Urli Decorative Bowls

The urli is a wide, shallow bowl, filled with water and floating flowers, tealights or diyas, and set at an entrance. It is the most common welcoming piece in Indian homes and one of the few decorative objects that changes with the season, because you refill it, marigolds for a festival, rose petals for a wedding, a single lotus for a quiet week.

The word is uruli in Kerala, where the vessel originates as a bell-metal cooking and Ayurvedic pot, and it still appears in the Vishukkani arrangement at the Malayalam new year. What began as a kitchen vessel became the entrance piece it is now.

How to use one

Fill it two-thirds with clean water, float whole flower heads or petals, and add tealights or small floating diyas if you want light on the surface. A wider, shallower urli floats more flowers and reads better from above, which is how it is usually seen at an entrance or on a low table. Change the water every day or two, since standing water on open display goes cloudy and, in warm weather, breeds mosquitoes, which is the one practical thing people forget.

Ours come as decorative sets, some with a stand that lifts the bowl, some with matching diya holders and floating candle holders. A stand suits a floor-level entrance placement; a plain bowl suits a table.

Which finish

Most are brass or brass-toned. Since an urli holds water constantly, this matters more than for a dry decorative piece: dry the bowl fully whenever you change the water, because standing water accelerates the darkening of brass and leaves a waterline mark if left to sit. That darkening is oxidation, not damage, and cleans back with lemon and salt, but an urli in daily use wants wiping down more often than a shelf piece.

For a piece that will hold water permanently, check the listing for a sealed or lacquered interior, which resists the waterline better. A decorative lotus-petal urli used dry, as a bowl for potpourri rather than water, has none of these concerns.

As a gift

An urli is among the most given housewarming pieces in India, precisely because it works at an entrance from day one and needs no belief to appreciate. See griha pravesh and housewarming gifts and wedding gifts; for volume, corporate gifts or the bulk order enquiry page. For the wider range, home decor, showpieces for the living room and pooja essentials.

Before you order

• Wider and shallower floats more flowers and reads better from above.
• With a stand for a floor-level entrance, plain for a table.
• Change and dry the water every day or two. Standing water marks brass and breeds mosquitoes.
• Holding water permanently? Look for a sealed or lacquered interior.