Kuduvai

Kuduvai is a flask mainly used by toddy drawers of the Tamil Nadu Region till the late 1980s. It is made by knitting palm leaves together in a shape of a pot with a flat or broader base and a narrow neck. They are used to collect Pathaneer or Neera from the Palm Sap. They are knitted in a way that it could hold the Pathaneer without any leakage.

With the rampant intrusion of plastics and metals in the 80s, they have been replaced by factory-made Plastic and Metal Pots. With the low demand for these products, the craft is scarcely practised in a few palm rich regions, and the craftspeople are also dwindling in numbers.

Thanks to people's renewed social and environmental consciousness, these sustainable handicrafts are slowly gaining popularity and finding their way into day-to-day usage.

Photography @rhodaalex