The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.69

v2.c16.69

The first scene in the third compartment (A. 3) is purely ornamental; it represents a couple of monkeys in a cave frightened out of their wits by a serpent darting forth to attack them. Next appears a young lady at the door of an artificial cave—evidently a cave from the rock-work above it, and not a hut—seated cross-legged close by a man (her husband?), her left hand resting on her lap, and the right twining round the neck of her companion. There is a sort of a cap on her head, and a profusion of ornaments on her neck, ear, wrists, waist and ankles. The man is seated with his head resting on her lap. His expression, as far as his physiognomy can be judged from such rude decayed carving, is that of a person suffering from pain—of one either wounded or sick, or more probably asleep,—as in the counterpart of this scene in the Gaṇeśa Cave, he is represented lying in a recumbent posture on a mattress. Before the lady is seen a female of inferior rank introducing a stranger, a warrior carrying a straight broad sword, and a curiously-formed oblong shield. His halting, painful gait, with hands hanging helplessly, and the head stooping in front indicate but too plainly the story of a wounded warrior—perhaps a prinsoner—brought to the friendly succour of the lady of the cave. This is followed by the representation in which a man and a woman are engaged in a fight, armed with broad swords and oblong shields. The combatants carry their scabbards on the left side over the hip, and the lady's hair is dishevelled, hanging in a long braid down to her waist. Near the out-stretched left foot the lady, stands a pet lamb, dazed into terror and confusion by the scene. The fight lasts but for a short while; the lady is soon overpowered; her sword is broken and lost, and, while still holding her shield, she is borne away in the arms of her assailant, who carries his sword uplifted. Near the crest of the third arch two tiger cubs are seen crouching in their lair, counter-balanced on the opposite side by the figure of a goose running out to attack somebodys.