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Charai Taba or coiled pottery is a unique handicraft associated with the tribal community of Andro in Manipur. This heritage craft has been a distinct identity marker for the Andro settlers and remains a strong link between the present community and their ancestral traditions.
Charai Taba
The village of Andro is inhabited by the descendants of some of the earliest indigenous settlers who were followers of the animist Sanamahi faith. Legend has it that a local king of Manipur had tried to forcefully convert to Hinduism but a small group of people refused to abandon their Meitei religious beliefs and so they went far away to avoid being converted. However, they returned again, many years later and settled in the village of Andro (derived from the word "handro", meaning “the village of the people who returned").
The people of Andro practice a very unique kind of craft, known as the coiled pottery or Charai Taba. The peculiarity of the craft lies, first, in the very process of making this pottery.
In this, the potter makes loops after loops of clay (hence, called charai) adding them as layers to the pot.
What’s interesting is that the Charai Taba potters make no use of a machine or a potter’s wheel and instead uses a bat to beat the shape of the pot. In a few cases, they do make use of the wheel, however, that is only to give a better sculpture to the pot. The foundation work is still done solely by hand.
The Charai Taba is a craft that can be practiced only by a certain privileged group. Although this in itself may not sound very peculiar but you would definitely be surprised when you come to know who belongs to this ‘privileged’ group. The Charai Taba craft is made exclusively for women, but not all women, only married women! Quite interesting, isn’t it?
When a woman in Andro gets married, the mother-in-law symbolically passes the craft to her daughter-in law. The married woman then undergoes the ritual of ‘Thou Chanba’ or the ‘job assigning ceremony' before they finally begin to make the Charai Taba pots. The married woman then undergoes the ritual of ‘Thou Chanba’ or the ‘job assigning ceremony' before they finally begin to make the Charai Taba pots.
The people of Andro use these coiled pots for cooking and for storing a variety of things in these pots, including 'Yu', the local sacred liquor of the Meiteis, seeds, grains, water and so on.
For married women, Charai Taba is not only a profession, but it also carries a sacred and symbolic meaning . These women become a part of a community, which has been existing for centuries and they continue this tradition, before passing on the legacy to the next generation
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