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Wood Carving Wood carving is another important
handicraft of Orissa. This again can be
broadly grouped into three sub-groups-painted wood carvings, plain wood
carvings and wood turned items. In the first group we have painted wooden
toys of Puri and Bargarh masks, and idols and chariot decorations. Usually
light varieties of wood are preferred and vegetable and mineral colours
are used. The art is mostly practiced by the carpenter caste who have the
title Moharana. They use the simple carpentry tools like hammer, chisel
etc. The motifs include various stylized animals and birds like horse,
bull, elephant, lion, tiger, peacock and Nabagunjara etc., Radha and
Krishna and sakhis and most popular of all, the three deities of the Puri
temple-Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra. |
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There
are also excellent painted wooden doors with panels depicting various
scenes from Krisna's
life, Ramayana and other stories. Various wooden masks with a hollow back
are also painted representing stylized human faces. The three chariots of
the Puri car festival are profusely decorated with wooden images depicting
various deities as parswadevatas. Image of the Sarathi or the charioteer
and the horses attached in front are also made by wood carvers of Puri.
Similar items are also attached to the chariot of Lingaraj during
Asokastami at Bhubaneswar. One can also find an interesting wooden painted
image of Brahma in the Lingaraj temple immediately to the right of the
entrance. Images of Radha, Krishna and sakhis as well as other decorative
items made by wood carvers are attached to the Kunjas or ceremonial swings
for the spring festival called dola. This shows the close links of the
craft of wood carving to the cultural and religious traditions of the
State. The plain wood carvings are mostly done on a soft creamish wood
called gambhari or white teak. While the features in the painted wood
carvings are usually less defined and blunt, those in the plain carvings
in gambhari are not only sharp and fine but attain exquisite needly work
finish and are more akin to the workmanship of the sculptors. Well
proportioned and finished to great smoothness these items are fit for a
connoisseur's including Konark wheel besides other items based on myths,
legends and folklore. Indolent damsels, Krishna, Radha, Sakhis, Hara
Parvati. Konark horse, Konark elephant are popular but the scene from
Mahabharata depicting Krishna teaching Arjuna the tenets of the Gita when
the latter shies away from the battle, with the grand chariot with its
divine charioteer and the valiant rider depicted by the wood carver is
most captivating. This variety of wood carving is mostly practiced in
Cuttack town though a few craftsmen are also found at Bhubaneswar and
Puri. Wood turned articles using the creamish gambhari and the harder and
darker sisu or rose wood is a specialty of the artisans from Daspalla area
in Puri district. Popular items are small pitchers with mango leaves and
coconut, glass, bowls, and incense stands. It is interesting to note that
although the process of wood turning with small hand operated wooden lathe
is also used else where in India, the Orissa artisans prefer to leave the
surface plain and they do not lacquer it like the famous toy makers of
Chennapatna in Karnataka. Samples of the excellence of the wood carvers of
Orissa can be found in temple ceilings and carved wooden beams and doors
in places like Birnchinarayan temple, Buguda, Charchika temple, Banki,
Siva temple, Kapilas, and Laxmi-Nrusingha temple Berhampur.
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