Flesh of Clay
Instructions for making a Figure from unbaked Clay
Abstract
The chapter treats the Vimānārcanakalpa, chapters 17 and 18 of which describe the procedure for making unbaked clay (terracruda) figures that are established permanently in place, as a part of the building around them. This text, being dated to the 9th century, is the earliest such account available to us, and is rich in instruction, both technical and ritual. An edition in Roman transliteration and English translation of both chapters are presented, along with a framing discussion.
open access | peer reviewed
Submitted: July 14, 2026 | Published Forthcoming | Language: en
Keywords technique • Vimānārcanakalpa • textual instruction • ritual
Copyright © 2026 Libbie Mills. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-112-0/002