History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c15.4

v1.c15.4

The term pottery generally denotes all objects made of clay, first shaped, then dried and finally made hard and permanent by the action of heat. Hence clay is the basic ingredient of all pottery. The raw material required for pottery is abundant all over the world. It is a decomposed and disintegrated product of felspathic and granitic rocks which forms three-fourths of the earth’s surface. In India, we have some of the finest clays in the Indo-Gangetic plans. Hence, the pottery of north India has always been superior in fabric to that of the south. Pottery is abundant at ancient sites in India but its study in India was not given the attention it deserves before World War II.