The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.220.5

v1.c10.220.5

But there are other forms of the goldsmith's art scarcely less venerable than that of the filigranes, possessed of great native beauty, and which also have survived in India, through the long roll of centuries, as the Zend and Sanskrit languages have survived there, the inheritance of families or clans. Those forms of art are perishing one by one, as the family in whom it may have been handed down becomes extinct or lets the thread be broken, each of these hereditary industries of India moves on with time to its extinction.” It is of course impossible to expect specimens of filigree in sculpture, but the ornaments exhibited by no means fail to support the pretensions of the country to superior excellence in the goldsmith’s art.