Forum Pakistan

This is popular as a kind of artistic treatment of natural materials in Pakistan. The principal materials with which the engravers work are stone, wood, and ivory.
The earliest specimens of glyptic, the art of engraving on gem stones, are steatite seals of the *Harappa civilisation. The earliest specimens of figurines also belong to the same period. Objects carved of wood have not survived, although wood was the main architectural material in the Vedic period. The monolithic architecture of rock monasteries and temples of the third to first centuries BC are representative of the period. It is clear from these data that a variety of wood was widely used in the architecture of the Vedic period. Wood was used to construct buildings and to craft numerous carved details. Wood varieties used for carving were mostly mahogany and ebony, Himalayan cedar, pine, walnut, and sandal. Hardwood is carved deeply, while soft varieties of wood like sandalwood are covered with fine, detailed patterns. As a rule, carving is on a single plane, with a hollowed out background.

In traditional architecture, carving is used to embellish the details of buildings-doors, windows, orioles, balustrades, and columns. Many carving methods and styles are used in architectural decor: flat and high relief, and fully volumetric sculpture. Especially characteristic are carved shutters on which the jail, or net ornament, is executed, usually of geometrical or floral character, and varying from region to region. Openwork arches and consoles cover carved panels, creating double ornamental spaced planes.
Carving on stone in architecture and sculpture is found mainly from the third century Be. It is just as varied as carving on wood and the techniques of carving in these materials have many common features. Carving on stone retains the one-plane, mostly flatrelief engraving of ornament. The greatest achievements were in the sphere of volumetric carving. Different kinds of stones were used in different areas; their textures became an identifying feature of the famous schools of sculpture of antiquity and the Middle Ages. The main form was complemented with small details of decor and design on carvings representing fabrics, which created an impression of magnificent ornamental 'clothing' of the sculptures.

Over a long period, in antiquity and the early Middle Ages, sculpture was an integral part of temple
architecture, especially in rock temples. The Muslim tradition brought a new attitude towards the treatment of stone, shifting the emphasis to the ornament, in which geometrical and floral patterns were mostly used. The treatment of window shutters, bay windows, and balustrades is close to that of wooden architectural details.
Work in semiprecious stone occupies a special place in decorative art. Nephrite, chalcedony, and crystal were used in the hilts of sabres and daggers and in making cups and other objects. The relief on items made of semiprecious stones is not, as a rule, high, and the background is of the 'cushion' type.

Modem carving preserves traditional techniques, imitating the works of old masters. Fashioning models of old architectural structures is very popular nowadays. Small-scale objects predominate and they are mostly intended for the tourist trade.