KULALAR IMAGE

POTTER, KULALA, KUYAVAR, VELAR

POTTER
The potter in Tamil Nadu, as in most other parts of India,
provides villagers with many of the containers and utensils for
domestic use. In most south indian villages one street or section
of huts is the home and workplace of a group of potter families.
	Potters in India are usually referred to by some variation of
Sanskrit word kulala or pot - e.g. kummara (Telugu), kumbaro (oriya)
kumbara (canarese), in tamil nadu potters are commonly called
(by other groups) Kuyavar (kuyavar). This is the respectful form of
Kuyavan from the sanskrit ku, "earth," and avan, "person."
	The government now officially refers to potter groups in
Tamil Nadu as Kulala (kulala), again the respectful form, this term
is also derived from sanskrit and has its origin, according to
thurston (1909 : 112) in a legend about Kulalan, son of Brahma,
who wanted to create and destroy things daily and so become a
potter (small utensils of mud are often used only once and then
broken).
	The term that potters used for their own group in Madurai
District is velar (velar). Potters will be referred to in this way
throughout this paper. Although both men and women work
side by side when making pots. The making of mud figures and
other work for the village temples seems to be men's work and
thus the term velar will be used most often in reference to the
male members of the group.
	Velars of Madurai District make fine Pots. Manamadurai a
town southeast of Madurai in ramnad district, is renown, for the
finest pots in the state. The bulk of the velar"s work consists of
making common water and storage pots called Manpanai
(manpanai) or simply panai. These are begun with the lip and
upeer section thrown on a wheel and the bottom moulded
by a hammer and anvil technique. Two types of wheel are
commonly used : one wooden and spoked like a cartwheel and
the other made of solid mud with a stone cone inset to turn on.
Both wheels are driven by hand, sometimes with the assitance of
lever-stick. A variety of hand techniques are used to make other
common items such as country stoves and livestock watering
troughs. More specialized items are the huge kulumai (kulumai),
grain (Paddy) storage pots. And vilakkukutu (vilakkukutu), lamp
covers for shrines.
	Many items are made according to demand at certain times
of the year, such as the small dishes used as lamps at karttikai
(kaarththikai), the tamil Dipavali (festival of lights). Various ritual
pots, often painted or decorated, are made for annual celebrations,
marriages, and festivals. Mud pots are sold in markets at cities and
towns and account for only a part of the velars output. Many
products are sold directly to local people or are bartered and traded
with other craftsmen and farmers from the velar's front porch area,
the place where the products have been made and stored.
ARTIST
	Among most groups of velars there is a family or number
of families carrying the traditional responsibility of making the
mud images of gods and offerings for the village temple. In a
village with a large community of velars. Several families may
participate in this work (or a very large family occupying several
households). A velar may make mud images for only part of his
working life or only at special times during the year according to
shifting responsibilities and requirements. A detailed consideration
of these responsibilities and the full extent of the velar's art will
be provided in the latter part of this study.
PRIEST
	Very closely associated with the making of mud figures is
the service of the priest of the village temples where the figures are
installed (the use of the term "village temple" will be explained in
the section under that heading). The priest who presides at the
installation of mud figures and at subsequent puja or worship is
often a velar from the family who made the figures and frequently
he is the artist himself.
There are explanations as to why velars of Madurai
District enjoy the status that allows them to wear the sacred
thread and perform the important religious tasks in the village.
The velars feel that they are intimately associated with the life
processes of their fellow villagers providing for their daily needs
from birth, when the birth sac breaks (symbolized by a pot),
until death, when a mud pot is broken at the funeral pyre by
a close relative of the deceased. Until relatively recently, velars
played a very important part in the ritual of south indian
marriages. A popular south indian story tells of the descent of
potters from a brahmin father and a sudra mother: the mother
provided the occupational heritage and the father, the priestly.
In south indian villages, as in most of rural india, the performance
of religious rites is associated, at least in theory, with Brahmins.
	Another justification for velars conducting worship is
explained through their legendary importance in the ancient
kingdoms of south india. The velar prepared the utensils of daily
use for the kings and queens and, most importantly, fashioned the
large mud burial urns in which members of royalty were buried.
Excellent examples of conceivably similar urns are on display at the
tamil nadu state museum. The task of making these urns has been
glorified in poetry of the cankam literature of ancient tamil nadu
which is the foundation of tamil literature atleast as early as the
first millenium B.C. tamils often refer to cankam literature as
authoritative traditional history and as a guide to social morality,
much as North Indians refer to the vedas, upanishads, and puranas.
	The name of common village priest is pucari (pucari), a
word of sanskritic derivation used in many parts of india. Although
pucaris of other than velar castes conduct worship, velar pucari is
dominate in the area of my observations and therefore when
reference is made to pucari it can be taken to mean velar pucari.
The pucari has been described to me as the "official" of "permanent"
priest (although this is not always the case), "servant of god." or
more whimsically, "one who serves god all the time like a
christian father"
	The actual ceremonial responsibilities of a pucari will be
outlined in the section dealing with village festivals but we may
now discuss the position itself. The privilege of being a pucari
(Both advantages and disadvantages will become apparent) is
hereditary. It is passed from father to son or other close relative
and is inextricably tied to a particular village temple. The pucari
and his family usually live in the village of the temple he serves
or in a village nearby. His family should have long. Preferably
"eternal." historical relationships with the temple. If a man has
two sons, he may share the responsibilities between them: each
son may take charge for six months or a year at a time. Male
relatives of an extended family may also share the duties in many
cases, a number of velar families share the responsibilities of
pucari for particular temples, each taking their turn in successive
years. Variations on this formula involving more sons families etc.
are really endless and often disputes arise among relations
claiming the privileges.
	Such disputes are resolved in a number of different ways.
Some of the resolutions discussed here apply also in cases where
there is no successor and a new family must be chosen from
among the local velars. The people gather, often in the village
temple, and some type of puja is offered. Names of qualified
prospects or of disputing parties are written on small pieces of
paper and are put in a basket before the god or the papers can
also be scattered before the god. A small child, least likely to be
influenced by prejudices that might alter the will of god, is coaxed
to pick up one of the pieces of paper. As an added precaution the
child may be blindfolded. In "older times," coloured petals or
whole blossoms of different flowers were used as markers, rather
than paper. I was told that identically wrapped packets containing
various sub stances ( e.g. ash, vermillion powder ) were also used
as tokens for selection; in any case, it was said that occasionally
old men of the villate would make a judgment and "fairly choose
the village priest." One factor limiting the actual need for such
arrangements in Arappalayam and other villages that I frequented
near madurai was that many velars living there had migrated from
other places and were thus effectively barred forever from any
consideration of service as a pucari in the local temples.