The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.256.3

v1.c10.256.3

Seats similar to it are common enough in the North Western Provinces, though the requirements of Europeans have caused a change in the form of the back-rest. That they were common in former days is evident from a verse in Kālidāsa’s *Kumāra Sambhava*, where the mountain-king Himālaya is described to have offered such seats to seven sages, who came with the proposal of marriage of his daughter Umā with Mahādeva.¹¹⁸ At a much earlier period, we find in the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Mahābhārata*, and even in the *Ṛgveda* seats or chairs of gold described as invariable accompaniments of royalty. Thus Apamanyot, “the grandson of the waters”, in the last named work, is portrayed as “of golden aspect, of golden hue, and shining, seated on a seat of gold”.¹¹⁹ The mention of carpenters in that work¹²⁰ implies the existence of wooden furniture, and chairs and stools would be the most probable articles of that description that would be turned out by such artizans; for had they been employed, as has been supposed by some, in the fabrication of only cars and waggons, they would have been named *Rathakāras*, and not *Sūtradharas* or *Takṣas*. In the time of Manu’s *Laws*, the demand for cabinet-ware was sufficiently brisk to render the establishment of a distinct class or caste of men necessary for exclusive devotion to carpentry.