The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.174

v1.c9.174

2nd.—The second argument is founded on the maudlin character of the principal figure. It presupposes that an Indian artist could not possibly conceive a drunkard. But the natives may say in reply that drinking and drunkenness was very common in India two thousand years ago, so much so that large quantities of foreign wine had to be imported for the gratification of the higher orders of the people,⁷⁵ and the representation of a drunkard by an Indian artist, therefore, is by no means a very improbable feat. But what is more, one of the most favoured gods of the people Baladeva, was a noted drunkard, who never appeared before the public without being the worse for liquor.⁷⁶ He was of a big, burly portly make, ill-clad, or sparingly clad, as became a shepherd boy, and crowned with leaves and flowers. His idols are generally represented with a drinking cup in his right hand. Several European scholars have very aptly nicknamed him the Bacchus of the East. He was born in the Mathurā district, and an image of his in a state of drunken lassitude, with a flagon of wine before him, cannot be taken to be other than a very appropriate Indian subject. With all his fondness for spirituous liquors he was however celebrated for his constancy, and the presence in the scene, therefore, of his wife, who always shared in his potations, and his two young sons, is by no means extraordinary, and no one will deny him an attendant to hold him up and prevent his falling from his seat.