The Ghatam Maker of Manamadurai

Anushree Ramanathan, 11 years old, retells the story of Meenakshi Kesavan of Manamadurai
in Tamil Nadu, one of the finest ghatam makers anywhere, and the only woman who
completely crafted that musical instrument.
In 2014, Meenakshi was perhaps the first woman musical instrument-maker to receive the
Sangeet Natak Akademi award from the President of India.
You can read the story on which this e-book is based, When Meenakshi beats a pot 3,000 times,
in the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI).
Anushree Ramanathan is a Class 6 student of Anand Niketan School (Satellite), Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
She loves singing, dancing and illustrating PARI stories.
PARI is an independent, free access, multimedia digital platform dedicated entirely to rural India, and
publishing in up to 14 languages.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
People’s Archive of Rural India
People’s Archive of Rural India, 53/27, Sagar Sangam,
Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai - 400 050.

The Ghatam Maker
of Manamadurai
Retold and illustrated by
Anushree Ramanathan