Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.9

c11.9

One noteworthy feature found on the bigger columns is the presence some 5 ft. above the actual bottom of four roughly-square bosses projecting slightly from the surface of the pillars, one on each of the four sides. Three of these are flushed with the column, and show a roughened surface which seems to be the result of breakage. The fourth projects a little more and bears unmistakeable signs of a fracture and on its neck is the bright polish as on the rest of the column. The bosses were intended either for fixing mirrors, different decorative motifs of birds and animals to which Greek writers make reference and the account in the Sabhā Parva also lends support.