Carved Ganesha Door Panel

A Ganesha door is made for 1 reason, to be the first thing in the house and it has been made the same way in our workshop for as long as anybody in it can remember.

How It Is Made

It starts with the plank and the plank has to wait. Sagwan cut fresh will crack under carving, so it sits in the shade of the workshop for months until it is dry all the way through and only then does it come to the bench. The karigar draws the whole design on the wood first, Ganesha in the middle, the arch, the pillars, the vines, the elephants, all of it in pencil from a paper pattern that has been traced and retraced so many times the paper has gone soft. Then the background comes out. Every part of the plank around the figures is cut down with a wide chisel until Ganesha and the vines are standing up out of the wood and that alone takes days. After that the fine chisels, the trunk, the fingers, the folds of the cloth, each petal on the vines and this is the slow part, done sitting on the floor with the plank across the knees, the same way it was done before there were benches. Last comes the sanding by hand and the polish.

Our Grandfather Did It This Way

The men who carve in our workshop learnt from their fathers, who learnt from theirs. The chisels are the same shapes, some of them the same actual chisels, sharpened down to half their length. The pattern for the Ganesha is the one the family has always used and the way of drawing it on the plank, the order of cutting, the sitting position, none of it has changed. What was a job for our grandfather has become the thing our family is known for and a door like this is the reason.

What The Door Is For

Ganesha is the god of beginnings, so he goes at the beginning of the house and a door with him carved into it is doing the oldest job a door has. It is put where everyone passes. That is what it is for.

• Solid sagwan, carved in relief from 1 plank.
• Ganesha in an arched niche under a carved canopy, 4 arms, modak in hand.
• Vines and blossoms carved in every border out to the edge.
• 2 elephants and a kalash carved along the base.
• Carved by hand with chhaini and hathoda, no machine on the carving.