★ DESCRIBE BROADLY ABOUT BENGAL'S TERRACOTTA SCUPLTURE ★
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continuous presence of terracotta art from ancient times up to present day. At present
some communities, mostly kumors (by caste pot makers), from different parts of West
Bengal are engaged in making terracotta objects.
Despite the profuse occurrence of terracotta art objects from several archaeological sites
virtually overshadowing all other aspects of material culture in West Bengal, systematic
attempts to catalogue and classify the findings have been limited (Sengupta, Roy
Chowdhury and Chakraborty 2007). Sima Roy Chowdhury (2002) states, although
terracotta must not be treated as a minor antiquity in Bengal, but even today along with
ivory and wood carvings it is treated as such. Calcutta University‟s Asutosh Museum felt
a need of preserving rural art heritage under Rural Art Survey Scheme and collected
several terracotta materials. In consequence it becomes “one of the greatest depositories
of the Indian Folk-arts” (Bhattacharya 2002:175). Systematic cataloguing, analysis and
presenting such a huge collection can bring new perspectives to the study of these
materials (Bhattacharya 2002, Sengupta, Roy Chowdhury and Chakraborty 2007).
Gautam Sengupta (1995) argues that it is important to incorporate spatial dimension,
historical context and a better method of content analysis to do justice to the rich
terracotta tradition of West Bengal. In the following section an attempt is made to present
the available literature related to terracotta art of West Bengal and other literatures which
are found significant for the present work.
Descriptive Studies with Possible Interpretations:
Various scholars use different ways of clubbing up the terracotta materials reported from
various sites. These studies are mostly description of the findings or categorisation or in
some cases analysis with respect to a particular issue. Some are only isolated reports of
particular terracotta forms found from a particular site in a descriptive manner. Among
the descriptive studies one of the earliest studies was done by G. S. Dutt in 1938. He gave
an exhaustive description of temple terracottas in Bengal and argued that one can divide
terracotta art into two divisions, 1) figure sculpture and 2) sculpture in relation to templearchitecture. S. P. Ghosh (1986, 1987) worked on both artistic and architectural part of
terracottas from Nadia district of West Bengal, which dealt with the history of the art,
their antiquity, materials used, techniques of making and thematic range. S. S. Biswas‟
(1981) Terracotta art of Bengal represents a culmination of different types and forms of
artistic expressions on terracotta. He argues that several explorations and a few
excavations in Bengal open a window of opportunity to study not only the forms and
features of artistic expressions but also the social background of such expressions.
Beginning with a brief description of the major terracotta yielding sites of Bengal he
gives detailed description of different forms. P. K. Mandal (1987) in his Interpretations
of Terracottas from Tamralipta provides detailed study on the terracotta specimens
preserved in the Tamralipta Museum and Research Centre, Tamluk and also some of the
private collections. Apart from discussing the manufacturing technique and themes he
gives a detailed trait wise classification of the specimens in different cultural periods in
tabular format. Sharmi Chakraborty (2000), in her doctoral thesis Chandraketugarh: A
Cultural and Archaeological Study, gave a detailed description of the terracotta figurines
and plaques yielded from Chandraketugarh and housed in different museums and private
collections and also classified them. Arputha Rani Sengupta (2005) has dealt with the
terracotta temples of Bishnupur in Bankura district of West Bengal. By tracing the origin
of the terracotta temples she demonstrated the cult and religious value of the terracotta art
in ancient times and in present context. She described various techniques of making
terracotta plaques. By studying the contents of the terracotta reliefs from the temples she
showed that the variations in the plaques covering the walls, vaults, domes and archways
were meant to glorify the gods and the Malla kings of Bishnupur. More recently,
Sengupta, Roy Chowdhury and Chakraborty in 2007 have published a comprehensive
catalogue with detailed description and photographs of terracotta materials preserved in
State Archaeological Museum, West Bengal, discovered mostly from the site of
Chandraketugarh. Several specimens from Harinarayanpur, Mangalkot, Deulpota,
Tamluk, Bangarh, Natsal, Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Farakka, Tilpi, etc. have also been covered
in their book.
Terracotta Art is the earliest form of plastic art in which the Bengal artists excelled. The art products in terracotta or burnt clay satisfied the creative impulse of the artists and also met the domestic and ritual needs of ordinary man. Clay objects were either baked in the sun or burnt into terracotta for hardening and durability and were used by man in his daily life since pre-historic times.