A stone carving glossary, written from the workshop floor.

Stone cut to true square faces and laid with fine, regular joints, as distinct from rubble or roughly dressed stone. Ashlar is the reference standard for finished masonry and is often the surround into which a carved panel or relief is set.

A set of eight auspicious symbols found, in different versions, in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu traditions, and used on sacred panels and borders. Which eight symbols appear, and in what order, depends on the tradition, so the set is confirmed with the client.

Also: ashtamangala

In practice: Temple stone carving

Stone thinned enough that light passes through it from behind, used for feature walls, altars and screens. Translucency depends on the material and on the residual thickness left after carving, so a backlit panel is designed around its thinnest section rather than its thickest.

Also: translucent marble, backlighting

In practice: Backlit stone

The natural layering of a sedimentary stone such as sandstone or limestone, formed as the material was laid down. Stone is normally set with its bedding lying as it did in the quarry; set on edge, the layers can open and the carved face can spall, so bedding is marked on the block before it is cut.

Also: bedding plane, natural bed

In practice: Sandstone carving

Made for one commission to a specific drawing, size and material, rather than selected from stock. In carved stone the practical consequence is that the piece is designed against the space it will stand in, and that feasibility — whether the geometry can be held in the stone proposed, at the size and depth wanted — is assessed before anything is cut.

Also: made to order, commissioned stone

In practice: Stone carving services

Cutting a block into slices and opening consecutive slices like the pages of a book, so that the veining on one panel mirrors its neighbour. It only works with sequential pieces from one block and must be planned before cutting.

In practice: Marble carving

A raised, often carved, knob or projection — commonly at the intersection of ribs on a ceiling, or as a repeated ornament on a face. Bosses are usually carved after the surrounding surface is finished so the surface can be worked flat first.

An elevated, dome-shaped pavilion carried on pillars, used in Indian architecture as a rooftop feature, a memorial or a garden structure. A chhatri is made as a kit of carved parts — plinth, columns, brackets, dome — assembled on site.

In practice: Architectural stone carving

Thin stone fixed to the face of a structure as a surface rather than carrying load. Carved cladding panels allow relief work on a building that could not support solid carved masonry, and the fixing method and panel weight are design constraints from the outset.

Also: stone cladding

In practice: Architectural stone carving

Stone carving in which a computer-controlled machine drives the cutting tool along a programmed toolpath. Its advantage is repeatability: the same profile can be produced many times to the same tolerance, which is what architectural work needs when a moulding or a pattern must align across an elevation. Its limit is that it cannot approach from beneath, cannot read the grain of a particular block, and leaves a tooled rather than a finished surface.

Also: computer numerical control, machine carving

In practice: CNC stone carving

A projecting block, often carved, built into a wall to carry a load above — a balcony, a beam, a cornice or the overhang of a jharokha. Carved brackets are one of the commonest structural-decorative elements in Rajasthani stonework.

Also: bracket

In practice: Architectural stone carving

A single horizontal layer of stone in a wall or structure, and by extension the practice of setting stones so that their horizontal joints line up. Carved elements set into coursed masonry must be dimensioned to the course height or the joints will not read straight.

Also: coursing

Packing finished stone into braced timber cases for freight, with each piece secured so that it cannot shift against another. Carved stone is fragile at its most projecting points, so crating design follows the geometry of the carving rather than only the outer dimensions.

Also: export crating, export packing

In practice: Design and delivery

Assembling a finished multi-piece stone commission in the workshop without mortar, adhesive or fixings, to prove that the joints close and the composition reads correctly, before it is taken apart for transport. It is the last point at which a problem can be corrected cheaply, because everything is still on the bench and nothing has left the building.

Also: dry fit, dry run

In practice: Design and delivery

A circle drawn in a single brushstroke in Zen practice, associated with completeness and the present moment. Carved as a cut-out ring in stone, it frames a figure with negative space instead of ornament.

Also: enso, zen circle

In practice: Buddha stone carving

The terminating ornament at the top of a spire, dome, gatepost, canopy or roofline, usually carved as a separate piece and set last.

Shallow vertical grooves cut into the shaft of a column or pilaster. Fluting is a repeating profile, which makes it a natural candidate for machine cutting followed by hand refinement at the stops and terminations.

In practice: Stone columns and pillars

The monumental tiered gateway tower over the entrance to a South Indian temple, carved in ascending storeys and usually densely populated with figures. Gopuram work is among the most labour-intensive stone carving there is, because the figure count rises with every tier.

In practice: Temple stone carving

The stage after machining in which a carver works the piece with chisels and rifflers: deepening undercuts, softening flows the machine left mechanical, raising textures and polishing the surface. It is what distinguishes a carved piece from a milled one, and on a hybrid workflow it is always the last operation rather than the first.

Also: hand carving, hand-finished stone

In practice: How it is made

A pattern cut as a recess into one stone and filled flush with shaped pieces of a contrasting stone, then ground and polished so that the finished surface is continuous to the touch. Used for floors, medallions, borders, table tops and wall panels. The Indian tradition of hard-stone inlay is known as parchin kari, and its Italian equivalent as pietra dura.

Also: stone inlay, pietra dura, parchin kari

In practice: Stone inlay

A pierced stone screen: a panel cut right through with a repeating geometric or floral pattern so that it filters light and air while still reading as solid stone. Jali is used for windows, balustrades, partitions, facades, gates and courtyard walls. Because the pattern is cut through the full thickness, a jali panel is structurally weaker than a solid one of the same size, which is why panel size, thickness and the width of the surviving stone between piercings are decided together at the drawing stage.

Also: jaali, stone jali, jali screen, pierced screen

In practice: Stone jali

An overhanging enclosed balcony projecting from the face of a building, characteristic of Rajasthani architecture, usually supported on carved brackets and often fitted with jali screens. It is carved as an assembly of separate stone components rather than as one piece.

In practice: Architectural stone carving

White marble quarried at Makrana in Rajasthan, the source historically associated with the Taj Mahal. The name identifies where the stone comes from rather than guaranteeing a particular block: veining, colour range and usable size still vary and are checked against each design.

Also: Makrana

In practice: Marble carving, Marble mandirs

A Hindu temple, and by extension the carved stone shrine made for a home or a temple interior. A stone mandir usually comprises a plinth, steps, pillars, a canopy or shikhara above, and a sanctum for the deity. Marble is the most common material because it carves finely and holds a polished surface, though sandstone mandirs are also made.

Also: marble mandir, home temple, stone temple

In practice: Marble mandirs

A self-contained circular or oval decorative panel, either carved in relief or built up as an inlay, set into a floor, a wall or a ceiling as a centrepiece.

In practice: Stone inlay

The face of Shrinathji as venerated in the Pushtimarg tradition, often carved as a small wall-mounted devotional panel. Its proportions and ornament follow that tradition and are approved by the client before carving.

In practice: Temple stone carving

The weighted base that holds a garden parasol or umbrella pole upright. In stone its mass is the ballast, so the carving is designed around a target weight, a footprint and the pole fitting rather than around the motif alone.

Also: umbrella base, stone parasol base

In practice: Stone parasol bases

The projecting base course on which a wall, column, statue or shrine stands. It raises the piece off the ground, protects it from splash and damp, and gives the composition a visual footing.

In practice: Stone sculpture

The final surface treatment of stone. A polished surface is ground and buffed until it reflects; a honed surface is ground flat but left matt; a flamed or bush-hammered surface is deliberately roughened for grip or texture. Finish changes how a stone reads its colour: the same marble is markedly darker and more saturated polished than honed.

Also: honed, matt finish, flamed finish

In practice: Stone materials guide

The carved arch or aureole that frames a deity, typically rising from two pillars and meeting in a decorative crest above the figure. It is carved as a surround rather than as part of the figure itself, so it can be commissioned to fit an existing idol.

Also: prabhavali arch, thiruvachi

In practice: Temple stone carving, Marble mandirs

The extracted mass of stone from which pieces are cut. The maximum size of a single-piece carving is bounded by the block available, which is why large works are designed as sectional assemblies from the start rather than scaled down.

Also: block

In practice: Stone materials guide

A temple chariot, the processional car of a deity. Carved in stone it becomes a free-standing architectural sculpture with wheels, platform and canopy, made as a single form or as a set of joined parts.

Also: temple chariot, temple car

In practice: Limestone carving

Carving in which the design is cut back into a flat stone panel so that the figures stand proud of a background that remains attached. Low or bas relief projects slightly; high or deep relief projects far enough that parts of the design may be undercut and stand almost free of the ground. Depth is limited by the thickness of the panel and by how much stone must remain behind the deepest cut to keep it sound.

Also: stone relief, bas relief, high relief, deep relief

In practice: Stone murals, Limestone carving

A small shaped file, usually curved or bent at both ends, used to work stone in recesses and undercuts that a straight chisel or rasp cannot reach. Rifflers are the tools of the finishing stage rather than the roughing stage.

Designing a large carved work as several pieces that join, rather than as one monolith. Section joints are placed where the design can absorb them — along a pattern line, at a natural break in a composition — and the pieces are dry-assembled and numbered before shipping.

Also: multi-panel, sectional assembly

In practice: Stone murals

The drawing issued with a consignment of carved stone showing which numbered piece goes where, in what order, and at what level. It is what allows an installer who never saw the piece being made to reassemble it correctly, and it is the reason numbered stone can be shipped to a contractor on another continent.

Also: setting out plan

In practice: Stone exporter from India

The rising tower over the sanctum of a North Indian temple, curvilinear in profile and usually carved with tiers of ornament. On a domestic mandir the same form appears in miniature above the shrine.

In practice: Marble mandirs

A verse form of Sanskrit poetry in which much scripture is composed. A carved shloka is an inscribed verse on a sacred panel; the text is approved by the client or a religious authority before carving, because a single wrong character changes its meaning.

Also: sloka, carved shloka

In practice: Temple stone carving

A model in which the workshop designs, carves, finishes, numbers and crates the work, and installation is carried out by the client's own contractor. It is the usual arrangement for stone shipped internationally, and it is why numbered pieces and a setting-out drawing accompany the consignment.

Also: design and supply

In practice: Stone exporter from India

The permitted deviation between a drawn dimension and the finished stone. In architectural stonework tolerance matters most where pieces must align with each other or with a structure — coursing, jointing, openings and repeated profiles across a facade. The workable figure is agreed per commission against what the piece has to do, because a tolerance tight enough for a machined joint is not the same as one appropriate to a hand-carved figure.

Also: production tolerance

In practice: CNC stone carving

The route a cutting tool follows through a block of stone, generated from a three-dimensional model. Converting a design into toolpaths is the step between a drawing and a machine-cut piece, and it is where the achievable depth, the tool radius and the finish left for the hand are all decided.

In practice: CNC stone carving

A free-standing or applied ceremonial gateway arch, frequently carved with figures and foliage, marking a threshold or the entrance to a sacred space.

In practice: Architectural stone carving

A cut made back underneath a raised part of a carving, so that the edge is not simply sloped away from the surface but overhangs it. Undercutting is what produces a hard shadow line and makes a relief read from a distance. It is generally beyond the reach of machine tooling, which cannot approach from beneath, and is therefore the classic reason a machine-cut piece still goes to a hand carver.

In practice: CNC stone carving

A wide, shallow round vessel, traditionally of bronze or stone, used in Indian homes and temples to float flowers and lamps on water. Carved in marble, an urli becomes a permanent centrepiece; its depth, rim and interior finish are chosen for water rather than for soil.

Also: uruli, lotus bowl

In practice: Stone planters and urli

The mineral banding running through a stone, most visible in marble. Because veining is a property of the individual block rather than of the quarry, matching veining across adjacent panels requires them to be cut from the same block and kept in sequence.

In practice: Stone materials guide, Marble carving