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CAVE ARCHITECTURE IN ORISSA 393 The trees, representations of which occur frequently in the friezes, have usually been delineated as laden with fruits, but their branches are not so natural as the trunks, which are noticed in some caves as knotty aad shaky as obtained in nature. The fruits with which the trees are laden have been most unnaturally depicted. And, this defect is not only noticeable here, but is flagrant in aiinost all other representations either in stone or on canvas. This has become rather conventional.
The creepers represented in the arch bands referred to above are also in many cases laden with fruits which are often plantains and mangoes. The former is noticed largely represented. The delineations of fruits representing custard apple and jack fruit or pine apple are noticeable in the friezes depicting the hunt of wild elephants in the Queen's cave.
The lotus is seen, in this early period of history, in various forms of decoration as buds, full blown flowers, in garlands, rosettes, half disc etc. This device has been so abundantly worked out that it had already become conventional, as the representation of rows of lotus stalks terminating in a full-blown flower sculptured in the arch bands indicates. However, a faithful accuracy in the delineation of this floral design is noticed. As an illustration of this, lots of instances may be cited from the Rāni, Ganesh, Jayavijnya caves. Excavation and Drainage
It can be easily imagined how tedius a process it was to blow up the rock before the invention of explosives. Happily for the architects, the rocks are of gritty sandstone, soft and porous in texture and admit of easy excavations. The caves have usually been excavated with a gentle slope away from the main rock, thereby
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