The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.68.1

v2.c16.68.1

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;