The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.47

v1.c9.47

**Bosses :** As ornamental stops of finishing to mouldings, or to cover them where they intersect each other, or to fill up blanks, bosses or pateras are of constant use. They are usually carved into human figures or heads, animals, foliage &c., or foliage combined with heads and animals. The designs are various, sometimes grotesque, but generally very pretty. Illustration No. 51 from Sārideül represents a parrot smoothing its feathers. No. 52 shows a turkey engaged in the same occupation. No. 50 gives the forepart of a boar, the body being covered by the leaf of a succulent cucurbitacea; No. 49 a rat seated on a flower and gnawing a fruit; and No. 57, a curious and ingenious piece of whimsicality, in which two heads, two pairs of arms, and two pairs of legs are so arranged as to build up four complete human, or quasi-human, figures. Each head and each pair of limbs are so placed as to do duty for two figures. The composition is peculiarly grotesque, but remarkably skilful. No. 53 to 56, show other and characteristic specimens. Rabbits and cranes are frequently introduced, but boars, sows and pigs appear to have been the greatest favourites, and their frequent presence suggests the idea that, though held highly impure in the present day, those animals were not objects of aversion when the temples were built. Nor is this a matter of surprise, seeing that Manu ordains the meat of the wild boar as a choice article of food for both men and gods, and the Kṣatriyas and the Rajputs in all quasi-indepent states, as well as in Orissa, take a great delight in hunting the wild hog for food. In Bengal and the large cities of the North-West, where the Muhammadan power was firmly established, and large Moslim populations had settled with the natives of the country, the animal is most abhorred, and the inference follows that the hatred is due to a deference to the feelings of the conquerors, and not to any religious compunction of the natives. A neighbourly feeling of the kind has induced many Muhammadans of Bengal not only to abstain from beef, but to look upon it with a feeling of repugnance. The feeling was stronger before than it is now.