The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.60

Language: English

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⁷ H. Locke, Esq., Principal, Government Scool of Art, Calcutta, surveyed the Caves in the cold season of 1871-72, and prepared a series of most accurate drawings of the ground-plans, sections and elevations, which he very generously placed at my disposal for the illustration of this work, and the plates of the caves hereto annexed have been photo-zincographed from those originals. The pupils of the Art School, who accompanied Mr. Locke on the occasion, prepared, under his immediate superintendence casts, of the principal sculptures on the Udayagiri Hill, and those of the Ananta cave on the adjoining hill, and my illustrations have been copied from those casts. Having carefully studied the originals *in situ* on the hill, and taken detailed notes while standing before them with the express object of describing them in a book, I am in a position to speak authoritatively on the subject, and it gives me great pleasure to bear my humble testimony to the extreme accuracy and rigid fidelity of the plans and the casts. As the works of a gentleman, who is a thorough master in his profession, the plans are the most perfect of their kind and nothing could be more exactly like the originals than the casts; and I avail myself of this opportunity to express publicly my feeling of thankfulness to Mr. Locke, for having enabled me to offer their counterparts to the readers of this work.

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I shall have occasion, elsewhere to record my obligations to him for the valuable assistance—most cheerfully and promptly rendered—often under very trying circumstances—while labouring under ill-health, or overwhelmed with official work—for which I feel deeply grateful to him. His pupils also prepared a series of costs of the sculptures of Bhuvaneśvara, which have been of much service to me in getting up some of the illustrations of the first volume. They have been as faithfully executed as the Udaygiri series and are of equal value to the antiquarian, as they help very materially in determining the true position of Hindu architecture as a fine-art. Mr. Fergusson, in his “Rude Stone Monuments,” speaks very disparagingly of these casts. He says, “In 1869, the Government sent an expedition to Cuttack of draftsmen, photographers, &c., but they knew so little what was wanted, and they wasted their time and money in casting minarets and sculptures of no beauty or interest, and having earned their pay, returned *re infecta*”. As one of the party who had for some days the direction of the works, though I drew no pay, I feel it my duty to repudiate the charge as utterly groundless. The draftsmen and photographers could not waste their time “in casting minarets,” even if they had wished to do so, because they could not cast;

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and the “*et cetera*,” which I suppose include the moulders and modellers, could not cast minarets, for there are no mosques with minarets at Bhuvanaśvara which could be cast. The sculptures which principally engaged their attention, were mostly architectural ornaments, and they afford the oldest and most interesting illustrations of the taste for magnificence which manifested itself among the people of Orissa. Very competent judges are of opinion that those ornaments have a great deal of beauty as works of art, and the Principal of the Calcutta School of Art pronounces them to be “admirable” ; but their intrinsic excellence apart, as Indian relics of former times, they have an historical value which cannot but recommend them to the attention of all who take an interest in Indian antiquities. To quote the language of the late Mr. Owen Jones, “Although ornament is most properly an accessory to architecture, and should never be allowed to usurp the place of proper structural features, or to overload and disguise them, it is in all cases the very soul of an architectural monument ; and by the ornament alone can we judge truly of the amount of care and mind which have been devoted to the work. All else in any building may be the result of rule and compass, but by the ornament of a building we can best discover how far the architect was at the same time an artist.” (*Grammar of Ornament*, p. 82).

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“Had we,” he continues, “possessed only picturesque views of the Parthenon and the Temples of Balbeck and Palmyra, we should unhesitatingly have said