Pune's Kumbharwada Potters Shift to Molds as Diwali Output Hits 1,000 Diyas a Day

During the Diwali season, families in Pune's Kumbharwada are making close to 1,000 clay lamps a day, compared with roughly 100 a few years ago, as hand-pressed molds replace the pottery wheel across one of western India's best-known potter neighborhoods. The shift has sharply raised output, but residents quoted in a report this week say the extra volume has not delivered better margins: sellers earn barely Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 per diya.

The change is visible in the lanes of the quarter, where shops display clay diyas next to miniature fort models made from plaster of Paris. Visitors expecting potters at their wheels and kilns firing in the background instead find hand-pressed molds and ready-made clay brought in from Rajasthan and Gujarat, according to an account of the neighborhood's trade.

Why the Wheels Have Slowed

Residents trace the shift to the city's growth. As Pune expanded and urbanization gathered pace, most potters gradually moved to hand-pressed molds to raise production, said Shashangi Shinde, a resident and seller, who estimates that nearly 300 families live in Kumbharwada. Traditional wheels and kilns are now largely confined to Keshavnagar, because shrinking space in the city has made it difficult to keep the older methods going inside the quarter itself.

Clay supply has changed as well. Sarika Kumbhar, a businesswoman and resident, said clay from Maharashtra differs from what the trade once used, describing pollution as having made it impure and inconsistent. Families now rely directly on ready-made clay from other states to press their lamps, she said. Yash Vakikar, another resident, said community members can still judge clay by its feel and by the shape of a finished diya, even when working from molds. He argued that molding has made the process easier for a community whose number of traditional artisans is dwindling.

The neighborhood's history stretches back centuries. Residents said most members of the community have lived in Pune since the Peshwa era, and the trade has long been tied to seasonal festival demand. Most sellers and community members described the adaptation as welcome, with many balancing traditional work against modern occupations. For families whose livelihoods rise and fall with the Diwali market, faster production offers a way to stay in a craft whose margins have thinned.

What the Numbers Say About Earnings

The arithmetic behind the shift is stark. Pushing daily output from about 100 lamps per family to nearly 1,000 has multiplied volume roughly tenfold, but at Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 per diya the returns per piece stay small, so families depend on scale and on the short festive window for much of their annual income. The profile of traditional pottery in Pune therefore sits between continuity and reinvention: the same households, the same festival demand and increasingly different tools.

Similar pressures are reshaping pottery communities elsewhere in India this season. An artist trained through a state waste-to-art initiative in Bihar reported net annual earnings of Rs 2 to 3 lakh, according to a state communiqué issued on Saturday, while potters in Goa have reported better seasonal sales alongside rising costs and shrinking local markets. Those accounts suggest that for craftspeople, income increasingly comes from adapting materials, designs and sales channels rather than from the traditional product alone.

What to Watch Next

How much of the Diwali surge carries into the rest of the year will matter most for Kumbharwada's families. The trade remains seasonal, and the gains described this week rest on dry weather during the drying and firing period, cheap ready-made clay from neighboring states and buyers who still value clay for religious reasons. Whether younger members of the roughly 300 families stay in the business, and whether kilns can be kept running in a crowded city, will shape what comes next.