The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.243

v1.c10.243

**Lookingglasses:** Looking glasses deserve to be mentioned as a part of the toilette, for in ancient India, they were rarely designed as ornaments for rooms. The most rudimentary form of this article appears in finger rings, in the shape of bits of crystal set on foils. Such rings were formely, as at present, worn on the thumb, and many sculptured nymphs may be seen beholding the reflection of their countenances on their rings. Larger specimens of a circular, oval, or oblong shape, framed and mounted on handles, are not wanting, and these invariably occur in the hands of young ladies. (Woodcut No. 25.) What the reflectors were made of, whether foiled glass, or crystal, or polished metal plate, I cannot ascertain. In the Sanskrit language there are several words to indicate mirrors, and most of them are derived from roots implying reflection, but none a metal, or polishing. In the mediaeval and later ancient works, the words are largely used, but I have not yet met with any of them in the *Ṛgveda Saṃhitā*. To persons acquainted with crystals and metal foil and familiar with the art of preparing false jewellery, the idea of setting small plates of crystal on foil for the manufacture of looking-glasses would be easy enough, and that is the way, most probably, in which ancient Indian mirrors were made. Polished metal plates were, however, frequently used, and in the present day orthodox people prefer them to foiled glass in connexion with religious ceremonies. Such plates are usually made of silver steel, brass, or a speculum metal in which silver predominates. The ancient Egyptians preferred copper, or an alloy of copper and tin, i.e., bell-metal; but the Hindus hold that alloy as impure, and never use it for religious purposes. For ordinary, every-day, domestic utensils and ornaments, however, it [ 101 ] was, and indeed is, very largely employed, and seeing that it is cheap, and the Uriyās are particularly successful in producing it of a very superior description, rivalling silver in colour and brightness, it was probably also used in the fabrication of mirrors. The word *kāca* for glass occurs in works considerably over two thousand years old, and seeing that the Singhalese, who borrowed all the arts of civilized life from the Hindus, make mention, in the *Dipawanso*, of a “glass pinnacle” placed on the top of the Ruanawellé dagoba by Suidaitissa, brother of Dutugaimuna, in the second century before Christ, and of a “glass-mirror”, in the third century B. C.,¹¹¹ and Pliny describes the glass of India being superior to all others from the circumstance of its being made of pounded crystal (*Lib.* XXXVI. c. 66), it would not, I fancy, be presumptuous to believe, that it was, in ancient times, used in India in the formation of looking-glasses; but I have nothing to show that mercury was used in fixing the foil on it. The looking-glasses used in the decoration of the marble bath in the palace at Agra, were foiled with a film of lead and tin poured in a melted state in large glass globes which were afterwards broken to form small mirrors. This mode of foiling is still in common practice in many parts of India. A counterpart of the mirror shown in the woodcut occurs in the garden scene at Sāñcī. A female figure from Bhuvaneśvara, in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 806, is seen holding a circular convex mirror by a cross strap on its back. The handled mirror shown in the woodcut is, in appearance, very like the looking-glasses of the ancient Egyptian ladies. In the finer specimens of such articles the handles were probably carved as in Egypt, or ornamented with metallic mountings, but I have met with no such specimen.