The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.68.2

v2.c16.68.2

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.