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Situated in the strategically located Northeast region of India which acts as a buffer zone between India and Burma and is also a gateway to Southeast Asia, Nagaland is home to sixteen tribes, the Lotha forming one of the major Naga tribes who racially belong to the Mongoloid stock and are linguistically placed in the Tibeto-Burman group of languages as per Sir George Grierson’s classification of languages in his Linguistic Survey of India (Tibeto-Burman family)(284). The area taken under studyis the Wokha district resting in the western region of the state, with the Ao Naga to its north, the Rengma and the Angami Naga to its South, the Sema Naga to its east and the plains of Assam to its west. Wokha is home to the Lotha Naga tribe with an area of 1,628 sq. km and accounts for 9.82% of the total geographical area of the State, holding the position of being the third smallest district of Nagaland. Pottery has often been related to the Neolithic revolution: as humans began to settle down and cultivate agriculture and domesticate wild animals, culture and material goods began to develop for the first time. Humans and objects became inseparable. It seemed like things never thought of and sought before became essentials now. As human life progressed so did the material goods which were becoming more and more sophisticated and their needs expanded. Withagricultural development many objects became a necessity; pottery being one of them.It became quintessential to the agriculturists to now have storage for their surplus, to store the raw material itself and also the cured food items, therefore vessels and jars started to take shape in stones, woods, bamboo, and clay itself.Contrarily, this view is refuted by Manjil Hazarika, on the grounds that in East and Southeast Asia, pottery preceded agriculture (30). ‘Pottery is said to have had no single origin. But developed out of children making mud pies, and adults making figurines of men and animals, and so on. The hardening of clay by fire was known at least equally early since it occurs unintentionally when a patch of clay is chosen for a hearth’(Singer et al. 376).Another example is of basket making which has been suggested as the antecedent of pottery-making.But it was only one of the many influences and is by nature a substitute material and has no characteristic form.It was worked to imitate the objects naturally found in nature like natural containers, such as gourds, ostrich eggs, and sections of bamboo. The history of pottery is accordingly largely moulded by the histories of other materials (Singer et al. 377). As regards Southeast Asia, pottery appeared here in the early Holocene(Miksic xix).Bellwood shows how the pottery of the cultures of East and Southeast Asia resembles in their simplest of designs of cord-marking, finger-impressed, combed and incised(121).The Lotha potteries share similarities with the Southeast Asian Societies of Hongkong, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, which too practiced cord-marking the surface of their pots. Cord-marked pottery is a characteristic feature of Neolithic culture and falls under one of the earlier forms of pottery but certainly not the earliest and was the most common art of pottery in Northeast India.

V. Gordon Childe supposes the pottery making to pre-food production economy with the accidental burning of baskets plastered with clay to make it watertight but assuredly says that with Neolithic times, pottery was well-established on a large scale for storing cereals which could withstand heat and hold liquids. He calls it the ‘earliest conscious utilization by man of a chemical change’ (76).

Sir Lindsay Scott’s writing on pottery making from the earliest times to the Neolithic period, from unbaked clay figurines to fired clay basins on the floors, all eventually leading to pottery making throws some good knowledge into its process (in Singer et al. 376).

Writings on traditional pottery-making are but very little. Some fragments on it were mentioned in the monographs prepared by the colonial administrators hence, are provided here. Beginning with the surrounding Naga tribes of the Lothas such as the Angami, Ao, Rengma and Sema Naga is pertinent. A society should never be studied in isolation after all. We have J.H. Hutton, a colonial administrator, with his first-ever monograph on the Nagas in 1921 on the Angami Nagas (57).He did not do justice on the subjects of pottery while documenting the Angami Nagas as it fell outside the purview of the interest of colonial rule. In his writings on the Angami, he mentions other tribes in passing reference, of which the Lothas also figure. However, nothing substantial bore out of his works too.

J.P. Mills while writing on the Lotha, has hardly covered pottery. As other colonial administrators, these aspects of life were rather neglected in the process of covering the polity, society, and religion of the tribals in the monograph brought out (1922). Mills in his monograph on the Ao Nagas has barely managed to write a single line regarding earthenware (35). However, when it came to the Rengma Nagas at least some information came forward. Turns out, the Rengma and the Lothas shared similar practices in pottery making. Similarities such as, women being the manufacturers, the seasons of this art being in the winter months from November till the start of the new agricultural year. The observance of taboos during the making of pots too were the same with the Lothas. However, some relaxation among the Rengmas was extended towards men who could make pottery pipe-bowls for their own consumption only (68).Because the economy and production/manufacturing were grim in the Naga Hills, they felt it unimportant to document them. All in all, the colonial administrators with their monographs on the Naga tribes were poor representations of the arts and crafts of the people.

Other than these immediate neighbours of the Lothas, among the Phom Nagas of Nagaland, Vasa has written that the Naga pottery making may be classified into two- the paddle-and-anvil and slab-building. However, he goes on to say that the decoration defers from tribe to tribe(3).  

Naga Art of Pottery

Earthenware is one of the most important materials among the tribes of Northeast India. There is a deeper understanding to this material culture rather than the end product itself.To comprehend a time period when pottery in its crudest form was not used by the Lothas is of much difficulty and would require going back to the remotest of times which is impossible in this case due to lack of literature as well as archaeological studies. Among the other Naga tribes too there existed the ancient practice of pottery making, some of them are the Angami, Ao, Konyak, Lotha, Rengma, Tangkhul, but not all tribes manufactured them. However, there is no evidence of potters-wheel as can be inferred by one when taken a look at the type of pots made. The art was crude and the pots handmade unlike their Assamese neighbours who did use potters-wheel for their earthen pots except for the Hiras who did not use the wheel.

The soil of the Naga Hills is generally red-laterite superficially covered by loamy soil that can be distinguished as red soil, grey-brown soil, black-grass land, sandy soil, silty soil and clayey soil(Shikhu 2). Pottery-making was however not permanent and was carried out during the dry seasons only as the weather was suitable for this particular production and more so because harvesting, a big engagement of the Lotha with agriculture as their main occupation was over by this time since the harvesting months are from October to November. Hence, December to March and April became the months of art and craft production for the Lotha. Pottery in particular was manufactured during the months of March and April.It was a semi-specialised craft and was produced by the villages of Wokha, Nungying, Yanthamo, Riphyim, Yikhum and Lotsu among the Lotha.The entire process right from the fetching of clay to its end product was carried out by women and men never engaged in crafts as such. It was a taboo.

Types of clay

The earthenware of the Lothas is round and cord-marked and is made from locally available grey and red clay (the latter is less preferred and is treated as of inferior quality)(Miksic324).These are called secondary clays which have been transported by water, wind or ice from their primary source and have acquired additional impurities in the process. (Singer 1954: 379) The grey clay is called linyikcho meaning black clay similar to the one found in the Angami country which is of a bluish-black colour called khegsa:(Notes on Some Industries of Assam from 1884-1895 126)li for liko meaning land, nyik for black and cho for ochon meaning soil or mud and the red clay is called linyoncho, nyon for red, the commonest.The clays that mostly occur in nature are plastic if mixed with an appropriate amount of water(Singer 379).The clay good for pottery at Wokha is said to be found in a place called Titaphen which is below Mount Tiyi Collge, some 1 to 2 kms from Wokha village. In Nungying it is found by the village pond. At Riphyim the clay is found at the bank of the river stream lying between Yanhen and Yanthan which translates as old village and new village of Riphyim. At Yikhum, pottery-makingissaid to have started first by a Rengma lady who married a Lotha man of Yikhum and had settled there. The Lothas bought pots from Yikhum referring to it as ‘Moyoipvu’ which means Rengma pots. Lotsu was the only village among them to have the red clay which was closer to pink than red, somewhat light pink in colour, obtained from a place named Chohankvu where they went to fetch the clay. Here we may observe that in these villages, clay was found on the banks of rivers or streams. And these villages are located not far away from one another.

The clay is a very dark grey, glutinous with small pepples mixed with it. Those who are strong and willing grind these stones and turn it into fine powder to mix with the clay which is believed to result in a much better quality of pots. The Lothas of Wokha village dug deeper into the land which was on the banks of the stream of Etsujukha.It is believedthat the clay found deeper is of much better quality so the land from where the clay is/was procured came to appear like a sort of cave over time, enough just for a person to enter.  The clay was obtained from the banks of the stream, cleaned then and there by separating the clay from the stones and pebbles before bringing it home.No other filtration process is known nor done. The women carried the clay in bamboo baskets with banana leaves aligned inside.

Manufacturing Process

The clay was first broken up and pounded on a large flat stone until the air from the soil was fully released; no other material was added to the clay for the grey or black variant most often, as for the red clay finely crushed pebbles were added, after which it was left overnight to ferment in banana leaves and then it was moistened and kneaded with little water. This was perceived to give the clay better durability. After much kneading when the clay was ready and soft, a portion was taken to form the base, sized according to the need. A round flat base in the shape of a disk was first made by hand which was made thick, and then it was beaten by the pvutumphen which was the bat to beat the base of the pot. The bat was shaped like the modern cricket bat but flat on both sides.It was one and half feet in length and one inch in thickness with a breadth of 10 cm approx.which was manipulated by the handle. For the wall a portion of clay was taken according to the size of the pot and was rolled out and then attached to the base which was then flattened by hand first. It starts bigger at the bottom half and rises to become slender as it approaches the rim. The rim being wider above the neck was curved to be lifted off the fire easily. Unlike the Mizos and Tibetan ways of rolling strips of clay to build the wall of the pots by toppling them one after the other forming the wall and later flattened, the Lotha took just one big lump or a ball of clay and worked its way to give the pot its wall.  As the wall was being built, the inside of itwas supported by the left hand moulding it simultaneously with the outside of the pot being beaten with a flat knife-like tool made of wood, a smooth and polished mallet called tsitumphen. It supported the wall from the outside and flattened it giving it a smooth finish.It was carefully manoeuvred to give the desired shape and uniform thickness, a practice also found in the early British and north-west European pottery of prehistoric times of working with a ball of clay(Singer 384).The result of this was a thicker base at the centre than the periphery. Among the Lothas, one may watch the women knead but not shaped. The tsitumphen was made of a kind of bamboo found in the Wokha district called vepvu and khumkiro. It was a flat bamboo of around 6-8mm in thickness and 15-25 cm in length with a breadth of 5-8cm. It’s one end was sharpened in the shape of a right-angled triangle while the other endwas left flat or was shaped the same. After it was given its requisite shape and thickness it was sun dried; a practice found among the cultures of North-East Indian tribes and the Hebrideans too. ‘When the wet clay is air-dried, the water evaporates and the crystals come into direct contact with one another. This evaporation causes contraction. A further smaller contraction occurs in firing, when the water chemically combined with the clay is driven off. (Singer 380) All the pots were made in the like fashion. It was dried for three to four days depending on how fast it dried as dictated by the weather. ‘When the clay reaches a leather-hard stage, burnishing is commonly undertaken to reduce porosity’ (Singer 381).The Lotha smoothened out their pots one last time with a smooth pebble. Then, the pots were taken to be fired.

Similar to the Mizos and many hill tribes, the firing of clay was not done inside the village but was done outside the village on a rough platform in bonfires or in fields that was harvested last year and was now out of cultivation.A practice found in Lotsu village was to fire their pots at a very high temperature for a short time. In early pottery, the range of firing-temperatures seldom exceeded 1000-degree Celsius(Singer 378). Firing was done outside the village also due to of the Lothas belief in that if others watched them fire the clay, the pots cracked. So, it was done in a place away from people’s view, also it is to be remembered that fire was burnt in the open without kilns so there could also be the possibilities that they took precautions to avoid fire-caused accidents which may burn down the entire village as houses were built of hay and wood. Firing of clay was not done with just any wood. A good burning wood was essential to keep the fire going for an hour and over to achieve a standard quality of pots and a great amount of wood was used up in the process which were plenty in the forests surrounding the tribe. Woods such as Nchung tsung, Orung tsung and Nshyu tsung were used which are known to be very good for firing among the Lotha Naga. Only straight branches were used in order to prevent the pots from tilting in the process of burning the pots.A rough platform was first created by placing two large logs vertically at some distance from other another then the woods were place horizontally upon which the pots would be placed upside down carefully, avoiding any dents to be formed in the process. Pots were not layered but were laid out over a large platform. Then wood chips and dry branches of shrubs would be placed over and in between the potsin order to ensure proper and complete burning of the pots. Many pots were burnt together at one and the same time and were collected the next day before dawn. It wasn’t done for any practical reasons though, but for the same belief in preventing the pots from breaking and ensuring a durable use out of it. The end result was a black earthenware which was an outcome of a deficiency in oxygen during the process. For further elimination of porosity, before using the pots they were heated and then cured by smearing pork fat or rice beer so that the cracks were filled,if any,thus avoiding spilling. This practice is not unique to the Lotha alone, for ethnographic and ethno-archaeological accounts indicate that potters of other communities too achieved this low permeability through the vessel walls essential for cooking pots by the application of a resin to the interior surface, or by progressively sealing the surface with food residues during usein order to prevent the evaporation of water from the surface(Schiffer 373-381).

The Lotha Naga household still uses these pots called Chonpvu literally meaning clay pot. The pots we are talking about here are understood in terms of cooking pots and dishes. There was very little variety and innovation to these pots, made mainly for utility to meet the basic needs of the people with no decorative whatsoever. Aesthetics had very little thing to do with the Lotha pottery. At its most, the pots were given a string pattern by patting the pot while still wet with a flat piece of wood covered with coarse string binding (Khuzu) (Mills 41). These pots had some weight to it.Pots were used for cooking mainly rice and curry, brewing rice beer, boiling water and dyes, for dying the wools and for storing of grains and food items. The pots varied in size depending on its utility but there was hardly any variety in shape. It is interesting to note that no pots were made with handles or lids and one had to carry it by its rim or press it against one’s body. The Lotha earthenware were never painted or glazed either and when fired, turned out black in colour.

Among the Lothas,pottery making was considered a women’s role and men never engaged in such oddities; pottery as women’s industry has generally been found at the primitive level. Perhaps, the fact that cooking was considered solely women’s work so the pots to cook them in came to become their industry too. Nothing can be said for sure how it solely became the craft of the womenfolk among the Lothas but not only were they who manufactured them but traded in them too. Men did not go about this business. Along with pottery, many crafts and work were termed as women’s job and it was considered a taboo for men to be engaging in such works. A taboo so strong that men were to not even look at the pots being fired, less the pots should crack. Women had to maintain many taboos while carrying out this activity such as, abstaining from sexual intercourse with their husbands, avoiding foods with strong or pungent smells, fermented foods and other foods including beef, goat’s flesh, dog’s flesh, for to eat such things would cause the pots to “ring” badly (Mills 41).Similarly, there were crafts which only men carried out and for women to touch the tools or the article in the making was though to bring ill luck. And hence, was strictly observed by both men and women. The Lotha society was rooted in superstitions therefore their lives were dictated by taboos and beliefs.

Exchange

The pots produced were for domestic use as well as an exchange for other goods and articles but mostly for food. The main factor behind the adoption of pottery has been suggested economy; the exploitation of a new raw material or process follows an advantage to attract capital and to overcome the inertia of custom (Singer377). Barter was the system of the day and pottery making had certainly economic value to it. When money became widely used with colonial rule, the pots were purchased using currency. But the exchange of pots since the ancient times was done through barter and remained the popular medium of exchange for pots for a long time. The finished product was traded with the neighbouring villages and even with tribes bordering them. Women from other Lotha villages not producing them went with big baskets, bigger than the usual, carried on their heads to buy them. They would go in groups walking to the villages manufacturing them and upon reaching would exchange them with food grains and produces and rest the day in the village itself at any house willing to accommodate them. Usually, they were never declined and readily hosted. They filled each pot with hay before laying them in order into the bamboo basket, to prevent them from clashing against one another causing breakage. Those who wished to carry back more would align sticks longer than the basket itself inside surrounding it acting like a wall. In this way more pots could be brought along. Not all Lotha villages made pots. Infact, the Lotha villages producing them were few. It became a sort of monopoly of these villages over pot making for the Lotha country due to the availability of clay in these areas and not for the reasons of safe-guarding the craft. No other village is known to have manufactured pots although many villages tried to, it is said that the pots were of inferior quality and cracked so the craft was given up and the Lotha villages bought these pots from the aforesaid villages. People not only went to these villagesto procure them for their domestic use but traded going from village to village inorder to sell or exchange them rather, for other goods needed by them. Sometimes, the manufacturers would themselves go about selling them too. The tribes who came to trade with the Lothas for pottery were the Angamis, Aos, Rengmas and the Semas. Since only Changki village among the Aos manufactured pots, the Aos neighbouring the Lothas procured their pots from the Lotha villages directly making pots or from those villages acting as middlemen. The Rengmas residing close to the Lothas whom the Lothas call Nangkhang mostly brought with them rice,so did the Semas as the Semas did not make pots themselves to exchange them for the Lotha pots. But many also brought commodities other than rice, though not much in quantity, like red ginger, garlic, beans, peas, sesame seeds, taro, yam, corn, millet and potatoes but rice was the principal item of exchange for the Lotha pots. Later, they came to be exchanged for a can of oil in the colonial period.The barter system was carried out in such manner that for a pot whatever the size, the buyer had to give vegetables or grains or rice filled to the brim of the pot as its price. Since the Naga tribes cultivated similar crops, trade could not become extensive between the tribes but remained limited to very little commodities and regions. Later when largely money came into the picture, pots were bought at Rs.1 or 50 paise depending on the size of the pot. Their immediate needs were met by this trade however limited it may have been. This way trade was carried out and pots were distributed over all the remaining villages for use.This was a commodity holding permanence for trade of the Lotha.

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