Summary:
Srinagar, Dec 1 (PTI) A 26-year-old commerce graduate from Srinagar is aiming to revive the age-old but "dying" art of glazed pottery in Kashmir after learning it from an octogenarian, who he claims is the only person alive to know the art.
Mohammad Umar Kumar, a resident of Ishber area of Nishat here, has now involved his family in the craft and he also teaches the skill to few youths in a bid to keep it from waning into obscurity.
Glazed pottery, known as Dal Gate pottery, is unique to Kashmir.
Originally, glazed tiles in deep green, blue, brown and ochre were made in the valley.
This craft later got bifurcated to tableware and vases made in red, green and blue glazes. Once famous and sought-after, this art, like many other art forms in Kashmir, is slowly dying as not many from the new generation in the valley are willing to "get their hands dirty".
Kumar"s family has been into pottery for several years now, but he took upon himself to wade into a rather different territory and take up the mantle of reviving the glazed pottery – the art form lost to modernisation.“We have been involved in pottery, but I took this art just to revive it.