First-ever book on ghatam set for launch on Sunday in Bengaluru

Bengalurean musician Sumana Chandrashekar has written the first-ever book on the ghatam, and it is slated for launch on Sunday.

The ghatam is a clay pot used extensively, and from time immemorial, in Indian folk music, and it holds a special place in Karnatik classical music.

The book, titled 'Song of the Clay Pot', explores hitherto unexplored themes, such as the central role of the potters who make it, Sumana told Metrolife. “It is also a memoir with meta things and micro details,” she says. 

Sumana has been performing for 15 years, and questions many conventions, including the one that relegates the instrument to the position of an upa pakka vadya (sub-accompanying instrument), pushed to the back of the semi-circle that accommodates all the other musicians on stage. 

Her guru Sukanya Ramgopal was the first to pick up the instrument, despite all the discouragement, and Sumana was her only female student for many years. Both adore Vikku Vinayakram, whom Sumana describes as the ‘god of ghatam’.

Devanahalli, where the Bengaluru airport now stands, was one of the three major centres of ghatam making in south India, but indiscriminate urbanisation has nearly killed the tradition, says Sumana.

She will be in conversation with writer and activist Arundhati Ghosh at the launch on Sunday.

Launch of 'Song of the Clay Pot — My Journey with the Ghatam' (published by Speaking Tiger), on September 21, 11 am, at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur.