The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.95

v2.c17.95

The recesses between the projections have also their niches, but these are of a modest character and of simple forms. The figures designed for these are rampant lions, mostly like the one figured in Vol. I (Plate XX, figs. 65 *b* and *c*); and statues, 5 feet high, of men and women in different positions. Some of the figures are placed singly, and intended to represent dancing girls; others are in couples standing in an amatory mood (Vol. I, plate XVIII, fig. 58). Some of the last are so grossly obscene that it is impossible to describe them. Their number, however, is not large. Some of them have been mutilated, and others removed, leaving the niches empty. A few occur on the horizontal bands which separate the three tiers of niches. Domestic scenes such as have been described in Vol. I, p. [106] (Plate XXXIII), are in bas-relief introduced below the pediments over the niches, and also on small panels on the piers. They are generally of small size not more than a foot in height, and now so disfigured as not to admit of our judging how they were originally executed. The statues were prepared in the atelier of the artists, and then put in their respective positions; but the bas-reliefs and panels were all carved *in situ*.