134 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
1. Sweetmeat jar. Khnrja. 2. Pipe-lDowl, unglazed clay. 
3. Jar. Sind. Roughly glazed earthenware. 4. Bowl. Eampur. 
MODERN POTTERY OF EAST INDIA 
Randolph I. Geare 
THIS pottery may be divided into two general classes: (i) 
the native undecorated pottery, which is made every- 
where in India from the Himalayas to Ceylon; and (2) the 
decorative wares, including such as those of Sind, Multan, 
Delhi, Rampur, etc. 
The native pottery is of a very simple kind, being intended 
for domestic use only, but the outlines are perhaps as beautiful 
as in any pottery in the world. The makers use the old wheel 
— ancient as the hieroglyphics of Egypt — while the still older 
method of beating out vessels of clay with a flat piece of wood, 
as in Northern Africa, the Fiji Islands and many other savage 
or semi-savage regions, is also maintained. With these simple 
appliances, however, the natives — as already intimated — 
obtain a purity of form unsurpassed by even the most elaborate 
processes. It is not with this ciaicle class of East Indian potter}^ 
however, that the special interest of the majority of people 
lies, but rather with the sumptuous decorated wares turned out 
by the celebrated establishments maintained in the provinces 
and cities above mentioned, among which Sind occupies a 
prominent position; and also to some extent by the Schools of 
Art in Madras, Bombay, and other parts of the Empire. 
Plate (Yatta). Sind. Diameter 10 inches. 
gether unlike the Italian majolica. Persian influences are 
strongly apparent both in the shapes and colors, and indeed 
the manufacture of Sind pottery is said to be actually due to 
the presence of colonies of Persians there at one time. The 
more common colors are a bright and strong green, yellow or 
Ijrown, yellow on black, and also a turquoise blue. The oldest 
examples often have a fine iridescence. 
The Multan pottery partakes still more of the Persian 
character, a fact readily accounted for by the nearness of that 
city to the Persian border. Here the earthenware is red or 
yellow, while the extra coating of fine clay (or "slip") is dec- 
orated with bold diaper or floral patterns in different shades of 
blue, giving the ware a richness unattained by an}^ other in 
India. Sometimes a light fawn color is used with the blues. 
Following the Persian form of decoration, a favorite design 
is the tulip. 
Delhi ware is made from a siliceous artificial claJ^ It has 
a thin glaze, but the colors, which are of great beauty, are 
applied direct, without the coating of fine clay common to the 
Sind and Multan wares. The ornamentation is thoroughly 
Persian in character. 
The Sind pottery which probably dates from about the 
thirteenth century, is a red earthenware, usually covered 
with a coating of some finer clay, worked into a paste and 
applied wet. It has a thick but transparent glaze, not alto- 
Bottle. ("Serai.") Delhi. Height 12^i inches. 
Jeypore ware is similar in man3- respects to the Delhi 
product, being also made from an artificial clay, although the 
colors and style of decoration are in the best examples decidedly 
superior. This ware is often made in large and conventional 
forms, with a combination of deep blue and dark green. It 
has been much imitated in recent j^ears, and the results are, 
as usual in such cases, of a deteriorated qualit3^ 
Other notable kinds of Indian potterj^ include that made 
by Abdul Majid of Khurja, the red earthenware of Ferruckabad, 
and the painted clays of Lucknow. 
The Ceylon ware furnishes an interesting stud^'. Tlie 
island was converted to Buddhism only about a century after 
the expulsion of the army of Alexander the Great, and that 
religion has been retained to the present day. Hence there is 
ai^parent in the potterj^ of that island considerable evidence of 
that Greek influence which was so powerful in earlj^ Buddhist 
art. Much of the painted ware is said to be very crude, due 
perhaps to European influence in Ceylon; but there is a class of 
red earthenware with incised patterns of quite high standard 
and conspicuously Greek in feeling. It is this ware that reprc- 
