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* 390
AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
an amphitheatre with the high priest enthroned in the central position, would be closely grouped background of spectators—the whole forming a brilliant and moving pageant amidst the dark encircling groves."
Zoology of the Caves
Even to a careless observer of the caves, it will be at once apparent that the ancient sculptors had a knowledge of the physiognomy of a large variety of animals and birds some of which are quite unknown in Orissa. This knowledge was based partly on an actual and keen observation of animals and partly on convention.
The representation of elephant in the caves is far more numerous than that of any other animal. The huge tusker has been depicted in various positions --crouching, standing, with uplifted trunk, 'carrying lotus in the trunk etc. Crouching elephants in the caves of a hill are seen represented both in the right and left wings of the Queen's cave. The figures of stray elephants taking shelter in a cave sculptured in the space between the arch-bands of the upper storey of the central wing of the Queen's cave are very significant. The scene describes the fight of an elephant with a man and a set of women with clubs and bludgeons. The two elephants, by which goddess Lakshmi in the tympanum of the Ananta cave is flanked, are nicely sculptured and deserve special notice. The figures of elephants holding garlands of lotus, rather bunches of lotus-buds with stalks and a central full-blown lotus, on the two sides of the flight of steps leading to the verandah in the Ganesa cave seem to have been copied from nature. The base-reliefs of elephant scenes in the Ganesa cave are important. Three warriors, two males
1. Peroy Brown, Indian Architecture, p. 37.
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