The potter's craft - burnt clay dates back to antiquity in Bangladesh, as excavations of pottery in Mainamati, Paharpur or Mohasthangarh in Bogra similarly as Mohenjodaro and Harappa of Pakistan (2500 B.C) show. The artistic work both in the delicate shapes and the fine coloured designs on these articles indicate that they are pieces of excellent craftsmanship. The pottery glazed and unglazed khumba matkas (water pots or clay) or the figurer of various animals and birds and many other excellent exhibits piled high around Shishu Academy, Mirpur Road, Dhaka Railway station or almost in all dist. H. Q. Upa-Zilla or even in the enumerable points and bazars of rural Bangladesh are made locally. According to a legend, the first pot was made to store amrita (the nectar of immortality). Thus the khumbas, or kumars the name also given to the potter's community, were hold in high esteem.

The craftsman in this creative work, whether the potter with his simple articles of unpolished earthenware in natural colours of terracotta, or the more skilled artisan with his glazed ceramics with intricate motifs, has played a vital role in every day life in the sub-continent including Bangladesh. He has been the enduring link between the individual and his household needs. The potter's jars, cooking pots, water pitchers, plates, incense, vases and bowls are all items of daily use. One can see the potter's at work, revolving their wheels beneath the shade of trees, whizzing the clay to turn it into miraculously symmetrical shapes.

The wheel is of the common kind, thick with shoats spokes, and terms on a pivot of hard wood on metal, provided with a large hub that acts as a revolving lable. The potter throws the kneaded clay into the center of the wheel rounding it off, and then spins the wheel. As the whirling gathers momentum, he begins to shape the clay. When it is over he severs the shaped bit flour the rest.

Bangladeshi potter has always laid stress on the basic form and texture of his articles. Harmonious colour blending, the perfect all-over effect of design with shade and tone, mark his unity of purpose.

To stress the historical background of pottery, one is to remember that the production of pottery is one of the most ancient acts. The oldest known body of pottery dates from the Jomon period (from about 10,500 to 400 BC) in Japan; and even the earliest Jomon ceramics exhibited a unique sophistication of technique and design. Excavation in the near East have revealed that primitive fired-clay vessels were made there more than 8,000 years ago. Potters were working in iron by about 5500 BC, and earthenware was probably being produced even earlier on the Iranian high plateau. Chinese potters had developed characteristic techniques by about 5000 BC. In the New world many pre-Columbian American cultures developed highly artistic pottery traditions. Development of Western pottery since the beginning of the renaissance was also very significant from various points of view.

As for the types of wares, pottery comprises true distinctive types of wears. The first type, earthenware, has been made following virtually the same techniques since ancient time; only in the modern era has mass production brought changes in materials and methods. Earthenware is basically composed of clay- often blended clays - and baked hard, the degree of hardness depending of the intensity of the heat. After the inventions of glazing, earthenware’s were coated with glaze to render them waterproof; sometimes glazed was applied decoratively. It was found that, when fired at great heat, the clay body became nonporous. This second type of pottery, called stoneware, came to he preferred for domestic use. The third type of pottery is a Chinese invention that appeared when feldspathic material in a fusible state was incorporated in a stoneware composition.

The history of Bangladesh pottery art is also very old, as old as the Mohenjodaro and Harappa civilization. Some earthenware was found after the excavation of Mohasthangarh in Bogra (3 hundred BC). In addition to that the Paharpur and Moinamati excavation also brought in light some of the best possible pottery work for which the country can be proud of. However these are mostly terracotta arts and the terracotta's used in the Kantajee temple of Dinajpur are also excellent in its quality and texture. The 'Nilpadma' found in Lalmai of Comilla is unparalled and those are kept in most cases in the site Musings of various locations. The folk arts of these categories are being used in modern design and beautification in most of the tastefully decorated construction in Bangladesh.

Thanking you.

Tofazzal Hossain