Kumbharwada Potters’ Colony
A million-dollar slum looks squarely into the eyes of Mumbai’s towering modernity, holding its ground at the city’s heart. Within this sprawling labyrinth, Kumbhawada’s narrow, winding lanes cut through the city’s relentless hum, leading you into a quiet world that feels worlds apart. Here in Dharavi, pots and poetry entwine in every waking moment.
You see hands stained with mud and water, sweat tracing lines on sun-worn faces, a glimmer of freshly made pots under the sun, the heat of wood-fired ovens, smoke drifting through the air, the intensity in a potter’s gaze as his latest work emerges — each step, each element carries a poetic rhythm. The earthy scent of fresh paint and the sight of newly crafted earthenware, ready to begin its journey to the market, speak of timelessness and purpose.
For centuries, families of potters from Kutch, Gujarat, transformed Kumbharwada in Dharavi into an extension of their ancestry. Their forefathers arrived when Mumbai was just a cluster of marshy islands. As Bombay evolved into the sprawling Maximum City Mumbai, these potters became the guardians of a rich, fading art. To an outsider, pottery may appear as nothing more than sustenance, but to the potters, it’s a layered relationship — one that intertwines sustenance with art, tradition, and community service.
“From birth to death, pottery is woven into every milestone in our lives. A lamp is lit for a newborn, and a man’s ashes are held in an earthen pot for their final rites. Life’s rituals —birth, adolescence, marriage, illness, death — are all soaked in the symbolism of earthenware. The relationship between a potter and the mitti is similar to a set of verses of the same poem,” explains Rannchhod Taank, a potter whose family has lived in Kumbharwada for generations. He adds, “Yet despite this beautiful bond, I doubt I will let my children follow in my footsteps. It’s hard work for little reward. Like life, this art may someday vanish. But, as our scriptures teach us, every end brings the possibility of a new beginning—a fresh start, perhaps on a new page, in a new form.”