The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.180

v1.c9.180

Col. Stacy took them for vine; but General Cunningham is undecided as to whether they represent vine or ivy. Supposing they are vine, it does not follow that argument founded upon it becomes conclusive. Grapes and grape wine were very well known and in use in former times; and vine leaf may be delineated by an Indian artist as an accessory to a drunken man. Were this not the case, still Indian flora is not so poor as not to yield at least a hundred different plants with angular-lobed leaves to supply patterns for leafy crowns; indeed were it not for the association of the idea of leafy crowns with vine and ivy in European writers, it is doubtful if the thought of their being vine or ivy would have ever occurred from a mere sight of the symbolical outlines on the figures. The readers of the *Harivaṁśa*, the *Bhāgavata*, and other Vaiṣṇava works [ 71 ] know well how frequently are crowns of wild flowers and leaves mentioned as ornaments for Baladeva, Kṛṣṇa, and their boon companions, and to Indians, therefore, the argument is of very little moment.