Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s2.142

v2.c74.s2.142

**The Wood.**—The wood is the primeval substance from which the creation was conceived. The Ṛgveda (X.81-4) bears the earliest testimony to the material of wood out of which the god Viśvakarmā could have created the universe. In my 'Hindu Science of Architecture' Vol. I. Pt. III cf. 'Secular Architecture', the origin of the first human house was described to have sprung up from the branches of trees, the śākhās—the Śālā-houses. Naturally both in architecture and sculpture the earliest material used was the wood. The architecutral ornamentations in palaces and pillars of the early medeival period, owe their origin to the wooden motifs of the earlier times. Wood was the principal material by which the ritual implements were fashioned out. Moreover from the point of the economy and convinient procurement, wood was the most handy material. It is therefore now an accepted fact that the earliest images must have been created out of wood. On account of the perishable nature of wood there is extreme pauchity of the early finds of images. All the early texts like Bṛhatsaṁhitā and others have given prominence to the collection of wood from the forest for the purpose of making images (vide Vanasampraveśādhyāya). There are detailed and minute rules for starting to the forest under auspicious constellation, selection of the trees and avoidance of the unfit ones. All these rituals and the scientific procedure of selection of wood is a common discourse of practically all the manuals. The text like Mānasāra and the Samarāṅgaṇa have these expatiations on the wood not in relation to the construction of images; but in regard to the house-construction. Thus the Mānasāra—vide Chapter on Stambha-lakṣaṇa, the 13th—deals at great length with this topic of Dārusangrahaṇa—the collection of the wood from the forest, in relation to the architectural constructions. The S. S. also (vide its chapter on Vanasampraveśādhyāya, the 16th) delineates upon this theme of Dāru-āharaṇa only in connection with the architectural constructions. All this shows that wood as a material employed in iconoplastic art of India was only an early institution. In the medieval and later medieval times this art must have taken high strides and naturally the stone was the most popular sculptural material. Nevertheless the early sources like the Bṛhatsaṁhitā and Purāṇas like Bhaviṣya, Matsya and Viṣṇudharmottara, etc. do show that the wood was the most frequently used material for image-making from very early times.