The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.442

v1.c10.442

In the most ancient sculptures, such as those of Sāñci, the flag is represented as an oblong piece of cloth with or without diagonal crossed stripes like a St. George’s cross, or a number of stars. (Illustrations Nos. 219 and 220, copied from Cunningham’s *Bhilsa Topes*). At Bhuvaneśvara, it is invariably triangular and of plain ground. The staff is surmounted, according to the religious faith of the people who bore it, by either a trident or a discus. In ancient literature mention is made of Garuḍas, Hanumāns and crescents, as mountings for the tops of flagstaffs; also as armorial emblems on the ground of the flags. “Thus Arjuna’s flag bore the monkey Hanumān, Bhīṣma’s, a palm tree, Duryodhana’s a serpent, Kṛpa’s a bull.²²⁰ The last was also the emblem of Śiva whence his name Vṛṣaketana or “bull-flagged”. The *Harivaṃśa* makes mention of birds painted on the ground of flags, and in the *Rāmāyaṇa*, Janaka has the title of Sītādhvaja, from his standard having borne the figure of a plough. The *Agni Purāṇa* makes a distinction between the large standard *dhvaja* and the banner *patākā* of minor divisions.²²¹ It notices, likewise, particular colours as belonging to particular chiefs. The *Kumārasambhava* describes flags of China silk set up in the palace of the mountain king Himālaya on the occasion of his daughter’s marriage.²²² But ordinarily, [ 127 ] I suppose, cotton cloth was the material used. In the *Śāhnāmeh* the leather apron of a blacksmith is made to do duty for a banner, and Ovid notices a bundle of hay used for that purpose. Among the Egyptians, figures, of birds, beasts, and reptiles mounted on long poles served the same end, but the Hindus seem to have invariably used cloth; at least there is nothing to show to the contrary. Graven stones do not, however, help us much in the matter.