Note 27 — G

“The Gudigars, or sandal-wood carvers,” Mr. D’Cruz writes,27 “are reported to have come originally from Goa, their migration to Mysore and Canara having been occasioned by the attempts of the early Portuguese invaders to convert them to Christianity. The fact that their original language is Konkani corroborates their reputed Konkanese origin. They say that the derivation of the word Gudigāra is from gudi, a temple, and that they were so called because they were, in their own country, employed as carvers and painters in the ornamentation of temples. Another derivation is from the Sanskrit kuttaka (a carver). They assert that their fellow castemen are still employed in turning, painting, and other decorative arts at Goa. Like the Chitrakāras (ornamenters or decorative artists), they claim to be Kshatriyas, and tradition has it that, to escape the wrath of Parasu Rāma in the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, who vowed to destroy all Kshatriyas, they adopted the profession of carvers and car-builders. They are also expert ivory-carvers, and it has been suggested that they may be distantly connected with the Kondikars, or ivory-carvers of Bengal. The art of sandalwood carving is confined to a few families in the Sorab and Sāgar tāluks of the Shimoga district, in the north-west corner of the province. There are two or three families in Sāgar, and about six in Sorab, which contribute in all about thirty-five artisans employed in the craft. The art is also practiced by their relations, who found a domicile in Hanavar, Kumpta, Sirsi, Siddapūr, Biligi, and Banavāsi in the North Canara district. But the work of the latter is said to be by no means so fine as that executed by the artisans of Sorab and Sāgar. The artisans of North Canara, however, excel in pith-work of the most exquisite beauty. They usually make bāsingas, i.e., special forehead ornaments, richly inlaid with pearls, and worn on the occasion of marriage. The delicate tools used by the wood-carvers are made from European umbrella spokes, ramrods, and country steel. The main stimulus, which the art receives from time to time at the present day, is from orders from the Government, corporate public bodies, or Mahārājas, for address boxes, cabinets, and other articles specially ordered for presentations, or for the various fine-art exhibition, for which high prices are paid.” In conversation with the workmen from Sorab and Sāgar for work in the palace which is being built for H. H. the Mahārāja of Mysore, it was elicited that there are some Gudigars, who, from want of a due taste for the art, never acquire it, but are engaged in carpentry and turning. Others, having acquired land, are engaged in cultivation, and fast losing all touch with the art. At Udipi in South Canara, some Gudigars make for sale large wooden buffaloes and human figures, which are presented as votive offerings at the Iswara temple at Hiriadkāp. They also make wooden dolls and painted clay figures.