Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c8.168

v1.c8.168

A very large number of ornaments are mentioned as useful for adorning the images of gods. There are ornaments for the ear, the neck, the shoulder, the forearm, the trunk, the breasts, the loins, the ankles and the fingers. Different kinds of head-gears are also described. These ornaments and headgears are noticed here as briefly as possible. The ear-ornament is known by the general name of kuṇḍala. At least five different kinds of kuṇḍalas are known, namely, the patrakuṇḍala, the nakra-kuṇḍala, which is the same as the makara-kuṇḍala, the śaṅkhapatra-kuṇḍala, the ratnakuṇḍala, and the sarpa-kuṇḍala. It appears to be probable that in the early periods of Indian civilization men and women considered it a beauty to have large ear-ornaments attached to the ear-lobes, which were often specially bored and dilated for the purpose. Even today we may see on the Malabar Coast ladies with specially bored pendant ear-lobes, in which there shine large, but light, golden discs. In the earlier stages of causing the dilatation of the lobes of the ear, cylindrical rolls of cotton cloth or flattened spirals of cocoanut-leaf or palmyra-leaf are thrust in to produce the required internal pressure. In course of time, these spirals came to