The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.487

v1.c10.487

The ancient chariots were highly prized, and great pains were taken to embellish them in a manner befitting the rank of the owner. In the *Ṛgveda*, they are frequently described as of “gold”, or golden. One is described as ornamented with “three metals” ; supposed to have been gold, silver and copper ; others as having gold fellies, or wheels, and golden trappings. “The Pajras, the kinsmen of Kakṣīvat, rub down the high spirited steeds decorated with golden trappings.” Harness with traces to thy car, thy long-maned ruddy ( steeds to come ) to the sacrifice.” “Savitṛ has mounted his high-standing chariot, decorated with many kinds of golden ornaments, and furnished with golden yokes.” “Indra, the abounding in acts, the bountiful, has given us, as a gift, a golden chariot.” “May Indra bestow upon me ten handsome golden chariots.” “Ascend, Aśvins, your sky-touching chariot with golden seat and golden reins. Golden is its supporting shaft, golden the axle, both golden the wheels.” “Rapid as thought ( come ) with your golden chariot drawn by quick-footed steeds.” “Dasras, rides in a golden chariot, drink the sweet beverage.”²⁵⁶ Many other passages like these may be easily cited to show, that the Vedic chariots were generally very richly ornamented. The *Rāmāyaṇa* and the *Mahābhārata*, in the same way, talk of pearl fringes and jewelled decorations for the chariots of great chiefs and distinguished warriors; and flags and banners for their tops were held in great requisition, and the glory of knocking down a banner from the top of a car was highly esteemed. The Purāṇas are even more fulsome in their praise of the ornaments of ancient Indian cars, but their descriptions lead me to suppose that their ideal of a car was the *ratha* of the modern times, a tower-like structure of many storeys, mounted on a number of wheels, a very cumbrous apparatus altogether, utterly unfit for warlike purposes, and not founded on the model of the Sāñcī chariot. Thus the *Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa*, in describing a chariot of Viṣṇu which certain Brāhman women beheld descending from the sky, says: “It was a most excellent car, made of gold, mounted with mirrors made of crystals, covered over with jewels, furnished with posts made of precious stones, capped with *kalasas* of valuable jewels, having white yak tail *cauris* hanging from different places, lined with cloth pure as fire, bedecked with garlands of *Pārijāta* flower, mounted on a hundred uniform wheels, quick moving like thought, and most charming.”²⁵⁷ The *Devī Purāṇa* thus describes a car for the goddess Durgā, who, it seems, was formerly taken about in a car much in the same way as Jagannātha is in the present day, and Buddhist relics were in former times: “The posts should be made of ivory, mounted with showy golden ornaments, and set with rubies and other jewels. The car of the goddess should have seven magnificent storeys, with curtains of silk cloth and mountings of crescents, and decorated with bells, large and small, gongs, *cāmaras*, rings, pennons, flags, and looking-glasses. Such a car [132] should first be worshipped, Indra, with flowers of the Jessamin tribe, and the *pārijāta*, with agallochum and sandal paste, with the aroma of fragrant pastiles, and then the image of the goddess should be placed in it.”²⁵⁸