The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8.57.3

v1.c8.57.3

Indeed in many of the sculptured stones of some of the oldest buildings, temples, &c., in the district, the chisel marks are as fresh and sharp as when first built. It is perhaps not so strong, nor so capable of resisting great pressure, or bearing great weights, as some of the sandstones, or the more compact kind of gneiss, but it certainly possesses amply sufficient strength for all ordinary purposes. It is largely used at the present time, but has also been employed from the earliest period from which the buildings and temples of the country, date. . . . . Another advantage it possesses over other rocks is the facility of transport, it being generally found in the low grounds, and often at no great distance from some of the many streams which traverse the vicinity. Slabs from four to five feet long are easily procurable of this rock."18 Exposure to water does not seem to affect its texture in any way, and it is, therefore, also largely used for the building of *ghāts* and retaining walls on the sides of tanks. Being however, a nodular conglomerate, it is full of cavities and soft interstices, and utterly unfit, not only for sculptures and fine work, but even for paving and other purposes, where a smooth even surface is required. D. Oldham alludes to "elaborate specimens of carving and ornament"19 made of this stone, but I have nowhere seen any. The simplest mouldings of bands and fillets are all that have come under my notice.