The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c18.60.2

v2.c18.60.2

Clubmen, griffins, warriors on prancing horses, colossal figures of grotesque and varied shape, stand about in silent stony groups. The elephants have the flabby underlips of nature and exhibit a uniformity in all the essential points of their anatomy, with a variety in posture and detail, which Hindu art has long forgotten. Two colossal horses guard the southern facade, one perfect, the other with his neck broken and otherwise shattered. The right hand stallion has a Roman nose, prominent eyes, nostrils not too open and in other respects carved from a well bred model; excepting the jowl, which is bridled in close upon the neck, making the channel too narrow—a mistake which I have also noticed in the ancient sculptures of Italy and Greece. The legs, too, have a fleshy and conventional look. He is very richly caparisoned with bosses and bands round the face, heavy chain armour on the neck, tasselled necklaces, jewelled bracelets on all four legs, and a tasselled breast-band which keeps the saddle in position. The saddle resembles the medieval ones of Western chivalry, with a high pummel and well-marked cantle, but has a modern girth, consisting of a single broad band clasped by buckle outside the fringe of a sumptuous saddlecloth. The stirrup irons are round, like those of our own cavalry.