A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c16.s7: Section VII. Wood-Carving
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c16.s7
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Section VII. Wood-Carving
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The art of wood-carving in India unquestionably goes back to time immemorial, but specimens of works of ancient date executed in a material which is specially perishable in a country infested by white ants and other destructive pests, naturally must be exceedingly rare. The oldest extant examples of considerable artistic merit probably are the weird carvings from Kashmīr-Smats. The most beautiful are the exquisite modern sandalwood relief pictures of Mysore and Travancore, which display exact observation of nature, pleasing fancy, and admirable composition, in addition to high manual skill. In wood-carving the roughly-drawn division between works of fine art and the productions of industrial art almost disappears, and, if space permitted, examples of beautiful artistic compositions in both India and Ceylon might be multiplied indefinitely. It is not practicable for me to give more than a few illustrations of Indian pieces which appear to deserve prominence for one reason or another.
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The only wooden carvings ever found in the Yūsufzai country were discovered in 1888 by the late Sir Harold Deane buried in guano on the floor of a huge, mysterious cavern named Kashmīr-Smats, containing several chambers and galleries. The carved plaques (Plates LXXVIII, LXXIX) were ‘in excellent preservation, though blackened with age’. It is not easy to determine their date. The form of the trefoil arch and the cornice suggest the eighth century, but they may be older. Both designs are conceived in a spirit of mockery which baffles explanation. The subject of No. 1026 (Plate LXXVIII), a skeleton figure posturing to the music of a demoniac band, suggests a burlesque of the Dancing Siva (Naṭeśa), but why such a sacred composition should be burlesqued is a mystery. I cannot make any guess concerning the intention of No. 1027 (Plate LXXIX), which represents a demon figure receiving with contemptuous gesture a young man who carries an earthen pot suspended from the fingers of his left hand. Although the carvings have been already published to a certain extent in *Ancient Monuments*, edited by Dr. Burgess, they are little known, and it is possible that wider publicity may elicit satisfactory explanation of their meaning. From the artistic point of view both groups deserve high praise for their originality, grim humour, and bold modelling.¹
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¹ The cave was described, with a plan, by Deane in *J. R. A. S.*, 1896, pp. 668–71. The remains of a wooden coffin were found in it. The carvings were made over to Dr. Burgess and by him deposited in the British Museum.
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PLATE LXXVIII. Wood-carving; ? Śiva dancing; B. M., from Kashmīr-Smats cave, Yūsufzai. (Photo. 1026, I. M. List.)
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The Chambā State, a small principality situated among the lower Himalayan ranges between Kashmīr territory and the British Districts of Kāngrā and Gurdāspur, is rich in temples and inscriptions going back to the seventh century of the Christian era. The antiquities of the State, already partially described in the *Annual Reports of the Archæological Survey*, will form the subject of a special work in three volumes, upon which Dr. Vogel is engaged.² The temples contain much excellent wood-carving. Out of several photographs kindly supplied by Dr. Vogel I have space for one only, a fine frieze from the ceiling of the temple of Kālī at Mirkula or Udaypur (Plate LXXX). Dr. Vogel believes its date to be much later than a. d. 700, but the wigs, or wig-like hairdressing, worn by the little demons (*gaṇa*) in the lower band of the frieze suggest a possibility that the work may be as early as the seventh century. The principal figures, the male god with sixteen arms, and the female with ten, are presumably Siva and Pārvatī. A small bull (*nandi*) stands near the god's right foot. The carving is clever and spirited, and the general effect decorative, notwithstanding the grotesqueness of the design. But for the wigs I should be inclined to suggest the ninth or tenth century as the date. The style is so local that extensive special experience is needed to estimate the age of specimens with any confidence.
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² See also the same author's scholarly *Catalogue of the Bhuri Singh Museum at Chambā* (Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press, 1909).
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Works of art dedicated to the service of the Christian religion are necessarily rare in India. A wooden panel in the Roman Catholic Church at the old Danish settlement of Tranquebar, dating apparently from the seventeenth century or the early part of the eighteenth, evidently is the work of local carvers, copied from some old picture of the Descent from the Cross, which cannot be identified (Pl. LXXXI). Another panel preserved in a side room of the Protestant Church at the same settlement, which appears to have been built in 1718, represents the Last Supper in a German or Scandinavian style, and probably was imported ready made (Photo. No. 1205, Madras).³
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³ These opinions are in accordance with the judgement of C. F. Bell, Esq., Keeper of the Fine Art Dept., University Galleries, Oxford.
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PLATE LXXIX. Wood-carving; subject unknown; B. M., from Kashmīr-Smats cave, Yūsufzai.
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[Figure: Wood-carving on ceiling of Mirkula (Udaypur) temple of Kālī, Chambā State. (A. S. photo., No. 84.)]
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PLATE LXXXI. Descent from the Cross; wooden panel in R.-C. church, Tranquebar, Tanjore District, Madras. (Photo. No. 1206, A. S., Madras.)
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The modern craftsmen of many localities in India produce highly ornamental carved work in various styles. That of Mysore and Travancore rises to the level of fine art in the best examples, which are wrought in sandalwood with the utmost freedom of fancy and beauty of execution. Sir George Birdwood (*Industrial Arts*, p. 217) mentions a little cabinet, exhibited by Major Puckle in the Annual International Exhibition of 1871, as being the most beautiful example of Mysore sandalwood carving ever shown in England. The subjects illustrated were mythological. Sir George Watt describes and reproduces as ‘one of the most perfect examples of sandalwood ever produced’ a pierced panel intended as a spandril for a doorway in the new palace at Mysore, the stone sculptures of which have been noticed in Chapter VII of this work. The panel depicts the incident in the life of the youthful Krishna when he stole the clothes of the Gopīs while they were bathing, and carried the garments up into a tree. The basal frieze with its procession of homing cattle is delightful. The whole work is admirably composed, being symmetrical without formality (Plate LXXXII, Fig. A).¹
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¹ *Indian Art at Delhi*, p. 150, Pl. XXXVI.
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A third example of Mysore sandalwood carving is, perhaps, equally good. Sir George Watt gave a commission to the most expert carvers in the State to produce the very best carved work-box they could make, leaving the decoration absolutely to their judgement and taste. His confidence was justified by the result. The side panels depict hunting and forest scenes with much feeling, in a style which reminds Sir G. Watt of Chinese and Japanese ivory carving.
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The top (his Plate 36 A) offers a magnificent picture of a god drawn in a four-wheeled car. The borders are filled with rich ornament in the style of the Chalukya temples.²
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² Work of this kind is necessarily expensive. The box was priced Rs. 1,438, or £96 at the present low rate of exchange, £143 at ‘par’. The negative is missing.
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A Travancore sandalwood carving, which gives a most vivid and delicately executed picture of the life—human, animal, and vegetable—in a tropical forest, is reproduced in Plate LXXXII, Fig. B.
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It is, indeed, strange that the craftsmen who are capable of producing such beautiful and artistic work seem to be half-unconscious of their power, and wholly devoid of ambition. Sir George Watt notes that the most delicate productions, the result of weeks of painstaking labour, are often ruined in a few months by the effects of careless joinery, and that the eight families of artisans engaged in the work at the principal centre in Mysore are ‘profligate, apathetic, indigent, and of intemperate habits’; firmly set against the slightest modification of their accustomed ways, and deaf to admonition.