The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.78

v2.c16.78

**Interpretation of the subject of the Friezes** :—The meaning of the subjects represented in the friezes, may be interpreted in two different ways; 1st, by supposing them to be unconnected, independent, fancy pictures of scenes in social life; 2nd by taking them to be representations of the different stages of an historical occurrence, or a favourite old legend. According to the former, the first tableau of the Rāṉi Naur, would be a religious procession; the second, a rustic scene; the third, a battle between men and women; the fourth, a deer hunt; the fifth, a concert and a religious ceremony; the sixth, a domestic scene; and the first of Gaṇeśa series, a battle; and the third, an attempt at rescuing a woman from the hands of her abductor, the second being wanting: and according to the legend, [11] a stroy of an abduction and its sequel. The first supposition does not, however, appear to me to be by any means a probable one; the beginning in either series with an abduction, the chase after the ravisher in the second series, the presence of a woman on a tree in the hunting scene, the union in the fifth tableau of music and *chaitya* worship, the emblems of constancy, the consecutive order of the scenes, are all against it; and I am disposed, therefore, to accept the second branch of the alternative as the more probable one,