The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.68

Language: English

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The sculptured bands round the door-heads are similar to those noticed in the right wing and before the ground-floor rooms, but the piers between the doors being wider, a greater length of the rail has been shown on each pier, and its lower edge is diversified by brackets formed of crouching dwarfs. The rail, however, instead of having five bars, as in the lower storey, has only four bars, the upper and lower ones of which form the frame with the side posts. The frieze above it is by far the most interesting piece of sculpture in these caves. Beginning from the western end, the first figure (A.I. Plate VI) is purely ornamental; a man in a conventional running, or dancing, attitude, dressed in a plaid (*dhuti*) and a scarf (*chādar*), and holding in one hand a tray of garlands and flowers, and in the other some lotus stalks bearing flower-buds and leaves. He has a turban on his head, and ornaments and flowers on the head, ears and neck. The offerings in his hands are apparently intended for Buddha, emblematically represented on the other side of the arch by two elephant calves crouching in a cave (A. 2, Plate VII). Then comes a large den, a hollow in a rock, sheltering a grown-up elephant and two elephant calves, the foremost calf crouching, and the hind one standing. The animals are tame ones, and the foremost calf shows a halter round its neck;

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but they have evidently strayed away from their proper pen, and taken shelter in the cave, for there appears a large crowd of men and women assembled before them, and determined to dislodge them from their shelter by force. The foremost person in the group is a stout man, ready, with an uplifted bludgeon, to strike the nearest calf. Behind him a woman is also bent on attacking the animals, but a gentle, modest-looking lady in a veil is trying to dissuade her and drag her away by her left hand. The woman to the left of the gentle lady has thrown off her veil, and holds aloft a coil of rope—a lasso—ready to cast it on the animals. A coil of this kind has already been cast, and is seen sticking on the flank of the foremost calf—thrown probably by the youth on the fore-ground whose mother, or some kind friend, solicitous about his welfare, has dragged him away so as to make him fall stooping forward. A second youth, on the same plane, is being dragged away by an equally anxious female relative or well-wisher. Three other females in the farthest back-ground are crowding [8] together in fear, or sustaining their courage by holding each other by their hands. The cave has the mark of a *svastika* over it, and is evidently intended as a representation of the Elephant Cave (Hāthi Gumphā) to be noticed below, which has a similar symbol on its front.

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Although the cave is not high enough to admit a full-grown tusker to enter it except in a crouching position, and it may reasonably be doubted whether a highly suspicious animal like the elephant, would enter a cave in the way, there is no inherent improbability in a small tame tusker—and such animals are not uncommon—walking in with ease. But whatever the locale, it is certain that the whole scene is a representation of certain elephants having taken possession of a sacred cave, the dwelling of some simple people, who with a party of their neighbours are trying their utmost with the very inefficient means at their disposal to dislodge them. The amount of jewelry on the persons of the people precludes the idea of their being Buddhist hermits or recluses; but their adventure must have acquired some interest to have formed the subject of an elaborate tableau. The story, perhaps, is related in some of the *Jātakas*, but I know nothing of it. To the extreme right of the compartment is an *aśoka* tree with drooping pennate leaves, and tufts of flowers somewhat like bunches of grapes. The tree, according to the Hindus, is an emblem of constancy in women, and the scene to follow shows that it has been most appropriately introduced here. From the top of the tree, a Brāhmaṇī goose, another emblem of constancy, is seen to fly out.