Shoulder Ornaments

From the sculptural art of this period, it could be noticed that ornaments for adorning the shoulders have not become much popular. They are seen hardly adorning some of the male and female figures either in the form of a looped string or a loop with several tassels hanging from it. The former type can be seen adorning the image of a Gopika, identified as Nappinai (fig. 112) in the Govardhanadhari panel at Mamallapuram and the latter type could be seen worn by Uma (fig. 250) in the Somaskanda bas-relief panel in the shrine-cell of the Mahishasuramardini cave temple at Mamallapuram. A pair of simple tassels can also be seen adorning the shoulders of an later Pallava image of Vishnu, now preserved in the National Museum at New Delhi^[1] and also in that of Shanmukha from Kaveripakkam^[2] (fig. 305).