The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.144

v1.c10.144

In some cases the hair, instead of being massed into a ball or coil of some kind or other is, allowed to hang in loose masses on the back,⁸⁵ or woven into one or more braids and allowed to hang behind, very much in the style common in Persia and Turkey. Occasionally the outer-most plaids are allowed to fall behind the ears and float on the breast. Sanskrit poets are fond of dwelling at great length on the charms of these braids, but with a sad want of gallantry, or with a silly poetical conceit, they generally compare them to hissing serpents. In Illustration No. 107 these braids are twisted into six rays, and kept in an erect position by waxing and enclosing sticks or wire within them. A fringe of short hair covers the brow, and on it is placed a triangular tiara with a crest. In No. 108, the rays are greatly multiplied and arranged in a double row, and the tiara is provided with three crests. Both these are taken from the figures of goddesses. No. 109, likewise, represents the head-dress of a goddess. In it the hair is disposed in the form of a hemispherical casque over the head, then tied round by a band and crest, and the end is made to arch over backwards in three separate masses like the horse-hair plumes of a Grecian hero. The head of Kārtikeya in the Great Tower of Bhuvaneśvara is coiffed in the same way, but without the tie in the middle, in excellent keeping with his martial character as the acknowledged great god of war, though he occupies the position of a lieutenant of Śiva. No. 110, is *sui generis*. In it the hair is disposed in curling horizontal bands on the two sides of a long upright crest rising from a jewelled tiara.