The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.220.3

v1.c10.220.3

The bas-reliefs of Sāñci and Amarāvatī also exhibit specimens of a great variety of ornaments for the hands, feet, waist, neck, and head. In the absence of positive information regarding the ethnography of the people represented in these three places, it would be wrong to take the ornaments shown as illustrations of the jeweller's art as extant among a single race from the second or the first century before Christ to the seventh century of the Christian era; but taking India as a whole, they show a gradual, steady and marked advance towards refinement. The bangles, bracelets, and anklets of Sāñci, are the clumsiest possible. They are thick, rough, and heavy, almost devoid of workmanship, and large enough to cover from one to two-thirds of the legs and fore-arms. Judging from specimens still in use among the lower orders of the people away from urban influence, they must have been made, in most instances, of brass or bell-metal. The bangles and armlets of Amarāvatī, though mostly of the same patterns, are smaller, lighter and neater, and the anklets are somewhat less ponderous. At Bhuvaneśvara they are not only reduced in size and weight, but greatly improved in appearance. Amidst a few of the older forms there is quite an abunbance of specimens, which for neatness, elegance, and beauty, would not stand in any great disadvantage besides the finest specimens of their times from any other part of the world.