Everything you need to know about
Sandalwood Carving.
What is Sandalwood?
Sandalwood is of incredible strict significance and is a very costly material for carving relics.
Karnataka has an immense woodland belt, and shoe woodcarvers are found in Bangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Sorab in the lower regions to Sirsi, and Honavar and Kumta on the coast.
Sandalwood is of two sorts:
- Sigandha which is close-grained and yellowish-earthy coloured in shading and used for carving.
- Nagagandha which is darkish-earth coloured in shading and from which oil is extricated.
What is Sandalwood Carving?
Sandalwood carving is an old custom and has been a piece of Indian culture and legacy and discovers notice in the Ramayana.
Hindus and Buddhists use the fragrant wood in specific customs as incense.
It is one of the fragrances other than rose oil that is used during customs in Islam.
It is drilled by a network of skilled workers called the Gudigars who have practical experience in the craft of cutting Sandalwood, ivory and stone.
Having relocated from Goa during the Portuguese attack, the Gudigars settled in Uttara Kannada (north) and Mysore areas.
Where is the art practised?
The speciality of sandalwood carving has been drilled in Karnataka for a minimum of thousand years, and Karnataka is world-celebrated for its impeccable carving puppets with unpredictable subtleties.
Sandalwood artisans are amassed in Shimoga, Mysore, Uttara Kannada and Bangalore regions of Karnataka.
The entrancing dolls in this brilliant shaded wood are decorated with structures motivated commonly.
The delicate fragrant wood can be carefully cut easily to make stunning show-stoppers.
Among whom the articles are popular?
The articles made of Sandalwood are the most celebrated among the other wooden relics for its complicated carving and its sweet scent.
Such things are viewed as the most costly.
Sandalwood is available in abundance in the woods of Mysore and around has made this district the most thriving for this exchange.
Other than Mysore; following are the different habitats for this appealing artistry:
- Tirupati
- Madurai
- Coimbatore
- Jaipur
- Delhi
- Varanasi
The tools
The instruments used by the Sandalwood carvers are amazingly basic.
They use a saw, plane, hammer or fine-grained hard stone, a variety of different shapes and sizes of etches and a couple of etching devices some very moment and fragile.
What is the hard yellow wood?
The hard yellow wood is used for cutting into combs, stones and strict ancient rarities.
Sandalwood is a little evergreen tree local to areas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The wood is used to carve figurines, and the roots are wealthy in oil which is used for medicinal purposes.
The most important aspect of the tree is the scented heartwood.
Sandalwood carving is particular in contrast with different woods as it is a milder sweet-smelling wood that permits multifaceted cutting required for making icons.
The sorts of carving done on Sandalwood are comforting, chipping, chiselling and puncturing.
The etches used are not the same as those by and large used for different woods.
The items carved consist of icons of divine beings and goddesses and boxes with entwining foliage and parchment-like examples blended with creature or fowl puppets that are normal for Karnataka.
The symbols are cut in the round on a platform or against a foundation.
They are used in sanctuaries at home and revered.
The process
The process starts with attracting the example proposed to be created on the smooth and whitewashed Sandalwood or a bit of paper stuck over its surface.
At that point it is engraved or delineated in everything about; interspaces between the lines are next removed, accordingly leaving the pattern in low help.
This results in the structure itself being are cut out in the minutest detail keeping the complexities and inconspicuous light and shade impacts, each ideal bend, articulation and surface are completely depicted.
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