Carved wood vahanas in National Museum

National Museum, New Delhi houses a collection of Carved Wood Vahanas in the gallery of decorative arts.

In southern India, especially Tamil Nadu, annual religious festivals that last from a week to ten days involve the parading of deities mounted on a vehicle around the temple.

[citation needed] This is a huge image of Garuda from Tamil Nadu, made of wood, painted and fixed with glass pieces.

This was once a part of temple chariot procession Ratha-Utsava This mayura vahana (peacock vehicle) is the mount of Lord Kartikeya or Murugan.

Life size figures of peacock, beautifully carved and painted are found here known to be The vehicle of Subramaniyam.

The intricate and the ornamental details of the Sandal and the barbaric boldness of Rohira, Sal and Babul and other coarse grained and hard woods.

In the first the object is totally detached from main wood background such as 3D form of a human and animal figure.

Pierced is for effective ornamentation in which the wood is completely cut away leaving just the design that calls for extra scale.

Karnataka is also famous for Rosewood artefacts, some of the best specimen of wood work is provided by the mighty pyramidal gateway of temple.

The one in which the deity is carried is called Agami and is the most heavily ornamented with numerous sculptures such as flying angels, horsemen, elephant, eagle, swan, tigers etc.