Stone Sculptures

Stone sculpting is a prominent art of ancient South India quite evident from the numerous temples constructed there. The stone sculpting reached its peak during the pallava period. The world famous Mahabalipuram was created during the pallava reign.  Traditionally the process of stone sculpting involves monolithic construction where the statues are carved from a single rock. Now modern machineries are used to recreate the classic work. The sculptures show a variety of exaggerated poses unique to Dravidian culture.
           The stone sculptors are called “sirpis”.  A strict discipline is followed by sirpis in creating the sculptures as most of them depict Hindu gods and goddesses.