Stone Carving

Stone Carvings in Jaipur There are back lanes in Jaipur that ring with the sound of diamond-tipped chisels and hammers, carefully chipping away at blocks of marble and red or yellow sandstone. Till the royalty held sway in India, stone carving received ample patronage in the form of architectural commissions. In fact, when founding the city of Jaipur, Sawai Jai Singh earmarked a whole lane for stone carvers, naming it Silawaton ka Mohalla. Some of Jaipur’s best showpieces are the latticework in the City Palace; the sandstone carvings and ornamental stonework at the Hawa Mahal and the Amber Fort gateways.

Today, the stone carvers have to make do with idol making and sculptures. The heart of this industry lies in the southwest quarter of Jaipur. White Makrana marble is carted here in roughly-shaped blocks. A row of holes is drilled and iron wedges hammered into it till the block breaks down along its line of weakness. To craft the figure, a vertical line is drawn along the axis and the sculptor keeps shaping the outline as he goes along. It’s all done very carefully as even a slight crack renders the idol useless for worship. Apart from gods and goddesses, these men who transform stone into poetry, also fashion animals, human figures and plain geometric forms.

The stone carving was not limited only to forts, palaces, and temples but it has been done on domes and nauchakis as well. The Mughal invasion provided a whole new look to the stone carvings. The Rajputs employed Muslim artisans who gave a new dimension to the artwork by combining the Rajput and Mughal styles of art and architecture.

The process of stone carving is pretty laborious and exhausting and requires a lot of patience and accuracy. Different tools are needed to carve different types of stones. Some of the common tools used for stone carving include toothed hammers, chisels, axes, mallets, etc. The process starts by cutting the stone to the required size. After that, the desired design is drawn on the stone. Next, with the help of different tools, the desired design is carved on the stone. It is a lengthy process where small pieces of stone can be carved in days while bigger pieces can take up to weeks or months.

Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan is the main center of the stone artwork. Artisans here can carve the stone in different items from idols and statues to the utensils like bowls, decorative goods, jewelry, etc. The other centers in Rajasthan are in Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Udaipur. Rajasthan is one of the largest centers for precious and semi-precious stones in the world. These stones are used for decorating stone carvings and making jewelry. These different colored stones can be carved and crafted for making traditional as well as contemporary jewelry.

Almost every type of jewelry, anklets to bracelets, necklaces, and earrings, can be made from the stones. The stones are inlaid into different metals with a lot of care and precision to create the jewelry which can be adorned with any type of attire and suits all occasions. The beautiful stones that are used for making the jewelry include Ruby, Topaz, Emerald, Amethyst, Lapis Lazuli, Agate, etc.

The garnet stone jewelry has its origin in Rajasthan and quite famous. This rock crystal is crafted into beads and necklaces. Stone jewelry is adorned by both men and women. Various types of pendants and earrings are carved from different types of semi-precious stones giving them a classy and elegant look.