This very typical earth pot is made by the Gadaba tribe, who are based in Orissa, and it is a fine example of the traditional work in terracotta. It is made from local clay, small in size with a spherical body, very short neck, and a narrow circular mouth. The base is larger than the mouth, which helps make it stable on flat surfaces.
This pot is mainly used in the household, while its purposes can include storage of drinking water, fermented drinks, or cooked food. The Gadaba tribe of people, one of India's aboriginal communities, inhabits the Eastern Ghats of Orissa, and gathers these natural resources with their knowledge systems of customary use. Skills in pottery are often narrowed down to family inheritance, especially the art of weighing and forming the utility vessels by hand and not with the use of modern tools in mainstream applications mostly by women.
The clay is mixed and shaped into the required shape and sun-dried, baked openly in fire for making the pot. Thus it gets the earthen shade and a property to hold liquids because the porosity of terracotta allows natural cooling. This vessel signifies, in a way, both the utilitarian need in everyday life for a Gadaba as well as a relation with this land and its ways of sustainable living. These traditional pots are very much the historical representations of cultural identity and eco-conscious craft in the world where goods are being industrially pumped into the market and starvation of handmade items is ever increasing.