The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.124

v2.c16.s2.124

Of mouldings, the two *Cymas*, the *Cavetto*, the *Ovolo*, the *Torus*, the *Astragal* and the *Fillet*, which play so important a part in the decoration of classical architecture, the last two are all that exist in the caves of Udayagiri, and they are just the ornaments which are the most undecisive in their character. A line of beads and a narrow flat band to enclose them suggest themselves as ornaments with the smallest possible exertion of the inventive faculty, and they been adopted in all parts of the world without any necessary borrowing ; they form the most prominent and oft-repeated embellishment of the hafts of New Zealand hatchets. To lean on them for the determination of any important question of nationality would be to lean on something considerably weaker than the proverbial straw. A kInd of guilloche occurs in the Ananta Cave, but as already stated before (*ante* I, p. [17]), it is quite as unreliable as the fillet or the astragal. Moreover, were all the mouldings abovenamed traceable in the caves of Udayagiri, they would be of little moment, for they are all very simple in their design, and it is only when they appear in those peculiar combinations which are so effective in classical buildings, that they can be accepted as proofs. If the combinations be not the same, they should at least be similar, and this, I hold, is nowhere the case.