The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.261

Language: English

v1.c10.261.1

Of benches and chairs with backs and arm-rests, no specimens have been seen among Bhuvaneśvara sculptures, but at Amarāvatī long benches, with high backs of different designs, not unoften of the Buddhist rail pattern, are common. Some of them have arm-rests. Woodcut No. 35, represents a very common form; it has well-carved and turned legs, battened seat, and a sloping back of carved work. Woodcut No. 36, has arm-rests with rounded tops, the back being made of a single wavy bar without any intermediate support. These were used sometimes with, and sometimes without, cushions and pillows. The last had a footstool of a rich pattern in front, which is shown below under a separate head (No. 42.) Chairs with or without arm-rests, are likewise frequently met with, and of designs which for their time were certainly remarkable, though by no means displaying the taste, elegance, and richness which characterised ancient Egyptian and Assyrian furniture. For easy reference, a few of these like the benches, have been copied on the margin from Mr. Fergusson's *Tree and Serpent Worship*, but so delineated as to show their character and perspective more fully than can be perceived in the positions they occupy in Mr. Fergusson's plates. Woodcut No. 37 shows a form which occurs repeatedly as a repository for some sacred object, or a throne for a royal or distinguished personage.

v1.c10.261.2

Its seat is of about the same height as that of an ordinary chair, so that one can sit on it while resting his feet on the ground; its sides and the back are protected by rails, strengthened by a double line of ornamented cross bars. Its arm-rests, seat-frame and the bar on the top of the back are all neatly carved, and the last terminates on each side in an alligator head, an ornament which under the name of *makara-mukha* is of frequent occurrence in Indian sculpture and carved work. The legs of the chair are formed by doubling the leg of the *Takhtāpoṣ*, No. 29, with an intervening ribbed globe. There is nothing to show how the seat was formed, but from traces of cushions and pillows, I think it was boarded. No. 38, is as heavy and primitive as the last, but it has no arm-rest and its back is low. In its general character, No. 39 belongs to the same class with the preceding two; but there is more art and finish in its details. The legs are slender, well-turned, and on the whole as good as those of ordinary chairs of the present day. The ends of the top bar of the back projects far out, have the usual *makara* head terminals, and are supported by figures of rampant lions; the fore ends of the arm-rests bend out latterally, and have similar terminals and supports, and the railing is light and chaste. No. 40 belongs to a different class and resembles a modern chair much more closely than the preceding.

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Its legs are turned, carved, and finished much more carefully, the back and arm-rests are light and comfortable, and the whole has a modern look about it. No. 41 looks like a dwarf chair; construction of its reclining arched back is peculiar, and its seat is semicircular behind, but in its construction there is very little to indicate its old primitive character. The legs are particularly worthy of notice. Joiner's art seems to have made sufficient progress at the time these chairs were made, and that at the lowest computation about two thousand years ago, to enable the carpenters to fix the legs with sufficient firmness by tenon and mortise joints, to dispense with the necessity of cross bars at the lower end—a provision often found unavoidable for the sake of strength in ill-made furniture of the present day. The fact of such chairs and benches having been made for ordinary use, indicates a much higher state of civilization than could be assumed if Mr. Fergusson's theory of the nude figures, who frequently occupy them, being of the so called Dasyu, or aboriginal race, be accepted. As already stated, these chairs were most likely fitted with stuffed cushions, as they are not infrequently provided with pillows near the back; but in the absence of colour and details, it is difficult to make out how they were set off.