About Book:
This pioneering, yet very comprehensive study is strictly confined to the unbaked clay technique and is based on three but only possible major sources: 1. The ancient theory found in the Sanskrit texts, 2. past practice as evident from the archaeological finds and 3. present practice as seen in Bengal. The ancient theory of most scientific technique, in which the seven major materials of clay image are metaphorically conceived as the seven important elements of the human body, is explained in minutest detail besides illustrating its main stages with 17 photographs of an image modelled accordingly by the author as an experiment. A comparison of the modern technology with the ancient theory and practice reveals it to be the continuation of the same tradition reveals to be the continuation of the same tradition with some material alteration determined by the purpose, and such a change can be traced, as far as it is known, to the 6th century A.D., suggesting that there have been two streams of the same tradition for a long time.
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