Is a tarka ladle a special ladle that can stand the heat of being used to cook or is it just a normal serving ladle that is used for the tarka?

Tarka ladle is like a soup ladle, tradionally made of cast iron. This tends to give a nicer smokey flavour to the dals. However, you can use any soup ladle that can stand the heat for this purpose, like the ones on this site;

http://www.globalfse.co.uk/product_list.asp?p_subcategory=UT532. You can even use a small pan for making 'tarka'.

Mamta

oh they are pretty much like my own serving ladle's..

Thanks for that, wasn't sure if they were more like a pan with a long handle...