The Development of Hindu Iconography c13.35.2

c13.35.2

then after puncturing the top of the crucible with an iron rod, the whole molten metal should be carefully poured down the mouth of the tube. When the molten metal has congealed after cooling down, the clay coating should be broken up very carefully. Any superfluous metal and tubes adhering to the fully fashioned metal image should be filed away with a cāraṇa (a file?), and lastly the whole should be brightly polished (paścādujvalatāṃ nayet). When this is all done in the manner prescribed above, the king should instal it on an auspicious day according to the usual rites and should offer daily worship to it.¹ Saraswati remarks that the above text ‘does not say whether the model would have to be made of solid wax or with an inner core.’ But a perusal of the text will show that it does seem to refer to solid casting which was the general rule in case of small images. In the case of bigger images, the method of hollow casting seems to have been followed in consideration of their cost and weight. Several of the earliest big metal images of India, the Mahāsthān Mañjuśrī and the Sultanganj Buddha mentioned above, exhibit a core still sticking tightly to their inside. From this it seems that the wax model was worked over an inner compound probably consisting of charred husk, finely rubbed clay, thoroughly carded cotton and powdered salt—the same ingredients that were used in the preparation of the clay for applying to the outside of the wax mould.