RAS question
Terracotta is different from Blue Pottery in that terracotta uses:
Correct answer: (C) Clay fired at high temperature.
Terracotta uses natural clay fired at high temperature, unlike Jaipur Blue Pottery, which is not clay-based and uses quartz, glass and Multani mitti.
Explanation
Terracotta is identified by its material and firing: it uses natural clay that is fired at high temperature, as in Rajasthan's Molela terracotta tradition. That is the key contrast with Jaipur Blue Pottery. eBazaar Rajasthan describes Blue Pottery as a craft made from a combination of quartz, glass and Multani mitti, and notes that it is not clay-based. Therefore, the exam trap is material composition, not colour or decoration. Quartz powder, glass powder and borax belong to the Blue Pottery side of the comparison, while fired clay is the defining material process for terracotta.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Glass powder points to Blue Pottery, whose mixture includes glass, so it does not distinguish terracotta.
- (B) Borax is associated with Blue Pottery, not with the fired-clay process of terracotta.
- (D) Quartz powder is a Blue Pottery ingredient, whereas terracotta is based on natural clay fired at high temperature.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan art-and-culture classification by material and technique. RAS repeats such distinctions because crafts like Molela terracotta and Jaipur Blue Pottery are easy to confuse if learnt only by name or visual appearance.