Punjawas in the villages of Kaithal are products of centuries of mastery over fire : the kumhars have learnt to manipulate the physical gradient of a punjawa so that the rising heat from constantly burning fires are evenly spread to consistently heat the clay vessels, pots and bricks.

However, the punjawas are slower than modern brick kilns, taking a fortnight to bake a lot of bricks compared to just 2 to 3 days in a kiln. Punjawas that bake bricks are massive, each resembling a hillock spread over at-least a half hectare. The punjawa in Bandrana is the largest of all kilns in the area, spread over almost 2 hectares.

However, as wood became scarce and the kumhars were hauled up by forest officials for felling trees, they resorted to inferior coal dust with a high fly-ash content for fuel. Every fortnight, the Bandrana punjawa alone "smuggles" 4 truck loads of coal dust. The "smuggling" is necessary because the kumhars are not licensed to buy coal for industrial purposes by the district food and civil supplies controller.

The owners are not too keen to have their industries licensed since in that case they would have to pay taxes. Now, their bricks are competitively priced at Rs 550 to 650 for 1,000 compared to a price of over Rs 800 quoted by other kilns.