EVENT

Restoring Livelihoods, Rebuilding Lives

24th May 2019

“Mahaprasad” or “Abadha” is food for the gods, steam-cooked in earthen vessels, and is unique to Odisha’s temple culture. This food cannot be cooked in any other medium. Pockets of artisans belonging to “kumhar” or potter community have been making these earthenware for generations and supplying them to Shri Mandira at Puri, and, Ananta Vasudev temple at Bhubaneswar. Thousands of devouts partake of this mahaprasad everyday which is made available at affordable prices and constitutes a nutritious and filling meal.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Fani, Chasapada, a pottery village near Chandanpur in Puri, was completely decimated. Five families of kumbhars in this village, who make the earthen cookware for Shri Mandira and Ananta Vasudev temples, were left homeless, as the cyclone razed their huts to the ground. More helplessness and hopelessness followed, when they realised that alongwith their homes, their studios which housed the kilns, which were the only means of livelihood for them, were also destroyed. As part of its core objective of supporting needy artists and artisans, Ila Panda Centre for Arts (IPCA) funded the building of all five pottery kilns so as to restore livelihoods to these artisans.