Khurja: The Lesser-Known History Of North India's Hidden Pottery Capital

A nondescript town on the Kolkata-Delhi railroad, Khurja is not the kind of place you think of often or at all. But if you have ever eaten at any of New Delhi's many high-end restaurants, chances are the custom-glazed ceramic serveware you ate on came from this quaint little town in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.

The history of Khurja pottery goes back about 600 years when the first potter families moved to Khurja and settled in the region. There are two conflicting versions of this history. Some say it was the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur Lenk — also known as Taimur Long or Tamerlane — who brought the potters from Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Iran with his invading army and settled them in Khurja. Others say it was the Mughals who first patronised the potters here.

According to Baidyanath Saraswati, the author of 'Pottery-Making Cultures and Indian Civilization', Khurja is "an old centre for glazed pottery where Moslem (an archaic spelling of Muslim) potters have monopoly in making highly artistic blue pottery". These Muslim potters historically identified themselves as 'Multani Kumhar', alluding to their origin in the Multan region of present-day Punjab, Pakistan.

The Khurja potters were known in Mughal India for producing exquisite floral and geometric patterns using the underglaze technique. Although the Khurja potters once jealously guarded how they created the beautiful shades of blue their glazed ceramics were popular for, we now know that it was produced by mixing locally sourced clay with feldspar and quartz sourced from Rajasthan. Feldspar and quartz are two materials that are used to add natural glazing to the local clay even before moulding the objects. It is said to be the oldest glazed pottery in India and has distinct painted floral patterns in shades of blue on off-white surfaces.

The Khurja potters follow a unique five-step process to produce their distinct blue pottery. First, all the raw materials are mixed with water and dried thoroughly. The softened, pliable clay is then shaped into different objects using moulds as required. Then, the objects are kept in the open for a day or two to dry completely. At this point, the patterns are painted on the surface by hand, and the objects are glazed over the patterned surface. Finally, the painted and glazed objects are baked in a kiln capable of reaching higher than 600 degrees Celsius and allowed to cool naturally by radiating the heat inside a cooling chamber to avoid cracking. Although historically, Khurja potters used coal-fired kilns, the industry has undergone significant modernisation in recent years and now use energy-efficient, sustainable, natural gas-fired furnaces.

Today, there are over 500 ceramic and clay serveware producers employing over 15,000 people in Khurja's pottery industry. The Khurja potters deliver custom-glazed ceramic stoneware to their high-end clientele in the restaurant industry across India and the world. Khurja Pottery received the Geographical Indication tag under the international TRIPS agreement in 2008.

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