DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

COMMENTARY TO THE
ILLUSTRATIONS
GROUP I : Pottery (1-7)
1. Potter’s discs (sevata) ; stone, diameter 22 cm. Top half removed and inverted
in the one on the right. The socket is partially lined with a sheet of tin or thin steel, to
prevent wear.
2. The disc is used only by women. The lady is Mrs. Belsare ; her husband was
kind enough to demonstrate the Poona pottery technique in full. A pad supports the clay
being moulded; the disc is turned by pushing on the clay and by the big toe of the left
foot applied to the top half.
3. Potter’s wheel (used only by men), Poona. The pots are about the largest size
that can be finished on the wheel, with Poona clay. Note uniformity of the vessels,
without a template of any sort. The wheel has wooden spokes, and is built of a clay-coir
mixture rammed over the spokes and four to six bamboo rims; if properly made, it
should last at least ten years. The flat-based pivot is portable, of hard wood (Acacia
catechu ) ; on its sharp point fits a chalcedony bearing set into the wooden center ot the
wheel. The wheel is speeded up when it slows down by a free rod that can fit into a
wooden socket set near the edge.
4. Compaction and expansion of vessels first turned on the wheel; the original
size is shown in front of the potter, and looks relatively larger because of the photoperspective.
The rim is not touched at all. All pottery made by women on the potter’s
disc is finished — without expansion — in the same way by the men, from an
initial rough stage. The large jars (pithoi) have to be constructed on the disc in as
many as three consecutive stages, and the joints at the transition patted out of existence.
The open vessel contains ashes to prevent the clay from sticking to the paddle
and the terra-cotta ‘anvil* held inside the pot; even the potter uses an old tin to hold
the water, though such tins are driving him out of business.
5. Banaras potter. Superior clay enables him to finish larger vessels (northern
red ware) on the wheel, which is solid, and therefore heavier than the Poona model,