Musicians

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Vedas, particularly the Samaveda, developed Swara into music which accompanying Mantra became the principal instrument of invoking cosmic powers including time and space and various gods personifying them. The Mantra remained confined to religion and rituals and developed an aura around it. Contrarily, music diversified, reaching from gods' realms to a tribal hamlet, and from a temple to a courtesan's chamber. It sang for the time to be fair and place to be auspicious, or rather to sanctify total ambience. Thus, music was used for making beginnings of all events auspicious and for invoking all powers – manifest and unmanifest, of flesh or spirit, and the rising sun as also the oncoming night, its silver glory and romance.

The four figures of the musicians are harbingers of good and auspices. They are invoking by their music all the four directions – the total geography, which these directions, and their music reaching them, span. The musicians are placed on an octagonal platform. The eight-sided octagon has been as much significant in India, Greece, Egypt and virtually in all early civilisations. Octagon occupied significant place not only in architecture but also in cosmology, auspicious symbols, and Tantrika graphics. In India, at least, an octagon stands for the totality of time. The sun alone is capable of measuring time, which it does by each of its strides. One day is the sun's one stride. This one day or stride has been divided in Indian cosmology into eight prahars – parts, and the eight-sided octagon is the auspicious cosmograph which presides over these eight parts. The musicians, presiding the octagonal platform, are presiding over the course of time too.

Aesthetically, the statue is not as significant as its deep symbolic thrust and auspicious character. The viewer, however, gets from it a glimpse of two music-related traditions of Rajasthan – one of bards and the other of court musicians. Bards composed and sang ballads in praise of their patrons, and musicians, besides entertaining their patrons, had various sessions of performance since early morning to the night. They began with prabhati, the song welcoming the arrival of the morning. The four musicians are singing, in all probabilities, the prabhati, welcoming not only the morning but also invoking all four directions to be bounteous to their state. Their typical rounded turbans with ornamental lace in the centre, large moustaches, prominent noses, deep buried eyes with heavy eyebrows, typical shoes and jewellery – the necklace consisting of silver coins, star-pendants and other ornaments, and costumes, made of extra-bright tapestry, are characteristically Rajasthani. Their arms are covered in full but the artist could not refrain himself from drawing on them tripunda marks.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of ancient Indian literature. Dr Daljeet is the chief curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the National Museum of India, New Delhi. They have both collaborated on numerous books on Indian art and culture.

Free Shipping. Delivered by to all international destinations within 3 to 5 days, fully insured.

Sculpting Serenity: Unveiling the Art of Crafting Wood Statues

Wood has been a preferred material for sculptures and statues since ancient times. It is easy to work with than most metals and stones and therefore requires less effort to shape it into any desired shape or form. The texture of the wood gives an element of realism to the sculpture. The selection of an appropriate wood type is necessary for carving. Woods that are too resinous or coniferous are not considered good for carving as their fiber is very soft and thus lacks strength. On the other hand, wood such as Mahogany, Oakwood, Walnut wood, Weet cherry wood, etc., are preferred by sculptors because their fiber is harder. A wood sculptor uses various tools such as a pointed chisel in one hand and a mallet in another to bring the wood to the desired measurement and to make intricate details on it. A carving knife is used to cut and smooth the wood. Other tools such as the gouge, V-tool, and coping saw also serve as important tools in wood carving. Although the wood carving technique is not as complex and tough as stone carving or metal sculpting, nonetheless, a wood carver requires a high level of skills and expertise to create a stunning sculpture.

1. Selecting the right wood

The process of wood carving begins with selecting a chunk of wood that is required according to the type and shape of the statue to be created by the sculptor. Both hardwoods and softwoods are used for making artistic pieces, however, hardwoods are preferred more than softer woods because of their durability and longevity. But if heavy detailing is to be done on the statue, wood with fine grain would be needed as it would be difficult to work with hardwood.

2. Shaping the wood

Once the wood type is selected, the wood carver begins the general shaping process using gouges of various sizes. A gouge is a tool having a curved cutting edge which is useful in removing large unwanted portions of wood easily without splitting the wood. The sculptor always carves the wood across the grain of the wood and not against it.

3. Adding detailing

When a refined shape of the statue is obtained, it is time for making details on the statue using different tools. This is achieved by using tools such as a veiner to make and a V-tool to create decorative and sharp cuts.

4. Surface finishing

Once finer details have been added, the sculptor is ready to smoothen the surface and give it a perfect finish. Tools such as rasps and rifflers are used to get a smooth surface. The finer polishing is obtained by rubbing the surface with sandpaper. If a textured surface is required, this step is skipped. Finally, to protect the statue from excessive dirt accumulation, the sculptor applies natural oils such as walnut or linseed oil all over it. This also brings a natural sheen to the statue.