National Award winner Girraj Prasad exhibits terracotta craft at G20 Crafts Bazaar
Sep 09, 2023
New Delhi [India], September 9 : Girraj Prasad, a laureate of the National Award and the Delhi State Award exhibited his work at the crafts bazaar set up in the G20 Summit venue, Bharat Mandapam.
Terracotta is one of the most ancient traditional art forms that has evolved together with human civilisation.
Sharing the details about his art he told ANI, “This art has been practised in my family for four generations and is a very old art. Pottery has been used and created in India since the time of Mohan Jodaro. In terracotta, cooking utensils that we use on a daily basis, as well as other products such as lamps are manufactured by us from ancient times to the present. Products have been newly modified along with the recruitment of the time.”
“This is a very good opportunity to show our culture to all our delicates who will come to G20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given encouragement to the pottery artisans to do this work through Make in India, Vocal for Local. There has been a lot of increase in the number of workers,” Girraj added.
He concluded, “G-20 is going to help us in a way that the glory of our art will spread all over the world. Earthen utensils are absolutely related to our health and environment. It keeps us away from many diseases.”
Terracotta artefacts are manufactured from clay. It is then moulded into different shapes and art forms and after that baked in traditional furnaces powered by coal or wood.
Girraj Prasad was born in 1965 in Rajasthan's Karouli village to a traditional terracotta family. He's been in the business for 36 years.
The 18th G20 Summit is being held at the state-of-the-art Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.