Terra Cotta Guardians

Images courtesy Sanskriti Foundation

Among the spectacular features of Sanskriti’s folk art museums are its Terra Cotta collections. Dutifully overseeing the museum grounds is a bastion of fierce terra cotta animal sculptures from Tamil Nadu in South India. These giant equestrian figures are made by potters from the rural Ayyanar sect. Traditionally these forms are sculpted and consecrated as votive offerings to Ayyanar, the sect’s principal guardian deity. Brightly painted and often installed in rows flanking pathways, they stand guard like dutiful watchmen over villages and at the entrances of rural shrines and temples.

I believe the specimens at Sanskriti are the largest ceramic sculptures I have ever seen. Potters create the life-sized creatures by hand-forming or wheel-throwing individual sections, which are then seamed together. Most are horses, but occasionally an elephant or cow sneaks in. Like a lot of rural crafts in India, the terra cotta tradition has been handed down through generations of villagers, and with the swift modernizing of contemporary village life, the craft is being embraced less and less frequently by younger generations.

My favorite time to see the sculptures at Sanskriti is at night, when their clustered silhouettes seem particularly animated and magical.