Silver-Lining in the Muddy Lanes : Nizamabad Pottery

“Have nothing in your home that you don’t believe to be beautiful” -William Morris

Why the Art like black pottery with Silver inlay, a traditional craft of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh has a very few admirers even in this so called digital age as compare to the other phoney & superficial things which we intend to hoard in the search of beauty.

Despite getting a GI tag, Black Pottery of Nizamabad (U.P) remains constricted to the four-walls of the humble dwellings of Potters & Artists owing to the lack of institutional support.

There are merely 70 families of Prajatpatis left as of now in the village who refuse to refrain themselves from their traditional vocation and willing to get their hands in the mud and burn their fate in the furnace in order to create the splendid artifacts.

Silver-Lining in the Muddy Lanes : Nizamabad Pottery

Prajapati are basically a backward community of Artisans hailed from Kutch district of  Gujarat who were settled in Nizamabad (UP) during the reign of Mughal emperor – Aurangzeb.

As Aurangzeb, despite his all infamies was a great connoisseur of Art, hence he patronized Artist from all over India & outside India during his rule.

So this legacy continues and now in the descendants of prajapati clan from children to elders, all of them engage themselves in the  process of making black pottery earthen wares which includes various steps like molding on the wheel, etching, scraping  & polishing etc.

There is a another village called Haripura in same Azamgarh district where even toddlers respond to the harmony of Sargam notes, 600 years ago folk Music Artist Mishras settled in this village. They used to preform in the court of Azam Fateh Khan of Azamgarh.

So in the far flung villages of India, the traditional Arts & Folk Music can still swoon us by the Rustic charm but only if we are willing to seek happiness outdoors in the muddy lanes & on the slimy Roads.