The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.23.4

v1.c9.23.4

Fergusson's work)—"has scales more like those of a fish".¹⁰ Commenting upon these Mr. Fergusson observes: "In India between the third century B.C. and the thirteenth A.D. we find serpent hoods ranging from three to seven heads, but never the human body terminating in a serpent downward, till after the last quoted date”.¹¹ This conclusion, however, appears open to objection, as there are some pillars in the Great Tower of Bhuvaneśvara, which dates from the middle of the 7th century, on which the characteristic semi-ophide female figures are most elaborately sculptured. It is impossible to make out from flat drawings whether the serpents shown in the Chinese drawings are intended to represent separate animals, or numerous heads for the tail from which the human figure comes out. In India polycephalous cobras are always intended, as not so many separate animals as there are heads. The taste displayed in this monstrous representation cannot but be severely condemned, but the tact and talent with which it is executed in Orissa are worthy of praise. It may be added also that bad as the conception is, it is not worse than that of the Pans, and the Tritons, and the Centaurs of the Greek artists, ,or that of the Apollo and Daphne of Bernini of the 17th century, in which floating tresses and the ends of the fingers and toes of a lovely maiden are “all sprouting forth in elaborately executed laurel branches and leaves”.¹²