Wood in Indian Art

Discovering wooden treasures (1700-1999) in the collection of Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, India.

Archway section (late 17th century)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wood Carving in India

Wood carving is an ancient art of India. Though traditionally wood has been used for making home posts, rafters, yokes, ploughs, toys, planks, furniture among others, India has seen wood carving since yore. Emperor Ashoka’s palace at Pataliputra was made in wood, and the grand temple at Bodh Gaya as well. The carvers of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, known as asaris, claim to be direct descendants of Vishwakarma, the celestial architect. 

Venugopal (12th Century C.E.)Indian Museum, Kolkata

Art of Wood Carving

Wood carving is one of the oldest arts of mankind, wood being derived from trees. Wood carving is also a part of ornate architecture. Figure-work seems to have been universal. To carve a figure in wood is more difficult than sculpting with marble or stone, owing to wood tending to crack easily, to be damaged by insects, or to suffer from changes in the atmosphere. The work is slow and requires consummate skill. But in spite of this it has been sculpted on since yore. It seems to have started as a temple and palace craft which flourished alongside architecture and sculpture.

Wooden model of a chariot (ratha) (1790/1790)British Museum

The 'sutradhar' at work

In ancient India, the wood-worker made war chariots in addition to furniture, doors and panels. The Rigveda mentions him as sutradhar who was also the charioteer of the chariot he made. Temple cars of South India have exquisite woodwork. Due to the perishable nature of wood, many treasures have been lost over time. Many regions of India have produced excellent works in wood. The main woods used for carving and making ornate furniture in India include teak, Blackwood, East Indian walnut, rosewood, sandalwood,  mahogany, ebony,  mango and neem. Texts like
BrihatsamhitaVishnudharmottaram  and Viswakarmaprakasha give details on selection of woods for making images of deities and designing ornate furniture.

Goddess Kali, the terrible form of Parvati and wife of God Shiva, slaying a demon (1700/1799) by UnknownCrafts Museum

A craft across regions

The North has Kashmir’s exquisite work in walnut. Gujarat and Rajasthan have beautiful woodwork in temples and palaces. Also wood carving of Saharanpur, Aligarh, Nagina and Lucknow is much admired. Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana are among woodcraft centres in Punjab.  Bengal uses bel and neem for woodcraft and Assam uses bamboo among others. Nashik is a woodwork centre in Maharashtra. Kerala has rosewood carving and coconut shell work. Beautiful architectural wood carvings are there in the palaces and  temples of Mysore and Madurai. Andhra Pradesh has toys made at Kondapalli and Telangana has famous woodwork from Adilabad.

Dancing Radha and Krishna (1900/1999)Salar Jung Museum

Popular artform

The South has  used teak for carving and sandalwood, the fragrant wood for delicate woodwork. Sandalwood being an aromatic wood, the fragrance stays on for decades. The wood is heavy, yellowish-beige and fine-grained. In Karnataka the style in Mysore and Coorg made from sandal sandalwood are mixed indigenous and Chalukyan style. Shimoga is an important sandalwood carving centre in Karnataka. Madurai  is famous for incised Blackwood tables, whose legs are in the form of elephant heads with extended trunks, also mythical Yali figures. Tribals in Madhya Pradesh are adept at wood work. Chittorgarh and the Pali district of Rajasthan specialises in woodwork.   

Relief panel (17th–18th century)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A variety of themes

The themes covered in the art of wood carving are various and plentiful. Hindu deities are the most popular subject. The work is of an intricate nature, scenes and characters from Hindu mythology are frequently portrayed. Also floral patterns, inlay work, lacquered wood, jaali  work, animal and bird figures on decorative plaques, panels, doors and doorways, screens and ornate furniture abound across India. Tiger legs, elephant heads, mythical creatures are also carved as part of the furniture.

The entrance to Dewan DeodiSalar Jung Museum

The Salar Jung Museum carvings

The museum has an interesting collection of sandalwood and other wooden carvings. As already mentioned wood-carving has been done since a long time in the Indian subcontinent. The museum collection has sandalwood figures, figures of Hindu deities in different wood,  mythological wooden figures with polychrome lacquer, decorative items, lacquered and highly ornate furniture from different regions of India.


Let us take a journey across time and discover these treasures in wood from across India.

Lord Shiva (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Lord Shiva

A lacquer painted wooden head of Lord Shiva, from the Hindu trinity, probably part of the decoration of a Hindu temple car. The head-dress is a kiritamukuta ending in a spire elaborately carved into beaded bands having small figures of Hindu deities at regular intervals. 

Lord Shiva is depicted with moustaches and horizontal marks on his forehead, probably from Channapatna, South India, dated to the 19th century.

Nataraja (1700/1799)Salar Jung Museum

Nataraja

Figure of Lord Nataraja with his symbols of flame, gesture of fearlessness and damaru, the drum. The prabhavali or halo of flames carved on either end reaches down into the opening mouths of two mythological animals.The apasmara purusha is beneath his feet. The pedestal is carved with decorative designs, from South India, dated to the 18th century.

Lord Rama (1900/1999)Salar Jung Museum

Lord Rama

Carving of a standing figure of Lord Rama. The great Indian epic Ramayana is the story of his life. The upward arrow-points are crescent shaped and the bell hanging from the animal-mouth of the bow are the distinguishing features, from South India, 20th century.

Devi Saraswati (1900/1999)Salar Jung Museum

Devi Saraswati

Seated figure of Goddess Saraswati having a veena on her lap wearing ornaments and the crown seated on a rectangular base with arch shaped prabhavali. The stylized flames are on the outer edge and leaves on the inner edge, bamboo, probably from Bengal/Assam, dated to the 20th century. 

Wooden yali temple lamp stand (1900/1999)Salar Jung Museum

Wooden 'Yali' temple lamp stand

 Temple lamp-stand on a pedestal with supports in the form of animal paws. The lamp post, raised on an elephant, takes the yali shape in the middle and ends with a flat top. 


Yali is a mythical creature seen in many Hindu temples. It is usually portrayed as part lion,  part elephant, or part horse and sometimes has bird-like features. Their presence is supposed to be protective for the temple. They are also called vyala, from South India, dated to the  20th century.

Krishna on swing (1901/1999)Salar Jung Museum

Krishna on a swing

In Hinduism Radha-Krishna are together known as the combination of the masculine and feminine aspects of divinity or God. Lord Krishna, the soul is a part of God and Radha is a feeling of love which connects living beings to the creator. Gopis are cow-herding girls of  Vrindavan, who are utterly devoted to Lord Krishna. Radha is the most revered gopi.  In 'Krishna on a swing’, the front of this sandalwood carving shows cows,  and attendant gopis  on either side of Krishna, from Mysore, dated to the 20th century.

Kaliyamardanam (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Kaliyamardanam

Carving depicting the episode of Kaliyamardanam; Lord Krishna standing with his left foot on Kaliya, the naga, from South India, dated to the 19th century.

Ganesha (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Lord Ganesha

Carved Lord Ganesha also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka; is one of the most worshipped deities in the Hindu religion. He is known as a remover of obstacles, patron of knowledge and god of intellect and wisdom. The sculpture depicts him flanked by two attendants, his vahana  or vehicle mooshaka is also seen, from South India, dated to the 19th century.

Laddu Gopal (1700/1799)Salar Jung Museum

Laddu Gopal

Carved crawling infant Krishna eating butter with his right hand and left hand kept over the butter pot, dated to the 18th century.

Dwarapalaka (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Dwarapalaka

Dwarapalaka or door guardian with four hands, the upper hand with emblems conch and discus, the lower right with a gada or mace, the lower left is raised up to his chest, from South India, dated to the 19th century.

Screen in four folds (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Screen in four folds

An exquisite screen in four folds representing compartments, vine creeper design in open work in a lattice type pattern all over, from Kashmir, dated to the 19th century.

Wooden chair from Malabar (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Wooden chair from Malabar

Ornate chair with a slightly slanting tall back carved with Hanuman and Sita in the bottom and Krishna holding two snakes in his two hands on top. The base has a carved pattern of creepers on the sides. The front legs are animal shaped, from Malabar, dated to the 19th century.

Screen in four folds (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

Screen in four folds

A screen in four folds representing geometric patterns in open work and inlaid in brass to represent creeper pattern over the sides, from Kashmir, dated to the 19th century.

A horse with two riders (1800/1899)Salar Jung Museum

A horse with two riders

A horse with two riders standing on a crocodile base having men under its forelegs and also a griffin under its belly, from South India dated to the 19th century.

Credits: Story

Text and Curation: Soma Ghosh
Photography: M. Krishnamurthy and Bahadur Ali
Research Assistance: Dinesh Singh and E. Rajesh
Special thanks to Dr. A Nagender Reddy, Director, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, India.


References- 1. Nambiar, P K (1965) Census of India 1961 Vol IX Madras Part VII A-VI –Handicrafts and artisans of Madras State -Wood carvings of Madurai, Delhi : Manager of Publications.
2. Chakravarti, Shymalkanti, ed. (2001) Wood carvings of Bengal in Gursaday Museum, Kolkata: Gursaday Museum.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wood_carving (accessed on 25.01.2022)
4 .https://oneindiaonepeople.com/wondrous-woodcraft-india/ (accessed on 27.01.2022)

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.