The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.71

v2.c16.71

The figures on the fifth compartment (A.5) have been greatly injured and it is difficult to describe them fully; and their purport is not clearly evident. As far as they can be made out, we have on the one side a man of rank seated on a stool, with his legs hanging down, and attended by a band of females bearing *chowris* and other articles of pomp, and beholding a consort in front; and on the other a female recluse seated cross-legged on a stool, and offering adorations to a small *chaitya* placed [9] before her. A boy in the fore-ground is similarly occupied with folded hands. The man on the stool may, from his heavy pectoral muscles be mistaken for a female, but, examined carefully, it will be seen at once that those muscles are not the compact hemispheres which the sculptor has given to all the women in the other parts of this frieze. The necklace too is of that flattened ligulate from which is invariably and exclusively found round the neck of men—never on women. It appears much more consistent too that the man who, in the preceding compartment, tried to entertain the captive fair by an antelope hunt, should in this preside over the concert for her entertaiment, instead of employing a woman to do the same: to win the affection of the captive, he should himself come forward to bring the charms of music to bear on her pensive heart, and not resort to a substitute