The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.269

v1.c10.269

**Fans :** In so hot a climate as that of India, a fan is an absolute necessity, and it has been in use from a very archaic period. It does not seem, however, to have, in early times, attained any great excellence in its formation. In sculpture, it always appears as a circular or an oval, disk of some light material, such as palm-leaf or matting, mounted on a long slender handle, or provided with a haft on one side of the rim, so closely similar to what is manufactured in the present day, that the specimens shown on the margin, (Woodcuts Nos. 46, 47, 48), copied from originals on the Great Tower, may well be taken for modern articles. In Sanskrit works, fans of cloth, peacock's feathers, cane, bamboo, and other artices, are frequently mentioned; but everywhere pre-eminence is assigned to the well known palm, *Borassus flabelliformis*. In treatises on medicine some fans are said to overcome phlegm, others bile, and others heat; thus the *Rājavallabha*, quoted in the *Śabdakalpadruma* of Rājā Rādhākānta Deva: "The palm leaf fan overcomes disturbances of all three humours, and is light and agreeable; the bamboo fan causes heat and irritability, and promotes inordinate secretion of the airy and the bilious humours; the cane, the cloth, and the peacock feather fans, overcome disturbances of the three humours; the hair fan is invigorating, &c".¹²³ According to some practitioners, the palm-leaf fan promotes phlegm, and for patients suffering from diseases due to an excess of phlegm, a cloth fan, or palm-leaf fan covered with cloth, is generally recommended.