Hands to craft…

“In fact, man’s elevation from the gross animal existence is marked by his yearning for something beyond the satisfaction of mere creature comforts and needs, which found natural expression in crafts.”Chattopadhyay, K., “India’s craft tradition”, India International Centre Quarterly, Winter 1998, Vol.25/26, p. 79, India International Centre.

As humans through the art of making crafts are no longer mere animals, so too does the ivory no longer belong to the animal kingdom.

Since ivory crafting and carving took place in India from remote times, this required, in turn, a deeper knowledge of carving instruments and techniques.Since then, these have been passed down and improved upon via specialized castes (jāti). Some of these instruments, which resemble miniaturized tools used in stone carving, include small chisels, wooden mallets, files and in modern times, brought from the West, the lathe. As India was approaching an international market in modern times, different strains of ivory were tested to see which were more flexible, which were rarer and more valuable. We know that ivory was considered a precious material, and thus the jāti during the period of time from 1500 to 1800 became highly specialized. These were important centuries, as the jāti witnessed the rise and fall of the Mughal empire.

The central sovereignty of Mughal power expanded throughout India and changed the mechanics of craftsmanship, building enormous (and thus, controlled) shops (kārakhānā) or even small cities dedicated entirely to the production of ivory carvings.

We can visualize our singha, then, as “born” in one of these cities or shops in South India, or perhaps even transferred there a second time as a luxury object. Luxury is such a strange term. It has a meaning to us, because we value things. Especially exotic things. Ancient things. Like the singha statue.

Most of these fabrics or shops worked in an industrial way. That’s why very often there’s no such thing as an author or an artist for a specific product of this period. In fact, it’s probable that the singha was carved in different phases, by different artisans, everyone specialized in using a specific instrument. If we take a moment to reflect on this, suddenly it doesn’t seem that scary at all, but more like a product of love, effort and union of common people like us.

You are free to think that it was this act of unity and experience that gave a “soul” to the singha. Perhaps that’s exactly what happened.

But how?