The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.361

v2.c17.s1.361

The seventh is Cāmuṇḍā, an extremely emaciated female with four hands, seated on a prostrate human being with folded hands. Her hair is dressed in the form of a large many-rayed crown and the only ornament she wears is an anklet. The hands are mutilated and the child on her lap in the Yājapur specimen has been knocked off. The attempt made by the sculptor to indicate the emaciation is remarkably successful, though anatomically the number of the ribs he has assigned her and the location of the veins are wrong (Plate LXI). According to the text she should be lean, red-complexioned, distorted-faced and ten-handed, having a shrunken belly, exposed teeth and deep sunken eyes; she should be fierce-looking, mounted on a corpse and ornamented with serpents. In her right hands there should be a pestle, an armour, an arrow, an elephant goad, and a sword, and in the left, a shield, a lasso, a bow, a staff and an axe.