Ghara is an earthen pot made in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. It is used for storing drinking water and keeping it cool. The word ''ghara'' has cognates in Pahari,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

Odia language Odia (, ISO: , ; formerly rendered Oriya ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the official language in Odisha (formerly rendered Orissa), where native speakers make up 82% of the population, and it is also ...

s that can all be traced to the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

word ''ghaṭa'' meaning pot. It is spelled in hi, घड़ा; in ne, घड़ा ghaṛā; in ur, گھڑا; and in pa, ਘਡ਼ਾ. The word ''ghara'' is also used for the hollow bulbous protuberance on the snout of mature male gharials (''Gavialis gangeticus'') as it is shaped like a ghara. This protuberance enables them to emit a hissing sound that can be heard away.

References

Indian pottery Pakistani pottery Bangladeshi pottery {{Nepal-cuisine-stub