The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.261.3

v1.c10.261.3

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.