History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c35.s2.1

v1.c35.s2.1

The furniture of the period under review distinctly betrayed as we see in the following pages, the continuation of the many of the furniture articles of the preceding period which served as their prototypes. The furniture articles like thrones, seats, moras, the cane seats, foot-stools, bed-steads etc., continued to constitute the furniture articles of the period. One can see no change either in models or in the technique of their manufacture during this period. The types of thrones as usual included those having either animal legs or solid ones with or without arm-rests. The throne having lion as support and lion head terminals at top bar of the back of throne apparently represented Siṃhāsana. The Yuktikalpataru while listing out different types of furniture speaks of Siṃhāsana of eight different varieties in accordance with the nature of the animal supports. It also mentions of the wood, precious metals and stones that are to be used in the make of Siṃhāsana. It further states that this throne should be made of sandal wood (candana). The Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang also speaks of Siṃhāsanas. “The sovereign dias”, he observes “is exceedingly wide and high and is dotted with small pearls” what is called lion seat is covered with a fine cloth and mounted by a jewelled foot-stool. However, the lion motif appears to be one of the most ancient decorative symbols probably typifying the royal nature of the furniture of the early people. As regards the large thrones or sofas they continued to be in use throughout 9th-10th century A.D. also.