Under the 34th series of its online exhibition by Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya on Thursday presented the Pottery traditional of Pokhran, Rajasthan situated in the Open Air Exhibition of Kumhar-Para of Manav Sangrahalaya has been presented online with its basic information and photographs and videos.

About this exhibition, Praveen Kumar Mishra, Director, IGRMS said that – Rajasthan is one of the most fascinating tourist destination in India continues to attract the world for many reasons. Some of the more obvious ones include its music & dance, venerable history, forts, fortification, palaces, colourful textiles, golden desert to its north-west and west, juxtaposed by the scattered green and dust mantle clad valley, plains and hills of its south-east, with their rivers and rivulets and lakes and multiplicity of handicrafts which are both useful and significant.

Handicrafts of Rajasthan have not only dazzled the world market with their fascinating designs and fine finish but have also won accolades and carved a lofty niche for themselves.

Pottery is one amongst few handicrafts which has been playing a significant role in describing the unity in diversity of Indian communities specially the rural ones, and that is why it is said that pottery is the lyric of handicrafts. A publication of the Geneva Museum of Ethnology says,’ nowhere in the world is the part played by traditional folk pottery greater than in India.

This exceptional importance, both numerical as well as functional, arises from the fact that while working in clay in India has a sociological basis, it has a religious value unlike various other countries where it is simply utilitarian.

About the traditional pottery of Pikhran, Garima Anand Dubey, Museum Associate told that – Pokharan; a town between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer districts of Rajasthan is also a city of ancient heritage.

The word Pokharan literally means “the city of Five Mirages or illusion”, as it is surrounded by fine salt rocks and sand all over.