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Three of these are represented here, but strange to say the chariots are absent, as they always are at Amravati, though, as before remarked, they are sé prominent at Sanchi. This probably is owing to some local peculiarity which could only be discovered on the spot. It can hardly be that they had gone out of fashion, because in the great temple of Nakon Vat, in Cambodia, built probably eight centuries after Amravati,} chariots are everywhere uséd by the chiefs in war, and with wheels as perfect and as light as could be made now by a London coach-builder. Those who’ know how much civilization is involved in a perfect wheel will acquire a higher estimate of the stage reached by the snake worshippers there, from these mechanical applnnces than even from their sculptures themselves. Taken altogether, this pillar, both in its decorations and its sculptures, is one of the most elegant at Amravati, and it would consequently be extremely interesting if its inscription told us something of its story. All, however, we gather from it is that the pillar was the gift of three men and their three wives.} | Jt is so much narrower than the others just, described, that it evidently did not form one of the regular pillars of the outer Rail, but as it is the same height and the circles are the same distance from centre to centre, it probably belonged to one of the projecting Gateways, either as an angle column, or on some return where narrower pillars only could be introduced. * See also the Niti-sira, or Elements of Polity, by Kamandaki. Calcutta, 1861, ch. 19. } See History of Architecture, by the Author, vol. IL, Pe 718, et seqq. t See Appendix E., No. XIII. VA AAALAN AL - - Se ee ee / 4 : - "he - a we, and haa alae DECK OFT 0 Ps ; ws a5 ¥ Aa x MBX Vx my Se \) Ge © ay a CP Cae a ee MB os Ge ig hee ee, vt Bw pu | Aa st Lea a. ~ + a% ATA VY WRITE XID myn OL YY SCS ON BS fe SGUONE 2-U UO PALRARA Scans. 1 INCH 3-47TrH "ro 1 Foor: 90 5 OF 0 YY Ww A AAA PLATE LXil. te ig ’ ENCLOSURE. : DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 179 PLATE LXII. THE two circular bas-reliefs represented in this Plate are the two most perfect of their class in the collection, and have consequently been photographed to a larger scale in order to make their details more easily visible. The upper one Colonel Mackenzie considered as the most elegant of the Amravati sculptures,* an opinion in which he probably was not far wrong. It is somewhat weather-worn, however, now, and was very seriously damaged on its return from the late French Exhibition. The action is simple. A casket containing a relic is placed on the throne under an elaborate canopy, and is being worshipped by the Naga Raja and his people. The Naga Raja stands in the centre, with the seven-headed make hood over him, and the two attendants on either hand, with Chaoris, have also the same canopy. It is. not easy to see whether the two men with their hands clasped over their heads are Nagas also, but the probability is that they are. The men behind him have none of them the snake hood, but the twelve females in the foreground have all of thém a single ‘snake on the back of their heads. The whole is, however, arranged so much more elegantly than at Sanchi (Plate XXIV.), that it is not offensive, and the snakes would not, indeed, be noticed unless attention was directed to them. . The two standing female figures on either hand are singularly elegant, especially the one buying the wreath to present to the relic, or at least she was before her visit to Paris. It is probably in vain to inquire what the relic is that is enclosed in this casket. If the conjectures hazarded above with regard to the visit of the Tooth relic to this place have any foundation, it is by no means impossible that the famed Dalada may be contained within, and is here exposed temporarily on the* throne to be worshipped by the Naga Raja and his people.t — Both the. throne and the canopy or umbrella over it are ‘singularly rich and elegant specimens of the furniture of the period. Such thrones frequently occur, but no such canopy in any other of the sculptures. The lower circle contains no peg ¢ on witch it will, I a : be possible to hang a story. It ‘is simply this, two Hindu No. 20. * From a pencil note in his handwriting on the drawing of this sculpture in his book. { In the Tope at Manikyala, opened by General Pauses a casket was found, of which the annexed is a representation. It contained only fragments of amber ° in a brown liquid, but the inscription not yet having been satisfactorily made d _ out, we are ignorant to whom it belonged. See Thomas, Edition of Prinsep, : ae roan lala _ vol. I. p. 97, et seqq., and Professor Dowson, in vol. XX. p. 244. J. Rs A. S. ° It probably belongs to a date not far distant from the Christian era. The casket represented in Woodcut, No. 6, p. 76, is, perhaps, even more like the one worshipped by the Naga Raja in the bas-relief. It, too, was found in a Tope at Manikyala, and, to judge from the coins that were found with it, should be of about the same age. Its form, however. and: other circumstances, incline me to think it may be more modern, Z% 2 180 ‘THE TOPE AT AMRAVATI. gentlemen,—they | are not Rajas, as they have no umbrellas of state borne over them,— not much burthened with clothing, are seated on a sofa of modern form, listening to a concert of music which is being performed by a number of women in the foreground. Highteen women seem to be engaged in the performance. Three are playing on harps, three or four on drums, some on flutes, one is blowing a horn, and others are per- forming on instruments, the nature of which it is not easy to make out. One woman, with hey back to the spectator, standing in the centre, appears to be the leader, and is beating time with her hands. In front of her, with one foot on a@ stool or drum, is the prima donna, accompanying her voice with a harp. She has short curly hair, and, like all the musicians, rather a sharp Roman nose, extremely unlike the men or any other of their women. It will also be observed, she alone of all the women has no bangles on her ancles, though she has on her wrists. Besides the eighteen performers two others of the same race will be observed on the right of the circle: one with her hands joined is addressing the principal Queen, while another lower down seems to covet the bead belt of a girl she is talking to. "Whoever these performers are they are a class we have not met before, nor do we, so far as I know, meet them again. They are very unlike all the other people represented in the sculptures, and very easily distinguishable from the other people in this bas-relief. The latter have all rather flat noses, and a more Tartar-like cast. of features than are generally seen in these sculptures. Are they Gonds? The performers, on the contrary, have singularly. sharp features and prominent Roman noses, and seem to have curly heads, but nothing in the least approaching the Negro type in any way. Are they Gypsies P Besides the musicians and the gentlemen on the sofa, there are three ladies of rank, two on the right and one on the left of the picture, who are accommodated with chairs. . Their principal articles of dress are their bangles and their bead belt below their waists.* There are two little girls in the foreground, and about twenty others, who seem to be the attendants on inmates of the Harem. One other point requires notice. “Below the sofa are two jars or pots, evidently containing some drink for the refreshment’ of those seated upon it. The same thing was observed at Sanchi (Plates XXX. and XXXVII.). There it certainly contained some intoxicating fluid. -I am afraid that i in this instance also they contain something stronger than water. = ee - a A. ee * “On the east of the Chanda district (the Gond district nearest Amravati) the men wear no covering for their heads or the upper part of their bodies. The women deck themselves with thirty to forty beads, to which some add a necklace of pendant bells. Bangles of zinc adorn their wrists, and a chain of the same metal is suspended from the hair, and attached to a large boss stuck in the ear. But the greatest peculiarity connected with their costume ‘is the practice that prevails, in more remote districts, of the women wearing no clothes at all; instead of which they fasten with a string passing round their waists a bunch of leafy twigs to cover them before and behind.” Barring the twigs, which seem to be a modern innovation; nothing can more correcily describe the costumes of the sculptures than the above extract from Mr. Hislop’s paper on the Gonds, edited by Sir R. Temple, p. 8. DISCS O Pe eet erie ee ‘ vy YETI uy =) a! AY AAS A AAAANARAL KAR : 7 ny aa AMBAY ATI: oo _ ‘ a yy YLT IND OX YY vy HY x yvvVvY g RB BRAN AREA ALR AR GORRAARO ScALE 1 Incu To | Foor. ‘ — > oF oe | oe ee f i = i oa oy YIM Ahad aha ¢ OTE BNELOS URE arryy DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 181 PLATE LNXIII. Tur three circles represented in this Plate are the only other intermediate sculp- tured circles in.the- Indian Museum. All three are so much damaged and weather- worn that it is extremely difficult to make out their details, and to’ feel certain about their story. The subject of the upper one is clearly a temptation scene, and is a more detailed representation of the central bas-relief on the lower compartment of the right-hand pillar (Plate LIX.). A man in great wrath drives from him a number of females, some of. whom are in the act of asking favours ; some are laughing, some going quietly away, but others have tumbled down, and are: being © apparently tranipled upon.