The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.137.2

v1.c10.137.2

In the present day, bits of rag or braided strings of false hair are the stuffings commonly resorted to. No. 96., from the Temple of Mukteśvara, offers a variety of this form in which the ornaments are replaced by a single string of pearl encircling the head like a fillet, and the chignon proper has two gradually receding tiers of hair placed over it. In front two thick locks made to curl upwards on the temples. On the Great Tower, several male heads have the same style of chignon, but without the curls. The next most common form is shewn in No. 97. It resembles the modern European chignon as copied in No. 98 from a plate of Parisian fashions in the *Illustrated London News* for 1867, so closely in its make and outline, that little need be said to describe it. It is worthy of remark, however, as affording a notable instance of how fashion repeats itself even under such dissimilar circumstances as those of Orissa in 667 and of Europe in 1867 A. D., and how little taste as regards chignons in the boudoirs of Paris in the present day, differs from that of the belles of Cuttack twelve hundred years ago. A form very similar to it was in vogue in Bengal in the last century ; but it has been altogether discarded now. Some male figures at Bhuvaneśvara have head-dresses of a similar, but not exactly the same, form. The chignon of Annapūrṇā at Mukteśvara (Illustration No. 83 ), is peculiar and seems to have been uncommon.