Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.9

v2.c74.9

As regards Iconoplastic Art, we know that in India the manufacturing of icons was neither a trade nor an industry by itself, it had a sanctity alround. Sculpturing and modelling of images were not done in haphazard fashion. Image-making was as sacred as any religious ceremoney or ritual. It was undertaken under a proper discipline of mind and body. We still hear that the sculptors of Khajuraho temples were the ‘yogis’. Only yogi-sthapatis, fully initiated not only in the art and science of sculpture, but also in the morals of mind and wisdom, the Prajñā and Śīla (cf. writer’s H. S. A. Vol. I ‘Sthapati and Sthāpaka’) could have produced the marvels of art and have earned the laurels of the world.