The Potters of Adalaj

If you skip the right turn to Adalaj Wav and go straight ahead instead, it may seem like a pretty bad decision. The outskirts of Adalaj village are like any other place, the proximity to the highway dictating the environment above all else. Just after the huge petrol pump, there flashes by on the left side, a blur of pink-brown. You curse your speed, turn around your vehicle, travel on the wrong side of the road and then decide it was certainly worth it. Its like being in a terracotta garden. Strewn across fifty meters are shops selling terracotta clay articles of almost every conceivable use.


Conventional terracotta articles like pots and vessels are present in abundance, matkas with metal taps being the largest article in demand. But as you step inside, you begin to marvel at the ingenuity of man. Wind chimes, mini idols encased in acryclic and gold cases, horses, elephants, gods with LED lights, all made from terracotta, are strewn around the shops. Two enthusiatic young boys are showing me around. They are both called Chetan. They are maternal cousins and totally unrelated to our NID Chetan.


They introduce me to their grandfather, a wizened old man with a million wrinkles and absolutely no interest in what I am doing. Through broken Hindi-Gujarati and vigorous hand callisthenics, I begin to understand the world of Chimanbhai Prajapati.

Potters for over five generations, the Prajapatis had moved to Gujarat from Jaipur over 200 years ago. Chimanbhai and his son Raghunathbhai are just one out of the seven potters who live together by the side of the Sabarmati-Mehsana highway. Their houses are sturdy and well built and all of them have the same structure. Pottery workshop at the back of the house, the rooms of the house, a facade where the painting work happens and finally the shop, an ever increasing lane of terracotta goods that threatens to overrun the higway. Terracotta work happens for eight months of the year, during the monsoons the wheel remains silent. The main sale of goods happens through exhibitions organized by the Government of Gujarat and throught the space in front of their homes.

The terracotta is mainly transported from Saurashtra. Though the various families of potters are competing with each other, there is a sense of camraderie among them. All the potters have business cards, which stand them in good steady in exhibtions and also to give customers seeking a large order of pots. Over the years the products made from clay have changed greatly. From standard products like matkas and clay tawas, they have diversified into showcase items and also into figurines. Small figures of men in different professions like a blacksmith, weaver etc. are showcase items displayed in the shop window. The potters have also started to add value to their products. For example, they source an acryclic and gold plated display case and assemble it after inserting a terracotta god in the case. These cases are small, hardly the length of half an A4 sheet of paper. The gods are highly detailed and finely painted. The painting is done with oil paints. The gods are also carefully draped and plated jewellery is used to adorn them. The case is packaged in a smart red cardboard packaging which reads - "Gold plated export quality Gods. High quality handicraft".

The community meets the criteria as per our guidelines, sharing a common resource, means of earning a livelihood, techniques, etc. There also seems to be an opportunity for design intervention at specific leverage points. Lets see how it goes.

After spending two weeks at the marble workshop at SG highway (Rakesh Bhai) who makes marble mandirs, I have realized how even in the most straightforward trades, thinking from an outsiders perspective can bring about a postive change. He makes modular mandirs from marble. He gets jaalis, pillars etc. from his various workshops around Ahmedabad and assembles them to create various unique designs for mandirs. These mandirs are usually about three feet high and are used in homes as the puja-ghar.