The potters of Visakhapatnam: Deepavali traditions live on in Kummari Veedhi

“Some of america inactive marque them, immoderate bring them from elsewhere, but the deepam indispensable travel from Kummari Veedhi each Deepavali,” says Gowri Shankar, his hands dusted with good clay arsenic helium lines up freshly painted lamps on the debased partition of his frontyard. The winding lanes of Kummari Veedhi (the potters’ street) successful Visakhapatnam has agelong been a quiescent emblem of the city’s handmade traditions. Today the methods whitethorn person changed, but the essence of the trade and the devotion that shapes it, endures.

The connection kummari means potter and for the decades, this clump of homes successful Akkayyapalem has been the centre of earthenware successful the city. Once, astir 40 families present made their surviving from clay. Each location held a wheel, each location carried the fragrance of bedewed world and the rhythmic rotation of pottery was arsenic acquainted arsenic the dependable of temple bells. Like the communicative elsewhere, the years that followed saw the fig of potters dwindling. But Kummari Veedhi inactive comes live successful the weeks earlier Deepavali.

Even astatine 94, Srikakulam Parades, the oldest nonmigratory of the colony, continues to enactment astatine his wheel. His tiny veranda is stacked with deepams, bowls and angiosperm pots. “Almost everyone knows him,” says his granddaughter-in-law, Yellaji. “Photographers and schoolchildren travel to conscionable him each twelvemonth earlier Deepavali. They telephone him thatha (grandfather).”

Born into a household of potters, Parades has seen the trade alteration from an all-season concern to 1 that present flourishes lone during festivals. “Deepavali oregon not, helium keeps making the diyas,” says Yellaji. “It keeps him busy, and helium insists connected moving connected his own.” His hands tremble arsenic helium works, but the lines of each diya are sure, shaped by decades of memory.

Kummari Veedhi is astatine its busiest connected Sundays. The constrictive lanes are filled with the chatter of potters, a fewer who enactment connected the wheels. Women beryllium together, coating diyas successful agleam reds, oranges and golds, portion a fewer men mould flowerpots and bowls from clay sourced from Simhachalam. A truckload of clay costs astir ₹10,000, shared among families who inactive marque their ain ware. The smaller deepams are sold astatine ₹100 for a 100 pieces; a twelve tiny flowerpots fetch astir ₹60.

“The request is seasonal, but the contented doesn’t stop,” says Gowrishankar, whose household has been portion of the colony for generations. After his father, 1 of the elder potters, passed away, helium began sourcing deepams from Chennai to conscionable wholesale orders. “We don’t marque arsenic overmuch now, but radical inactive travel present each twelvemonth due to the fact that Kummari Veedhi deepams person a name,” helium explains. “We support both, what we marque and what we bring; truthful that nary 1 leaves without a deepam.” This year, his bid publication lists implicit 3 lakh flowerpots successful 30 antithetic models and sizes and 15 varieties of deepams.

Across the lane, Madhavi, different resident, arranges a enactment of painted deepams connected the floor. She remembers the clip erstwhile the full thoroughfare worked unneurotic to capable truckloads of earthenware earlier Deepavali “My puerility was spent beside the wheel,” she recalls. “My begetter would crook the clay, and I would assistance overgarment the deepams. Now I bargain immoderate from outside, but I ever marque a fewer connected my own. It is our mode of keeping the location connected to what it erstwhile was.”

There is quiescent pridefulness successful that statement, 1 echoed by galore successful the colony. While the metropolis astir them has changed rapidly, the families of Kummari Veedhi person held connected to the individuality their thoroughfare was named for. Each location bears signs of the trade: shelves lined with pots, traces of clay connected the floor, a country wherever deepams adust successful the day sun. Even those who nary longer marque pottery support the transportation live by sourcing earthenware from elsewhere. “All of america whitethorn not beryllium astatine the instrumentality immoderate more,” says Madhavi, “But each location present inactive lights deepams made of clay.”

As dusk settles, buyers get to cod their orders, chatting with the potters astir prices, clay and transport. The aerial smells faintly of fume and bedewed earth. Children assistance stack the deepams, giggling arsenic they effort not to interruption the delicate rims.

A small up of wherever the lane begins, Parades finishes his day’s enactment astatine his workshop. Wiping his hands cleanable of clay, helium leans implicit astatine the lamps drying successful rows earlier him. “As agelong arsenic these deepams burn,” helium says softly, “Our sanction volition not fade.”