I snapped these earthen pots waiting to be sold in the Indira Nagar area…the pots keep the water cool because the surface is moist and the evaporation brings down the temperature. A mud pot with a mud lid, with perhaps a ladle to dip into the water, and a glass nearby, is a welcome sight on a hot day!

And pots similar to these are also a still-often used percussion instrument in Carnatic music; traditionally, players would play the “ghatam” as it is called, bare-chested, modulating the sound the ghatam makes by adjusting its mouth against their abdomens. The highlight of a “thani Avarthanam” (percussion interlude) would be the ghatam artiste throwing up the ghatam and catching it…“ghati” is the Sankskrit word for “mud pot”. Alangudi Ramachandran and Vikku Vinayakaraman are well-known exponents of the ghatam.