Traditional Sculpture, Stone Carving and Wood Carving
Scultpure questions cover material, tool sequence and iconographic rule. Odisha's Kalinga temple style is the reference point: khondalite and sandstone temple walls, chlorite and soapstone for finer figures, and neem wood for the Jagannath triad.
Stone
Khondalite (locally khandolite) is the garnet-bearing rock of the Kalingan temples; softer soapstone (khadipathar) suits small figurines. Sequence: block out the mass, mark centre and talamana grid, rough with point and claw chisels, refine with flat and bull-nose chisels, then abrade and polish. Carving follows the grain and bedding plane - splitting along the wrong plane ruins the block. Centres: Bhubaneswar and Puri for temple work, Berhampur (Ganjam) for figurative carving, Lalitagiri–Ratnagiri–Udayagiri for Buddhist sculpture.
Wood
Puri's Maharana carvers serve the temple: the Jagannath triad is made of neem wood (daru) and ritually replaced at Nabakalebara; the Ratha Yatra chariots are built at the Rath Khala from hardwoods such as phasi, piasal and asana. Rule: season the timber first, carve with the grain, keep symmetrical parts matched from one billet, and allow for shrinkage in joined work.
Worked example
Brief: a 30 cm wood relief of a peacock. Answer sequence: seasoned plank → sketch and transfer → block waste with a gouge → establish the highest plane → model the body → cut feather detail → sand along the grain → seal and finish. Naming the sequence, not the tools alone, earns the marks.
Traps
Saying the Jagannath idols are stone; confusing khondalite with marble; skipping seasoning (carved green wood splits); describing polishing before detailing; forgetting that stone dust is a silica hazard requiring wet working.