The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.41

v1.c10.41

**Cloth in sculpture :** It is not to be expected that ancient sculpture should afford us any valuable information regarding this branch of our enquiry. The material and quality of woven texture can be but ill-represented in marble, and in such rough stones as the sculptors of India ordinarily had at their disposal, nothing of the kind was practicable. Nevertheless, they are not altogether silent on the subject. In the two principal statues in the great temple of Bhuvaneśvara, which are made of a superior kind of chlorite, and placed in deep recesses, completely protected from the sun and rain, the artist has attempted to produce a vestment of rich brocade, proving that fabrics of that description were then, as they are now, highly prized articles of luxury, familiar with the people. A specimen of this cloth is represented in Illustration No. 66. A glance at it will show that in neatness, elegance, and richness of design and execution, it is in no way inferior to the finest production of the Benares loom of the present day. In the temple of Baital Devi, or "the boat-shaped temple", several figures of dancing girls are dressed in clothes of variegated patterns, and one [81] in a *pāyajāmā* or drawers, of diagonal stripes enclosing designs of spots, and zigzag lines. (Illustration No. 67.) A male figure in the same temple, has a pair of short-drawers of a similar kind of cloth, the stripes being relieved by spots only. (Illustration No. 68) A petticoat of a female figure has triple stripes, but no spots, sprigs, or other design. (Illustration No 69.) On some of the statuettes in Lakṣmī's Temple, there are also clothings of different designs, one of which with single stripes is shewn in Illustration No. 70. On a female figure playing with a child, brought from Bhuvaneśvara, and now in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (No. 805), a double-striped pattern with wavy lines is distinctly seen. (Illustration No. 71.) On another figure (No. 808), the ground between the wavy horizontal stripes is relieved with detached flowers of two kinds, and the border is elaborately wrought, (Illustration No. 72), and the attendant of this figure has cloth with stripes, but no flowers. Illustration Nos. 73 and 74 exhibit clothes of the same kind, but the flowers are of different patterns. In the group of Silénos in the Asiatic Society's Museum, which, as already shown, is of Indian origin, and dates, at least, from the beginning of the Christian era, there is a male figure dressed in a *cāpkān*, the cloth of which is a kind of flowered mnslin, having sprigs all over the ground. (Illustration No. 75.) On another piece of sculpture in the same collection brought from Behar, and, from the character of the inscription on it, apparently of the eighth or ninth century, there is a representation of a kind of cloth with diagonal stripes relieved by flowers of two patterns. A Buddhist rail post from Buddha Gayā, also in the same collection, shows cloth of a check pattern. (Illustration No. 88.) The selvage of cloth is represented on many figures, and coloured borders on others. The fineness and transparency of scarfs are sometimes attempted to be shown, but the attempt has not been successful, and what appears now to be the success of art is probably due to inefficiency in representing the folds of the costumes.