The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.48

Language: English

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**Sewed dress in Sculpture :** The sculptures of Sāñcī, Amarāvatī, and Orissa, leave no doubt on the subject. Though, owing to causes to be presently noticed, the bulk of the human figures they represent are nude, or very scantily clothed, still there are some which bear unmistakable evidence of the existence of made dresses. Among the Sāñcī bas-reliefs there are several figures dressed in tunics which could never have been made without the aid of needles. The tunics of the two archers on plate XLIII. Fig. 3, of Mr. Fergusson's work are particularly remarkable, inasmuch as the *cāpkāns* there shown, are unmistakable. (Illustration No. 93). Plates XXVIII. Fig. 1, XXXIV. Fig 2, XXXVI. Fig. 2 and XXXVIII. Fig. 1, are also worthy of notice as affording unquestionable evidences of the use of made dresses. A flag-bearer on an elephant has a dress, the sleeves of which are distinctly shewn. (Plate XL. Fig. 2). On a Buddhist rail-post from Buddha Gayā, which probably dates from a time earlier than the Sāñcī rail, there are two figures fully dressed from the neck to the middle of the leg, in a garment which appears strongly like the *jāmā* of the present day (Illustration No. 88). Turning from them to Amarāvatī, the reader will find, among an endless host of nudes and seminudes, figures, the shape of whose habiliments is unmistakably due to the tailor's art. (Plates LXVI and LXXXIV. Fig. 2).

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The figures of Buddha and of priests are also everywhere clothed in a decent attire from the neck to the feet, though in their case the habit seems to be formed of loose plaids thrown lightly over the person, and not needle-made. The sculptures of Orissa offer even more positive proofs. In the Queen's palace (*Rāṇinaur*) among the rock cut caves of Udayagiri, there is a statue, four feet six inches in height, cut out of the solid rock, which is dressed in a close-fitting tunic or *cāpkān*, with the skirts hanging down four inches below the knee, and having sleeves down to the wrist. According to Rev. T. Acland,³⁰ over the *cāpkān*, there was "a short shirt of scale armour", the sleeves of which reached the elbow. This, however, is not now visible. A light scarf passes round the waist and over the forearms, the ends floating in the air, exactly in the way in which the Hindus throw the scarf on their persons in the present day. A girdle or *komarband* round the waist holds, on the left side, a short sword. The head is partially mutilated, but there are traces on it of a twisted turban. The legs and the feet are enclosed in thick, high boots or buskins. The figure has suffered by long exposure to rain and sun, but enough is preserved in the Illustration No. 94 to show that the coat of the figure is made unmistakably of sewed cloth.

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If the arguments regarding the age of the Udayagiri caves, elsewhere adduced, be tenable, the figure is over two and twenty centuries old, and at that period, the Buddhists evidently knew the use of made dresses. The habit is so entirely Indian in its character, that none will venture to spy in it any resemblance to the *chiton*, the *chlamys* or such other vestments as the soldiers of Alexander brought to India,³¹ even if it were possible to suppose that it would be at once imitated in stone many hundreds of miles away from the place where it was first exhibited, and the inveterately conservative Indians could be imagined to have resigned, against the common instinct of civilized man in every part of the world, their national attire at the first sight of a foreign garb. The tunic may be compared to that of the Assyrian foot soldier, but its sleeves are long and come down to the wrist, whereas the Assyrian sleeve, as far as can be made out from Layard's plates, never reached below the elbow, leaving the forearm bare. The boots are particularly worthy of notice, as nothing of the kind has anywhere else been seen in India of so old a date. Three warriors at Amarāvati are habited very nearly in the same way, but without the boots. For ready reference I have copied [ 83 ] as much of two of them as is visible in Mr. Fergusson's plates. (Illustrations Nos. 90 and 91).

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Among the sculptures on the temples of Bhuvanes'vara, there are also several representations of needle-made dresses.