She kept up a lively, innocent banter with both the young and old gathered around her to witness her weaving magic into the little balls of mud in her hands. Little hollow pumpkins, ornate pots, "Delhi morok" – she made one after another before her awestruck audience.
While she talked, her deft fingers went on with their work — patting a lumpy spot into place lovingly, giving shape to the mud, transforming it from its unrecognizable form – like a mother tenderly and patiently guiding her child to adulthood.
For 62 years old, Sanabam Dharmomala, shaping mud into pots, vases and piggy banks is almost child’s play – after all she has been doing that for most of her lives, as also many other women in Andro village of Imphal East district. But unlike the other women, Dharmomala’s story has a twist.
“It is only the married women of Andro who are allowed to make pots. As per traditional rules unmarried virgins cannot make pots. When I was a young girl, I stole some mud and stealthily started making pots on my own. But it was only after marriage that I could make the pots openly,” she said.
Dharmomala was born at Andro bazaar as the youngest among four children born to late Yumkhaibam Achou and late Boleshori. “My father was a renowned pandit, an astrologer who sometimes provided service at the royal palace during the reign of Maharaj Kulachandra,” she informed.
But it was from her mother, a housewife, that she first learned how to make pots, though the training was less practical work and more learning-by-seeing. “Mother like all married women in Andro was a potter and housewife,” she adds.
As the youngest child, Dharmomala was brought up with great love. “When I was a child, no one in the area wore leather sandals, they used the wooden khurum instead. I was the first to wear leather sandals. And also the first among my friends to wear golden danglers on my ears,” she said with a proud smile.
Her childhood was a celebration of innocence and simplicity, unbroken by outside influences. “Education was far from my mind or that of my friends. Who would wade through the mud and slush, such bad roads we had …,’ she adds.
Dharmomala was married to Sanabam Lalita when she turned 18 years. It was a simple housewife’s life after that, and like all married women in Andro she also started making pots in the traditional manner. However when her husband lost his job as a junior high school chowkidar, she realized she had to do something more to fend for herself and her children.
“I was around 35 years when I started making pots full-time. I would spend the whole day and most of the nights making one pot after another. After all it was the only way I could earn enough to feed my family,” she narrates. She has seven children – two sons and five daughters – and nine grandchildren.
Dharmomala is presently attached to the Andro Gramshang, the traditional museum where she showcases the traditional Andro pottery which doesn’t use a pottery wheel. To make the pots the Andro women use only their hands, a flat oblong stone and a small wooden flat bat, called teitap chei, to beat the lumpy mud into place.
“The whole year’s supply of mud is usually taken in the fairen month from a special loupham after due religious rituals and worship to propitiate the gods,” she said, adding, “They say the first pots were made in the time of the gods and the shape were taken from the fruits of the mera khundong lei.
|
Andro Pottery in display at 2nd Eco-Crafts Bazaar |
|
Today we make many traditional pots including
- Pudon Makhong,
- Walom,
- Ngangkha,
- Yukhum,
- Wangkham,
- Kambi,
- Kambi Makhong Panba,
- Eshaiphu, etc,
along with newer items like decorative vases and piggy banks.
The special colour is given by the Sei Khuhi tree barks soaked in water. But we don’t have a separate furnace or kiln to bake the pots, we just stack them below a bundle of straw and set the straw on fire.”
For her exceptional work in keeping alive the traditional art form, Dharmomala has been honoured by various agencies. She is the recipient of the state award in 2006, three other merit awards and recognitions by various bodies.
She has also taken part in various exhibitions and fairs all over the country, besides imparting training through special workshops from time to time. At present she is aided by her two sisters-in-laws and two other local women in her work.
“The youngsters in Andro are also learning the art so as to keep it alive, but it is not for showing to others. For instance among the young girls, there are many who are learning the art, but they make only decorative items but not religious items.
In Andro, six months after marriage there is a ritual where the married woman gives food to the whole clan, after which she takes her rightful place as a daughter-in-law of the clan. It is only after that she can make pots,” she explains.
The establishment of the museum at Andro has been a great aid to keeping the art alive, as well as providing financial incentives to the traditional potters.
“We make more sales when the tourists come at Andro, the peak sale being in the summer seasons of Sajibu and Kalen,” Dharmomala explained.
Thingnam Anjulika Samom wrote this article for The Sangai Express .
You can contact the writer at thingnam(at)yahoo(dot)com .
This article was webcasted on April 10th, 2007
|