The Potter's Wheel 173 



are more skilful than I am.' The Buddha transformed into a man 

 said, 'Not only do I produce on the wheel objects completely baked, 

 but also I can produce objects formed with the seven precious sub- 

 stances.' The master-potter's eyes were opened: he immediately 

 received faith, and was converted. Thereupon Bhagavat, who had 

 transformed himself temporarily into a potter, reassumed his proper 

 body. He expounded the supernatural and subtle law, so that the 

 potter's family was initiated into the four cardinal truths." ' 



In southern India, wheel-made pottery came into general use 

 during the iron age. 2 



The cart-wheel in the hands of the Indian potter has been referred 

 to. This, however, is an exceptional local type, while commonly the 

 wheel is a plain wooden disk. G. C. M. Bird wood 3 describes it as a 

 horizontal fly-wheel, two or three feet in diameter, loaded heavily with 

 clay around the rim, and put in motion by the hand; and, once set spin- 

 ning, it revolves for five or seven minutes with a perfectly steady and 

 true motion. The clay to be moulded is heaped on the centre of the 

 wheel, and the potter squats down on the ground before it. The Tamil 

 potters (Kusavans) are divided into two classes, northern and southern; 

 the former using a wheel of earthenware, the latter one made of wood. 4 

 Their badge, recorded at Conjiveram, is a potter's wheel. 8 The Singalese 

 wheel (poruva) is a circular board, about two feet and a half in diameter, 

 mounted on a stone pivot, which fits into a larger stone socket em- 

 bedded in the ground; the horizontal surface of the wheel itself standing 

 not more than six inches above the ground. The wheel is turned by a 

 boy, who squats on the ground opposite the potter, and keeps it going 

 with his hands. 6 



Ceramic art is very ancient in Iran, being alluded to in two pass- 

 ages of the Avesta. 7 In the latter, mention is made of brick-layer's 



1 J. Przyluski, Le Nord-ouest de l'lnde dans le Vinaya des Mula-Sarvastivadin 

 et les textes apparentes (Journal asiatique, 19 14, nov.-dec., pp. 513, 514). 



2 R. B. Foote, Gov. Museum, Madras, Cat. of the Prehistoric Antiquities, 

 p. in. In regard to South-Indian pottery compare also R. B. Foote, The Foote 

 Collection of Indian Prehistoric and Protohistoric Antiquities (Madras, 19 14; 

 new ed., 1916); and A. Rea, Cat. of the Prehistoric Antiquities from Adichanallur 

 and Perumbair (Madras, 1915). F. W. v. Bissing (Sitzber. Bayer. Akad., 1911, 

 p. 16) seems to overvalue the antiquity of the potter's wheel in southern India; it 

 is certainly out of the question that it should be older there than in Egypt. 



1 The Industrial Arts of India, Vol. II, p. 144. 



4 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol. IV, p. 113. 



8 Ibid., p. 197. 



'A. K. Coomaraswamy, Mediaeval Sinhalese Art, p. 219. 



7 Videvdat, 11, 32; vm, 84. 



