The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c7.321.2

v1.c7.321.2

but the similitude is such as must result from the attempt of any primitive nation to delineate flowers by ranging four or more petals round a central dot. Certain it is that all these patterns may be seen very neatly carved on the hafts of hatchets from Polynesia where Assyrian art-influence could not have been other than *nil*. The drooping foliations of the capitals are more complicated; and they certainly belong in common both to the Aśoka and Assyrian pillars. To an Indian they appear very like the pendant filaments of the lotus after the petals have been removed from the receptacle, or the reverted petals of a lotus bud; forms which are peculiarly ornamental and beautiful, and which have been employed in India as ornaments in a variety of ways, and in different places. It would not be safe, therefore, to take them as conclusive. The so-called honey-suckle and lotus ornament, which is common both to the Aśoka pillars and Assyria, might not at first sight appear to be so readily disposed of. With the people of this country the upright buds may well pass for spikenards, or flowers of the turmeric, or the spathes of the *Nilakaṇṭha*, a beautiful deep purple flowering plant of the zingiber tribe quite common in India, and the open petalled flower with buds, the Mucukunda (*Pterospermum acerifolium*);