Wooden vahanas of the Tiruvanaikka temple

Wood is one of the oldest materials known to icon making. Wood being available in plenty, easily Procurable and fashionable in to required shapes must have facilitated human beings to make abundant use of wood. Even now the Vedic Spoons, used for ritual pouring of clarified butter on sacrificial occasions, continue to be made of wood. Wooden objects have been reported from the earliest levels of civilization. But woods being a perishable material, objects made of it do not last for a long time. There are references to wood carved objects of worship in Chola inscription and of the subsequent periods. Wood workers were known as Rathakaras are noted in inscriptions.