The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.60.3

v2.c16.60.3

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).