Paper short abstract:

This paper is an attempt at exploring the history of an everyday use utensil known as 'Handi' which is common in the Indian households. I will be situating its journey temporally as well as spatially within the Indian sub continent. I will discuss the changes in its technology and their relation to the socio-economic processes through time. My study is based on the archaeological deposits from the sites located in the Brahmaputra Valley.

Paper long abstract:

The 'Handi' is a very common everyday use vessel form found in most Indian households mostly made of steel or aluminum. The 'Handi' is a squat pot with carination in the mid section with a globular bottom. In my paper I would like to discuss the history of this everyday item through archaeological deposits specifically from sites located in the Brahmaputra Valley. I will be discussing its evolution through time and its socio-economic and cultural significance in the societies of the past as well as present.

Before the advent of metal, plastic and paper mediums ceramics played a very important role in the everyday lives of people across the globe. This is testified by the plethora of potteries that are found from pre-modern sites of human habitation. One of the most extensively recorded artefact in most archaeological excavations and surveys are the ceramics. This entails that the potteries play a very important role in the socio-economic processes of the pre-modern societies.

I would be discussing the history of the humble 'Handi' as reflected in the archaeological deposits of the Brahmaputra Valley dated to roughly 7th-15th centuries CE. The networks and linkages that exist between South East Asia and the South Asia as reflected through the shared technology of making this vessel form will be showcased. In fact, I will be showing through my study how this technology reached the Brahmaputra Valley after the 7th century CE and gradually dispersed to the rest of the Indian subcontinent. The aim is to historically locate a everyday 'mundane' commodity such as the 'Handi' and explore its journey across time and space.