History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c29.s2.t2.19

v1.c29.s2.t2.19

First of all, the outline of the facade was incised by driving a tunnel into the rock, beneath the place where the ceiling would be. For this, small and closely spaced cubical holes were drilled along the selected line for breaking. Dry wooden cubes were forced into these holes and then wetted, their swelling caused the stone to crack and break. Bronze and iron chisels and mallets were the main cutting tools.