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Pottery
 Craft
of :
Haryana
Main Items of Pottery :
Water pots, earthen utensils
Practised in :
Jhajjar, Rewari, Bahadurgarh
Pottery is essentially a village craft, and Haryana is essentially a village state. The potter's wheel, dating back to pre-Aryan times, is the most common feature of any village in India.
Although numerous kinds of wheels are used throughout India, in Haryana the kick-operated type is common. With this contraption you don't use your hands to turn the wheel as in normal cases; on the other hand, you use your foot. The actual wheel may be either of cement or stone.
 The material for making earthen articles comes cheap, and from the earth itself. While the potter works on the wheel, he has a helper (usually his son or a relative) mixing clay, while a woman (his wife or a sister) makes intricate designs into the finished vessel or toy.
From utensils to toys to decorative pieces, clay forms the most essential ingredient on which the potter literally survives. Seasonal festivals call for the potter to get cracking - he has to make hundreds of toys like miniature cows, horses, people, houses and sepoys which are then sold in brightly decorated stalls along dusty lanes.
 Major Pottery Items
From utensils to toys to decorative pieces, clay forms the most essential ingredient on which the potter literally survives. Haryana that abounds in seasonal festivals, has the potters working in full gear in order to churn out hundreds of toys like miniature cows, horses, people, houses and sepoys, which are then sold in brightly decorated stalls along dusty lanes.
Main Areas of Activity
In Haryana, the craft is practised at several places including
Jhajjar, Rewari, Bahadurgarh and Pinjore. Not very long ago series of fancy-shaped water vessels, plates, cups, pipe bowls etc in well-baked pottery were made at
Rohtak in pale reddish-brown colour. The glazed pottery is also produced here these days.
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