EARTH MEETS ART - THE POTTERS OF GOA

EARTH MEETS ART: THE POTTERS 

Those summer evenings at granny’s still make fresh memories, when we would come back all tired and sweaty and dash straight to the earthen jar.  Jogging back from the beach we drooled of the thought of the liquid inside that clay cooler. The summers in the 90’s were not as hot as that of today; but they were warm enough to burn you out and leave you dehydrated. Fortunately, back then we had more natural means to refresh and rejuvenate. A tumbler of cold water and we would fall flat on the cow dung carpeted floors and stare at the clay tiled roof. No air condition, no fridge needed, the earth with all its generosity comforted us with its riches. 

Globalization is impacting the traditional potters’ community all over India and Goa is not an exception. Award winning writer, Mahabaleshwar Sail in his novel Havthan, analyses the changing market economy impacting demand-supply equation, development projects impacting the raw material supply chain and pathos these changes cause in the community. The big question however is: would the tradition of pottery which survived against all odds for four thousand years (due to resolute patronage of the village economy) acclimatize to forces of globalisation, multiple consumer choices, urbanisation and industrialised mass production? Globalisation has caused dumping of cheap and disposable substitutes for various traditional pots and utensils made of metals, alloys, thermo-tolerant glass, plastics and composites. Consumers have switched over to different cooking and storage techniques.

The potters are Goa’s oldest craftsmen and pottery is Goa’s oldest craft. Long before history was recorded, it was the Goan potter who provided the temple with clay lamps and cooking vessels. It was them who brought fresh supplies of eating, drinking and cooking vessels for mass meals. Freshly made clay vessels were considered pure by their very nature. They were fashioned out of earth, water and fire - three out of the five basic elements that support life. This raised the potter's status in Goan society.

Today’s potter fashions containers for planting ornaments, clay idols of saints, gods and goddesses, tulsi vrindavans and fancy articles just as he or she continues to produce traditional containers and cooking vessels that are both functional and beautiful. You will also see them selling these articles at church and temple fairs all over Goa. “I normally camp around the site, may be in an old school compound or in some locals verandah where I can keep a watch through the night,” reveals Milagrine, about the gypsy lifestyle of the pottery traders.

The business demands a lot of passion and patience as clients are not easily available. Milagrine shares her experience, “It is hard work and sometimes involves long days and sleepless nights; but the business is encouraging and the demand by locals and tourists motivates me to go on.” A more permanent display of Goan pottery, however, may be found in the industrial estates at Bicholim in the north-eastern corner of the State. Studio potters produce contemporary choices at Porvorim and Penha de France.

A ride through the steep circuitous bi-lanes of Succor, a quiet village away from the dusty NH-17 highway, will make you understand why it is a perfect setting for an endangered craft. If you happen to see a board reading ‘The Potters’, don’t mistake them for the Rowling character, because the wizards down here are of a different nature.  I inquired for Thereza Marai Vales, much to the amazement of many who were clueless of the name. I was in the right place alright, though I later learnt that they call her Calorine. This spirited soul, who is as restless as a young kid, has been in the pottery trade, along with her husband for many years. 

It was not difficult to get her talking. After a prelimnary scan that she conducted with her piercing eyes, she opened up to all kinds of candid topics. “Unlike today, there was no transport. We would walk miles or travel by the bullock cart. There were no bridges, we would cross the ferry.” she encounters, further adding that, “You will be surprised that we would actually reach south Goa within a day and travelling by feet those days was not as tiring as today, the roads were lined with trees and greens.” 

She is all eager to explain the science behind the skill. “The clay is processed in the time honoured way of soaking in vats where it is broken up by trampling and the slurry poured off to pits to mature.”  says the grand old lady to picked up the skill from her brothers, after being orphaned at a very young age. She further explains, “It is then dug out and foot or hand kneaded. The wheel rests on a metal spike set into the floor.”  

Men normally worked on the wheel while women crafted it out bare handed. “The hand built pots were started on a coarse biscuited saucer with a flat pancake of clay and coiled up. The pots were either for water or cooking and as they would stand on a dirt floor or sit on a clay stove, they all had smooth rounded bases.” Calorine sighs helplessly as she continues, “Sadly aluminum and plastic pots are starting to replace these in many areas.”

She then took me for a tour of her production displaying various items: a base made for vases, piggy banks, baking and steaming utensils to cook sannaas and cakes; and lamps for incense. The daily schedule of this septuagenerian is mind-blowing. She wakes up at 5am and rushes to the fields. Later in the afternoon, if time permits, she goes to help at the bakery and by evening she has disappeared to the Mapusa Market to sell her produce. “I have brought up the kids from clay,” she smiles, her toothless charm radiating a childlike innocence, “we believed that ‘more the children, more the blessings.” 

Her granddaughter Janice Vales, a carbon copy of herself, has taken an interest to the hobby and is slowly mastering the craft which her granny fears in dying out. “She is a fast learner and she is very keen, but I don’t know if she would continue with the talent. Whenever her friends come along, she leaves the work and runs off to play,” she exclaims in an effort to express her desire to the little protégé.  Janice however is keen to keep up to her granny’s expectations, “I am not shy or embarrassed to have such a hobby, I like what I am doing.” With a fast paced world and lucrative job offers, it would be a brave initiative if the little girl decides to follow her grandmother's dreams. 

(ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN "BEING WOMAN" MARCH-2013.) 
(pic courtesy: Google)