The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8.59

v1.c8.59

**Chlorite:** The *muṅgni* is a kind of serpentine, or chlorite. It is of a dark slaty colour, and fine composition, susceptible of a high degree of polish, and when polished, it assumes, like slate, a black colour. In the present day it is largely employed in the manufacture of plates, basins, and other domestic utensils. "The rock yields a beautiful compact and very tough material, though soft and easy to work. It is admirably suited for fine carvings, as may be well seen in some of the beautifully sculptured doorways of the Black Pagoda, which are carved from this variety of rock. Blocks of almost any size can be obtained, the only impediment being the difficulty of transport from the high hills on which it occurs." It is, however, not met with in Cuttack, and the distance from the Nilgiri Hills, in Balasore, where it is quarried, to Bhuvaneśvara and Puri, was so great that its use had to be confined to statuary and finer kinds of sculptures, which were not intended to be much exposed to sun and rain. For facing the suffits and jambs of the entrance to temples, for the paving of the cells, as also for thrones of the sacred images, it was also largely employed ; in short, it supplied the place of marble which was not accessible to the Uriyās, and was, and is to this day, held in high estimation.