Pottery, clay and ceramics - Madurai Tourism

The rural section of the Madurai society takes to farming, pottery and making clay utensils.The potter and his art have played a significant role in many traditional societies since ancient times. Pots and ritualistic images/idols serve as an important example of how nature can be rearranged to embody value. The process of pottery exemplifies the transformation of nature into culture. Clay from the earth blends with water from the sky is dried by the wind and fired to hardness using wood or other fuel to produce useful pottery or sculpted idols used for various rituals. One of the castes associated with pottery making are the Velars. They have many roles in the community, including makers of divine and sacred vessels. The Velar potters of Madurai district in Tamil Nadu are a community with an active tradition of rituals that involve sacred processions.

Click here to read an article by Radhika Vaidyanthan about the Velars and the art of terracotta. Radhika is a Ceramicist and Installation artist who lives in Chennai. This article was published in Indian Folklife – a quarterly newsletter (Volume 1, issue 4, Jan 2001)

While in Madurai You can try your hand at pottery.

Sponsored by SanaTourism.com