing, and selling. The history of this tradition can be traced back to the “Mallabhum kingdom,” between the 7th–16th century in the Bankura district.
Panchmura lies 30 km from Bishnupur in the Bankura district and has a vibrant potters’ community that makes pots as well as votive terracotta sculptures. Potters are mostly Hindu. The main products are votive terracotta figurines like horses, elephants, and snakes which are offered to their principal deity, Goddess Manasa. They bake their products within three unique techniques, oxidation, Reduction, and Sagar. Each one of them is for a particular item.
The poets in Panchmura have honed their techniques and styles over a long time and have become reputed across West Bengal. Many economists and social sciences researchers have conducted surveys in this region, but no one has researched their techniques and style of pottery. As the writer is a ceramist and academician himself, he had a fresh look at the Panchmura pottery.
Keywords - Clay Sculpture, India, Tradition Arts and Hindu