The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.51

v1.c10.51

A basso-relievo horseman in the dancing hall of the Great Tower, is dressed in a perfect *jāmā* of the pattern to be seen on the Rajput horsemen figured in Col. Tod's *Rajasthān*. Its date, however, is doubtful. Several statuettes on the Mukteśvara temple are dressed in petticoats or kilts, the Indian *ghāgrā*, held round the waist by a jewelled girdle or zone. The outline of this habit is so well-defined that it leaves no doubt in the mind of its shape and form being due to scissors and needles. The statuette represented in Illustration No. 83, offers a remarkable instance of this habit. The bust of the figure is enclosed in a tight bodice such as is now in common use in many parts of India, and a long scarf, the substitute for a Grecian himation and the North Indian *uḍnā* or *cādar*, is thrown over the shoulders, with its two ends floating in the air. As the figure shewn in the plate is that of Annapūrṇā, a form of Durgā, offering a cake in a ladle to her lord, Śiva, it is impossible to suppose that the artist has dressed the goddess in a foreign garb, even if it could be shown that foreign models of the kind were accessible to him. The *pāyajāmā* noticed above (Illustration No. 76), is held round the waist by a string with a chain girdle over it, in the same way as Muhammadan women now wear it, but there is a piece of cloth passed between the thighs and tucked behind, probably also so secured in front, the use of which appears quite inexplicable, unless it be assumed to be an imitation of the cloth which wrestlers use over their short-drawers to tie their body firmly. The short-drawers on the same temple, shewn in Illustration No. 80, though well-defined on the figure, appear to be doubtful, as they have besides the longitudinal piece noticed above, a cross belt tied a little above the hip-joint, very much in the same way as the figures of the shepherd Kṛṣṇa are dressed at Vṛndāvana in the present day, and in their case it is the *dhuti* that is arranged so as to represent short-drawers, and no sewed cloth is used. The drawers shown in Illustration No. 85, though divested of the cross piece, are also doubtful. Among the Ajaṇṭā frescoes, “there is a picture of two holy men, one of them is touching the head of an elephant; he holds a cup in his left hand, and wears a long robe reaching to his feet, with very full loose sleeves; the other, who has a nimbus round his head, has an elaborate drapery in folds like that of a Greek statue”.³² In the earlier Sati memorial stones, and in sculptures on the Hullabeed Temple in Mysore, females appear in bodices tied in front. According to the *Śāradā Tilaka* the women of Guzerat used to button their bodices with gems below the hips. ³³ And in all these occur proofs of the use of the needle in the formation of dresses.