Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/144

KAMMALAN look more to the intrinsic value of an article, than to the excellence of the design or workmanship. So that there is very little encouragement for artistic display."The collection of silver jewelry at the Madras Museum, which was made in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London, 1886, bears testimony to the artistic skill of the silversmiths. Recently, Colonel Townshend, Superintendent of the Madras Gun Carriage Factory, has expressed his opinion* that "good as the Bombay smiths are, the blacksmiths of Southern India are the best in Hindustan, and the pick of them run English smiths very close, not only in skill, but in speed of outturn."

Anyone who has seen the celebrated temples of Southern India, for example, the Madura and Tanjore temples, and the carving on temple cars, can form some idea of the skill of South Indian stone-masons and carpenters. The following note on idols and idol-makers is taken from a recent article.† " The idol-maker's craft, like most of the other callings in this country, is a hereditary one, and a workman who has earned some reputation for himself, or has had an ancestor of renown, is a made man. The Sthapathi, as he is called in Sanskrit, claims high social rank among the representatives of the artisan castes. Of course he wears a heavy sacred thread, and affects Brāhman ways of living. He does not touch flesh, and liquor rarely passes down his throat, as he recognises that a clear eye and steady hand are the first essentials of success in his calling. There are two sorts of idols in every temple, mulavigrahas or stone idols which are fixed to the ground, and utsavavigrahas or metal idols used in processions.