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Synopsis For its easy availability and ready tractability wood was chosen by the earliest sculptor to express his creative urge and even in later times a sculptor perhaps tried his hand first in this medium before he worked in more solid and durable materials like stone and metal. In India, as in most other countries, the surviving examples are not adequate in terms of output and antiquity. And that perhaps explains as to why wood carvings have received scant attention from the art historians and are still regarded as a ‘minor art’. Geographically, the present work deals with the wood carvings of Eastern India, and the earliest specimen hailing from Patna falls within the area under study. Chronologically, it extends from the earliest times to the recent past with an obvious focus on the carvings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the samples assignable to earlier periods are few and far between. The author has for the first time presented a systematic, in-depth and perceptive account of wood carvings of the eastern sector of the subcontinent.