ABSTRACT
If circumstances led to a division of material, the production of images in wood and stone did not, however, result in sculptural anarchy. On the contrary, within a range of varying idioms the sculpture is obviously an expression of a region. A style would only not be regional if from a common starting-point there were a general will to break away and devise a variety of styles. The production of wooden images is somewhat more casual as almost every village group has at least one family of Barhis or carpenters who perhaps once or twice in a lifetime make an image. Stone images are supplied from two centres—one at Ramdihra and the other at Ranjitganj. In both these centres, the will of the family is to go on repeating the formulas it learnt from its ancestors. The family standardizes an image as its "house style" and the carving of new images consists of repeating the standard formula.
