The Kangra valley is situated in the North of India in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It nestles below the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas. Breathtakingly beautiful, the Valley is rich in terracotta clay deposits. Quality, colour, and making range vary from place to place. Raw clay ranges in colour from black, red, and orange to yellow. White clay deposits are also found. Local potters use these for white slip decoration on red, smoke-fired terracotta pots.

Potters are scattered throughout the vallery in villages and belong to the potters' caste. They are potters because their fathers and grandfathers were. As such they are raised to be potters and learn their pottery skills from family members.

In Kangra, the barter system is still in operation for potters. The village potter makes pots that he distributes freely to village members. Later he collects his share of the harvest. Otherwise he receives cash for his pots selling at local "melas" (festivals). These melas provide an important source of income for potters. Pots are made in preparation for forthcoming melas, mostly held at springtime. Many potters display their wares (normally the same range of pots, though decoration will be distinctive) and it is traditional for people to buy their pots there. The potter may also sell from a home shop, or if he is lucky he may be contracted to make many pots for someone.

There are many traditional pottery villages in the Kangra Valley. Guy Fish is a practicing potter settled in Panchrukhi. He has gathered an array of anecdotes from local potters and has studied the local resources in depth. He says.…

'The first potters that I visited live in the village Dheera. Their pottery is renowned throughout the valley. The potters I talked to are called Ram Kishan, Rajmal, and Rajender Pal. They make the usual range of domestic pottery, "ghada" (water-pot) "kadai" (cooking-pot), "chenari" (kitchen pot), "mughi" (lassi pot), "dhertari" (excellent for brewing rice beer), "buglai" (moneyboxes), "therlossi" (oil pot for massaging the baby), "martban" (pickle storage pot), "pari" (for the cow's milk), "chillums" (for smoking) "diya" (oil-lamp), and more. The Dheera potters are proud of their reputation and they are the only Kangra potters that use their own seal to distinguish their pots. Their seals have been in use for generations.

Rajmal bemoaned the changing world and its impact on potters as people switch to plastic, aluminum, and steel. He doesn't want to lose his heritage and is dismissive of the substitutes. Water is cool and sweet from a ghada, mughis make better curd, and food generally tastes better if prepared in clay pots. He told me that they are specialists in making oil-lamps, chillums, and kadai, which they
impress with their symbol, a flower. They were the best you could


  find, he assured me. He insisted that oil-lamps should be made of clay. They are used at the time of birth, marriage, and death, providing continuity in life as well as an unbroken connection to our ancestors. At one famous Hindi festival, called Diwali (the festival of light), every house is cleaned from top to bottom and twenty-five lamps are lit when it becomes dark, inviting the Goddess, Lakshmi, to visit their homes. These should be clay oil-lamps using the finest oil. Candles are no substitute. Rajmal then explained why Himachali potters only 'cone up' when centering the clay and never 'cone down'. He said that when you cone up bringing the clay to its center, it becomes a Shiva-(supreme God) Lingam. Out of respect, the Himachali potter would never press down on Shiva's head. The Lingam/cone waits to be opened and the potcreated. Potters in India, despite their low caste status, have a special affinity with God. One of the names for potter and God is Prajapati, meaning creator.

Rajender Pal told me about a special puja (religious ritual), called "Vishava Karma puja", which is performed by all craftspeople once a year. On this day, they clean all their equipment and tools and do no work. Their tools are offered to God in recognition of the gift bestowed on them. He related a wisdom revealed by the poet/saint, Kabir, who likens the forming of a person's character to the forming of a ghada by the potter. One hand is supporting the inside, while the other beats the outside. As a result the pot swells in size and becomes rounded. It has strength, but is very light. Likewise the man.

Ram Kishan is the eldest brother. He says the least, but makes the most pots. He is the master and likes to show me his oil-lamps and chenaris, drawing my attention to the well-executed cut decoration.

During my visit, I am welcomed warmly and given lots of cups of tea and Indian sweets. I look around their pottery and am impressed by how spick and span it looks. Inwardly, I vow to raise our own standard at Fish Pottery. Rajmal shows me his electric wheel, which he has sunk into the ground to be at the same level as the traditional Indian wheel. He's the only local potter I know that has an electric wheel. In buckets, there's 'Giru' or 'Geru' which is a red terrasigilata, obtained from one location. In another bucket there's white slip from another location. It is used for decoration, which is done with a free hand and done lighteningly fast by the wives and daughters. Two clays are combined to produce their excellent throwing body. In the kiln area, they build their bonfires/open smoke kilns. Cow dung, dry grasses, and pine bask are used to fire their pots. Blackware is produced by firing the pots inside an oil drum along with combustibles.

As we go around, I ask them if they are the butt of any jokes knowing that in India, potters have a reputation of being short of a rupee upstairs. This provokes much laughter and they agree its true. In Kangra a person who doesn't know anything is called 'mitti ka madho' - man of clay."

A trip to Kangra would take at least five days, as the distance to be traveled is five hundred kilometers .It is possible to go by road or by train.