GLAZED POTTERY
From pre-Harappa to the Late Harappa period, there is no documented evidence of a tradition, of glazed pottery in India. However a high quality of burnished ware has been found during the Harappa period. Around 400 BC during the reign of the Mauryan Kings a highly polished ware called the Northern Black Polished Ware was found. Some of this fired at higher temperatures even had a lustrous appearance, however there was no evidence of glaze being used on pottery at this time.
After the Mauryans, the Sunga-Kushan Pottery and all through the Gupta period the pottery was mostly red ware. Painted, decorated but not glazed. During the eighth and twelfth centuries when the Rajput Kings were in power they brought craftsmen from Afghanistan to make glazed tiles to embellish their forts. These craftsmen brought with them glaze technology and
started to use this on pottery as well. Around the thirteenth century, these potters had managed to popularize the use of glazed pottery for domestic use, and small centres to make this pottery came up all over India. The important ones started in Delhi, Khurja, Agra, Jaipur and Lucknow. In some of these like Khurja and Jaipur one can still see the traditional designs on the pottery. The importance of this pottery declined towards the end of the Mughal Empire in India.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the British opened the first factory in Calcutta, which produced glazed pottery for domestic use. The utility value of this pottery was quickly accepted by urban India. Since then till present times, glazed pottery has gone from strength to strength.
