Chennai, The unique Arumbavur wood carving on Tuesday was awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag, said a senior official of Geographical Indications Registry.

"The Arumbavur wood carving was awarded the GI tags," Chinnaraja G Naidu, Deputy Registrar, Geographical Indications told IANS.

Arumbavur is part of Perambalur District in Tamil Nadu.

The application for GI was made by the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited (Poompuhar), Arumbavur Wood Carvers' Handicrafts lndustrial Cooperative Society Ltd, and the Arumbavur Temple Car and Woodcarving Artisans Welfare Society.

As per the filing with the registry, the Arumbavur wood carvings are primarily made out of the wooden logs of Indian siris (Poo Vaagai, Albizia lebbeck), Mango (Mangifera indica), Lingam tree (Mavilangam), Indian Ash fiee (Othiyan - Odina wodier), Rosewood, Neem tree (Vembu - Azadirachta indica) are used for making sculptures.

The unique aspect of the Arambavur wood carvings is that it is often inspired by architectural details on temple sculptures and carvings.

The dimensions of the wood blocks used depend on the wooden sculpture to be carved.

The descriptions and designs which inspire the work lie in temple architecture indigenous to the region. Usually, the statues are crafted at a size range from 1 to 12 feet.

The art form also draws inspiration from mythology and mythical deities.

Presently, the Arumbavur wood carvings revolve around idols and deities, temple chariots and temple cars, door panels of houses, pooja rooms and temples, decorative figures, pooja mandapam.

Arumbavur is famous for its wood carving tradition which is of a religious nature and its community of wood carvers have their origin in Madurai.

The artisans (predominantly the Boyar community) used to go to the particular place where the temple car has to be made and stay in that temple for a period of upto four years and complete the work.

Then they migrate to another place, where a new temple car has to be made. Like this, artisans led the nomad life and later a cluster of people settled in Arumbavur around 250 years ago and did temple cars, other wooden statues, house utility products, carpentry works, the filing said.