The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.92.2

v1.c10.92.2

but she has on her person nothing beyond a bead girdle to cover her modesty.⁵⁶ A prince on one of the Amarāvatī stones is seated on a high-backed, cushioned chair with what looks like a stuffed pillow behind him, but he has on his person little beside a cloth girdle two or three inches round the waist by way of dress. His ladies, seated on chairs without cushions or pillows, content themselves with only girdles of beads.⁵⁷ Occasionally the bead girdle is supplemented by a narrow slip of cloth attached to it and hanging behind, but not in front. In one instance in the same collection a Rājā and his little boy are dressed in *dhutis* reaching close to the ankles, but the attendant ladies are all in absolute *dishabille*.⁵⁸ In the garden scenes at Sāñci the lovers always appear dressed, but in two out of four instances, the belles are nude, the other two being decently draped.⁵⁹ Again, in a grand procession all the men are clothed and turbanned, and even the leading horse has a rich housing but, the ladies of the *rājā*, who look at the procession from the veranda and balcony of the palace, like the king's guards in a certain island in the South Pacific, whose full-dress consisted of a cocked hat and a pair of spurs, all confine their habiliments to a single article, a bead girdle amidst a gorgeous display of jewellery. One of them has a suspicious looking drinking cup in her hand, and a waiting maid is ready to replenish it from a covered flagon.