{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_63057/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_63057","id":"gutenberg_63057","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63057","summary":null,"tags":["Buddhist temples","Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Art","Category: History - Other","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Travel Writing","Temples -- Indonesia -- Java"],"text":"Ruins of Buddhistic Temples\n                                   IN\n                             Pr\u00e5g\u00e5-Valley.\n\n\n                  Tyan\u1e0dis B\u00e5r\u00e5budur, M\u0115ndut and Pawon\n\n                                   BY\n\n                            Dr. I. GRONEMAN,\n\n                   translated from the dutch by J. H.\n\n\n                       Druk van H. A. BENJAMINS,\n                               Semarang,\n                                 1912.\n\n\n\n\n                                Preface.\n\n\nWhen in 1896 I was obliged to retire from practice, on account of\nsickness, I shortly after took up my residence at Jogy\u00e5kart\u00e5 again in\norder to devote myself to the antiquarian and ethnological studies dear\nto me, and to which purpose I had to establish myself in the\nneighbourhood of the principal Hindu ruins in Java, that is, in the\nplain of _Parambanan_, and in the valley of _Pr\u00e5g\u00e5_ whereas I could not\nrely on being assisted by the Dutch Government or whomsoever; I had\ngrown _too old_ under a system of Government who even refuse a professor\nseptuagenarian to follow his profession.\n\nAs for the Indian antiquities however, there are still many things to be\nlearned, not only because many a sculpture and symbolical ornament of\nbuilding has not yet been explained or, so to say, insufficiently\ninterpreted, but also because some of these images have been wrongly\nunderstood and expounded. I therefore thought it my duty to have my\nknowledge of them increased by a continued study of the antiquities\nthemselves, and by consulting such writings as I could dispose of with\nmy limited means.\n\nI also would comply with other people\u2019s wishes by giving a simple\ndescription of the most interesting ruin in the village of _M\u0115ndut_\nsituated by the way-side to the _B\u00e5r\u00e5budur_, and mention the small\n_tyan\u1e0di Pawon_ lying in its neighbourhood.\n\nAnd so I gathered all data for an up-to-date _fifth_ edition in behalf\nof the continually increasing number of visitors who come to visit these\nincomparable temples, which, in spite of expensive but insufficient\nrestoration, seem doomed to decay.\n\n                                                                    _G._\n  _Jogy\u00e5rkart\u00e5 1906._\n\nHaving succeeded at last in finding a person from whose hand both the\neditor and myself express a wish to see a good English translation of\nthis little book, I consequently completed and rewrote the former text\n(1906-1907.).\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                   Page.\n  Preface                                                              3\n  Buddhistic temples in Pr\u00e5g\u00e5-valley                                   5\n  Tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut                                                       13\n  Tyan\u1e0di Pawon                                                        23\n  Tyan\u1e0di B\u00e5r\u00e5budur                                                    26\n  Concluding word                                                     90\n  Errata                                                              92\n\n\n\n\n              Ruins of Buddhistic temples in Pr\u00e5g\u00e5-valley.\n\n\nI.\n\nThe Buddhists believe their community, their worship, their church, or\nwhatever one may be inclined to call this, to have been founded 24\ncenturies ago by the wise and humane king\u2019s son of _Kapilavastu_, called\nGautama, the _Sh\u00e2kja muni_ or wise _Sh\u00e2kja_, _Buddha_ or the\n_Enlightened_. All that which the later legends related either of Buddha\nhimself or of his _former lives_, they consider historically true.\n\nCompetent Orientalists, among whom the Dutch ex-professor Dr. H. Kern,\nstated however that, much about those legends that _cannot_ be true from\na historical point of view, will become quite comprehensible and\npossible as soon as taken in a mythical sense, and when we understand\nthe hero of the myth to be a sun-god. And then it will be perfectly\nindifferent to us, non-Buddhists, whether those legends may or may not\nhave historical foundations and whether the _Buddha_ of the Buddhists\nmay have really lived and existed or not.\n\nStill it is an indisputed matter of fact, that the Buddhist religion\nmust have existed as such for about three centuries before the beginning\nof our era, and professed by king Ashoka _the great_. Inscriptions\npartly saved, and found upon columns, and on the walls of rocks, prove\nall this to be just[1].\n\nThis Buddhism taught that mankind might be freed from any sensual\npassion, and sin by following a pure conduct of life, and from the curse\nof being continually reincarnated in either a human or animal being, and\nthat it could gain eternal rest as the highest reward of virtue on\nearth. And therefore Buddhism taught self-command, self-denial and\nself-conquest; the love of all beings either man or beast: patience with\nothers, the sons of different castes, and patience too with the\nfollowers of all other religions.\n\nThe original Buddhism can\u2019t be called a religion, for it knew no god and\ndidn\u2019t believe in a personal immortality. But like any other creation of\ntime and of human desire to form and reform again and again, Buddhism\nalso lost much of its original character, and so it came to pass that\nBuddhism in the first year of our era after its separation into two main\nsections, the so-called _southern_ and _northern_ churches, especially\nthe last mentioned or the _Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na_ acknowledged, besides the Buddha of\nthis world, quite other Buddhas to be the redeemers of former and future\nworlds, whilst the Buddhists thought all of them to be the revelations\nof a same original and impersonal deity, _Adi-Buddha_; and even the gods\nor some of the gods of the Hindus were admitted as the awat\u00e2ras of the\nsame first _Buddha_[2]. It may be easily understood that this Buddhism\nalso invented hell in contradiction to heaven. However, by no means an\nabode for the eternal damned, such as the hell of Christianity alludes\nto.\n\nBut the southern church, the H\u00eenay\u00e2na swerved less far from the ancient\ndoctrine, though it may be true that it did not always keep its\noriginality, for in its pagodae, are also found a few sculptures\nhonoured there as the representations of Buddha himself[3].\n\nSince some centuries Buddhism has been repelled from its country of\nbirth by the ancient Hinduism. Its place was taken by the shivaistic and\nother Hindu religions which at their turn again were partly superseded\nby Isl\u00e2mism.\n\nBut the H\u00eenay\u00e2nistic worship still exists in _Ceylon_ and in\nFurther-India at _Burma_, and _Siam_ and _Kamboja_ and Mah\u00e2j\u00e2nism at\n_N\u00e9p\u00e2l_ and at _Tibet_ and, more or less degenerated, in _China_ and\n_Japan_. It flourished for some centuries in the island of Java, but\nbecame entirely exterminated by the fanatic and absolutely intolerant\nfollowers of _Allah_ and _Mohammed_.\n\nThis was death after life; slavery after the command of senses; the\ndecline of a civilisation lost for ever, and of a highly developed art\nwhose products, by time\u2019s tooth changed into ruins, still testify to her\nlost greatness.\n\nThis Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nism only acknowledged Buddha the redeemer of _this_ world,\nnext to him were honoured the Buddhas of _three_ former worlds, and even\na _fifth_ Buddha, the redeemer of a future world, which is to exist in\nthe darkness of ages after the crack of this doom. These are the five\n_Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas_: _Wairotyana_, _Akshobya_, _Ratnasambhava_, _Amit\u00e2bha_\nand _Amoghasiddha_. And with the exception of these five Buddhas they\nalso honoured the five _Dhy\u00e2ni-Bodhisattvas_ or Buddha\u2019s sons or Buddhas\nin a state of being, that is, in a state of self-exercise or self-denial\nwhich precedes the Buddhaship. They are in the same order of succession:\n_Samantabhadra_, _Wadyrap\u00e2ni_, _Ratnap\u00e2ni_, _Padmap\u00e2ni_ and\n_Wishvap\u00e2ni_. The southern church doesn\u2019t know these Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas and\nBodhisattvas, so their images on the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur and on other tyan\u1e0dis in\nJava prove to us that the Buddhists of those temples belonged to the\n_northern_ church.\n\nProofs of the existence of H\u00eenay\u00e2nism in Java, there were none as yet.\nBut the Chinese Buddhist _J Tsing_, who visited India and the Dutch\nIndon\u00e9sian countries in the seventh century of our era, wrote us that at\nthat period of time H\u00eenay\u00e2nism must have ruled here in Java[4].\n\nIt goes without saying that even the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists honoured, among others,\nthe Buddha of _this their_ world, _Amit\u00e2bha_, as their Lord and\nRedeemer, putting faith in his life on earth as man and prince\u2019s son, as\nascetic and preacher, just as the Israelites do believe in the personage\nof their _Jahv\u00e9_, their Lord God of Hosts, their god of battle and\nrevenge, and just like our German ancestors trusted in _Odhin_, and\n_Thor_, and in the dying sun-god _Baldur_.\n\nAnd when we wish to judge and understand the temples built by these\nBuddhists, we also ought to start from that point of view, and accept\nthe hero of the legend as if he should have really lived, and suffered\nin order to redeem the world from the burden of the sin of life, and\nfrom the curse of death, and infinite regenerations.\n\n\nII.\n\nThe Buddhists assert the ashes of their Buddha to have been divided\nafter his cremation into eight towns, and buried there. King _Ashoka_ is\nsaid to have seven of these graves re-opened again so as to distribute\nthe holy ashes among some 84000 metal, crystal or stone vases or urns to\ncause them to be spread throughout his empire and without, and kept\nunder barrows or _st\u00fbpas_.\n\nWe know the proper history of Buddhism to begin with this king in the\n_third_ century _before_ our era, and in several parts of Hindustan are\nfound still undamaged inscriptions chiselled at his order upon rocks as\nso many unobjectionable evidences of this fact. I willingly allow this\nnumber of 84000 to be very exaggerated\u2014yet, it is a fact proved by many\nan existing and opened grave, that the Buddhists of that or later date,\nand wherever they might have settled, always kept small quantities of\nashes or bones they considered the remains of their Buddha\u2019s corpse, in\norder to be buried under earthen or stone barrows to honour them as the\nrelics of the great Master himself.[5]\n\nThere where the Buddhists founded a community, there, under such a hill\nor _st\u00fbpa_ they also buried an urn of ashes whereas the hill itself was\nhonoured as the Master\u2019s grave.[6]\n\nThose hills however, were badly protected from the influences of\ntemperature and time, and not proof against the profaning hand of man,\nand therefore built of stone, the _d\u00e2gaba_ or _dagob_, generally placed\non a pedestal of composed leaves of the lotus, the _padm\u00e2sana_, hardly\ndispensible to Indian images.[7]\n\nMany temples\u2019 ornaments have been copied after these dagobs, among\nothers, the shape of the small-sized prayer-bell which is still rung by\nthe _visju_ in chinese temples even at this day. These are facts proving\nthis tomb-stone\u2019s having been highly honoured.\n\n\nIII.\n\nNot anything do we know about the Buddhists of eleven centuries ago who\nonce populated these regions where afterwards arose the Mohammedan\nempire of _Mataram_. We only know that there formerly must have existed\na _Hindu_ empire of this name because of a found copper engraving all\ncovered with ancient-javanese writing which contained in a oath-formula\nthe words: \u201c_Sri mah\u00e2r\u00e2ja i Mataram_.\u201d\n\nWe understand them to have come from India, probably from the North, but\nwe don\u2019t know when this happened, and when they first began to deposit\ntheir Buddha ashes worthily.\n\nIt may be easily imagined however, that also the _B\u00e5r\u00e5budur_ must have\nbeen such a depository, and so much the more, because of its being too\nlarge to think of a mausoleum built in honour of even the most powerful\nprince of that empire.\n\nIn flat defiance of _Rhys Davids_\u2019s opinion who declared the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur\nto be only 7 centuries old, we, on the other hand, are inclined to give\nthis monument, according to later data, more than eleven centuries[8].\n\nThat the Buddhists of Central Java were a powerful nation at that period\nof time may fully appear from the extent and splendour of the building\nwhich surpasses all other Buddha- and Hindu temples on all the earth.\n\nAnd though it may be true that the grouping of the rock temples of\n_Alara_ (vulg. _Ellora_) and _Ajunta_ in India occupies more room, and\ngranting _Angkor_ in _Kamboja_ (which wasn\u2019t a Buddhist temple) to seem\nmore majestic when seen at a distance, still, according to competent\njudges who also visited these ruins, the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur is grander by far as\nwell for the unity of its whole as for the harmony of its different\nparts, and for both the nobleness of the schemer\u2019s thought and the\nexcellence of the execution.\n\nThis harmony supports the opinion of this building\u2019s having been built\nafter the scheme of one and the very same architect; a man of a\nsurprising intellectual capacity indeed, who could have conceived such a\nscheme to be carried out in an incalculable number of years by hundreds\nof thousands of labourers.\n\nWe cannot possibly believe that so much labour and time would have been\nspent on the building of a prince\u2019s mausoleum, however powerful he might\nhave been.\n\nMoreover, there are reasons enough to suppose that _the_ prince of\n_this_ empire, at whose command the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur must have been built,\ncommenced or partly achieved, should have died before the finishing of\nthis colossal work, and that his ashes were buried in the sumptuous\ngrave temple, at that period of time most likely already finished, and\nthe ruins of which we shall visit in the _dess\u00e5_ (native village) of\n_M\u0115ndut_. Or more exactly: that his successor or children or\nblood-relations, or perhaps his people, built this _tyan\u1e0di_ on the pit\nin which those ashes had been put away, and that as a worthy mausoleum\nto the king who once presented his subjects with the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur.\n\nSome unfinished parts of both the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur and the ruins in the valley\nof _Parambanan_, especially the unfinished imageries at the foot (hidden\nagain under the outer-terrace) on the outer-wall of the large temple,\nmake us suppose that these products of art had been _scarcely_ achieved,\nand the imageries _hardly_ finished and placed on their walls, when the\nbuddhistic empire of Central Java fell into a state of decay or became\nruined at all.\n\nUpwards of a thousand years have rolled since over these colossal ruins.\nEarthquakes, and volcanic eruptions replaced their masses of stone,\nsolar heat and torrents introduced and supported their decay, parasitic\nplants dispersed their foundations, and narrow-minded slaves of\nignorance and fanaticism damaged or spoilt many of their produce of\nart\u2014still the ruins stand there as an impressive fact scarcely no less\nuncredible than undeniable; a majestic product of a master-mind of the\npast, a stone epic immortal even in its decline.\n\n\nOn account of its general form (\u201c_par le dessin g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, mais par l\u00e0\nseulement_\u201d) the French scholar about Indian matters _A. Barth_ called\nthe B\u00e5r\u00e5budur the only _st\u00fbpa_ in Java[9], and this may be just when we\nunderstand a _st\u00fbpa_ to be only those barrows where were buried some\nashes or another relic of the Buddha himself, and when we consider all\nother _tyan\u1e0dis_ in this island\u2014with the exception of the monasteries\nwhich are no _tyan\u1e0dis_\u2014to be nothing else but the mausolea of sons of\nPrinces, or of _gurus_ and monks, or belonging perhaps to other noble\nmen and women.\n\nHereabove we already saw reasons enough to make us suppose that _Tyan\u1e0di\nM\u0115ndut_ had been built on the ashes of the prince of the buddhistic\nempire of which we don\u2019t know anything but its having been supreme in\nCentral Java for at least eleven centuries ago.\n\nThese ruins stand in the village after which they have been named, along\nthe road leading from _Jogy\u00e5kart\u00e5_ to the _B\u00e5r\u00e5budur_, not far from the\n_Mag\u0115lang_ route, and as they are the first we reach on our way from one\nof the two capitals, and generally visited, we shall therefore first\ndescribe this most interesting grave temple.\n\n\n\n\n                             Tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut.\n\n\nLeaving Jogy\u00e5kart\u00e5 by steamtram or by carriage, and driving through the\ndessa of _Muntilan_\u2014properly speaking a Chinese settlement\u2014,turning two\nor three miles farther on near the stopping-place of _Kalangan_, 8 miles\nsouth of _Mag\u0115lang_, into a by-path leading westward to the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur,\nwe, within an hour, shall arrive at the real javanese village of\n_M\u0115ndut_, which is situated on the left bank of the river _\u00c9lo_. On this\nspot, as it were under the shadow of the Buddha temple, eleven centuries\nold at least, a Roman Catholic mission built a little church and\nparsonage, and opened a school for javanese children.\n\nLiving Christianity near the ruins of dead Buddhism!\n\nHeavy teak wooden scaffoldings surrounded these ruins on all sides, and\non the north-western frontside solid wooden stairs lead upward till\nunder the _attap_[10] temporary roof. This was to protect the\nB\u00e5r\u00e5budur\u2019s pyramidical roof (at that time not yet shut off again) and\nprotect also the three almost undamaged gigantic images from rain and\nsun-blaze. This scaffolding still appeared as a witness of _W. A. van de\nKamer_\u2019s clever diligence. Some eleven years ago, when in Government\u2019s\nservice as official for ways and roads, he got the order given to him by\nchoice, to begin the work of restoration, and that above his own work as\noverseer in service of the Department of Public Works. Notwithstanding,\nhe continued for three years this enterprise trusted to him, and without\nany other reward but the title of architect the diploma of which he had\nalready got in Netherland for many years ago. Under his command, and\nwithout any accident, he had the heavy and badly menaced pyramidic roof\nbrought downward, and he succeeded in having the decaying and declining\nwalls erected again, and that in a manner (as I once witnessed)\nunconditionally admired by competent experts, among whom I know\nhigh-placed engineer officers. But his work became unjustly objected by\nthe philological president of a newly appointed B\u00e5r\u00e5budur committee he\nsaw suddenly placed above him (_van de Kamer_), and the pitiable manner\nin which the former official induced him to ask for exemption from the\nlabour dear to him, and to retire from Government\u2019s service some years\nafterwards, I already explained and blamed in 1901 by means of some\nnon-published writings, because the latter, still subordinate at that\ntime, could not defence himself, and above all, because of my being\ncompetent and obliged to do so as an honest man, loyal to the ancient\ndevice: \u201c_Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra_\u201d. Even to me this deed\nbecame a source of misunderstanding and grief.\n\n\nThe first striking thing we see is that, in contravention to almost all\nother buddhistic buildings, the frontage of these ruins have not been\nplaced opposite to the East, the sun-rise, but strange enough, opposite\nto the Northwest. When I first visited this temple in 1875 I saw that\nthe porch which had been built before this frontage, had partly\ndisappeared. Only its side-walls, the greater part at least, and\nfortunately, the two interesting sculptures had remained. This was also\nthe case with the 14 large stone steps leading from without to the same\nporch, and flanked by heavy holds in the form of the _garu\u1e0da-n\u00e2ga_\nornament we are going to know by-and-by.\n\nThe colossal pyramidic roof, and part of the front wall above and north\nof the entrance to the inner-room were greatly lost.\n\nThe two sculptures before the entrance show us, to the left, a princess\nin a garden of fruit-trees, with a suckling at her breast, and many\nplaying children all round about her. And opposite to them, to the\nright, we see an Indian,\u2014_not_ buddhistic\u2014prince with much more children\nin such another garden.\n\nAll the children wear a crescent of the moon on the hind part of their\nheads, but both the children and their parents miss everything that\nmight have spoken of a buddhistic character. The prince himself wears a\nthree stringed cord of a caste (_upav\u00eeta_), and is therefore\ncharacterised as a _not_ buddhistic one. Buddhism doesn\u2019t know any\ncaste.\n\nNevertheless, there are Dutch scholars who suppose this prince to be\n_Buddha_\u2019s father, this woman _Buddha_\u2019s mother. Even professor _Kern_\nwrote to me that this woman with her suckling should be nobody else but\n_May\u00e2_ with her son in _Lumbini_ garden. The Indian prince however,\nremained inexplicable.\n\nThe buddhistic king of Siam, _Chula Longkorn_, gave me in 1896 another\nand far better explanation which solved all difficulties, and to which\nI\u2019ll come back again after having first given a superficial description\nof the gigantic images we see in this temple.\n\nLet us therefore enter through the opened iron railing now replacing the\nwooden inner door, which for more than some 70 years ago, was used\nperhaps, as fire-wood.\n\nThe space before the unadorned south-easterly back-wall is occupied by a\nheavy altar-shaped throne not yet long ago newly built in an exceedingly\nsimple style.\n\nAnd on this throne sits a colossal _Buddha_ image, by no means however,\na nude one, so as professor _Veth_ wrongly wrote in his standard work:\n\u201c_Java_,\u201d but this is dressed in the cowl of the _southern_ Buddhists\nuncovering his right shoulder and arm; his two legs dangling and resting\non a small cushion with his two hands before his breast in such a\nposture (_mudr\u00e2_) as the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists, the followers of the \u201c_Big\nCarriage_\u201d of the _northern_ church, generally (not always) give to the\n_first_ of their five _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas_. In Ceylon and in Farther India\nhowever, there where _H\u00eenay\u00e2nism_ of the _southern_ church still exists,\nwhich doesn\u2019t know any Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha, this posture simply means\n\u201c_blessing_.\u201d\n\nTo the right of this Buddha nearly 4 yards high, we see a _buddhistic_\nprince seated on a throne abundantly decorated with n\u00e2gas, lions, and\nelephants, and ornamented with lotus-cushions and feet cushions. The\nmonk\u2019s hood, the bottom of which goes under the princely garb over his\nleft shoulder and breast, and the small _Buddha_ image in his crown\ncharacterise him as a _Buddhist_, and that in contradistinction to the\nother prince we see opposite him, to the left of the Buddha. And though\nthis prince also has his seat on an equally richly ornamented throne,\nyet we don\u2019t see any image in his crown, and then he doesn\u2019t wear a\nmonk\u2019s hood, but only the three-stringed _upav\u00eeta_ which characterises\nhim as _not_ buddhistic.\n\nOn this ground professor Kern thought this Indian prince as inexplicable\nas the other one we saw in the porch before the entrance.\n\nThe two kings wear the _prabha_, or disk of light, on the back part of\ntheir heads. _Buddha_ does not, or no more; for this may have been fixed\nto the wall of the temple, and afterwards fallen down after that the\nimage itself had slidden from its seat, or before its having been placed\nthere[11].\n\nOn account of the posture of his hands before his breast there are some\nDutch scholars who suppose this _Buddha_ to be the first _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha\nVairotyana_, and the two other princes they think to be _Bodhisattvas_\nor future Buddhas, whilst the one on the north-easterly wall is said to\nbe the _fourth_ Dhy\u00e2ni-Bodhisatthva, _Padmap\u00e2ni_ because of his being\nprovided with a small image of the fourth Dhy\u00e2ni-_Buddha_, _Amit\u00e2bha_,\nin his crown.\n\nWhich Bodhisatthva we then must see in that other image nobody could\ntell us, because it misses all attributes.\n\nThis however, is also the case with the buddhistic king\u2019s image, and\nthough it may be provided with a Buddha image in its crown, occasionally\ngiven to some Bodhisatthvas, yet it doesn\u2019t characterise every wearer as\nsuch.\n\nMoreover, I more than once demonstrated that _all_ the crowns are\nprovided with no other image but the one of the Buddha himself in his\nposture of _meditation_ (or rest after death), and therefore we can\u2019t\naccept these images to be Bodhisatthvas, or more especially _Padmap\u00e2ni_,\nthe Bodhisattva of the fourth Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha who, after all, should have\nbeen characterised by this Bodhisatthva\u2019s usual attribute, the _padma_\nor lotus placed near his face. But these two images also miss this\nflower and the stem of the lotus which the Bodhisatthvas generally keep\nin their _left_ hands. Sometimes however, we see them in their _right_\nhand, and the flower with the symbol above one or two leaves.\n\nSo the meaning of the mentioned scholars _doesn\u2019t explain these 3\nimages_ whereas Siam\u2019s king, on his visiting this temple in 1896,\nsatisfactorily interpreted the north-westerly image, wearing, like he\ndoes himself, a Buddha image in his crown, to be perhaps the king of the\nbuddhistic empire, under whose reign the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur was built.\n\nFurther he supposed the other image to be the latter\u2019s not-buddhistic\nfather and predecessor whilst both father and son (the latter afterwards\nbecame a buddhist), might have been honoured by their descendants who\nbrought together the two images in this sanctuary under the _blessing_\nof the only Buddha, the redeemer of this world. So this Buddha image has\nnothing to do with any _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha_, and by no means with the _first_\nof them.\n\n    [Illustration: Tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut.\n    Imagery in front of the entrance of the ruin.\n    _H\u00e2rit\u00ee_, the goddess of the _Yakshas_, with some of her 500\n    children.]\n\nThis explanation of the king-Buddhist became so comprehensible and\nlogical to me that I could not but accept and defend it against others,\nand so I came to the hypothesis that the ashes of the two kings (but\ncertainly the _son\u2019s_ ashes) must have been buried in this _tyan\u1e0di_.\nTheir urns may be found back again in a deep pit under the throne of the\nBuddha, or under the seats of the other images, just as we had found\nsuch urns of ashes in other tyan\u1e0dis, in square pits, under the pedestals\nof the images, and generally adorned with some figures of precious metal\nand provided with some coloured precious stones, the emblems of the\n_seven treasures_, the _sapta ratna_ which were given to the dead.\n\nThese pits occupied the whole depth of the foundation of these temples,\nunder the floor of the inner-rooms which may have been intentionally\nbuilt so high above the surface of the earth. This, perhaps, is also the\nreason of the heavy substructure of _tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut_.\n\nHad _Van de Kamer_ remained charged with the work of restoration to\nthese ruins the Resident of Ked\u0306u would then have granted us to examine\nthis affair more closely before the throne was rebuilt again, and the\nBuddha image replaced upon it.\n\nBut this didn\u2019t happen.\n\nThat Siam\u2019s king declared the two images before the entrance to be the\nrepresentations of the buddhistic king\u2019s parents with their children\nseemed more than reasonable to me, especially, because of all\ndifficulties being solved then. Didn\u2019t _May\u00e2_, like any other mother of\nBuddha, die seven days after his birth? And then, all writings known to\nme, don\u2019t mention anything about _Siddh\u00e2rta_\u2019s brothers or sisters. And\nall these children can\u2019t possibly be angels or celestials, because in\nthe smaller panels, above the groups in the porch, we always see them\nhewn floating in the air.\n\nHowever reasonable this idea of the h\u00eenay\u00eestic king may have seemed to\nme, yet I could not maintain this when I was told by Mr. A. Foucher, the\ngreat knower of the ancient Indian Buddhism, that in Old _Gandh\u00e2ra_ he\noften saw the Buddha, just as is the case here, sculptured in the\n_mudr\u00e2_ of preaching, standing between the two Bodhisatthvas,\n_Avalokit\u00e9svara_ and _Manjusri_. This, among others, is to be seen at\n_S\u00e2rn\u00e2th_ in the northern environs of _B\u00e9nar\u00e8s_ which passes for the\nvery place where the _Buddha_ should have preached for the first time.\nThis is ordinarily indicated by means of the tyakra between two\ngazelles, and consequently hewn at the foot of Buddha\u2019s throne. Mr. _A.\nFoucher_ also taught me that my fellow-country-man, Dr. _J. Ph. Vogel_,\nleader of the archaeological service in British India, rightly declared\nthe two demi-relievoes in the porch (volume 4th of the \u201c_Bulletins de\nl\u2019\u00e9cole fran\u00e7aise d\u2019Extr\u00eame-Orient_\u201d) to be the representations of\n_H\u00e2rit\u00ee_ and _Kuvera_, the goddess and the god of the _Yakshas_ with\nsome of their children. In many a cloister in _Gandh\u00e2ra_ he saw the\nYaksh\u00ee _H\u00e2rit\u00ee_ represented with one child at her breast, and that,\nafter she herself, who is said to have been the former personification\nof small-pox (_variolae_), had been converted by the _Buddha_.\n\nHe had taken away one of her 500 children, and remonstrated with her on\nthe sorrow she gave the mothers of the children killed by her, in\nconsequence of which she totally changed her character, became truly\nconverted and afterwards honoured as a patroness of children.\n\n\nI am not going to expatiate about the artistic value of this produce of\nthe ancient plastic arts in Old India. One should see them oneself and\nthen judge whether the Indian sculptor knew how to chisel out living\nthoughts which are not less striking and beautiful than those of the\nGreeks in the age of _Pericles_, and much better hewn than those of the\nEgyptians in the time of the hieroglyphics, of _Memphis_ and _Thebae_,\nof _Carnak_ and _Philae_[12].\n\nBut there are more things to be seen in the sanctuarium of tyan\u1e0di\nM\u0115ndut.\n\nThe space within the four heavy walls is not a square or rectangular\none, but rather a trapezoid with parallel front- and back walls. Its\nside-walls somewhat join each other from front to back. I don\u2019t know any\nother example of deviation from the rectangular form, and therefore try\nto find its meaning in the sculptor\u2019s effort to increase the impression\nthe large images make upon the visitor, by slightly supporting its\nperspective.\n\n    [Illustration: Tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut.\n    Imagery in front of the entrance of the ruin.\n    Kuwera, the god of riches and of the _Yakshas_, with some of his\n    children.]\n\nTwo niches have been spared in each of these side walls, but not\nsymmetrically like we see them hewn before the impressive image-group,\nand not behind it or on the back wall. Half way between the entrance and\nthe two corners however, two similar niches adorn the front wall. All\nthese six niches have been framed with the _garu\u1e0da-n\u00e2ga_ ornament, that\nis, with two composed serpent\u2019s bodies whose tails disappear into the\nmule of a monstrous _garu\u1e0da_ head we see above the vault of these\nniches, and whose outward turned heads are provided with a proboscis.\n\nIn each niche there lies a small lotus cushion but without any image.\nEven in 1834 during the digging up of the ruin buried under an overgrown\nmound, no images were found in- or outside these niches.\n\nWhat then was the meaning of them?\n\nThey were explained to us by the French Indian architect _Henry\nParmentier_ who spoke of analogical cases in Farther India [_Bulletins\nde l\u2019\u00e9cole fran\u00e7aise d\u2019Extr\u00eame Orient_][13]. Even there the temples\nclosely related to the Hindu ruins in Java had _no_ windows or openings\noutside the entrance which opened into an equally dark porch; and as it\nwas very dark inside the walls were provided with niches for lamps to\nlight the images throning in these sanctuaries.\n\nAfter mature consideration I came to the conclusion that the niches of\ntyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut must also have had this destination, and this may be the\nreason why all of them were affixed in front and opposite (not behind)\nthe three images, so that I never doubted the four walls to have had\n_any other opening_ than the door which opened through the front wall\ninto the almost equally dark porch.\n\nThis conviction of mine has been confirmed by some corresponding cases,\namong others, by the fact that the four still undamaged walls of the\ncomparatively large inner-rooms of _tyan\u1e0di S\u00e9vu_ in the plain of\nParambanan, have no other opening but the door which gives entrance to\nthe (eastern) porch. However, we don\u2019t see any niche in the inner-room\nof _tyan\u1e0di Kalasan_, perhaps because there was room enough in these two\nsanctuaries to place one or more lights before or on the altars which\ncarried the _Buddha_ or _T\u00e2r\u00e2_ image.\n\nIn the main temples of the _Parambanan_ group, with the exception of\n_tyan\u1e0di Shiva_, there was no place for these lights. The altar-shaped\npedestals of the images were much smaller there, and round about them\nthere was but little room.\n\nThis temple\u2019s walls hewn with exquisitely modelled festoons had also no\nniches, and could not have had them unless one would have partly\nsacrificed its panels. But in all other, less spacious temples whose\nwalls were unadorned, are still to be found simple and square formed\nstones, 2 of which we see in each side-wall, and 1 on every side of the\nentrance through the front wall, consequently just as the 6 niches in\n_tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut_ and equally fit to the same purpose. Had not the front\nwalls of these sanctuaries partly fallen down I am sure we then could\nsee that they also had no windows above the entrances, and that neither\nthe inner-rooms of _tyan\u1e0dis S\u00e9vu_ and _Kalasan_, nor the sanctuary of\n_tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut_ ever had them till before some years when the president\nof the \u201c_Oudheidkundige Commissie_\u201d (board of antiquarian science)\nordered these openings to be pierced through the front wall scarcely\nrebuilt by Van de Kamer. And that, _contrary_ to this architect\u2019s\nofficial objections, and against my not-official but well argued\nwarning. An irresponsible _deforming_, a _violation_ of the original\narchitecture, a _desecration_ of a primevally pure style!\n\nAnd this becomes much clearer to us when we raise our eyes, and fully\n_see_ how this polygonal hole spoils the harmony of the character of the\npyramidical vault so beautifully thought, and which I mean to have once\nknown as a closed whole.\n\nThose who contemplate this pseudo-vault unprejudicedly will no more\nregret than I do, that such a thing could have happened without having\nbeen redressed up to this date. It is true, it would cost much labour\nagain, and money too, but this labour and money would undoubtedly be far\nbetter accounted for than that which was uselessly spent to commit such\nan unpardonable mistake.\n\n_Dr._ Brandes may have been deceived by the form of the hole the\ndropping stones had made _outside_ in the front wall above the entrance,\nand which he knew from engravings only, for, when he first visited this\ntemple Van de Kamer had this wall erected again just as it once was, and\nwithout any other opening but the door. On account of analogical Indian\nruins pictured in Fournerau\u2019s and Porcher\u2019s works, I stated elsewhere\nhow the falling asunder of such walls which had been run up with hewn\nstones without mortar, are to form the very same angular lines of breach\n_Dr._ Brandes unrightly ascribed to the architect\u2019s intention to build\nthem so.\n\nIt is true that the front wall of the inner-room of _tyan\u1e0di S\u00e9vu_ makes\nus think, from its inside at least, of such a _relievo vault_, but this\nhad been entirely shut off to its outside, and consequently not likely\nto have ever done duty as a \u201clight-case\u201d[14]. Had _Dr._ Brandes taken\nvan de Kamer\u2019s objections and my warning into unprejudiced\nconsideration, this meaning of his would not have been possible.\n\n_Tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut_ has the outward appearance of a quadrangle with a\nsomewhat rectangular wing in the centre of each of its four sides.\n\nConsequently an icosahedral resting on an equally polygonal foundation\nof larger extent. The north-western forebuilding, which reached much\nfarther, and formerly had been separately roofed in, contained the porch\nto which a broad and fourteen-tread staircase will lead us even now.\nThis staircase is flanked by heavy banisters formed of composed _naga_\nand _garu\u1e0da_ heads we are going to know somewhere else.\n\nHowever, among the sculptures we see on the outer-wall, Mr. M. Foucher\nrecognised not without some reserve the main image on the _northeast_\nside as the eight-armed mah\u00e2y\u00e2nistic deity _Tyund\u00e2_ or _Tsyund\u00e2_,\nstanding between the _Bodhisattvas Avalokit\u00e9svara_ and _Manjusri_; on\nthe wall to the _south-east_ (the hind-part thus) he thought he saw\n_Avalokit\u00e9svara_ himself, four-armed, and between two _Taras_; and on\nthe _south-western_ side he saw _Tsyund\u00e2_ once more, but now four-handed\nand standing between the very same two _Bodhisattvas_ we see on the\nnorth-easterly outer-wall. On the side-panels of _this_ wall he\nrecognised the _Bodhisattva_ _Manjusri_, on the _south-east_ side\n_Vajr\u00e2pani_, the _Bodhisattva_ of the _second_ _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha_; and on\nthe outer-wall to the _south-west_ he saw _Manjusri_ again, the former\nwith his sword and the latter with his book on a blue lotus. All the\nsmall series sculptured on the outsides of these heavy stairs refer to\nancient legends.\n\n\nThe king of _Siam_ told us that in the whole of his buddhistic empire\nthere was only one image which, though much more damaged, could be\ncompared to the colossal Buddha image we see here, whilst his brother,\nprince _Damrong_, called the M\u0115ndut Buddha _priceless_.\n\nIn 1896, and afterwards in 1901, H. M. rendered due homage to the\n_Buddha_ image by a devout _s\u0115mbah_ (salaam) and by strewing\n_s\u0115mboja_-flowers (_Plumeria acutifolia_ Poir) in its lap; and so did\nthe Queen.\n\n\n\n\n                             Tyan\u1e0di Pawon.\n\n\nV.\n\nLeaving the native village of M\u0115ndut behind us, crossing shortly after\nthe small iron bridge built over the river _Elo_, and after having been\nferried over the Praga, when a mile\u2019s drive farther westward, we arrive\nat the little dukuh of _Br\u00e5j\u00e5n\u00e5l\u00e5_ (or _Br\u00e5j\u00e5nalan_) where we see the\nvery small _tyan\u1e0di Pawon_ before our having turned into the broad\n_k\u0115nari_-avenue which leads through the native village of _B\u00e5r\u00e5_ to the\nhill of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur. Some years ago this _tyan\u1e0di_ had been pulled down\nand afterwards rebuilt again. Its name which means \u201ckitchen\u201d is clear\nenough to make us understand how the Javanese would have shown the\nstriking contrast between this small temple and the other more extensive\none, as if it were a kitchen compared with a mansion or temple.\n\nWhy then was this small ruin pulled down and afterwards rebuilt again?\n\nIt once stood there under the shadow, partly upon and among the roots of\na gigantic tree, the most beautiful _randu alas_ or \u201cwild cotton-tree\u201d\n(_Bombax malabaricus_ D. C.) I ever saw. A whole, so strikingly\nbeautiful that it charmed the eyes of all who understood a little the\nlanguage of lines and forms (and colours), and of harmony and contrast.\n\u201cAn image of life which kills, and rises again from death.\u201d\n\nIn 1901 conducting the Jena professor Ernst Haeckel to this spot, when\non our journey home from the ruins of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur, this scholar so\nsensible of nature\u2019s beauty drew this rare scene in his sketch-book, and\ndevoted himself for two or three hours to the contemplation of this\ncombined creation of art and nature.\n\nAnd even to him the mutilation this majestic tree had already undergone\nin its frame of roots beautifully formed by nature, seemed to be a\nsacrilege _against_\u2014just as very long ago the destruction of ancient\nart\u2014_by_ Nature. But the latter worked quite unconsciously whereas the\nprofaning hand of man _did not_.\n\nI know full well the most insignificant remainders of this ancient Art\nto be of great value to Science; as well as the creations of Nature; in\nmy opinion however, it would have been by no means necessary to fell\nthis gigantic tree in order to preserve this small produce of art,\nthough others with a less developed sense for nature\u2019s beauty may be\ninclined to think otherwise.\n\nThe architect van de Kamer, one of the two members of the former\nB\u00e5r\u00e5budur Committee however, did not. He also thought it wrong to\nsacrifice this tree \u201cnot because the ruin doesn\u2019t show us anything else\nwe don\u2019t know better preserved elsewhere; but because it might have been\npulled down stone by stone, and then ... rebuilt again _without_ killing\nthe tree itself.\u201d That which had been hidden under the ... tree on the\nnorth side was crushed long ago, and I therefore thought the felling\ndown of this tree a useless deed and _consequently_ a mistake. Attending\nin 1900 the Dutch Governor-general _Roozeboom_ to these ruins we were\nphotographed under this tree by his adjutant the naval officer _de\nBooy_, but the photographic productions soon faded. The following year I\naccompanied the _Padang_ photographer C. Nieuwenhuis to _tyan\u1e0di Pawon_\nspending one night in the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur pasanggrahan (resthouse). Next day\nhe successfully succeeded in photographing the glorious group which\nstill speaks of the truth I asserted, though the tree itself has been\nlost for ever.\n\n\nThe small ruin has some conformity to the many, almost as large grave\ntemples, which surround the main temple of _tyan\u1e0di S\u00e9vu_, in Parambanan\nvalley, in four rectangles. Probably, also to those surrounding the\nterrace of the larger ruins of the _Parambanan_ group in three\nquadrangles, still, these are no truisms, because out of the 157 small\n_tyan\u1e0dis_ we dug up we found nothing else but their foundations only,\nand a few altar-shaped pedestals (without any escape-pipe for the\nholy-water the different sculptures were aspersed with, so that these\npedestals are likely to have carried Buddha images) such as are to be\nseen in the small temples of _tyan\u1e0di S\u00e9vu_. Other ones now adorn the\npremises of the residences of leaseholders living in these environs, for\ninstance, at the _tyan\u1e0di S\u00e9vu_ sugar-factory.\n\nBut this conformity is not a perfect one.\n\nA small square room with a very small porch we enter by means of some\nnarrow treads flanked by the _Garu\u1e0da-Naga_ ornament, but this room is\nempty and unadorned, and I haven\u2019t known it otherwise for more than 30\nyears. There is only a shallow niche in each side-wall in front of the\nplace where once may have stood a pedestal and image.\n\nOn account of their height and breadth I estimated these niches too\nshallow for an image, a long time ago, and before I knew their\ndestination. Just as in tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut these niches may have been\nconsequently used to light the inner-part by means of little bronze or\nearthenware lamps we also found elsewhere, and all this in spite of the\nvery small and narrow air-openings, even those in the back wall which,\nthough newly covered, only admit a very dim light now that the small\nporch, separately roofed in, has been rebuilt and covered again even\nwhen the two small doors remained open.\n\nI suppose that, just as in other such tyan\u1e0dis, there must have stood in\nthis dark inner-room opposite to the (westerly) entrance a small cubic\npedestal without any sidelong escape-pipe, and thereupon a small image\nof the Buddha or of another buddhistic greatness. Beneath there, in a\nsmall square pit, may have been buried an urn containing the ashes of a\n_guru_ or of some monk of high standing, and finally I suppose this\nsmall mausoleum to have been built by their surviving relations who\n_generally_ but not _slavishly_ kept within the provision of the\nexisting examples of such a style of building.\n\nThe outer-walls of this small temple have been also hewn with\ndemi-relievoes of _Bodhisattvas_ and _bodhi_-trees with _gandharvas_.\n\nIt is an extraordinary thing that even the entrance of this\nincontestably true buddhistic temple had not been made on the east side\nbut to the west. But as for the small tyan\u1e0dis _S\u00e9vu_ and _Parambanan_\nthey also did not follow this rule.\n\n\n\n\n                           Tyan\u1e0di B\u00e5r\u00e5budur.\n\n\nVI.\n\nAfter having walked through the umbrageous _k\u0115nari_-avenue and the\nvillage of _B\u00e5r\u00e5_ which we meet on our way when starting from the dukuh\nof _Br\u00e5j\u00e5n\u00e5l\u00e5_, we shall arrive within half an hour at the hill upon\nwhich we see stand the pasanggrahan, and the colossal ruin. By carriage\nin less than a quarter of an hour.\n\nThe first sight of this wonder of architecture is a rather disappointing\none because, when standing at the end of the avenue, we only perceive\nthe outer-walls of its south-easterly angle.\n\nBut this becomes quite otherwise as soon as we have reached the top of\nthe hill, and got out of our carriages in front of the mentioned\npasanggrahan lying opposite the north-west corner of the ruin, but which\nhas been built as high as its foot. We then overlook the enormous mass\nof stone gradually developing itself in majestic lines and forms, in all\nthe terraces, following each other in a regular range of succession till\nwe see rise in their centre the high cupola now covered again by a cone\nwith three sun-shades[15].\n\nIf we want to understand the overwhelming beauty of this ruin we must\nfirst try to know the whole in its different parts, and best of all,\nexamine to what purpose this work of art had been produced by the\nBuddhists of Central Java who are said to have existed there more than\neleven centuries ago.\n\nI suppose that, when their predecessors left India for Java, they are\nlikely to have brought a vase or urn containing some real or pretended\nashes of the Buddha himself in order to bury them under a simple hill or\nin an artless _dagob_ as soon as they had reached the place of their\nsettling, to render these ashes to the worship of the believers, and to\nmake them suppose as if this hill or cairn were the real grave of the\nMaster himself.\n\n    [Illustration: The Tyan\u1e0di B\u00e5r\u00e5budur (N. W. front).]\n\nBut after a lapse of an uncountable number of years or, perhaps some\ncenturies, this colony became a large and powerful empire, and\u2014just as\nthe Christians first assembled in grottoes or catacombs, and afterwards\nbuilt churches rich and magnificent like St. Peter\u2019s at Rome, and the\nCologne cathedral\u2014the Buddhists also disregarded their simple cairn, and\nwanted something better, something more worthy and beautiful, in\nconsequence of which they built a _dagob_ large and in solemn style,\nsurrounded by many gradually descending terraces, walled in and covered\nwith sculptures abundantly hewn, which was to speak, with the clearness\nof plastic art or in the poetic language of symbolism, of the Master and\nhis doctrine, of the Redeemer and redemption, of life\u2019s insufficiency\nand of victory after death.[16]\n\nHe who would approach this dagob to sacrifice his flowers to the Buddha,\nto meditate his life there, and perhaps, to utter his homage in a\nprayer[17] was obliged to mount all these terraces, and walk along these\nsculptures which became, as it were, a revival of the Buddha and his\ndoctrine which taught him the dissolving in the _nirv\u00e2na_, the\napproaching of the infinite _not-to-be_ as the end purpose of all life,\nand the deliverance of all the miseries of a sensual existence[18].\n\nMany a sculpture reminded him there that self-conquest, self-command,\nsingleness and purity of heart, veracity and meekness, and the love for\nall beings, either man or beast, were to lead him to that final purpose.\n\nAnd if not blind with his eyes open, he reached at last the Master\u2019s\ngrave in a frame of mind so pure and noble, so serious and well-meant\nthat the pilgrimage itself became a step on the right path.\n\nBut not always, and not to every one.\n\nFor even the impressions received there were of a transient kind, and it\nmay be that many a one who went there for form\u2019s or appearances\u2019 sake\nonly, remained as insensible of these impressions as he was of the\nmajestic vista the highest terraces displayed deep down and far off on\nthe surrounding mountains, valleys and plains, a view most astonishing,\nand culminating in the satisfaction of mounting the ruin even at this\nday.\n\nLet us now follow the way the pilgrim took, and mount the hill which\ncarries this heavy mass of stone.\n\nStanding on the small plain at its north-west corner, in front of the\n_pasanggrahan_ where we now find comparatively nice accommodation, and\nwhere once may have stood the cloister or dwelling of the monks who took\ncare of the _st\u00fbpa_, we overlook the whole scene: a polygonal mass of\ndark-grey stone, a chaos of dome-shaped roofs and cones, of re-entering\nwalls and projecting frame work, crowned by a higher situated\nmiddle-cupola the lost cone of which van Erp renewed after the copy of\nfound fragments, but which was afterwards removed again.\n\nWe approach and ascend the outer-terrace, a tridodecahedral or rather a\nquadrangle, each side projecting twice outside in the shape of a\nrectangle, and encircling the equally polygonal temple.\n\nThis terrace has nothing to do with the original style of building. For\nabout two yards deeper there lies another one, formerly extending three\nyards farther to outside, but now for the greater part hidden under a\nburden of 5500 cubic metres of stone[19].\n\nSupposing now this lower terrace to be some two yards deeper on, we then\narrive at the (probably) original outer terrace; but as its uncovered\nouter part has been lost since, we now can\u2019t possibly ascertain its\nbounds.\n\nWhen, according to my schematism offered to the Dutch Government by the\nboard of directors of the \u201c_Oudheidkundige Vereeniging_\u201d, the upper\nseries were dug up (1890) and the _lower-part_ of the ruin\u2019s outer wall\nhad been uncovered, we found there heavy frames and bands, and\nunderneath a series of 160 images much better hewn than the\ndemi-relievoes, and for the greater part well preserved under their firm\ncovering. Some years ago we had not the slightest idea of their\nexistence. I proposed the Dutch Government to have them photographed so\nthat they now have come within the range of the study of\narchaeologists[20].\n\nIt therefore appears that the first outer-terrace must have been twice\nheightened at its original foot, that is, before the last planned\nimageries had been entirely finished at its foot or hardly sketched.\n\nAnd this must have been done by the Buddhists themselves to assure,\nperhaps, firmer foundations to the whole building[21].\n\nBut let us now return to the outer-terrace we mounted. In former times\nit must have been surrounded by a heavy breast-work which now has\ndisappeared altogether.\n\nIn the centre of each side this parapet was replaced by the upper step\nof a staircase on two sides closed in by means of heavy banisters.\n\nThe banisters of such stairs ended into _n\u00e2ga_ heads with turned\nelephant\u2019s trunks and gave entrance to the lower heightening.\n\nOut of all still existing stairs, and upon those we now find ourselves\nthere are other ones leading over all the higher terraces to the large\nmiddle-dagob we can still reach along this path without being obliged to\nwalk all round these galleries, and without passing the imageries\nstanding there.\n\nOn our first way we therefore only walk about part of the outer-terrace,\nalong the north- and half east-side, and it is on _this_ side that we\nshall mount the stair which will bring us to the very first gallery\n(also walled in on its outside) on the second terrace. And we shall find\nthere the starting-point of _four_ different series of alto-relievoes of\nwhich some prepare each other in regular succession.\n\nYet, these imageries, more or less reviving the heavy outer-wall _above_\nthe outer terrace, and consequently standing comparatively high above\nthe _lower series_ we uncovered in 1890 (now covered again) don\u2019t tell\nus any story or legend, but allude to symbolical ornaments only.\n\nNotwithstanding, they can\u2019t be said to be without sense, though we may\nnot readily understand them.\n\nThey represent numberless, but continually modified repetitions of some\nmotives: a man seated near an incense-offering or a flower-vase, and a\nman standing between two women, nymphs or servants; both scenes every\ntime separated by a single woman\u2019s image provided with a lotus or\nanother symbol. This lotus may refer to female _Bodhisattvas_, otherwise\nI should be inclined to think of _apsarasas_ or celestials, because I\ndon\u2019t see any reason for so many _Bodhisattv\u00ees_. And yet, why not,\nprovided that they are not taken as personal, legendary or historical\n_Bodhisattv\u00ees_.\n\nDon\u2019t we also find them in other ruins (_tyan\u1e0di Parambanan_, and _tyan\u1e0di\nS\u00e9vu_), and in the _Sari_ and _P\u0115lahosan_ cloisters?[22].\n\nAnd on the top of the heavy cornice covering these imageries, stand\u2014or\nformerly stood\u2014from distance to distance, just above the sacrificers,\nsmall temples of a completely similar form, each of them containing a\ndeep niche, wherein a Buddha image on a lotus-throne provided with the\n_prabha_ or disc behind his head.\n\nA square spire with screen-shaped stories reminding us of the Siam\npagodae or of some _tyaityas_ also represented on the imageries of our\ntemple, crowned each small temple which had been flanked by two wings\nwith similar but lower spires. And between every two small niche-temples\nstood\u2014or stands\u2014, just above the groups of the three small images, an\naltar-shaped stone-block, covered by a bell-shaped _dagob_ which has or\nhad been crowned with a conical column.\n\nThe _front_ part of each of these dagob-pedestals has been adorned with\na sitting man\u2019s or woman\u2019s image with a flower-vase or an\nincense-offering, or with both of them.\n\nThe _back_ parts of these niche- and dagob temples formed\u2014and they\npartly still form\u2014an (formerly) uninterrupted cornice which carried the\nsmall spires and the dagobs, and beneath, a single wall-opening which,\nfollowing all the re-enterings of the tridodecahedral, was only\ninterrupted by the four doorways which showed us a repetition (on a\nlarger scale) of the small niche-temples.\n\nThese stairs were and _are still_ the weak points of the architecture.\n\nDissimilar as they are in height and depth of the steps, they sometimes\noccupy the greater part of the floor of the surrounding galleries. Even\nthe doorways once covering them from terrace to terrace, but which now\nhave for the greater part disappeared, were less proportioned to the\nwhole, and therefore not always equally rich in style, and beauty. It\nstill appears from that which has remained that the side-posts of these\ndoorways\u2014just as those of each niche\u2014had been formed by the serpent\u2019s\nbodies of two _n\u00e2gas_ whose tails ended into the mule of a monster-head\nwe saw above the doorway. We already came across this very same motif on\nour walk round the niches, and on the banisters of _tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut_ and\n_tyan\u1e0di Pawon_, and find it back in all the Buddha temples in Java,\nespecially in those of the plain of _Parambanan_, and in the ruins of\nthe temple group of this name whose buddhistic character will not be\neasily acknowledged. At the foot of the doorway (or of the niche) these\n_n\u00e2ga_-heads ended into outward turned mythical monster-heads which, at\nfirst sight remind us of elephants rather than of snake-like animals,\nbecause their upper lips generally (not always) change into a trunk\ncurled up on their foreheads. Wilhelm von Humboldt and after him all\nEuropean examiners, among whom the Dutch scholar Leemans, therefore took\nthese monstrous figures for elephant\u2019s heads without perceiving however,\nthat they changed into serpent\u2019s bodies when seen on the side-posts of\nthe doorways; they also didn\u2019t see the relation there was between these\nheads and the monster-head above the doorways and niches.\n\nMany years ago I had been misguided myself, and in the beginning I even\ndefended my error against the king of Siam who was, for all I know, the\nonly one that disputed this, and H. M. succeeded in convincing me by\nlogical argumentation.\n\nIn this ornament the _n\u00e2ga_ represents a power inimical to buddhism, and\nthe monster which conquers this power by crushing the enemy\u2019s tail\nshould be, according to the Siam opinion, _Rahu_ who also tries to\ndevour the sun during every eclipse.\n\n\nThis is comprehensible because this _Rahu_ has always been represented\nas a head only, and after that his body severed from his head by\n_Vishnu_\u2019s tyakra, had fallen into the sea and perished.\n\nWhen I afterwards communicated this explanation of the royal Buddhist to\nthe members of the _Mission arch\u00e9ologique de l\u2019Indo-Chine_, this\nmission\u2019s director (who afterwards became the first director of the\n_\u00c9cole fran\u00e7aise d\u2019Extr\u00eame Orient_), Mr. _Louis Finot_, the great\nindo-archaeologist, (even according to professor _Kern_) thought this\nmonster-head didn\u2019t represent _Rahu_ but _Garu\u1e0da_, the destroyer of the\n_n\u00e2gas_. And when I argued I had always seen this _w\u00e2hana_, god\n_Vishnu_\u2019s riding animal or eagle, represented as a bird or as man-bird\nprovided with wings and claws or at least with the beak of a bird of\nprey, the French-Indian scholar assured me he did know _Vishnu_\u2019s\nrepresentations seated on such a monster-head only[23].\n\nIt was _I_ who afterwards found such _garu\u1e0da_-heads with claws of a bird\nof prey (with 3 or sometimes 4 front-toes).\n\nAs for the rest _Garu\u1e0da_ is the deity\u2019s faithful servant, and, according\nto the Buddhists of the northern church, Vishnu must have revealed\nhimself in their _Buddha_ for the ninth time. He is also the natural\ndefender of this church, and the destroyer of its subterranean enemy.\n\nIn the form of the Javanese _k\u0115ris_ (creese) I found, for about seven\nyears ago, the _n\u00e2ga_ mostly adorned with a proboscis and an elephant\u2019s\nlip which may be taken as an indisputable proof of the truth of our idea\nabout this n\u00e2ga-symbol.\n\nBut we are standing, in front of the eastern staircase, or before that\nwhich has remained of it.\n\n    [Illustration: Northern staircase of the ruin of the _B\u00e5r\u00e5budur_,\n    with the gate leading from the fourth polygonal and surrounding\n    terrace to the round ones and the high middle-_dagob_. The only gate\n    which has remained intact, with the _Garu\u1e0da-N\u00e2ga_ ornament on its\n    frontside.]\n\nEven the beautiful banisters rising from above, out of a monster\u2019s mule,\nand ending in a n\u00e2ga-head with trunk curled up, are no more to be\nseen[24].\n\nEight high steps lead us to the _first_ gallery.\n\nThe very first thing we see is that the two walls are hewn with two\nseries of imageries richly framed, and placed above each other, whilst\nit is clear to be seen that this must have been done after that these\nwalls had been run up from their combination of stone-blocks, and that\nan uninterrupted band of exquisite festoons has been affixed above these\nsculptures under the cornice of the _back_-wall.\n\nBecause of their having been modelled in relief style all these\nsculptures are therefore no _basso_ but _alto-relievoes_.\n\n\nThe upper series of the front wall covers the somewhat declining back\nparts of the mentioned niche- and dagob temples.\n\nOn the back wall we see similar temple-groups, but _all of them_, even\nthe small niche-temples, are crowned with dagobs and cones.\n\nThe three following and higher walls also carry such temple-groups, and\nbeneath the cornices of the outer-walls we see a band modified for each\nwall, but always beautifully thought, and formed of elegant rosettes and\nguirlandes with birds.\n\nOn the five encircling walls of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur we see no less than 432\nniches provided with Buddha-images we are going to speak about\nafterwards[25].\n\nWe now turn to the left in order to begin our walk along the sculptures\nof the _upper_ series of the _back_-wall.\n\nThis wall is the only one that has remained almost wholly preserved,\nshowing us a comparatively well explained row of following events which\ngive us an idea about the life of the Buddha _Siddh\u00e2rta Gautama_, the\n_Sh\u00e2kyamuni_, from beginning to end[26].\n\nOut of these 120 sculptures we can only give a superficial description\nof a few of them that have been explained best.\n\nThose of the lower series and of the _two_ rows on the front wall of\nthis gallery, and the _few_ rows of the two walls of the three following\ngalleries we shall pass in silence. Not yet _all_ of them have been\nexplained, and many a sculpture has been so badly damaged that it\ndoesn\u2019t seem possible to explain them. Other ones are lost at all. That\nwhich remained well preserved generally represents a worship of the\nBuddha, of dagobs or tyaityas, of _bodhi_-trees, or perhaps of different\nrelics. Sometimes they also show us a distribution of viands, or other\npresents, a preaching, a fable about animals or a scene from the former\nlives of the Buddha as man or beast, or certain _Bodhisattvas_ or divine\npredecessors of the Buddha, the Redeemer of this world[27].\n\nSome sculptures are likely to be mere symbols. Formerly their number\namounted to more than 2000[28].\n\nLet us begin our walk to the left of the eastern staircase in order to\nreturn to our starting-point following the course of _the sun of the\nnorthern hemisphere_[29], going through the South, West and North. This\norder of succession regulated after this sun, we always find back on\nthese and other Hindu ruins; more or less a witness of the _northern_\norigin of Javanese Buddhism[30].\n\nThe Siamese also followed this direction, and maintained that a walk to\nthe _right_ of the Buddha or the dagob, consequently with our left side\nturned to it, would show our ignorance or want of respect.\n\nFor convenience\u2019 sake, and in order to assist the visitor in finding the\nfew sculptures, we shall always count them from the preceding staircase\nor from the first till the ninth wall-angle, and begin with the eastern\nstaircase.\n\nThe first scenes relate that which preceded Buddha\u2019s life.\n\nThe fourth sculpture of the series (No. 7 of Wilsen\u2019s pictures in Dr.\nLeemans\u2019 work), or 1 after the _first_ angle, may be, according to\nFoucher, some of the many _Pratyeka-Buddhas_[31] in the park of gazelles\nnear B\u00e9nar\u00e8s, and, when a deity informs them the birth on earth of a\nconsummate _Buddha_, one of them rises from his lotus-throne in order to\nbe burned by his own shine and ascetic diligence when seven elbows\nhigher in the air. The former explanation given by Leemans and myself,\naccording to Wilsen\u2019s, was inaccurate.\n\nFurther towards the South we meet more than one representation of\nBuddha\u2019s parents, the _Sh\u00e2kya_ king of _Kapilavastu_, _Shudh\u00f3dana_, and\nhis first wife _M\u00e2y\u00e2_, honoured for the coming event, the next birth of\nthe divine son.\n\nThe _twelfth_ (23 W. L., 1 after the _fourth_ angle) is a symbolical\nindication of Buddha\u2019s descent from heaven in a palanquin moved on in\nthe air by celestials.\n\nThe _thirteenth_ (25 W. L., 2 after the _fourth_ angle) shows us _M\u00e2y\u00e2_\nasleep, guarded by female servants, receiving the Buddha in a dream, in\nthe shape of a white elephant carried by lotus-cushions, descending from\nheaven into her lap[32].\n\nThe _twenty-seventh_ (53 W. L. _eighth_ angle, 1) shows us _M\u00e2y\u00e2_ on her\njourney to her paternal home. According to time-honoured usage she goes\nthere to wait for her confinement. However, she doesn\u2019t come any farther\nthan _Lumbini_ garden, and the following sculpture (55 W. L. angle\n_nine_, 1) tells us how she, while standing there under a tree, saw the\nBuddha born from her side, and how the latter _immediately took seven\nsteps to each of the four zones of heaven, and as many steps to the\nzenith_, and that as a sign of his next authority over the _five_ parts\nof the world[33].\n\nA rain of lotus flowers falls upon him, and lotus-plants open themselves\nunder his feet on each step he takes. The crescent of the moon on the\nhind part of his head must refer to his heavenly or perhaps princely\norigin[34].\n\nOn the following sculptures we see the young king\u2019s son, most times on\nhis father\u2019s knees, honoured by brahmins and laymen. His mother is no\nmore to be seen, because she (as every Buddha-mother) died seven days\nafter his birth.\n\nThe thirty-first sculpture (61 W. L., 1 after the southern staircase)\nmay refer to the brahmin who perceives the Buddha-tokens at Siddh\u00e2rta\u2019s\nbody, and predicts his next greatness; however, in quite another sense\nthan the king wishes.\n\nOn 77 and 79 (W. L., angle _two_, 5 and 6) we perceive similar scenes,\nbut this happens more after all.\n\nThe _forty-ninth_ (97 W. L., angle _five_, 4) on the westside sketches\nus Siddh\u00e2rta\u2019s authority over others, and also as for manly strength. In\na wedding match (_svayamvara_) he bends a bow no other can bend, and\nsends his arrow through seven cocoa trees. On this ground he gains the\nhand of his cousin Rashodara, the most beautiful girl of all Sh\u00e2kya\nvirgins[35].\n\nFour other sculptures refer to the four encounters outside the palace,\nwhich, in spite of paternal precautions, showed him life\u2019s misery. What\nthen would be the use of these precautions to celestial beings who only\nrevealed themselves to him, and to his equerry and guide in order to\npersuade the next Buddha in giving up all worldly greatness and domestic\nhappiness; in leaving his father and family, and gaining strength in a\nlife of retirement, of privation and expiation, of self-denial and\nself-command in order to finish his heavenly task: the redemption of\nsuffering mankind!\n\nOutside the _eastern_ gate he first comes across a decrepit grey-head\n(111 W. L., 6 after the _seventh_ angle); afterwards, on his drive from\nthe _southern_ gate, he meets a sick one in death-struggle (113 W. L.,\nangle 8, 1); and when he finds himself outside the _western_ entrance a\ncorpse shows him the end of life (115 W. L., angle _nine_, 1), and\nfinally, outside the _northern_ gate, a mendicant friar or _bhikshu_\nteaches him as how to gain the victory over life and death, and find\npeace by ruling all carnal desires (117 W. L., angle _nine_, 2).\n\nOn the sixty-first sculpture (121 W. L., 1 after the _western_\nstaircase) he discusses his resolution with his disappointed father. The\nsleeping watchmen or servants refer to the night which passes on\ndiscussing the subject.\n\nOn the two following sculptures (123 and 125 W. L., 2 and 3 after the\nstaircase) he communicates his resolution to his wife (or wives), and\nhis meditating posture, but also the larger disc of light crowning the\nhigher seat upon which, among sleeping women and servants, he is\nwatching the last night, all this speaks of the holy task of life which\nraises him for ever above his family.\n\nThe following scene (127 W. L., 1 after the _first_ angle) tells us,\nhow, in spite of closed doors and sleeping gate-keepers, he succeeds in\nleaving house and home to begin abroad the life of a poor wanderer\nseated on the noble sun-horse Kanthaka. The lotus-cushion carrying him\nagain, just as it happened when he descended to earth, and which, on the\nnext sculptures (129 W. L., 1 after the _second_ corner) also carries\nKanthaka through the air, speaks once more of his heavenly sending.\n\nThen come the leave-takings from his servant Tyhanda (131 W. L.,\n_second_ angle, 2), and the taking off his princely garb (133 W. L.,\n_second_ angle, 3), his hair-dress and weapons (135 W. L., _second_\nangle 4 and following ones), and shabbily clothed in a hunter\u2019s\nskirt\u2014his first cowl turned yellow by long usage\u2014he begins the life of\nthe thinking ascetic whose sanctifying power we see continually\nindicated by the lotus-cushion and the disc of light.\n\nM\u00e2ra, the wicked spirit of darkness, vainly tries to check him by\noffering him the dominion over the four parts of the world (the East,\nSouth, West, and North)[36].\n\nFar from his native town Siddh\u00e2rta already began his new life which\nhenceforth gave him claim to the name of the _wise Sh\u00e2kya_\n(Sh\u00e2kya-muni)[37].\n\nThe following sculptures show us the penitent clothed as _Buddha_ with\nthe _urna_ and the _tiara_, the ring of hair on his forehead, and the\nknot of hair on his crest, with the lotus-cushion and disc of the sun\nworshipped by princes and inferior people, by priests and laymen, men,\nwomen and celestials.\n\nOn the _seventy-second_ sculpture (141 W. L., angle _three_, 1) we see\nhim ask for being instructed by the wise brahmin Alara who is unable to\nteach his wiser superior[38]. The _Sh\u00e2kya_\u2019s superiority appears from\nhis Buddha posture and his lotus-throne.\n\nOn the now following one [143 W. L., 1 after the _fourth_ angle] we see\nhim near another wise person, called Udraka[39], and as this one also\nturns out to be his inferior he leaves him accompanied by _five_ of his\n[Udraka\u2019s] disciples.\n\nOn the following one [145 W. L., 2 after the _fourth_ angle] he\napproaches _Rajargriha_[40], the capital of the empire of _Magadha_. Its\nking Bimbis\u00e2ra and the queen come to visit him, and offer him half their\nempire, but the Bodhisattva doesn\u2019t seek for worldly greatness.\n\nThe two first scenes on the north side [151 and 153 W. L., _fifth_\nangle, 1 and 2] place him and his five followers on the banks of a\nbrook, vainly trying to seek strength [for wisdom] in a life of\nabstinence and penitence. He therefore breaks with that life and with\nhis disciples, who wrongly suppose him an apostate and leave him alone\nto continue elsewhere their lives of penitence. Six years of misery\nconvinced the wise _Sh\u00e2kya_ that a sound spirit can live in a sound body\nonly.\n\nThe sculptor of these scenes incorrigibly hewed the disciples\u2019 dislike\nin their Master\u2019s changed opinion, which is to be seen in their\nspokesman\u2019s posture. The hands of this man are a masterpiece of\nexpression. It would be a loss never to be remedied if these hands were\ntaken away, which, after all, would be of no value to the robber because\nthey can\u2019t give back the proportion to their arms and bodies. Nothing,\nhowever, is safe from the rapaciousness of foolish tourists-compilers.\n\nThe _eighty-first_ sculpture [161 W. L., angle _seven_, 1] teaches us\nhow Suj\u00e2t\u00e2, the daughter of a village headman, takes care of the\npenitent, almost dying from exhaustion, and how she refreshes him with\nnutritive milk.\n\nWe see an almost similar representation on the _eighty-fourth_ sculpture\n[167 W. L., angle _seven_, 4]. Such repetitions are more to be seen,\nthough they are rare ones.\n\nThe _Sh\u00e2kya_ _Muni_ accomplished his purpose at last. He got all\nknowledge, and truth became his power. He has ripened to appear as\n_Buddha_, the _Enlightened_, the _awaking luminary celestial_, to come\nin the world wrapped in darkness, to teach the true doctrine, the\n_dharma_, and redeem mankind from sin.\n\nSeated on a heap of bulrush, under a fig-tree, afterwards sanctified as\nthe _tree of knowledge_, the _bodhidruma_, he fights his last fight\nagainst the Evil Spirit which he knows to conquer once more; and the\nlatter budges from his side for ever.\n\nOn the _ninety-fourth_ sculpture [187 W. L., the first after the _first_\nangle after the _western_ staircase] we see how the weapons of demons or\nfalse deities fall upon him as harmless flowers. A second and larger\ndisc speaks of his increasing power, the magnificence of the sun rising\nin full glory.\n\nThe following sculpture (189 W L., after the _second_ angle) tells us\nhow M\u00e2ra tries to conquer him by the charmingness of his daughters, the\n_apsarasas_ (the rosy morning-mists) (Kern). But though one of these\nnymphs adopts the shape of Yash\u00f3dar\u00e2, R\u00e2hula-_mata_ (the mother of\nR\u00e2hula, Siddh\u00e2rta\u2019s son), he henceforth lives a life of _love_ highly\nbeneficial to all beings.\n\nTeaching and honoured he goes to _Banaras_ (_B\u00e9nar\u00e8s_) such as the last\nsculptures on the north side will show us.\n\nOn the _one hundred and seventeenth_ (233 W. L., _eighth_ angle, 1) he\nproclaims truth to the five disciples found back, and now for ever his\nfaithful followers and first apostles[41].\n\nThe three last sculptures of the whole series which bring us back again\nto our starting-point near the eastern staircase, speak of Buddha\u2019s\ngreatness, but don\u2019t refer to his journey to the native-town and to the\nreclaiming of father and son, of his wife and step-mother, the first\nbuddhistic nuns. The last sculpture but one (237 W. L., 2 after the\n_ninth_ and _last_ angle) speaks of his death, for the washing of his\ncorpse hewn there, may only apply to his _death_, though the sitting\nposture of the dead one may seem in flat defiance of this.[42] But this\nposture on the lotus-throne, with his two hands in his lap, is the\nposture of meditation or perfect rest suiting the _nirv\u00e2na_ which is\nalso the posture of the fourth _Dhy\u00e2ni-buddha_, Amit\u00e2bha, hewn on the\nfour lower-walls and dominating there the West, opposite to the setting\nsun speaking in a symbolical sense of the finished task of life.\n\nBehind the dead one we see stand two _monks_ pouring their vases to\npurify the corpse before the cremation will make an end to his material\nexistence.\n\nOn the last sculpture (239 W. L., 3 after the _last_ angle) the Buddha\nthrones in the very same posture, as the glorification of death, as the\nimmortal _Talh\u00e2gata_ who, in spite of his material death, continues to\nlive in his holy doctrine, and who can never die as such.\n\nThat the study of Foucher\u2019s work could also assist me in finding the\nsense of some other not comprehended sculptures may appear from the 5^th\npanel after the 7^th angle past the eastern staircase, which shows us\nthe killing of Siddh\u00e2rta\u2019s elephant by his angry nephew Dervadatta.\n\n\nVIII.\n\nWhen, for more than thirty years ago, I began to study the majestic\nruin, I thought (like I afterwards wrote[43] in my first essay about the\nB\u00e5r\u00e5budur) many other imageries, at least those of the undermost series\nof the back wall, and those of the uppermost row on the front wall of\nthis first gallery, to be the representations of Buddha\u2019s former lives,\nof the j\u00e2takas of the man honoured by all the Buddhists of the northern\nand the southern church as the Redeemer of this world, the Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha\nof the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists, for the last time reincarnated for about 25\ncenturies ago, and who enjoyed the rest of the nirv\u00e2na after having\nfinished his heavenly task, but in order to reveal himself once more to\na future world, that is, as the Redeemer of not yet existing beings.\n\nWhen in July 1896 I attended the king of _Siam for three days on his\njourney to the ruins_, this royal Buddhist expressed the same\nsupposition, especially with regard to the lower series on the back wall\nof this first gallery.\n\nBut I could not possibly study these _j\u00e2takas_ as long as I didn\u2019t know\nany translation of the original _sanscrit-_ or _p\u00e2li_ text[44] in one of\nthe languages known to me.\n\nIn 1893 professor J. S. Speyer published in the \u201c_Bydragen van \u2019t\nKoninklijk Instituut_\u201d an English translation of 34 of these legends\nderived from a sanscrit manuscript, the so-called J\u00e2takam\u00e2la or the\n_wreath of birth stories_[45].\n\nAnd in the same \u201c_Bijdragen_\u201d, but in those of 1897, professor Kern gave\na translation of an essay which had appeared from the hand of the\nRussian Orientalist Sergius E. Oldenburg\u2014as far as it concerned the\nB\u00e5r\u00e5budur\u2014who discussed the representations of a few _j\u00e2takas_ on\ndifferent monuments whereas Dr. _Kern_ had been so kind as to inform me\nof them by letter.\n\nIt therefore became possible for me to recognise in the two mentioned\nseries some of the legends treated in Speyer\u2019s _J\u00e2takam\u00e2l\u00e2_, and\nmoreover, show some other ones elsewhere.\n\nAnd five years ago Speyer gave at length a full account of the\n_Maitrakanyaka_ legend superficially treated by Oldenburg, and hewn on\nsix sculptures of the _lower_ series on the back wall. Oldenburg\nhowever, had only mentioned five of them.\n\nIn November 1899 I visited the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur in order to examine all these\nsculptures one by one, that is, in as much as they still existed and had\nnot been lost or damaged, or no more to be recognized since the\nengravings studied by Oldenburg had been drawn in Leemans\u2019 work.\n\nIt is a pity that these drawings are not exactly true ones, and not to\nbe relied upon, but we shall afterwards speak about them.\n\nAs short as possible I shall successively treat these sculptures,\nmentioning again their numbers they refer to when counted from the\npreceding staircase, and afterwards from the first till the ninth\nreentering or projecting wall angle, and begin again from the _eastern_\nstaircase, and walk towards the South. Doing this I\u2019ll have to count in\nthe disappeared and consequently _missing_ sculptures\u2014and many of them\nhave been lost on the front wall\u2014, because otherwise the numbers after\neach new loss would become quite worthless. _Corner_-sculptures are\nthose which occupy the two sides of a wall angle, in Leemans\u2019 engravings\ndivided in two by a perpendicular line.\n\nLet us begin with the upper series on the front wall after the _eastern_\nstaircase.\n\n_Second_ corner, 3, 4 and 5 (W. L., 16, 17, and 18.)[46].\n\nThe Lord once lived as a _rich man_ who did much good. One day rising\nfrom table to fill the beggar\u2019s bag of a monk, M\u00e2ra, the Evil Spirit,\nopened a precipice before his feet wherein he saw hell flaming. But the\nLord steps through this precipice, remains uninjured, and favors the\nmonk, in reality a _Praty\u00e9ka-Buddha_, a heavenly saint, with a gift and\nthe latter afterwards disappears in a brilliant cloud.\n\nOn 3 we see the benefactor with his gifts, on 4 he steps through hell,\nand on 5 the monk ascends to heaven.\n\nHell is represented here by condemned persons in a cauldron with boiling\ncontents.\n\n_Second_ corner 11 and 12 (W. L. 24 and 25). The _Bodhisattva_ once\nlived as a hare in a wilderness frequented by many hermits. Her\nauthority over all other animals was honoured even in heaven.\n\nIn order to put her to the test, Indra, the god, descends to her in the\nshape of an exhausted traveller. An otter brings him fish, a jackal\npresents him with a lizard and a cup of sour milk (left behind by\nanother traveller), and a monkey favors him with juicy fruit to refresh\nthe man. But the hare who could give nothing else but bitter grass flung\nherself into a fire (burned by Indra\u2019s will) in order to be taken by the\npoor man as roasted food. But now Indra shows himself again in his\ndivine shape, saves the hare out of the flames, and carries her to\nheaven in order to adorn his own palace, and that of the _d\u00e9vas_, and\nalso the moon, with the hare\u2019s picture[47].\n\nOn 11 the animals carry their presents to _Indra_, and on 12 the hare is\ngoing to fling herself into the fire.\n\n\n_Second_ corner, 18, the corner-sculpture and 1 and 2 after the _third_\ncorner (W. L., 31, 32, 33 and 34).\n\nThe Lord as a _king_ of a happy people. Five _yakshas_ (demons),\nexpelled from _Kuvera_\u2019s kingdom, the subterranean god of riches, come\nto tempt him in order to ruin him. They ask him for a good meal, but\nrefuse the best things the king offers them, and demand human blood and\nhuman flesh.\n\nThe Lord doesn\u2019t wish to let them go unsatisfied, but he is not inclined\nto sacrifice one of his subjects, and therefore offers them his own\nblood and flesh in spite of his ministers\u2019 and courtiers\u2019 resistance.\n\nThe demons reclaim themselves and acknowledge the king\u2019s holiness, he\nthen admonishes them not to do wrong in future, but only that which is\ngood (also, among others, to leave off drinking intoxicants).\n\nIndra descends from heaven to praise the Lord and to close his wounds.\n\nOn 18 and on the corner-sculpture the _yakshas_ come across a herd who\npraises the king\u2019s virtues. On 1 and 2 we see them near the king.\n\nThese five _yakshas_ were afterwards reincarnated men, and became the\nfirst disciples who followed and left again the _Shakya-muni_ in order\nto join the _Buddha_ once more, and to become his first apostles[48].\n\n_Fourth_ corner, 3, 4 and 5 (W. L. 37, 38 and 39). Now the Buddha of\nafter life was king _Samjaya_\u2019s son and hereditary prince.\n\nOne day, riding his white elephant, he met with some brahmins who asked\nhim, in the name of their king, for the elephant. He dismounts and gives\nthem the noble animal.\n\nOn account of this foolish deed he saw himself driven away by his father\nwho acted at the instigation of his (the father\u2019s) courtiers.\n\nHe mounts his carriage accompanied by Madr\u00ee, his wife, and their two\nchildren, and then sets off. Once more some brahmins come to ask him for\nhis fine horses. The prince gives his consent, and puts himself before\nthe carriage. Another brahmin appears now, and demands this carriage;\nMadr\u00ee and the children get out, and the prince takes his little son on\nhis, and the mother takes their little daughter on her arm to continue\ntheir journey afoot.\n\nTrees bend their branches in homage, lotus-ponds refresh, and clouds\novershadow them, and so they reach their place of exile where they find\na tabernacle built for them by Indra.\n\nOne day, when Madr\u00ee found herself in the wood to seek for roots and\nfruit for their meal, there came a brahmin demanding from her husband\nthe two little ones in order to lead them away as bound slaves.\n\nAn earth-quake calls Indra\u2019s attention, and when the deity hears the\ncause of this he also comes, as a brahmin, to the now childless father,\nand claims the latter\u2019s wife, the disconsolate mother.\n\nBut as the prince is also inclined to comply with this demand of his,\nIndra reveals himself and gives him back all that which he lost. Even\nhis place at his father\u2019s court.\n\nOn 3 we see him cede his elephant, and the children have been hewn on 4.\nOn 5 the _yakshas_ conduct the princely carriage after having put out\nthe horses.\n\n\n_Fifth_ corner, 1, 2, 3 and 4 [W. L., 48, 49, 50 and 51].\n\nTime was when the Lord himself was a _king_ to whom one of his subjects\noffered his most beautiful daughter. At the advice of his courtiers sent\nto her, fearing that the king would become crazy of love for such an\nstrikingly beautiful woman, he declines the offer after which she\nmarries one of his officials. One day taking a drive the king saw her,\nand took a passionate love to her. On his being informed that she had\nalready entered upon marriage he controls his passions, and even refuses\nto get her from the hands of her own husband, because he places his\nfeelings of justice above his personal happiness.\n\nOn 1 the offer is being delivered to the king; on 2 his messengers visit\nthe virgin; on 3 they give the prince a full account of the state of\nthings, and on 4 the king meets her himself.\n\n\n_Fifth_ corner. 5 [W. L., 52].\n\nAs a retired old _sailor_ the Lord, though almost blind, allowed himself\nto be gained into embarking for a commercial journey in order to assure\nthe ship a safe voyage.\n\nA heavy storm flung the ship far away, and through unknown seas till\nnear the end of the world. Return again was impossible and their ruin\nseemed to be inevitable. One means only could save them, and they prayed\nthe deities for help for the sake of the Lord\u2019s spotless virtue and love\nof truth. And this succeeded.\n\nThe storm abated, and they could return to the harbour. On their journey\nhome through an emerald-green sea, the blind sailor, seeing with the\neyes of other passengers, told them to pull up sand and stones from the\nbottom of the sea, and take them on board by way of ballast. On their\narrival into the harbour this appeared to be precious stones and jewels.\n\nThe only remained sculpture shows us the merchants with their ship on\nthe open sea.\n\n\n_Fifth_ corner, 9 and 10 [W. L., 56 and 57].\n\nWe here see the Lord as a _fish_ obeyed by all other fishes of the lake.\nBecause of want of rain this lake once dried up, and became a little\npool in which the fish didn\u2019t know any means to escape from the birds of\nprey. The _Bodhisattva_ prayed Indra for rain as a reward for his true\nvirtue, and the deity himself came to him, and it rained as fast as it\ncould pour, and Indra promised that the very same spot would be never\ntried again by such a plague.\n\nThe first sculpture represents the fishes in the lake before, and the\nother one, after the rain.\n\n\n_Fifth_ corner, 11 [W. L. 58].\n\nA young _sparrow_\u2014it was the _Bodhisattva_\u2014who despised all little worms\nand insects\u2014was outdistanced by the other young of the paternal nest.\nWhen on the occasion of a forest-fire all other animals fled away he\nonly remained behind, because he could not fly. Praying he knew to\npersuade the fire-god Agni into going off. Since that day every\nforest-fire died out on this spot.\n\nWe see the young sparrow on the nest whilst the other birds fly away in\nall directions, and while all other animals give way for the fire.\n\n\n_Fifth_ corner, 12 [W. L. 59].\n\nIt once happened that the Lord descended from heaven in the shape of\nIndra[49] in order to convert a king, _Sarvamitra_, who daily drank too\nmuch strong liquor with his courtiers. As a _brahmin_ Indra now offers\nthe king a bottle of _s\u00fbra_ praising the pernicious properties of this\ndrink in so eloquent a manner that the prince renders homage to the\npreacher as a _guru_ (teacher), after which the latter admonishes him to\nfear drinking that he might afterwards live with him in heaven.\n\nThe sculpture needs no further interpretation.\n\n\n_Seventh_ corner, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (W. L. 65, 66, 67 and 68).\n\nIn the primeval forest the Lord once lived, as a _brahmin_, a life of\nsevere penitence with six brothers and one sister. Only every fifth day\nthey came together in his hut to hear him proclaim the doctrine. As for\nthe rest they didn\u2019t see each other. Every day their two servants put\nthe eight portions of lotus-stems on the leaves of the lotus, and\naccording to their age they came one by one to fetch their sober meal in\norder to take it in their own hut.\n\nIndra, putting the Bodhisattva to the test, took away the first portion\nduring five following days so that the Lord was obliged to fast. On the\nnext service the others assembled again, and saw how their brother had\ngrown thin. Being informed of the cause of it everyone wished the thief\nto be punished in a fitting manner, and even three strange auditors, a\n_yaksha_, an elephant, and a monkey cursed the thief, every one of them\nin his own manner. The Lord, returning good for evil, hopes that this\none and the other that suspected one of them, wrongly perhaps, may live\nto see all his wishes fulfilled. But then Indra comes, and accusing\nhimself he says why he did so\u2014and humbles himself before the Lord whom\nhe wishes to serve as his superior.\n\nOn 3 and 4 we see the hermits in the wood. On 5 is to be seen the\nlotus-pond with the servants seeking for leaves and stems, and on 6 we\nsee Indra humbling himself before the Lord.[50]\n\n\n_Seventh_ corner, 11, 12 and 13 [W. L. 73, 74 and 75].\n\nAnother time the Lord, a rich brahmin, left everything he possessed, and\naccompanied by his wife, who didn\u2019t wish to leave him, he went to the\nwoods to live there a hermit\u2019s life.\n\nThere they were found by the king who came in this region to chase, and\ntouched as he was by the woman\u2019s beauty he ordered her to be kidnapped\nand carried away to his _zenana_.\n\nIn spite of her cry for help her husband doesn\u2019t oppose himself against\nthis robbery, and when the king asks him why he does not the brahmin\nanswers with an oration about the virtue of self-command, and he\ntherefore compels the king to honour him as an ascetic and to ask his\npardon.\n\nOn 11 we see the brahmin and his wife on their way to the wood; on 12\nthe hunting king, and on 13 the woman\u2019s abduction.\n\n\n_Seventh_ corner, 15, 16, and 17 and the _eighth_ corner, 1 (W. L., 77,\n78, 79 and 81).\n\nIn the lake of M\u00e2nasa the Bodhisattva once ruled as a king over many\nhundreds of thousands of swans, and was assisted by his viceroy Sumukha.\nTheir praise sounded till the court of the king of _B\u00e9nar\u00e8s_ who desired\nto meet the two swans. He therefore ordered another lake to be made in\nthe neighbourhood of his court-capital which was much more beautiful\nthan the first mentioned, and promulgated everywhere that he should\nguarantee the safety of all birds who came to visit the new lake.\n\nThe swans of _M\u00e2nasa_ went there in spite of their ruler\u2019s objections,\nand so the Lord himself was obliged to follow them.\n\nShortly after he saw himself caught by the king\u2019s hunter, and all other\nswans flew away with the exception of Sumukha however, who would not\nleave the Lord. The bonds which tied him to his king were stronger than\nthose which kept the king in his trap, he said, and he demanded the\nhunter to bind him first, and afterwards release his master.\n\nThis touched the hunter and releasing both of them the Lord now requests\nhim to speak with the king to persuade the latter not to punish, but to\nreward his hunter. This happens, and the king offers rich presents to\nthe two swans they decline, and now all the swans return to their lake.\n\nThis lake with the swans has been hewn on 15. On 16 the king is informed\nof these birds. On 17 we see how the Lord is caught whilst all the other\nswans fly away with the exception of one of them.\n\nThe following sculpture after the eighth corner, which represents the\nmeeting with the king, is almost wholly lost, the other one is lost at\nall.\n\n\n_Ninth_ corner, 5, 6, 7 and 8 [W. L., 90, 91, 92 and 93].\n\nAnother king once pursued a _sharabha_ [a strong kind of stag], and fell\nfrom his horse into a cleft over which the wild beast had easily jumped,\nbut before which the horse started back in full run. The _sharabha_\ndescends into the cleft in order to rescue the fallen man, and help him\non his way home after having admonished him to persevere in all princely\nvirtues.\n\nThe chasing king we see on 5; on 6 the hunter stands on the brink of the\ncleft, on 7 we see the stag [the Lord] run to assist the fallen man, and\non 8 the latter bids his rescuer farewell.\n\n\n_Southern_ staircase, 2, 3, 4 and 5 [W. L. 95, 96, 97 and 98].\n\nIn another life the Master ruled as a _ruru_ [another kind of stag] over\nall other wild animals. One day he rescued a traveller out of a swollen\nmountain-stream, and for his only reward he wished the saved man to be\nsilent about the event.\n\nNow the queen, whose dreams had never turned out to be false ones, had\ndreamed of a stag who preached the doctrine sitting on a throne. The\nking therefore offered a rich reward to him who could show him this\nmiracle of an animal.\n\nThe drowned person was a poor fellow, and breaking his promise, he led\nthe king into the wood and showed him the _ruru_, but doing this the\nhand which had served him to indicate the animal, fell from his arm as\nif it had been cut by a sword.\n\nThe stag now asked the king who had conducted him there, the prince\nmentions his guide\u2019s name, and when the _ruru_ recognises and reproaches\nhim his breach of faith, and whilst the king has the intention to shoot\nat the man, the noble animal sues the weak man\u2019s mercy who had by his\nown fault recklessly lost his welfare in this, and in a future world.\n\nThe king pardons the guilty one and conducts the stag to his palace, and\nthroning there the _ruru_ preaches the law of love before the whole\ncourt.\n\nThe animals in the wood have been hewn on 2; on 3 the drowned person is\nrescued; the king meets the stag on 4, and the preaching stag has been\nhewn on the 5th sculpture.\n\n\n_Southern staircase_, 6, 7, 8 and 9 [W. L. 99, 101, 102 and 103].\n\nThe Buddha of after life once ruled as king over a troop of _monkeys_ in\nthe _Him\u00e2laya_. They lived in a fig-tree, abundant with fruit, situated\non the bank of a brook. In order not to make the tree known by its\ndelicious fruit the king ordered his people not to have a single fruit\nripened on the branches which hung over the water.\n\nOnce upon a day such a fruit unperceivedly ripened fell into the stream,\nand drove away to an open spot in the wood, where the king and his wives\nwere fishing.\n\nNever before had the prince seen or tasted such a fine and nice fruit,\nand so he went up-stream to look for the tree.\n\nSeeing the many monkeys he told his hunters to drive them away. But in\norder to take to flight the animals had to risk a leap no one but their\nruler only ventured to undertake. He jumps, reaches the mountain-slope\nsituated on the other side, and seeks there for a long _bambu_ which\nenables him to return to the tree. Armed with this he forms with his own\nbody a bridge over which all the monkeys know to escape at the cost of\nthe Lord who sees his skin torn to bloody pieces by the monkeys\u2019 toes.\n\nThis happens to the astonishment of the hunters who now catch up the\nswooning king of monkeys, and lay him upon a bed of leaves. He soon came\nto, and when the king interrogates him the Lord answers that he did his\n_duty_, because a prince should _serve_ his subjects, and not let\nhimself served by them.\n\nOn the 6th and 7th sculpture the king accepts the fig, on 8 he and his\nhunters go in search of the tree, and on 9 has been hewn the wonderful\nescape of the monkeys.\n\n\n_Southern staircase_, 10 and the corner-sculpture [of the _first_ angle]\n[W. L. 103 and 104].\n\nThe Lord once lived in a wood as an _ascetic_ and taught patience to all\nwho visited him.\n\nIt then came to pass that the king and his wives came into this wood to\namuse themselves, and while the latter took a bath in a brook, which ran\nthere, the former fell asleep.\n\nAwaking he didn\u2019t see them any more. They had strayed to the hermit and\nlistened to his preaching. The king found them there, and angrily called\nthe preacher a liar, and menaced him with his sword. The wise man\nhowever, remained calm, and the king, embittered as he was by his wives\u2019\nsupplications, came up to the pious teacher, and cut his hands, ears,\nnose and feet.\n\nThe martyr, who only feared that the king could be said to have killed\nan innocent person, suffered much more from his sorrow for the king\u2019s\nfall than from his own wounds, but when the evildoer left the dying man\nhe saw the ground opening itself before him, and fell into the flaming\ndepth.\n\nThe frightened courtiers thought that the preacher himself had punished\ntheir master, and they asked for mercy, and dying the poor man blessed\nthem, and also the murderer whose ruin had remained unknown to him.\n\nOn 10 we see the king asleep, on the corner-sculpture we see him go off\nto seek for his wives. I suppose the first and 2^nd sculpture behind the\ncorner [W. L. 105 and 106] refers to the widows on their way home.\n\n\n_Second_ corner, 5 [W. L., 111].\n\nThis sculpture brings us again in the presence of a king, the\nunbelieving prince of _Videha_, who lived a life of unjustice renouncing\nall virtues. There was a time when the Lord lived as a _devarshi_ [a\nwise one among the celestials] in the _Brahm\u00e2loka_, and descended to\nearth to convert the unbelieving ruler.\n\nAs sure\u2014he says\u2014as this life has been preceded by other lives there will\nonce come other future lives. He then speaks about the tortures of hell\nwhich fall to the evil-doer and unbeliever when he doesn\u2019t mend his\nlife, and ... the king acknowledges that he is in the right, and bids\nthe Lord to lead him henceforth on the right path[51].\n\nThe sculpture need no further explication.\n\n\n_Second_ corner, 6, 7, 8 and 9 [W. L., 112, 113, 114 and 115].\n\nSeven hundred astrayed and exhausted travellers meet on their way an\nelephant, the _Bodhisattva_. They had been expelled from their country\nwith 300 others who had died on the way.\n\nBy means of his trunk the elephant shows them the way to a stream where\nto quench their thirst and near which they will find a dead elephant\nwhose meat will feed them. Along a shorter cut he speeds to the\nindicated spot, runs headlong into the bottom of a ravine and was\nsmashed.\n\nIt is on this spot that the hungry wanderers find his dead body, and\nangels descend from heaven to sing his praise.\n\nOn 6 the exiles come across the elephant; on 7 we see them on their way\nto the place pointed out to them; on 8 the elephant is ready to fall\ninto the precipice, and on 9 the saved ones worship the ashes of their\nrescuer.\n\nI suppose this homage to the ashes closed in a _tyaitya_, as if it were\nto indicate a preceding cremation, should be taken in a symbolical sense\nonly.\n\n\n_Second_ corner, 10, 11, 12 and 13 [W. L., 116, 117, 118 and 119].\n\nThis is one of the most important _j\u00e2takas_.\n\nAs Sutasoma, a _king\u2019s son_, the Bodhisattva was once walking with his\nwives in the garden of his palace when there entered a brahmin whom they\ninvited to deliver a harangue about virtue. This harangue was\nunexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of a monster who put all of them\nto flight, that is, with the exception of the prince himself. Another\nking had formerly procreated this monster by a lioness; most times he\nlived of human flesh only. Persecuted as he was by his own subjects\nafter his father\u2019s death he called in the aid of the demons and promised\nthem a sacrifice of one hundred king\u2019s sons. He now came to carry off\nSutasoma to add him to the princes he already apprehended.\n\nSutasoma resolves to follow the lion\u2019s son in order to convert him and\nto rescue the imprisoned princes. But on his arriving at the den of the\nviolent monster he remembers that he left the brahmin unrewarded, and\nthat he hasn\u2019t wholly heard the latter\u2019s preaching, and so he asks for\npermission to do that which he neglected; afterwards the man-eater could\ndispose of him.\n\nThe latter who has already gathered his 100 princes after all, releases\nhis prisoner hoping to rejoice afterwards at the man\u2019s fall as a person\nfalse to his word.\n\nBut after having heard and presented the brahmin with gifts Sutasoma\nreturns to the lion\u2019s son in spite of his parents\u2019 and wives\u2019\nsupplications. Has not the lion\u2019s son become his benefactor by allowing\nhim to do his duty? On this ground he has a right to his commiseration\nand to be released from the curse resting on him by birth.\n\nAnd when the astonished robber asks him what this brahmin did say the\nprince delivers so eloquent a harangue about law that the lion-man\nconverts himself and puts all his prisoners at liberty to follow them to\nSutasoma\u2019s residence.\n\nOn 10 we see the prince with the brahmin; on 11 the former is carried\naway by the robber; 12 refers to the continuation of the preaching, and\non 13 has been hewn the reclaiming of the lion-man.\n\n\n_Second_ corner, 14, 16 and 17 _third_ corner, 2 (W. L. 120, 122, 123\nand 127).\n\nOnce upon a day the Lord was born as the _son of a king_ whose elder\nsons had died young. In order to withdraw him from the influence of the\ndemons the newborn son was educated in an iron house (_ayogriha_).\n\nOnce driving through the residence the young man saw much that set him\nthinking; he saw how old age, sickness and death threatened everyone\nwhile storms, inundations and fire destructed their properties. Returned\nat home he resolves to part from the world and to live in the wilderness\nas a hermit and penitent, and to ask his father\u2019s consent. All that\nlives, is from the moment of being in mother\u2019s womb, doomed to death, is\nnot it? And all that lives kills to save life, but nobody can kill\ndeath. Even the angels and _devas_ can\u2019t.\n\nHis father asks him whether this death will not catch him in the\nwilderness as sure as anywhere, but agreeing he says that death can\u2019t\nfind him unfit to the preparation for the transition in a future life.\n\nThe father agrees at last, and the prince devotes his further life to\nthe dhy\u00e2na, the holy meditation which will lead him to the _brahm\u00e2loka_.\n\nThe prince\u2019s birth has been hewn on 14; 16 shows us the brahmin\u2019s homage\nto the new-born; 17 represents the drive outside the palace, and 2 after\nthe following corner describes the prince\u2019s life in the wilderness.\n\nBesides, I suppose the corner-sculpture and the first behind the corner\n(W. L., 124 and 126) to refer to the prince\u2019s leave-taking from his\nfather and wives, just as it afterwards happens with Siddh\u00e2rta.[52].\nStriking is the conformity of this life with that of the king\u2019s son of\n_Kapilasvastu_.\n\n\n_Fourth_ corner, 2, 3 and 5 (W. L., 129, 130 and 132).\n\nLiving in the primeval forest as a strong _buffalo_ the Buddha of after\nlife was continually teased by a monkey who, taunting the wild animal\u2019s\ninexhaustible kindness, perpetually came in his way.\n\nA _yaksha_ admonishes the bull to be less patient and to crush or thrust\ndown the snarer, but the strong one answers that the monkey can\u2019t be\notherwise than he now is, and that they should bear him as he is. There\nis no better exercise in meekness than suffer a bad treatment patiently,\nand by which one may hope to set the snarer thinking, and make him turn\nfrom sin.\n\nOn 2 we see the bull and the monkey, on 3 we also perceive the _yaksha_,\nand on 5 the bull delivers his harangue to the demon, and know to\npersuade him into acknowledging and praising virtue[53].\n\n\n_Fourth_ corner, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (W. L., 133, 134, 135 and 136).\n\nThe Lord once living in the wilderness as a _wood-pecker_ came across a\nlion who suffered unbearable pains because of a piece of bone which had\nremained in his throat. The wood-pecker relieved his pains by putting a\npiece of wood into the opened mule, and by getting the bone out of the\nthroat.\n\nA long time afterwards flying round and almost starving from hunger the\nwood-pecker met the lion again who was regaling himself on an antelope,\nhe had just killed.\n\nAfter a moment\u2019s hesitation his former rescuer begs him for a little bit\nof the antelope\u2019s meat, but the lion asks the beggar whether he is tired\nof life, and whether he ought not to be thankful that his life was\nspared when he formerly ventured himself into the inquirer\u2019s mule. A\nlion doesn\u2019t know any commiseration.\n\nAshamed the wood-pecker flies away. A sylvan deity follows him, and asks\nwhy he doesn\u2019t pick the lion\u2019s eyes, and takes as much of the prey as he\nlikes. And the bird answers with a glorification of virtue; he who does\ngood will find his reward in a future life, but he who returns evil for\nevil will lose the merit of all his good deeds.\n\nThe deity praises the wood-pecker as a wise one, a saint, and\ndisappears.\n\nOn 5 has been hewn the lion in the wood where the wood-pecker comes-to\nhim; on 7 the lion writhes with pain, and on 8 he is helped by the\nwood-pecker.\n\nOn 9 we see the hungry bird near the lion with his prey.\n\nMajor Van Erp supposes that this last sculpture should refer to another\nj\u00e2taka. See at the bottom.\n\n\nMany pieces formerly placed among the mentioned sculptures, have been\nlost whereas other ones have not yet been explained. But when we\nremember how those described here follow each other in the same range of\nsuccession like the _j\u00e2takas_ in the _M\u00e2la_ translated by Speyer, we\nthen may believe that the not expounded and missing sculptures have had\nsome connection with other _former lives_, and that even _this_ gallery\nmay have been a continuous series.\n\nOldenburg indicated indeed, still other j\u00e2takas in this series which had\nnot been translated by Speyer, that is, after the _western_ staircase,\n6, 7, 8 and 9 (W. L., 192, 193, 194 and 195).\n\nThe Lord hewn as a _tortoise_ at sea takes the endangered crew of a\nsinking ship on his back, and carrying them ashore he offers his own\nbody to the starving ones.\n\nOn 6 has been hewn the tortoise, on 7 the sinking ship surrounded by\nsharks and other fish, on 8 we see the tortoise with the shipwrecked men\non his back, and 9 describes the rescued ones with their rescuer who is\ninclined to sacrifice himself.\n\n\nOn the front-wall of the fifth and highest gallery Oldenburg meant the\n_second_ sculpture behind the _southern_ staircase (W. L. CCCLXXXIX) to\nbe the Lord as the _horse_ Bal\u00e2ha, which, once carried travellers across\nthe sea.\n\nBut as for the _lower_ series of the back-wall of the first gallery he\nshows to:\n\n3 after the _eastern_ staircase and 1 after the _next_ corner which\nshould refer to king Dakshina Pantyala\u2019s conversation with the bewitched\n_n\u00e2ga_ Janmatyitra; the latter\u2019s exorcism and redemption by _hunter_\nHalaka (the Lord), and the hunter\u2019s admission into the residence of the\ngrateful n\u00e2ga.\n\nThis n\u00e2ga is to be recognised at the serpents in his hair[54].\n\nMr. _Foucher_ fortunately gives us an account of this story (according\nto the text of the _Divy\u00e2vadana_) far more detailed than I could have\npossibly taken from other sources.\n\nIt refers to the _Sudhana Kum\u00e2r\u00e2 Vad\u00e2na_: the 1th after the _second_\ncorner, and following relievoes: 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26,\n28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 and 40 W. L. It begins with the first panel south\nof the eastern staircase.\n\n1. In the empire of _Panty\u00e2la_ there once lived 2 kings, one in the\n      north, and the other in the south. The first was a good prince,\n      and his empire prospered. The latter was bad, and his empire had\n      fallen into decay. Probably, the first prince may have been hewn\n      here.\n\n2. The other bad king discusses with his ministers what to do to raise\n      his empire from decay. Under the pretext of a hunting-party he\n      inspects his neglected country, and then forms a plan to kidnap\n      the young _n\u00e2ga_ Jammatyitraka from the hands of his thriving\n      neighbour. Now it should be understood that this _n\u00e2ga_ lives in a\n      pond situated outside the capital of north-_Panty\u00e2la_, and as he\n      knows to dispose of rain the country abounds with excellent\n      produce even during the dry monsoon. Perhaps the brahmin we see\n      before the king, will be the snake-charmer whose crimes we are\n      going to know.\n\n3. This relievo shows us a succession of three events. First of all (to\n      the right) the young _n\u00e2ga_ kneeled down calls in hunter Halaka\u2019s\n      assistance. In the midst we see the same _n\u00e2ga_, angrily and most\n      unwillingly rising from his lotus-pond under the brahmin\u2019s formula\n      of exorcism, and in front of the latter\u2019s sacrificial fire; but\n      hunter Halaka kills the conjurer after having compelled him to\n      give up his wicked plan.\n\n  And to the left may have been hewn the very same brahmin when he\n  shortly before got the king\u2019s secret command to commit this evil. In\n  this case this episode should be exceptionally thought as a preceding\n  one to both the middle-most and first sculpture.\n\n4. The young _n\u00e2ga\u2019s_ parents make their son\u2019s rescuer splendidly\n      welcome. On this occasion the hunter wears a princely costume\n      which is above his rank (caste), but he appears without his host\u2019s\n      present, the never failing knot.\n\n5. In the Him\u00e2laya. The hunter squats down near the _kinnar\u00ee Manohar\u00e2_\n      he caught with his knot. To the left other _kinnar\u00ees_ are flying\n      over a lotus-pond. To the right we see the ascetic whose words\n      directed the hunter\u2019s arm on his catching the fairy.\n\n6. The hunting Sudhana, crown prince of the northern empire, is just\n      coming on, and the hunter presents him with the kinnar\u00ee he caught.\n      Fairy and prince fall in love with one another.\n\n7. The king of the northern empire, Sudhana\u2019s father, discusses with his\n      _purohita_ or private prelate, the traitor in this drama, who\n      tries to persuade the king into charging the prince with the heavy\n      burden to overpower a rebellious vassal against whom no less than\n      7 expeditions had already failed.\n\n8. The prince bids his mother fare-well, and charges her with the care\n      of his young wife.\n\n9. Sudhana under a tree outside the rebellious town. Vaisyravana, one of\n      the four great deities of this country, sends his general P\u00e2ntyika\n      with a troop of _yakshas_ to assist him.\n\n10. Once more in _H\u00e2stinapura_, the royal residence of the northern\n      empire. The king asks his _purohita_ to interpret a bad dream upon\n      which the priest demands to sacrifice a _kinnar\u00ee_ in order to\n      avert an immanent danger. The king hesitates, and the queen gives\n      proof of her dislike.\n\n11. The good heart of both triumphs, and Manohar\u00e2 escapes through the\n      air.\n\n12. With the assistance of the _yakshas_ Sudhana performed the task he\n      took upon his shoulders and offers his father the taxes and fines\n      of the rebels submitted.\n\n13. After having learned the reason of Manohar\u00e2\u2019s absence he applies to\n      his mother again for help.\n\n14. Druma, king of the region of the _kinnaras_, surrounded by his\n      court. Manohar\u00e2, seated on his left hand, relates her experience\n      among mankind. So we find ourselves in the Him\u00e2laya again, in this\n      region of fairies and spirits hardly to be penetrated.\n\n15. Sudhana consults the _risyi_ who once helped the hunter on his\n      catch, and who now hands him a ring and a travelling-plan Manohara\n      had given him to this purpose.\n\n16. Sudhana outside the capital of king Druma, where he comes across\n      some _kinnar\u00ees_ who are drawing some water out of a well to\n      cleanse Manohar\u00e2\u2019s body from all human-smell. Sudhana flings the\n      ring into a vase of one of the fairies, and requests her to be the\n      first to empty this vase on her mistress\u2019s head. According to the\n      text Foucher consulted, the fairy should have remained quite\n      ignorant of all this, consequently the sculptor must have swerved\n      from this text, or, perhaps, meant another one.\n\n17. Manohar\u00e2 found the ring, and tells her father about Sudhana\u2019s\n      coming. The king agrees to put him to the test; to the left of\n      this relievo we see him bend his bow to drive an arrow through 7\n      cocoa-trees. Druma himself is watching this, and to be recognised\n      by his _prabha_.\n\n18. He then gives the prince his daughter.\n\n19. The newly-married couple is now enjoying their happiness in the\n      woman\u2019s quarter. In honour of them, and to the accompaniment of\n      music, a court-dancer is showing her art of dancing. This fair\n      dancer is one of the best proofs of the sculptor\u2019s art.\n\n20. Returned at _Hastin\u00e2pura_ the newly-married distribute presents\n      among their people.\n\nIn this same series follow 6 other sculptures referring to the\nMaitrakanyaka-_j\u00e2taka_; a note-worthy _karma_-legend.\n\nWe shall find them after having turned the _fifth_ corner of the\n_northern_ staircase, and on our having reached the _east_ side of the\nruin where we are going to view the 2nd, 3d and 4th sculpture (W. L.,\n214, 216 and 218), and 1 after the _sixth_ corner (W. L., 220), and 1\nand 2 after the _seventh_ corner (W. L., 222 and 224) all of which Mr.\nWinter photographed for me.\n\nOn the _first_ of these imageries we first see a woman handling a\nbalance, and probably serving the customers of the young merchant\nMaitrakanyaka. This woman is likely to be his mother, and if he himself\nhas been hewn near her, he can\u2019t possibly be the shabbily dressed and\nbearded man who stands next to her. This man rather reminds of a brahmin\nor a mendicant friar instead of a rich merchant. The man by her other\nside is not visible on the photograph.\n\nClearer however, is the following group in which professor Speyer made\nus known Maitrakanyaka\u2019s mother throwing herself at her son\u2019s feet, and\nbeseeching him to give up his plan to undertake a sea-voyage.\n\nThe widow\u2019s tress made the professor suppose that the beautiful\nmoustache (with which Wilsen adorned this little sculpture in Leemans\u2019\nwork) should be a mistake of the draughtsman. And he observed this\nrightly, and so did I after heaving read Speyer\u2019s essay,[55] because I\nhave been able to ascertain _in loco_ that even the woman\u2019s breasts,\nWilsen didn\u2019t see or engrave at least, are clearly to be seen and\npalpable. To be very short the legend runs as follows:\n\nMaitrakanyaka was still a child when his father was shipwrecked on a\nvoyage. According to time-honoured usage he was afterwards inclined to\nchoose his father\u2019s profession. In the beginning his mother told him\nthat he had kept a shop, and afterwards had dealt in perfumes and in\ngold.\n\nMaitrakanyaka did likewise, and gave his mother the first 4, 8, 16 and\n32 _k\u00e2rsh\u00e2panas_ he gained, that they might be divided among the\nbrahmins and indigent. These were four _good_ deeds.\n\nBut when he was told that his father had gone abroad on business, and as\nhe soon saw that his mother could not deny this he resolved to tread in\nhis father\u2019s foot-steps in spite of his mother\u2019s resistance who feared\nto lose her only child in the very same way like she formerly lost his\nfather. Bathing in tears she fell on her knees at last, and tried to\ndetain him at the last moment, but he gave her a kick and went on board.\nThis was one _evil_ deed, and according to the doctrine of the _karma_,\nthe eternal law of cause and consequence, he should be _punished_ for\nthis deed of his as sure as he would be rewarded for his _good_ deeds.\n\nOn the _second_ sculpture we see him shipwreck, and after having reached\nthe shore he finds there _four_ celestial young women who reward him for\nhis first _good_ deed by letting him, for many years, dream a dream of\nperfect happiness till his _karma_ drives him away from there,\nsuccessively showing him _eight_, afterwards _sixteen_, and at last\n_two-and-thirty_ more and more beautiful nymphs in return of the as many\n_k\u00e2rsh\u00e2panas_ he formerly gave away to the indigent. Finally he happens\nto enter a castle which gate closes itself behind him, and there he sees\na martyr bearing a red-hot wheel turning for ever on his head, that is,\nthe inexorable punishment to all who insulted their father or mother.\nThis wheel the unhappy one will always bear till another, guilty of the\nsame deed, will release him.\n\nOn the _third_, _fourth_, and _fifth_ sculpture have been hewn the\nencounters with the 8, 16 and 32 nymphs, though, for want of room, we\ncan\u2019t see 5 of the 16 and 19 of the 32 nymphs. And on the _sixth_ and\nlast sculpture we first see Maitrakanyaka suffer under the torture of\nthe red-hot wheel, but at a short distance from this we see him\n_released_ by the expression of his self-denying wish, that another,\nguilty of such a deed, may _never_ come to free him.\n\nI think the last group of this very same imagery should refer to the\nconclusion of this _karma_-legend: the Bodhisattva\u2019s dying and his\ntransition into the _nirv\u00e2na_.[56].\n\nFoucher means that the four relievoes which precede the shipwreck, refer\nto the same _j\u00e2taka_, and that Maitrakanyaka may have been already\nrepresented with his mother on the first sculpture where the son offered\nhis mother a purse filled with the k\u00e2rsh\u00e2panas he first gained. On the\nfollowing panel, divided into two by a style of building, Foucher sees,\nto the right, the son in his last business which may appear from the\ngoldsmith\u2019s balance whereas the larger purse should refer to the very\nsame one in which he gathered the 32 k\u00e2rsh\u00e2panas.\n\nOn the other, left part, Foucher thinks he also sees the mother at her\nson\u2019s feet. So does Speyer, and so do I.\n\nAs with regard to the following relievoes I refer to that which I\nalready said formerly.\n\nAs for the _seventh relievo_ I beg to point to my explanation, and\ninterpretation in my \u201c_Oudheidkundige aanteekeningen_\u201d IV^th (page 25\nand 26). According to Foucher the sculptor should not have dared to\nrepresent Maitrakanyaka as a repentant sinner, because of his being the\n_Bodhisattva_ himself. Anyhow, the redemption of this punishment by a\ndeed of the highest self-denial appeared so very significant to me that\nit should not have been unnoticed, neither in metaphor nor in writing,\nbut this would have been impossible if this punishment had not preceded\nthe redemption itself.\n\nAnd moreover, granting the one little sculpture to represent the older\npenitent with the flaming nimble on his head, it surely should have\npreceded Maitrakanyaka\u2019s sculpture, and by no means come after this\nwhilst M. first arrives in the town of darkness, and afterwards finds\nthere the martyr from whom he takes possession of the nimble. And last\nof all, the separating trees should not have had any sense at all if\nthey should not refer to two following events relating to the very same\nperson.\n\nI think it my duty to point to the following sculptures of the upper\nseries of the front-wall which represent no j\u00e2takas but refer to the\n_Buddha_ of after life.\n\nAfter the _eastern_ staircase and the _second_ corner, 15 (W. L., 28).\n\nBuddha in a _preaching_ posture forming the _tyakra_ with the thumb and\nindex of his right arm such as all Buddhas do, we see hewn in the niches\nof the highest, fifth, wall[57].\n\nLotus-throne and _prabha_, style of hair-dress and costume have been\nhewn in the same manner as those of the Buddhas of all niches. All round\nabout him we see auditors rendering homage to him.\n\n_Western_ staircase, _fifth_ corner, 2 (W. L., 235) shows a similar\nsculpture, but above the Buddha two angels are floating in the air, and\nnear him we see stand burning incense-offerings.\n\nAfter the _seventh_ corner, 4 and 8 (W. L., 252 and 256) we see similar\nrepresentations, with this difference however, that on the last\nsculpture the Lord has been hewn in the posture of the fifth\n_Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha_ (like all Buddhas on the 4 lower walls on the north\nside), and that his curls of hair have not been finished.\n\nStill other relievoes of this very same lower series have been explained\nby Mr. Foucher.\n\nAt the _south-west_ corner, west of the southern staircase, has been\nhewn king M\u00e2ndh\u00e2tar\u2019s life, but not any sculpture before the eighth can\nbe expounded from the _Divy\u00e2vad\u00e2na_ text. The seven preceding sculptures\nare likely to refer to the same history the sculptor brought to light\nsomething more than the text\u2019s writer did, who starts from the hero\u2019s\nbirth, and describes his acts of government after having given a short\naccount of his youth.\n\nFoucher\u2019s meaning was quite unexpectedly confirmed by another writing,\nthe so-called _Bodhisattvavad\u00e2nakalpalata_ which runs as follows:\n\n\u201cOne day (king) Uposyada went on horseback in order to visit a hermit\u2019s\ncolony which had asked for his assistance to be defended from demons.\n\nThere were princely risyis who kept a stone bottle ready. This was meant\nfor a sacrifice which was to have the power to procreate children. The\nking, tired as he was of the long ride, and before he could be prevented\nfrom doing so, empties the bottle. Returned at home he discovers an\nunpainful swelling on his head, and when the tumour had ripened at\nlength out came a boy whose education was disputed by the 60.000 women\nof the _harem_.\u201d\n\nOn this ground of birth the child was _called_ M\u00fbrdhyaya, and M\u00e2ndh\u00e2tar\nor M\u00fbrdhatar when both names are joined together.\n\nIt was the Kasymir poet Ks_yemendra who gave Foucher this missing link\nto explain the sculptures.\n\nOn the two first relievoes we see the distribution of presents done in\nthe name of the king that he might get a child.\n\nOn the third sculpture the king is departing.\n\nOn the fourth we see Upasyada dismounting, and the sacrificial vase he\nis going to drink from.\n\n5 shows us the child got by this.\n\n6 and 7 refer to the horoscope of the future _tyakravartin_ or suzerain\n      of the world, and the astrologer\u2019s reward.\n\nOn 8 the young prince bids his father farewell in order to travel about\n      the country.\n\nOn 9 he is informed of his father\u2019s death, and his succession to the\n      throne.\n\n10. Between the young prince and two risyis floating in the air,\n      recognisable by their large tuft of hair and their rosaries, we\n      see some broken winged birds sitting on the ground. The curse of\n      one of the 500 risyis, living in a neighbouring wood, broke their\n      wings.\n\n  The king, indignant at such cruelty, denies the risyis every right for\n  staying on his territory.\n\n11. On his further journey M\u00e2ndh\u00e2tar forms a plan to cause a rain of\n      corn so as not to oblige his people to work any longer.\n\n12. Cotton shall be cultivated no more, neither spinned nor weaved, and\n      now ready clothes are falling down out of the clouds.\n\n13. Taking offence at the fact they ascribe the merit of all these\n      wonders to themselves, the king now produces a seven days\u2019 rain of\n      gold which fell within the walls of his palace, and with the\n      exception of the king himself and his ministers we only see women\n      gather the treasures falling down out of vases hidden in the\n      clouds.\n\n14. M\u00e2ndh\u00e2tar marches out to conquer the world. The feet of none stir\n      the earth.\n\n15. A _yaksha_ shows the king the way as how to make new conquests. The\n      sculptor represented this yaksha as a brahmin-minister.\n\n16. The guide brings the king to his pinnacle of glory. Two kings having\n      a striking resemblance to each other, throne in a palace on seats\n      which are equally high.\n\n  One of them is Syakra, the Indra of deities, and on M\u00e2ndh\u00e2tar\u2019s\n  unuttered wishes he ceded to him half his territory. Only by his\n  non-blinking the god is to be distinguished from the man-king, and it\n  goes without saying that the sculptor was not able to show this.\n\n17. Deities fighting _asuras_ (devils). With the assistance of their\n      human ally the deities gain the victory over them.\n\n18, 19, and 20 don\u2019t exactly correspond to the text which teaches us\n      that M\u00e2ndh\u00e2tar asked his ministers who got the day.\n\n  \u201cThe king\u201d they replied upon which the creezy one tried to dethrone\n  Indra in order to rule himself. Scarcely did he entertain this, when\n  he saw himself flung down from heaven to earth, and dying he bewails\n  his blind impertinence.\n\n20 may bear upon his cremation, and upon the entombing of his ashes into\n      a _st\u00fbpa_.\n\n\nOut of the 10 _relievoes_ in front (south) of the western staircase, the\n_sixth_ explains itself.\n\nA pigeon was caught by a falcon, and the _Bodhisattva_ buys the poor\nanimal\u2019s liberty by offering the bird of prey a proportional part of his\nown flesh. This is the so-called _Sy\u00e9bi-jataka_.\n\n\nOut of the 30 _relievoes_ belonging to the lower series of the\n_north-west_ corner, some 22 or 25 may refer to the _Rudr\u00e2yanavadana_.\nPassing the first 3 sculptures north of the western staircase we shall\nsee on:\n\n4. Rudr\u00e2yana, king of _Roruka_, consulting _R\u00e2yagriha_ merchants about\n      the merits of their prince, Bimbis\u00e2ra.\n\n5. A king receives from a courtier a square sheet of paper or gives him\n      this. It is Rudr\u00e2yana\u2019s letter addressed to _Magadha_\u2019s king. So\n      the principal personage should be one of these two, but who knows\n      which? It doesn\u2019t appear after all.\n\n6. A reception at the court of one of them in order to lend an ear to\n      the bearers of the letter or to take their leaves. All round about\n      a large dish, likely full of rice, we see some 20 smaller plates\n      full of other eatables.\n\n7. Bimbis\u00e2ra receives the jewel-case Rudr\u00e2yana sent him with the letter.\n\n8. In the midst we see the box containing the presents made in return\n      all which _Magadha_\u2019s king destined for his cousin of _Roruka_.\n      The principal personage is Bimbis\u00e2ra again, who gives, or\n      Rudr\u00e2yana, who receives.\n\n9. Bimbis\u00e2ra gets a precious armour from Rudr\u00e2yana.\n\n10. _Roruka_\u2019s inhabitants on the occasion of the present\u2019s arrival made\n      in return by Bimbis\u00e2ra; a drawing with a silhouette of the\n      _Buddha_. The bearer is riding an elephant.\n\n11. Almost on a part with 4, but now _R\u00e2jagriha_\u2019s messengers are\n      sounding the praise of the _Buddha_.\n\n12. Rudr\u00e2yana requested the _Buddha_ for being instructed by a monk, and\n      the Lord sent him Mah\u00e2k\u00e2ty\u00e2yana who now takes a higher seat next\n      to the king. A declining gesture of the monk may refer to a\n      refusal to preach the doctrine in the woman\u2019s quarter. This ought\n      to be done by a nun.\n\n13. The nun Syail\u00e2 preaches before the king and his wives.\n\n14. Such another representation but with a second nun standing behind\n      Syail\u00e2. In all likelihood an ordinator. In the king\u2019s place we see\n      a _third_ BHIKSYUN\u00ce who may be queen Tyandraprabh\u00e2. Acquainted as\n      she is with the circumstance that she won\u2019t live much longer she\n      got the king\u2019s permission for being admitted into the order.\n\n15. The queen, after death born again in heaven, descends to show the\n      king the way for a reunion in the Great Beyond.\n\n16. Rudr\u00e2yana communicates to his son Syikhan\u1e0din his resolution to\n      become a monk, and so to abdicate the throne in his son\u2019s behalf.\n\n17. At _R\u00e2yagriha_ the _Buddha_ consecrated Rudr\u00e2yana a _bhiksyu_, and\n      on his first way as a mendicant friar he declines Bimbis\u00e2ra\u2019s rich\n      offerings.\n\n18. To the right we see how merchants from _Rudr\u00e2yana_\u2019s country inform\n      him Syikhan\u1e0din\u2019s bad behaviour. And to the left how the son is\n      informed by his wicked ministers about his father\u2019s return, and we\n      then also see how he therefore forms a plan to have his father\n      murdered. In the back-ground we see Syikhan\u1e0din\u2019s mother in her own\n      palace.\n\n19. Even this relievo is divided in two. To the right Syikhan\u1e0din learns\n      that his father has been killed, perhaps by the man with the long\n      sword. And to the left he seeks comfort from his mother who frees\n      him from the heavy burden of parricide by letting him know that\n      Rudr\u00e2yana wasn\u2019t really his father.\n\n20. But the equally unpardonable murder of a _bhiksyu_, a saint, weighs\n      heavily on the king. In order to free him from so great a debt\n      they now pretend there are no saints. Deceivers are those who mean\n      to be _arahats_. To the left we see two cats, each of them in a\n      _st\u00fbpa_ of her own. They have been taught to answer to the names\n      of the two first converts convinced by Mah\u00e2k\u00e2ty\u00e2yana, and to the\n      right we see the queen-mother with her son who agrees with such\n      sofisms.\n\n21. To the right king Syikhan\u1e0din in a sedan-chair. He tells his retinue\n      to throw sand at the monk Mah\u00e2k\u00e2ty\u00e2yana. To the left the monk\n      himself, released as he now is from the heap of sand, predicts\n      _Roruka_\u2019s downfall to the two good ministers Hiru and Bhiru.\n\n22. From his palace the king is watching the rain of jewels which\n      precedes the wicked storm of sand[58].\n\n  People jostle each other on catching up the treasures. In the\n  foreground we see the two good ministers loading a boat with the\n  mentioned riches.\n\n23. Fate in fulfilment. _Roruka_ and almost all its inhabitants are\n      buried under the sand. We see Mah\u00e2k\u00e2ty\u00e2yana on his home-journey in\n      the village of _Khara_. Through the air the tutelary goddess of\n      the destructed town followed him to that place, and the monk\n      leaves her his begging cup over which a _st\u00fbpa_ will be built.\n\n24. In the next stage, called _Lambaka_, the inhabitants offer the\n      royalty to the monk\u2019s disciple, Sy\u00e2maka, because of the wonder\n      they saw, that is, that the shadow of the tree under which he took\n      his seat, behaved to himself but didn\u2019t follow the course of the\n      sun.\n\n25. In the third stage, named _Vokk\u00e2na_, the monk gives his mendicity to\n      a woman, who in former life, had been his mother. Reason for the\n      building of a new _st\u00fbpa_.\n\n26, 27 and 28. A rural scene between two sea-pieces. On 27 we see a monk\n      in a town fenced all around. Mah\u00e2k\u00e2ty\u00e2yana\u2019s return in\n      _Syr\u00e2vast\u00ee_. 26 and 28 represent Hiru\u2019s and Bhiru\u2019s disembarkment\n      on the spots where they once will found the towns of _Hiruka_, and\n      _Bhiruka_.\n\n\nThe 2 remaining panels, 29 and 30, relate the touching story of the two\n_kinnaras_ who could never forget that one day, 697 years ago, man and\nwife had been separated in their millennial life for a whole night\nbecause of a swollen river.\n\nThe king of _B\u00e9nar\u00e8s_, one day hunting for game, surprised and listened\nto them. In the one relievo we see the prince hewn in a standing\u2014in the\nother in a sitting posture, for the rest both the representations\nconsecrated to the _kinnara-_ or _Bhal\u00e2tya-j\u00e2taka_, have been hewn in\nthe same manner.\n\nThese mythical beings I always called _gandharvas_ because they always\nrepresent birds provided with a human head and bust. I never saw them\nwith a horse\u2019s head like _kinnara\u2019s_ have been described in Dowson\u2019s\n_Classical Dictionary_.\n\n\nWith the exception of the _Maitrakanyakavad\u00e2na_, mentioned here-above,\nFoucher didn\u2019t explain any other _relievo_ of the inferior series of the\nback wall at the _north-west_ corner, because we haven\u2019t any data.\n\nHe also had no time necessary for a complete and decisive study of the\nsculptures we see on the 3 higher galleries. He only acknowledged their\nless historical or legendary sense but accepted their iconographic\ncharacter. Some sculptures of the second gallery _I_ thought to be\nHindu-gods represented as _Bodhisattvas_, _he_, on the other hand,\nthought they were _Avalokit\u00e9syvara_, and _Manjusyri_. This does\ncorrespond at last to my meaning because _Avalokit\u00e9syvara_ is nobody\nelse but the deity Shiva, in this case Padmap\u00e2ni, at the same time the\nfourth _Dhy\u00e2ni-Bodhisattva_.\n\n\nIX.\n\nA short word about some sculptures we see on the three higher galleries.\nNo double series are to be seen there, but the hewn panels, especially\nthose of the back-walls of the second and fourth gallery, are a little\nhigher, and have been partly modeled in an excellent style.\n\nWilsen\u2019s and Leemans\u2019 engravings are not always true representations of\nthe sculptures themselves, f. i. no: 214 (W. L.) representing the\nunpardonably bad drawing of _Maitrakanyaka\u2019s_ mother. But for professor\nSpeyer\u2019s acute observation she would have been never recognised perhaps,\nand this group would then have remained unexplained for ever, if this\nsculpture, and so many other ones, might happen to be ruined at all.\nFortunately enough, I ordered this group to be photographed for about 4\nyears ago, and these photos can\u2019t possibly lie[59].\n\nThe productions, formerly taken by Mr. van Kinsbergen to the cost of the\nDutch Government, are beyond my reach, and so I\u2019ve not been able to\ncontrol whether this sculpture has been photographed or not. I think it\nwas not.[60].\n\nLet me mention another example of Wilsen\u2019s inaccuracy, the _thirtieth_\nsculpture we see on the back-wall of the _second_ gallery, and so much\nthe more, because it might have been easily photographed. More than one\nexpert did so, among others, in 1901 (in my presence) the known _Padang_\nand _Aty\u00e8h_ photographer C. Nieuwenhuis. Comparing this photo with\nWilsen\u2019s drawing we shall perceive that the two inner-pilasters of the\nsmall temple have been wrongly drawn, and that the outer-pilasters,\nbehind the standing women, have been _forgotten_; that the _prabha_\n(glory) _behind_ the saint\u2019s head, we see sitting _inside_ this small\ntemple, impossibly goes upward before the upper-threshold of the\nentrance; and that the young lions and the throne\u2019s carpet have been\ndisfigured as well as the garlands and prayer-bells, both in form and\nplacing. This also refers to the visitor\u2019s parasol, and to the\nflower-offering we see near him. The second parrot, just above the right\nbodhi-tree, and one flower-piece to the right under this tree, have been\nwholly left out. This visitor\u2019s hand _flatly_ folded for a _s\u0115mbah_\n(salaam) has not been folded _flatly_, because the finger-tips only\ntouch each other, so that the _s\u0115mbah_ itself is to be recognised no\nmore. The right foot of this man the drawer also forgot[61].\n\nIt is not difficult to show such mistakes in other drawings of Wilsen\u2019s;\nand I therefore suppose them not to be relied upon for the explanation\nof further particulars.\n\nThere where Wilsen copied monks (_bhiksyus_) he nearly always raised\nthem to _Buddhas_ by decorating their clean-shaven heads with the\nhair-crown, the _tiara_ or _usyn\u00eesya!_ as if he, who didn\u2019t even know\nthe text the sculptor had followed, knew far better than the latter! And\ndon\u2019t we know how he, just like Ovid in his _Metamorphoses_, changed\nwomen into men or otherwise?\n\n\nI further point to the above mentioned sculpture because of the worship\nof the _bodhi-tree_ characterised by parasols and _ty\u0115maras_\n(fly-flaps), rosettes and prayer-bells. Such fig-trees are still\ncultivated and honoured by all the _Ceylon_ (and elsewhere) pagodae even\nat this day, and in consequence of this worship by buddhistic ancestors\nthe Sundas and Javanese always respect _kiaras_ and _w\u0115ringins_\n(_banyan-trees_) and other akin _Ficaceae_.\n\nSuch trees as we always see on the _alun-aluns_, the front-places of\n_kratons_ and _dal\u0115ms_ of princes and native chiefs originally meant, I\nthink, a recognition to _Buddha_\u2019s fig-tree. The preacher and his\ndoctrine are forgotten here in Java, but one of the forms of this\nworship still exists.\n\n\nI mention the _eighteenth_ and the _twenty-second_ sculpture (eastern\nstaircase, _fifth_ corner, 2 and _sixth_ corner, 1) because of the\nwinged shell, the _syankha_, provided with _payongs_ and _ty\u0115maras_ as a\nsign of dignity.\n\nEven now Javanese princes carry the _ty\u00e5kr\u00e5_, the _trisul\u00e5_ and other\nweapons of deities in their _ampilan_[62], and so Vishnu\u2019s _tyankra_\ndoesn\u2019t mean that the person whom it is carried after, should refer to\nthis deity, though it is true that the _Buddha_ of the _Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists_\nmust be this god\u2019s _avat\u00e2ra_.\n\nAmong the following imageries I more especially see Hindu-gods as\nBuddha\u2019s predecessors. (_Bodhisattvas_).\n\nThe four-armed sculpture we see on 18 (_southern_ staircase, _fourth_\ncorner 5), in Buddha posture on a throne carried by a bull, the _nandi_,\nthe _v\u00e2hana_ or Shiva\u2019s carriage, makes us think, even without any other\ncharacteristic, of a _Bodhisattva_, perhaps. The lost head might have\ngiven more certainty.\n\nSimilar images we find on 100, 101, 102 and 104 W. L.[63].\n\nOn the first (_northern_ staircase, _second_ corner, 1) we see a\nfour-armed sculpture on a lotus-throne in Buddha posture, with the\nglory, and in his left hand an elephant\u2019s hook and a flower. The objects\nin his right hand are to be recognised no more. The throne itself has\nbeen adorned with elephants, lions and _n\u00e2gas_. The four arms near the\nsingle face may possibly refer to Vishnu or another deity, but not to\nBrahma which we see generally hewn four-faced: the small Buddha image in\nthe crown only speaks of Buddhism[64].\n\nAnd as Buddha, according to the northern church, had been Vishnu\u2019s\n_avat\u00e2ra_, this deity may by no means raise our astonishment because of\nhis being represented here as a _Bodhisattva_.\n\nEven the following sculpture (2 after the _second_ corner) has been hewn\nfour-armed, but too badly damaged to be recognised as the deity it\nshould represent.\n\nThis also refers to the third sculpture (3 after the corner). The _six_\narms may point to Shiva.\n\nThe fourth sculpture (5 after the same corner, W. L., 104) would not be\neasily recognised on Wilsen\u2019s drawing. On the ruin itself however, there\nis no doubt whatever, because we here see clear enough that the\n_upav\u00eeta_ is nothing else but the _Cobra_ (snake) with a nicely modeled\nand crowned head. And this only speaks of Shiva or of his son Ganesha\nwho has been always represented as an elephant or with an elephant\u2019s\nhead so that here he can\u2019t be meant as such.\n\nAnother sculpture (W. L., 106, the _seventh_ after the _second_ corner)\nis still note-worthy, because the temple wherein it sits (_not_ on a\nlotus-cushion) has been crowned by five shiva\u00eftic _trisyulas_. Should\nthis be a _woman_\u2019s image it then may represent a _T\u00e2r\u00e2_ or female\ndeity, but it hasn\u2019t any token to be recognised as Durg\u00e2, the _syakti_\nof Shiva[65].\n\nUnique of its kind is the _sixty-ninth_ sculpture on the back-wall of\nthe following, _third_, gallery (_northern_ staircase, _second_ corner,\n2).\n\nTo the left we see a deity (a Bodhisattva, perhaps) in a temple crowned\nby _eleven trisyulas_. To the right such another deity (or greatness?)\non a lower seat. Between these two stands a tree the branches of which\ndon\u2019t bear leaves or fruit, but swords and daggers. And beneath there we\nsee a cauldron full of boiling contents hanging over a flaming fire.\nNext to this we see three (armed) men guarding three fettered prisoners\nwho are likely to ask for mercy to the second, less great deity. It\nseems however, that one of the keepers is waiting for further\ninstructions of the deity we see in the small temple.\n\nThe eleven _trisyulas_ make us think of Shiva again, perhaps as K\u00e2la,\nthe god of death, the all destroying _time_.\n\nLeemans thought this representation should be connected with a\nparticular event or, should refer, in a general sense, to hellish\npunishments. The last mentioned explanation seemed acceptable to me, but\nthen when taken in a pure symbolical sense.\n\nThe king of _Siam_ simply called this a representation of hell. \u201cBuddha\n_sees_ hell.\u201d\n\n\nWe may leave the walled terraces after having seen two other sculptures\nwe find on the back-wall of the fourth and highest gallery which has no\nmore than 20 angles and hewn wall-panels.\n\nFirst of all I\u2019ll mention the _fifty-seventh_ sculpture (3 after the\n_northern_ staircase). There we see a Buddha throning in a temple upon\nwhich we see, to the right, a flaming _tyakra_ and, to the left, a\n_crescent of the moon_ floating in the air on lotus-cushions.\n\nAnd last of all I\u2019ll point to the _seventieth_ sculpture (_fifth_ corner\n2), showing us a similar representation, but where the _tyakra_ has been\nreplaced by the _disc of the sun_.[66]\n\nOne can\u2019t possibly wish a more eloquent witness of the harmony of the\n_tyakra_ and _disc of the sun_, and of the connection there is between\nthese celestial bodies and the _Buddha_, between _Buddha_ and _Vishnu_\nor, in other words, between the _Buddha-_ and _sun-worship_.\n\nFor completeness\u2019 sake I further mention that on the back-wall of this\ngallery are to be found many sculptures upon which more than _five_ till\n_seventeen_ Buddhas have been hewn in different postures (mudr\u00e2s). In my\nopinion the king of _Siam_ rightly observed that here can\u2019t be meant any\n_Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddha.\n\n\nFoucher gave us another reasonable explanation of these sculptures by\nconnecting them with _Syr\u00e2vast\u00ee_\u2019s _great wonder_ when the _Buddha_\ncovered all the heaven with the reflexions of his own body. For the sake\nof brevity I therefore refer to that which has been mentioned hereabout\nin my \u201c_Oudheidkundige Aanteekeningen_\u201d IV, p. 42 and 44.\n\nIt only remains for me now to speak a few words about the relievoes\nmajor van Erp recognised to be _j\u00e2taka_-representations guided as he was\nby the text of the great work of Mr. Cowell\u2019s and contributors.\n\nIn the lower series on the front-wall of the _first_ gallery we see, on\nthe second sculpture south of the eastern staircase, the _Bodhisattva_\nploughing his field as a farmer. Performing this task he suddenly finds\na treasure the fourth part of which he presents the needy. (W. L.,\nengraving CXXXVI). This is the _Kanytyanakhandhaj\u00e2taka_.\n\nIn the upper series on the very same wall van Erp thought the last of\nthe 4 sculptures, after the _fourth_ corner west of the southern\nstaircase, to be another _Sigala-j\u00e2taka_. In imitation of professor\nSpeyer\u2019s however, I described this as the _j\u00e2taka_\u2019s conclusion, the\nstarving _sparrow_ asking the lion for a little bit of the prey he\nkilled shortly before. (W. L.\u2019s engraving CLXX).\n\nAnd in 5 _relievoes_ on the same front-wall, but on the northern side of\nthe ruin (not engraved in L\u2019s) he meant he saw the _Mora-j\u00e2taka_, where\nthe _Bodhisattva_, caught as a peacock by the hunter of the king of\n_B\u00e9nar\u00e8s_, teaches the doctrine to the prince.\n\nAnother _j\u00e2taka_ has been still mentioned in Leemans\u2019 (Engraving\nCLXXXIII, and CLXXXIV and 3 other ones), where the _Bodhisattva_ died a\nmonkey when he sacrificed his life for the sake of his blind mother. His\nyounger brother did likewise all which can\u2019t prevent the hunter from\nshooting down even the mother-monkey after having first killed the two\nothers.\n\nIt is the _Syula-Nandiya-j\u00e2taka_ in which the wicked hunter is being\nseverely punished.\n\nAccording to the p\u00e2li-text the _Buddha_ himself related that this former\nhunter afterwards became his wicked nephew Devadatta; his younger\nbrother-monkey Ananda, and that their blind mother was afterwards\nreincarnated in his step- and foster-mother Gotam\u00ee[67].\n\nVan Erp gives us at last an explanation of another _relievo_ we see on\nthe lower series of the same wall, but this hasn\u2019t been engraved in\nLeemans\u2019 work either. Consulting the ground-plan we come across number\n120 which refers to the panel it has been sculptured upon. Van Erp\npossesses a photography of this.\n\nIt corresponds pretty well to the relievoes I described as 11 and 12 of\nthe upper series behind the second corner south of the eastern\nstaircase, because in the two j\u00e2takas the _Bodhisattva_ represents a\nhare who flings herself into a fire to feed a hungry traveller; in this\n_Syasya-j\u00e2taka_ however, the mentioned hungry man does not represent the\ndeity Indra but rather a _risyi_ or anachorete, who rescues the hare out\nof the flames as well as Indra did.\n\n\nI further mention that each of the terraces under foot lies about 3\nyards higher than the preceding one, and communicates with each other by\nstaircases of about 10 treads on an average.\n\nFurther, that each gallery between the walls is about 2 yards wide, and\nthat these walls have a thickness of 1\u00bd yard.\n\nAnd finally, that there are among the architectural ornaments, I didn\u2019t\nmention, numerous _n\u00e2ga_-heads with opened mules and upward curled\ntrunks which _formerly_ carried off the rain-water (from under all these\nwalls) to outside from terrace to terrace. _Nowadays_ this water\npermeates through the time-worn stones into the rather loose soil of the\nhill till _under_ the ruin. Dropping through all lower joints, and\nbetween the stones falling asunder more and more upon which the heavy\nst\u00fbpa has been built, it _can\u2019t be otherwise_ or all this is to destroy\nthe ruin more and more, and sooner or later there will come a time when\nthe temple itself shall partly or wholly fall to the ground, ... when\nthe Dutch Government don\u2019t know to prevent this by _doing all that will\nbe indisputably necessary_.\n\nAnd as it is a truth not to be denied that _solar heat_ and _rain-water_\nare the two prevailing factors to cause the destruction of these and\nother ruins the only way to prevent all this _must_ be therefore found\nby _shutting out_ solar-heat and rain, that is, by means of a protecting\n_cover_ such as drawn up and offered to the Dutch Government by Mr. van\nde Kamer. Any other manner of \u201crestoration\u201d will turn out to be a\nfailure even when one may succeed in joining together all loose stones,\nand in cementing all the gaps. For the stone itself (_andesit_-lava) is\nso very porous that is used anywhere in Java for filtering-stones.\n\nHowever, it doesn\u2019t alter the fact that there will be no much chance\nthat the Dutch Government will do what I also recommended her as the\nonly thing needful.[68] The late Dr. _Brandes_, the first official\npresident of the \u201c_Oudheidkundige Kommissie voor Java en Madoera_\u201d had\nproposed a far less sovereign but cheaper effort to the rectification of\nthis sorrowful state of things, and even the authorities in Netherland\nconcurred with this idea of his, though they would be inclined to think\nquite otherwise if they could _unprejudicedly_ examine this question _in\nloco_. And the newly appointed president, the competent scholar and\ngreat authority on Indian matters, shall _he_ think otherwise?[69]. Or\nwill the rain-water continually permeate through and under the\ninvaluable ruin, and carry away its bottom, and assure at last the ruin\nof the richest and most beautiful Hindu-work of art we possess, which,\nin all India and even in the mainland, speaks of the Buddha?... Should\nwe then, as a civilised colonising power, not be worthy of such a\ntreasure?\n\nOh, could I only persuade the Indian and Dutch authorities into\n_willing_ and _acting_ in quite another and better sense!\n\n\nThe major of the Indian engineer corps, Mr. van Erp, did everything he\ncould, notwithstanding the limited means the Dutch Government allowed\nhim to dispose of, and he consequently co-operated to the preservation\nof this precious ruin for a longer or shorter period of time. But this\nis not yet enough. Granting the means of our (Dutch) small empire to be\ntoo feeble to such a purpose\u2014why then not try to form a\n_B\u00e5r\u00e5budur-Society_ like the French founded a _Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d\u2019Angkor_ in\nbehalf of the ruins of _Kamboja_, which not only found support from the\nside of fellow-country-men in Europe and Farther-India or anywhere else,\nbut also from foreigners?\n\n\nX.\n\nFinding ourselves on the fourth gallery we see there twelve-treaded\nstaircases leading to the twenty-angled upper plane which had been\nwalled in to its outside only. Successively (concentrically thus) we see\nthere three circular terraces continually rising one yard and a half,\ndeclining three yards, and connected with each other by means of seven\nor eight-treaded staircases.\n\nAlong the outer-edge of the first we see stand 32 open worked _dagobs_\nor _tyaityas_; on the second there are 24, and on the third and highest\n16, so altogether 72. And within this circle rises the majestic\nmiddledagob as the _only real dagob_ or _st\u00fbpa_ representing the leading\nidea, the final purpose of the whole ruin.\n\nWhen standing on the polygonal upper plane the space between the spires\nof niches and _tyaityas_ of the highest wall offers a strikingly\nbeautiful aspect deep down and far off on the surrounding mountainous\nlandscapes; a vista we enjoy far better when from the third and highest\ncircular terrace. The whole valley of _Pr\u00e5g\u00e5_ lies there westward at the\nfoot of mount _M\u0115noreh_, a neptunian formation of volcanic\nmaterials\u2014and, to the east, of the high twin volcanoes _M\u0115rbabu_ and\n_M\u0115rapi_, and, to the north, of the _Sumbing_, the highest volcano of\nthis part of Central Java.\n\n\nAll the open worked tyaityas of the round terraces have a round foot\nmodeled like a lotus-cushion doing duty as _Padm\u00e2sana_ which carries the\nsculpture (placed thereupon and inside) with its bell-shaped barrow.\n\nThe bell with square openings has a height of 1\u00bd yard carrying a\nslantingly rising square stone-block crowned with an octangular cone\nrounded off on its top[70].\n\nThe large _middle-dagob_ has the same type, but its wails partly rise in\na perpendicular line above the foot nicely framed and hewn in the style\nof a colossal lotus-cushion in order to finish into a flat cupola rising\nfor at least 8 yards above the highest circular terrace.\n\nIt was van Erp who found back some fragments of the large cone, which\nonce crowned this real _dagob_, so that he was able to finish again this\n_st\u00fbpa_, now wholly closed again, and crowned once more with the basis\nof the cone.\n\nThe unfinished _Buddha_ image found inside in its _bhumi-sparsya-mudr\u00e2_\nhad been kept outside, and provisionally deposited on the hill at the\nnorth-western foot of the ruin.\n\nNow it will be impossible to reach this _dagob_\u2019s top because the\ntemple-stone staircase leading to this (it should be understood however,\nthat the staircase itself _did not belong there_), has been removed, but\na walk on the highest terrace situated at the foot some 40 yards above\nthe hill-top is still worth while, and the eyes are pleased then with\nthe very same beautiful vista formerly to be overlooked from a brick\nbench placed on the damaged cupola, and overburdened as it were with the\nnames of unknown visitors scratched upon it.\n\nDeep, ever greening and blooming, or, in harvest-time, brown-yellow or\nearth-colored planes, most often cloud-likely bedewed early at morn,\nbreathing life and enjoyment of life, so to say under the powerful ribs\nof mount _M\u0115noreh_, badly bursten and highly crowned, and the cloud-like\ntops of craters of more than three volcanoes, and the active _M\u0115rapi_\nstill vomitting death or destruction in their surroundings, but also\nproducing new life on the soil all covered with time-worn\nvolcanic-ruins.\n\nIn face of such a stupendous creation we feel very little\u2014yet, as the\nchildren of the very same creation, rich, and as thinking beings happy\nand great[71].\n\n\nXI.\n\nIt only remains for me now to add a short description to the _Buddha_\nsculptures which made the ruin call: _B\u00e5ra-budd\u00e5_ or _P\u00e5r\u00e5 budd\u00e5_, that\nis, the _many_ or _conjoint Buddhas_.[72].\n\nAll of them are in a sitting posture with crossed legs, almost in the\nsame posture the Javanese call _sil\u00e5_, but upright.\n\nThey are dressed in a thin mantle uncovering their right arms and\nshoulders\u2014such as the monks of the southern church wear their cowls\u2014and\nhave the _tiara_, the round hair-knot, on their heads all covered with\nshort curls. Even the _\u00fbrn\u00e2_, the little tuft of hair on their fronts is\nstill to be seen on many a sculpture, and on the other ones, less\naccurately hewn, they are forgotten[73].\n\nThe posture of all of them tells resignation and peace, and may speak of\nthe later final dissolving in the _nirv\u00e2na_, the joy- and painless\n_not-to-be_.\n\nBut the sculptor didn\u2019t succeed in interpreting all the sculptures in\nthis sense. Not all the sculptors had been equally good artists for they\nmust have had much more work the best of them might have finished alone.\n\nAmong the sculptures placed opposite the _five_ zones of heaven, the\nEast, South, West and North and the Zenith, there is to be seen a\n_slight_ difference in the posture of the right hands, and something\nmore difference in the posture of the _two_ hands with regard to those\nsculptures we see on the round terraces. _All_ the sculptures on the\n_five_ encircling walls have been hewn with their left hands in their\nlaps, that is, with the palm on the right foot. Those on the _four lower\nwalls_ have (on the east side) their right hands with their backs, on\nthe _south_ side these very same hands with the palms upwards on the\nright knees; those of the _west_ (opposite to the setting sun) hold both\ntheir hands in their laps, and those of the _north_ rise their right\nhands a little above the right thigh, palm forward, and the _five_\nfingers closed together in a perpendicular line.\n\nThe sculptures of the _whole fifth_ and _highest_ walls dominating _all_\nthe regions of heaven only distinguish themselves from those on the\n_northern_ lower walls by means of the _bent_ index of the raised right\nhand forming a _closed circle_ with the somewhat joined thumb, that is,\nbecause of the stone\u2019s brittleness.\n\nThe sculptures of the open worked _tyaityas_ on the three round terraces\nhowever, raise their _two_ hands before the epigastric region, the left\none with the palm and the bent finger-tips in an upward direction, the\nright one with the palm to the left and the fingers bent over those of\nthe other hand[74]. Moreover, they all miss the glory and have not been\nplaced in open temple-niches above a human and mythical- and animal\nworld represented by many sculptures, but hewn _in transparently closed\ngraves_, and in higher spheres above this world. There is consequently\nmore difference than between the sculptures of the five encircling\nwalls.\n\nThere is still another sculpture unique of its kind.\n\nWhen, a long time ago, in the beginning of our last century, the\nmiddle-dagob was opened a double space was found inside, a smaller above\na larger one, and, among others, a Buddha image corresponding in size to\nall other sculptures, whereas the posture of the hands tallied with\nthose on the _eastern_ lower walls[75].\n\nThis image having been unfinished can\u2019t be ascribed to the merest chance\nor to an untimely stop of the temple-building, because the dagob itself,\nwhere it had been _wholly closed in_, was finished afterwards.\n\nSo it must have been intentionally left in this state, but _I_ can\u2019t\npossibly accept the supposition that it should refer to the _future_\n[fifth] Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha in state of being.\n\nA future, _not yet existing_ Buddha can\u2019t be materialized by a\n_half-sculptured_ image, and the _fifth_ Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha is never hewed in\nthe posture of the hands of the _second_, but always, such as on the\nnorthern lower walls, in his _own mudr\u00e2_ whereas the _future_ Buddhas as\n_Bodhisattvas_ were represented not only in other postures but also in\nanother dress and ornament and with their own attributes.\n\nBesides, the hypothesis challenged by me would not yet solve still\nexisting mysteries, but would only give rise to other enigmas which\ndon\u2019t bring us any farther.\n\nThe explanation of the fact may be much simpler.\n\n_I_ think it may have been considered quite unnecessary to finish a\nsculpture in such an accurate manner like all the other ones, if it\nshould be hidden from sight for ever.\n\n\nWhat is the meaning of these different Buddhas?\n\nAccording to the posture of the hands we may divide them into\n_six_\u2014according to other data into _three_ groups. _Nothing more_ and\n_nothing less_.\n\nThe _three_ groups are:\n\n1. The 432 Buddhas of the open temple-niches on the five richly hewed\n      encircling walls, all of them seated on lotus-thrones and crowned\n      with glories.\n\n2. The 72 Buddhas of the open worked _tyaityas_ on the three round\n      terraces, without any glory or lotus-throne but represented by the\n      _padm\u00e2sana_ of the tyaitya-foot. But even the human and animal\n      world hewn under the niche-Buddhas we don\u2019t see there again.\n\n3. The _only_ Buddha of the large dagob entirely sequestered, without\n      glory or throne, but seated above the _padm\u00e2sana_ which carries\n      the whole dagob.\n\n  The posture of the hands however, ought to refer to _six_ groups,\n  because there are _six_ different _mudr\u00e2s_.\n\n  Wilhelm von Humboldt was the first who considered _five_ of the _six_\n  Buddhas to be the representations of the five _Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddhas.\n\n  _Three_ of them: Vairotyana, Akshobhya and Ratna Sambhava successively\n  redeemed and ruled over three following former worlds; the _fourth_,\n  Amit\u00e2bha\u2014our Gautama or _Shakya-muni_\u2014ruled over _our_ world these 24\n  centuries, and is said to be succeeded, after the creation of a new\n  world, by the _fifth_ and last, Amogasiddha, the _Buddha of love_.\n\n  Especially in the posture of the hands there is some conformity\n  between five of the six B\u00e5r\u00e5budur-images and the five Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas\n  such as we see them hewed in Asia. But there are also some points of\n  difference.\n\n  In the Mongol countries, for instance, the _two first_ Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas\n  are throning in the East; the _third_ in the South, the _fourth_ in\n  the West and the _fifth_ in the North[76].\n\n  Taking, according to the posture of the hands, the images of our ruins\n  to be _Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddhas the East would then be only occupied by the\n  _second_ and the _zenith_ by the first of them, that is, above the\n  round terraces which don\u2019t dominate any region of heaven. But this\n  happens more elsewhere in Asia.\n\n  But which will be the _sixth_ Buddha represented there by _all_ the\n  sculptures of the fifth and highest encircling wall, and dominating\n  _all_ the zones of heaven, but which _can\u2019t be a Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha_?\n\n  That\u2019s a new enigma rightly explained by the king of Siam, I\n  suppose,[77] and which I\u2019m going to show directly.\n\n  And that the unfinished Buddha of the _large_ dagob _can\u2019t_ represent\n  the _fifth_ Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha appears from the posture of the hands which\n  would refer to the _second_, 92 times hewed on the eastern\n  lower-walls.\n\n  Should it represent a _Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddha, it must be this one and for\n  such an idea _I_ can\u2019t find any reason.\n\n  Had the _Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists_ had the intention to place there one of their\n  five _Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddhas, they surely would have rendered homage to their\n  _own_ Redeemer, the _fourth_. The four other ones may have only had a\n  legendary-historical sense, consequently also the _second_. In spite\n  of the _mudr\u00e2_ of this second _Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddha the image itself should\n  not be meant as Akshobhya, but simply as the perfect Buddha, the\n  _Shakya having taking flesh as Buddha_\u2014for this is the meaning of this\n  _mudr\u00e2_ even to the Buddhists of the southern church _who don\u2019t know\n  several Dhy\u00e2nis_ but the _only_ Buddha.\n\n  And as these five Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas don\u2019t wholly explain the images of\n  the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur, and don\u2019t wholly expound the _sixth_, I therefore\n  thought it reasonable to take all the Buddhas of the five encircling\n  walls as one separated group, those of the three circular terraces as\n  a _second_, and the ones of the closed dagob as the only\n  representative of a _third_, whereas the placing of the sculptures on\n  these five walls should be connected with the _five_ zones of heaven\n  Siddh\u00e2rta took possession of after his birth[78].\n\n  Should this group represent the Buddha perhaps, with reference to the\n  human- and animal world described by the sculptures hewed beneath\n  there, we then may refer to Wilsen\u2019s and Leemans\u2019 and accept the\n  images (_taken from the mentioned world_) of the upper-terraces to be\n  the Buddha as _Arahat_ in a state of supreme purity or holiness, in\n  the _nirv\u00e2na_, perhaps. The Buddha wholly enclosed by the large dagob,\n  and so positively separated from the world, may refer to the\n  _parinirv\u00e2na_, that is, the _wholly_ dissolving in the infinite\n  _not-to-be_; _death without regeneration_, the _final purpose of all\n  life_[79].\n\n  For this dagob is a closed grave in which for about, or at least,\n  eleven centuries ago the Buddhists may have hidden the vase containing\n  some ashes of the really died Buddha; a trace of the remainders of the\n  great wise man, the spotless preacher; a minim quantity of the\n  Master\u2019s ashes, the divine redeemer of all that lives and suffers,\n  that thinks, feels and dies.\n\n\nMr. Foucher starts from the principle that he doesn\u2019t like to contradict\n  the explanation as if these _Buddha_ images were to represent\n  _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas_, but he means that they should be examined more\n  closely, and completed, and that the different groups ought to be\n  judged again after severe study.\n\nAs for the present he discerns:\n\n1, the _bhunisparsya mudr\u00e2_ in the 92 niches on the 4 first walls to\n      _the East_;\n\n2, to the _South_ the _vara-mudr\u00e2_;\n\n3, to the _West_ the _dhy\u00e2ni-mudr\u00e2_;\n\n4, to the _North_ the _abhaya-mudr\u00e2_, and\n\n5, in the 64 niches on the fifth and highest wall the _vitarka-mudr\u00e2_\n      (the gesture of _discussion_) and higher, among the 72 cupolae of\n      the 3 circular terraces:\n\n6, the _dharma-tyakra-mudr\u00e2_ (mark of distinction), and finally the\n      _only_ sculpture from the wholly closed _dagob_, hewed in the\n      _bhumi-sparsya-mudr\u00e2_.\n\nSo there is a slight difference between Foucher\u2019s idea about the\nnorth-indian _Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists_ and my defended explanation of the _Siam\nH\u00eenay\u00e2nists_.\n\n\u201c_This is Buddha preaching the tyakra_\u201d said king Tsyula Longkorn to me,\n\u201c_and this means the tyakra_\u201d, joining the tops of the thumb and the\nindex of his right hand so as to form something like a circle.\n\nThis seemed convincing to me, and I found this idea confirmed not only\non all and still undamaged statues on the highest wall, but also, and\nespecially, on a great many _relievoes_ of the second gallery which\nrepresent the _Buddha_ in a preaching posture.\n\nIt is true that the exactness of this view of mine had been indirectly\n_denied_ by my great official antagonist, the late Dr. Brandes, but\nnever did he dispute or refute this scientifically.\n\n\nMr. Groeneveldt, formerly the most competent authority on our Hindu\nsculptures in the Dutch Indies, thought the unfinished image of the\nmiddle-dagob to be a representation of the _Adi-Buddha_, and this would\ncertainly have expounded this statue in it separately placing, if this\n_im_material _primeval_ Buddha might have been ever represented in a\nmaterial image. And there are more objections than only this\n_impersonality_ of the divine primeval being materially revealing\nhimself in the different _Buddhas_, and consequently _not_ hewed at\n_Nep\u00e2l_ and _Tibet_ but only represented by a symbol, a circle or two\neyes[80].\n\nWould the mah\u00e2y\u00e2nistic architects of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur have acted in quite a\ndifferent sense?\n\n_I_ don\u2019t see any _Dhy\u00e2ni_-Buddha in this Buddha, but only the _perfect_\npreacher _having taken flesh_ as the Buddha, the Master, who, though he\ndid die, continues to live as long as _this his_ world will exist.\n\n\nEach posture of the hands has its own meaning, and there are much more\nthan five _mudr\u00e2s_ even in the h\u00eenay\u00e2nistic countries like _Siam_ where\none doesn\u2019t know any Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha.\n\nThis also refers to the posture of the _sixth_, for a long time\nunexplained Buddha on the highest encircling wall whose mudr\u00e2 was\nrightly called _dharma tyakra_[81]. Thumb and index, circularly joined\ntogether, represent the _tyakra_, god Vishnu\u2019s disc, the sun, the symbol\nof the _dharma_, the buddhistic _Doctrine_.\n\nBuddha has been consequently hewed there as _preacher, preaching the\ndoctrine_ to all people, and _consequently_ towards _all_ the regions of\nheaven. And this teaching of the king-Buddhist has been perfectly\nconfirmed by the fact that on _all_ the sculptures (especially on those\nwe also see on the backwall of the second gallery) the thumb and the\nindex join each other in the very same manner.\n\nThat this preaching preacher has been placed upon the highest wall will\nbe easily understood if we consider the preaching of the doctrine to be\nthe highest vital expression of Buddhism, and possibly referred to both\nthe world of the four zones of heaven and to the one of the celestials\nin the _zenith_.\n\n\nXII.\n\nA few remarks about the sculptures of the original foot of the\nouter-wall we didn\u2019t discover before 1886. In 1890 I proposed them to be\nuncovered and photographed, afterwards they were covered again in the\nancient manner, and hidden from sight.\n\nThey have been hewed on a projecting wall-foot which goes tolerably deep\nbeneath the heavy ogive, now resting as a socle again on the surrounding\nouter-terrace that has been afterwards built all round the 36-angled\nbasis of the temple, but only on 24 of the 40 panels. The _two_ sides of\neach of the double fore-buildings of the four temple-fronts built\ntowards the different zones of heaven, _haven\u2019t_ been adorned with any\nsculpture, but the staircases divide the four middle fore-buildings into\n_two_ panels.\n\nEach of the 24 hewed panels contains _six_ or _eight_ imageries one\nmetre long by about 80 inches high. A system of flat frames might have\nseparated the whole series from the mentioned ogive, so to say, a\nregular combination interrupted by the staircases only.\n\nIf the 160 scenes which form this combination are to represent a series\nof following events or legends we then must try to find the beginning\n(like on nearly all other hindu temples) to the south of the eastern\nstaircase following it from there through the South, West and North till\nthe starting-point in the East.\n\nThis _didn\u2019t_ happen and could not have happened when they were\nphotographed because the temporary uncovering began and was continued at\nmore than one place at the same time without knowing how many sculptures\nthere would be found. They have been marked on the clich\u00e9s with capital\nletters for the different panels, and with figures for the scenes of\neach panel (from 1 till 6 or 1 till 8), but these numbers have been\noccasionally noticed in a just direction, and from time to time in a\nreversed successive number. On a few copies we don\u2019t see any letter and\nnumber; they may have been cut off with the margin of papier.\n\nFortunately, the figures in lead pencil on the back-side could assist\nme, though they sometimes started from quite a wrong point.\n\nThe Dutch Government ordered 15 pair of photos to be taken from these\nclich\u00e9s, and presented them to special musea or societies. _I_, the\nschemer of the plan, do not belong to the favoured. But the afterwards\nwrecked Archaeological Society did, notwithstanding I, her president,\nsent this plan to the Government for about 25 years ago[82].\n\nThose who desire to examine these photos will find here the letters and\nfigures in the _just_ successive number of the sculptures to begin with\nC 1 south of the eastern staircase.\n\n  C, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  B, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8;\n  A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  U, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  T, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  S\u00b9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  S, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  R, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8;\n  Q, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  P, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  O, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  N\u00b9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  N, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  M, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8;\n  L, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  K, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  I, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  H\u00b9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  H, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  G, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8;\n  F, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6;\n  E, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  D, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n  C\u00b9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1;\n\nSix of these 160 sculptures are badly damaged whilst one of them is\nwholly lost. (R. 5). Seven have less suffered. Twenty representations\nremained partially unfinished (C 3 and 4, B 7, A 2, U 4, S 1, O 7, N 5,\nM 2, K 4 and 3, H\u00b9 2, H 1, G 4 and 8, F 2, 4 and 6, D 3 and C\u00b9 4).\nPartly _finished_ but for the rest not yet drawn in the rough are 3\nscenes (H\u00b9 1, F\u00b9, and D 4) whereas one (I 1) has been scarcely sketched.\n\nOn the flat frame above the series we see a few short indications\nengraved in ancient-javanese characters\u2014dating, according to professor\nKern, from about the year 800 of the Syaka-era,\u2014roughly hewed and in a\nperfunctory manner, as if it were scratched in stone with a knife or a\nchisel, that is, above H 1, 2, 3 and 4 (twice); 5 (bis) and 6 (bis); F\n1, 4, and 5; E 6 and 5; D 8, 6 (bis), 5 (bis), 4, 3 and 1 (bis)[83].\n\nSome of these legends are no more or hardly to be read but the other\nones read by Dr. J. Brandes don\u2019t teach us any more than that which we\nmay understand by closely examining the representations themselves, for\ninstance, that the _s\u0115mbah_ of the persons seated around a tomb or\nsanctuary refers to a reverence to a _tyaitya_[84].\n\nSome inscriptions may contain the name of the person to be hewed, and to\nassist the sculptor.\n\nThe unfinished and scarcely sketched sculptures prove us that they, such\nas on other _tyan\u1e0dis_ at _Parambanan_, have been hardly hewed here on\nthe walls of the finished temples.\n\n\nIn these sculptures I could not have recognised any continuous series.\nAmong many a domestic and some rural scenes I saw two or three fowlings\nwith a pea-shooter or bow and arrow (M 5 and 3), and one fishing (I 6);\none war-dance (C 5) and some other dancings on the occasion of which a\nwind-instrument provided with a bagpipe (S 2 and R. 17) was played on.\nFurther there are offerings of food or flowers to Bodhisattvas or other\nvenerable personalities, and once to the Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha Amit\u00e2bha, the\nRedeemer of this world (K 3), by six crowned men and to be distinguished\nby their glories (Bodhisattvas perhaps?)\n\nOn one sculpture (K 2) Amit\u00e2bha (?) has been four times represented as\nan ascetic in the wilderness. Sometimes there are hewed demons or\n_raksyasas_, most often attacking or killing other people (M 2, 3, 6, 7\nand 8); _tyaityas_ are to be seen more than once (U 3, T 6, 4 and 3, K\n4, G 6, F 6, E 6, D 8, 6 and 3, and C\u00b9 6). _Bodhi_-trees covered by\n_payongs_ and some _gandharvas_ under their shade, such as to be found\nmore than once in the _Parambanan_ ruins and speaking of _Buddhism_ even\nthere, have been hewed five times (K 6, G 4, F 3 (_bis_) E 4 and C\u00b9 6),\nand once with a _payong_ only (D 1). _Vishnu\u2019s tyakra_ has been once\nrepresented on a lotus-cushion in the sky (C 2).\n\n\n\n\n                            Concluding word.\n\n\nIn a small compass I suppose to have mentioned all that may be discussed\nabout the _three_ buddhistic monuments speaking in this valley, on the\ntwo banks of the river _Pr\u00e5g\u00e5_, of a former high civilisation and of a\nvery developed art.\n\nThose who require, or desire, a better insight into the ancient\nBuddhism, and those who wish to know more about its sanctuaries to be\nfound here in Java and elsewhere in India, are kindly referred to the\nworks I consulted by the study of this subject, and to those I wrote\nmyself and which have been for the greater part mentioned in or at the\nbottom of the text of this little book.\n\nGranting Buddhism to have been lost in Java and elsewhere in India,\u2014yet,\nit still exists, more or less degenerated, still counting more followers\nthan any other religion ever counted, and its lucky freedom from\nbigotry, especially in the h\u00eenay\u00e2nistic countries, and noble doctrine of\nlove and self-command is raised above all suspicion[85].\n\n\n_Jogjakart\u00e5_, October, November 1906, and 1911.\n\n\n\n\n                               FOOTNOTES.\n\n\n[1]See, among others, _H. Kern\u2019s \u201cGeschiedenis van het Boeddhisme\u201d, II,\n    page 308_ and following ones, and Dr. _S. Lefman\u2019s \u201cGeschichte des\n    alten Indi\u00ebns_\u201d, Berlin 1880, page 768 and following ones, and the\n    engravings on page 769 and the picture \u201c_Der A\u00e7okafelsen van\n    Girnaroden Jun\u00e0gadh im Jahre 1869_\u201d, in the 3^d number of this work\n    opposite to page 257.\n\n[2]See my illustrated work published in 1893 by \u201c_het Koninklijk\n    Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van N. I._\u201d entitled:\n    \u201c_Tyan\u1e0di Parambanan na de ontgraving_\u201d and therein the photo\u2019s of\n    many deities represented as _Bodhisatthvas_, and my \u201c_Boeddhistische\n    tempel- en klooster-bouwvallen in de Parambanan-vlakte_\u201d. Surabaya\n    1907.\n\n[3]In the Buddha pagodae I visited in _Ceylon_, at Colombo and its\n    environs, I saw badly hewn or coloured images of _Shiva_ and of\n    _Ganesja_. The monks called these images the representations of\n    _Buddha_.\n\n[4]See the English translation of his \u201c_Record of the Buddhist Religion\n    as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago_ (A. D. 671-695)\u201d by\n    the Japanese scholar I Takakusu., provided with a preface of prof\n    Max M\u00fcller and published by the Clarendon press at Oxford in 1896.\n    Pages XXII, XXV, XXXIX and XLVIII of the \u201c_General Introduction_.\u201d\n\n[5]In a temple at _Kandy_ in Ceylon is kept a tooth which, though of\n    animal origin, took the place of a former so-called _Buddha_-tooth\n    which has been destroyed by fire. This tooth, named _Dalada_, is\n    taken care of, and honoured too. And the holiest pagoda in this\n    island, the _Thuparama_, possesses one of Buddha\u2019s clavicles,\n    according to the assertion of its believers certainly with as much\n    right as the Catholic Christians maintain the genuineness of many a\n    relic of Jesus and the apostles.\n\n[6]Even the ashes of other saints, princes and noble men, of gurus or\n    teachers, of priests or monks, were occasionally put away in such\n    graves upon which arose the glorious mausolea the ruins of which we\n    still admire at this day.\n\n[7]It won\u2019t do maintaining that these dagobs should have been formed\n    after the lotus, the holy _padma_, and that its openings in the\n    transparent dagobs on the round terraces above the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur must\n    represent the empty seed-holes of the nursery of the ripe lotus. The\n    leaves of a lotus (_Nelumbium speciosum Willd_) fall off before\n    bending downward, and then the pericarp only remains on its stem\n    like a _urned_ cone or cupola whose flat, uprighted and afterwards,\n    by the sagging of the withering stem, downrighted base has been\n    stung by the seed-holes. _Not_ the bell-shaped sides, for they\n    remain closed. So these openings must have quite another sense than\n    the one derived from the natural form of the lotus-plant.\n\n    Only the _red_ lotus, the _Nelumbium speciosum_ referring to all\n    this, and recognisable by its peduncles and leaf stalks rising high\n    above the water, has been frequently represented on Hindu temples.\n    But not the _white_ lotus, the _Nymphae Lotus Linn._, the leaves and\n    flowers of which are floating on the surface of the water.\n\n[8]Professor _Kern_ wrote to me that the alphabetical writing of the\n    inscriptions we see on some demi-relievoes on the outer-walls should\n    date from the year 800, or thereabouts, of the _Shaka_ era, thus our\n    _ninth_ century. And this rather corresponds to the age of the\n    Buddha temples in the plain of _Parambanan_. Does not a stone of one\n    of these _tyan\u1e0dis_ testify to this temple\u2019s having been built in the\n    year 701 of the _shaka_ era, and dedicated to the service of _T\u00e2r\u00e2_\n    in honour of the prince\u2019s _guru_ or teacher, who may have been\n    buried there? And in the year 415 the Chinese Buddhist, _Fa Hien_,\n    when in Java, came across many a brahmin Hindu. He didn\u2019t speak\n    about Buddhists, but this circumstance alone does not prove his not\n    having met co-religionists, nor does it produce any evidence of\n    their non-existence in the interior of Java he didn\u2019t visit\n    probably. _I Tsing_ see note says that the inhabitants of Java and\n    of the other islands of the Archipelago principally embraced\n    H\u00eenay\u00e2nism. \u201c_Buddhism was ... chiefly the H\u00eenay\u00e2na_\u201d (page XLVII),\n    and \u201c_the ten or more islands of the Southern Sea_ (_Sumatra_,\n    _Java_ _etc._) generally belong to the H\u00eenay\u00e2na.\u201d (page XXX). Such\n    happened in our _seventh century_.\n\n[9]See his essay about _Aymonier_\u2019s: \u201cLe Cambodge\u201d, I, written in the\n    \u201c_Bulletin de l\u2019Ecole fran\u00e7aise d\u2019Extr\u00e9me-Orient_\u201d, II, page 83 note\n    4.\n\n[10]_Attap_ means palm-fronds used for thatch by the Javanese\n    (_Chambers_).\n\n    The scaffolding has been removed since, and the stone roof was\n    rebuilt by the major engineer Van Erp. 1911.\n\n[11]This _prabha_ has been also restored. 1911.\n\n[12]The heavy colonnades of which will be sacrificed to the swelling\n    waters of the river Nile. But they are doomed to destruction because\n    this stream must vivify the rainless country.\n\n[13]I, number 3, p. 249 and II, number 1, p. 20 and 30.\n\n[14]\u201c_Oudheidkundige Aanteekeningen_\u201d IV, p. 59 and 60.\n\n[15]This cone\u2019s top has been removed again because of Mr. van Erp\u2019s\n    having been unable to prove his reproduction of this cone with its\n    umbrellas to be incontestably true.\n\n[16]This idea of mine about the graduation of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur\u2019s origin is\n    given as a questionable hypothesis. However great the consequences\n    were, we can not know until we have compared the alto-relievoes of\n    these and other Javanese Hindu-temples with the artless\n    wall-paintings I saw in the Ceylon pagodae.\n\n[17]Buddha himself thought it useless to pray, but the Buddhists of\n    later times prayed however, but didn\u2019t worship the images\n    themselves. The Chinese\u2014very degenerated Buddhists\u2014light their pipes\n    on the flames of the consecrated waxcandles burning on the altar,\n    and consider this no sacrilege.\n\n[18]According to _Rhys Davids_\u2019s work, _nirv\u00e2na_ means the state of\n    holiness which ripes man for death _without regeneration_, the\n    so-called _parinirv\u00e2na_. But the signification of nirv\u00e2na itself\n    differs in proportion to time and caste.\n\n[19]This superstratum is about 2,5 yard high and 7 yards wide. The lower\n    terrace on the outside was about 3 yards wider, and 1 yard high.\n    These numbers are nearly just and sufficient enough to my purpose.\n\n[20]At that time I could not have thought of a permanent uncovering,\n    because the preservation of the whole ruin would have required\n    retain-walls too expensive, and too much disfiguring the temple\n    itself. The architect van de Kamer thought it afterwards possible,\n    but expensive, to have the ruin restored again, and its original\n    foot permanently uncovered. Sunlight, heat and rain-water however,\n    would do much to its decay unless the ruin itself became wholly\n    covered. Otherwise the time-worn joints becoming more and more wide\n    would admit much more rain-water between the stones into the earth\n    of the hill under the ruin, and this earth would then be carried\n    away more rapidly than is the case now, and have the ruin spoilt and\n    decayed.\n\n[21]Above the first discovered imageries of the foot we found\n    inscriptions in ancient Javanese characters scratched in stone. On\n    this ground the Society, presided by myself, proposed the Dutch\n    Government to have the whole temple\u2019s foot uncovered (in the only\n    way possible) without endangering the foot itself, whilst the cost\n    was estimated at \u00a3 768. The Government put up with it, and granted\n    the necessary sum for the budget of 1890.\n\n[22]As well as so many angels painted by our artists don\u2019t always\n    represent a Gabriel, a Raphael or a Michael.\n\n[23]_Bulletin de l\u2019\u00e9cole fran\u00e7aise d\u2019Extr\u00eame Orient_, I, No: 1 page\n    21-22.\n\n[24]Both this N\u00e2ga and Garu\u1e0da are mythical beings who adopt different\n    shapes.\n\n        On the lower        wall   4 \u00d7 26 = 104\n        on the second         \u201d    4 \u00d7 26 = 104\n        on the third          \u201d    4 \u00d7 22 =  88\n        on the fourth         \u201d    4 \u00d7 18 =  72\n        and on the fifth      \u201d    4 \u00d7 16 =  64\n        together                            432\n\n[26]The first effort to interpret this series we owe to the Austrian\n    draughtsman in Netherlands-Indian civil service F. C. Wilsen.\n\n[27]We shall afterwards speak about these former lives or _j\u00e2takas_. It\n    was Mr. Foucher who afterwards expounded many representations, and\n    after him, van Erp also explained another few ones.\n\n[28]If we don\u2019t count those on the front sides of the more than 400\n    small dagobs, we see there:\n\n        On the outer-wall,    above                   408\n        \u201d   \u201d   \u201d   \u201d         below                   160\n        on the front-wall of the first gallery        568\n        on the back-wall                              240\n        on the second gallery in front                192\n        \u201d   \u201d   \u201d   \u201d         behind                  108\n        third gallery,        in front                165\n        \u201d   \u201d                 behind                   88\n        fourth gallery,       in front                142\n        \u201d   \u201d                 behind                   70\n        altogether                                   2141\n\n[29]The relation of this fact with the apparent course of the sun to the\n    inhabitants of the northern hemisphere in which Farther India, and\n    Hindostan are situated, was, thus far, shown by nobody before me (in\n    1887). Still it is an important fact to those who believe the Buddha\n    a _sun-god_.\n\n[30]Of North-India where Buddhism first arose.\n\n[31]_Pratyeka-Buddhas_ are believers raised by their own consummating to\n    the dignity of a _Buddha_; they have, however, no right to teach or\n    redeem other people.\n\n[32]One of these servants massages her like the Javanese still do\n    (_pidj\u0115t_); another fans her or chases away annoying flies and\n    gnats.\n\n[33]I think it permitted to show the relation there is between this\n    representation, and the placing of the _five_ Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas we see\n    on the highest (round) terraces, opposite to the _zenith_, and upon\n    the encircling walls opposite to the four zones of heaven.\n\n[34]Dr. Leemans thought he saw in this crescent of the moon the tips of\n    a headkerchief. Had he seen the sculptures himself he would not have\n    been mistaken in such a way. Siddh\u00e2rta wears a crown (_makuta_), and\n    this doesn\u2019t match the headkerchief, neither does the Javanese\n    _kuluq_ or ceremonial cap. Such crescents of the moon are also\n    weared by H\u00e2rit\u00ee\u2019s and Kuvera\u2019s children on the two sculptures\n    before the entrance of _tyan\u1e0di M\u0115ndut_, but without headkerchiefs.\n\n    Kern says that Buddha means both the awaking of the _sun_ and of the\n    _moon_ and that the two celestial bodies also refer to Buddha on the\n    other sculptures of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur. Had the Dutch Government sent\n    Leemans to Java, before he wrote his work, he should not have taken\n    a _s\u00e9nt\u00e9_-leaf (_Alocasia macrorrhiza Schott_, an Aro\u00efdee\n    consequently) for a banana-leaf (_Musa_ L.,) but he should then have\n    seen how even this leaf is still used by the Javanese as a\n    provisional umbrella, and he should have understood why in former\n    times it was carried as _ampilan_ after the saints and princes, just\n    as the cow\u2019s hair fly-fan. (tjemara).\n\n[35]Occasionally called Gopa. Some people say these are the names of two\n    women, and as the 45th sculpture (107 W. L.) represents him enjoying\n    his domestic happiness the schemer should then have thought of two\n    women. Ceylon writers know to tell us that 1000 men could not bend\n    this bow, and that the blow of its string was heard at a distance of\n    7000 miles. This bowshot which enabled him to gain his bride\u2019s hand\n    has been also mentioned in other legends\u2014it _was once_ awarded to\n    R\u00e2ma in the _Ram\u00e2y\u00e2na_, and to _Arjuna_ in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_. In\n    _Homeros\u2019 Odyssea_ Penelope\u2019s lovers vainly try to do the same with\n    _Odysseus\u2019_ bow upon which all were convinced by his mastershot, and\n    killed.\n\n[36]The evil spirit had no authority over the fifth part of the world,\n    the _zenith_.\n\n[37]According to other people _muni_ means an anchoret or ascetic.\n\n[38]Leemans calls him Arala Kalama.\n\n[39]In Leeman\u2019s work Rudra.\n\n[40]The Javanese would now say _griy\u00e5 r\u00e5j\u00e5_, that is, _royal house_.\n\n[41]Who these 5 apostles were in former lives another series of\n    sculptures on the front wall of this gallery will teach us.\n\n[42]On one of the sculptures at Parambanan we see the death of king\n    Dasyaratha, Rama\u2019s father, represented in almost the same manner.\n\n[43]In \u201cde Indische Gids\u201d of 1887.\n\n[44]The writings of the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists have been written in _sanscrit_,\n    those of the H\u00eenay\u00e2nists generally in the _p\u00e2li_ language.\n\n[45]Speyer and other sanscrit scholars write: _J\u00e2taka_ according to an\n    acknowledged manner of writing which replaces the Dutch _dj_ by the\n    _j_, the _j_, by the _y_, the _tj_ by _c_. Because I also write for\n    laymen who don\u2019t know this writing I try to do my best to replace\n    these consonants by our own, and therefore write _tyakra_ and\n    _tyaitya_ instead of _cakra_ and _caitya_ what would seduce many a\n    one to say _kakra_ and _kaitya_. In English of course, we write _j_\n    instead of the Dutch _dj_.\n\n[46]Engraving CXXXVIII and following ones.\n\n[47]By the Dutch called: \u201cthe little man in the moon.\u201d About such\n    another j\u00e2taka, explained by Van Erp, look at the bottom of this\n    page.\n\n[48]See above, the sculptures 73, 77, 78 and 117.\n\n[49]This happens more amongst the _j\u00e2takas_.\n\n[50]Like anywhere we also see here the red _Nelumbium speciosum_ hewn as\n    a lotus plant with its leaves and flower rising above the water; but\n    not the white _Nymphaea Lotus_ the leaves and flowers of which are\n    driving on the surface of the water.\n\n[51]The _eternal_ hell of the Christians as a punishment for _temporary_\n    sin the Buddhists don\u2019t know.\n\n[52]See W. L., 121, 123 and 125 of the upper series of the back-wall.\n\n[53]In Mr. A. Tissandier\u2019s work \u201c_Cambodge et Java_\u201d published by Mason\n    at Paris in 1896, we find opposite page 124 a good engraving of this\n    last sculpture (picture XXVIII); but the author, who even dares\n    maintain that this whole series has nothing to do with Buddhism,\n    says that it represents a young, richly diademed Hindu worshipping\n    the bull (the _nandi_) of Shiva! By so much ignorance Tissandier\n    blames his work, and ... himself. Striving we may err, but let us at\n    any case _strive_ after science within reach.\n\n[54]I thought we should not think here of the mythical subterranean\n    serpents, but of a likewise called and fabulous tribe.\n\n    But Mr. Foucher didn\u2019t agree with me. The _n\u00e2gas_, he said, are\n    generally hewn as serpents, but often as men with snaky hair.\n\n[55]In the \u201cBijdragen van \u2019t Koninklijk Instituut\u201d of 1907.\n\n[56]Those who desire to know more about the deeper, mythical sense of\n    these _j\u00e2takas_ are kindly referred to professor Speyer\u2019s essay or\n    my \u201c_Een karma-legende_\u201d provided with 6 photo\u2019s of the photographer\n    _A. Winter_, published by the firm H. van Ingen at Surabaya.\n\n[57]See at the bottom of this page.\n\n[58]The _J\u00e2takam\u00e2l\u00e2_ V, 15, tells us that the clouds \u201cweeped like\n    _water-jars turned about_.\u201d\n\n[59]See my above mentioned \u201c_Karma legende_\u201d.\n\n[60]The difficulties we meet by placing the camera in the narrow space\n    there is between the front and back-walls of the galleries have not\n    yet been wholly obviated. Yet, it would be advisable to do what has\n    turned out to be possible before that the sculptures should be lost\n    for ever.\n\n[61]In the _Ceylon_ pagoda at _Kelany_ I saw the Buddhists perform the\n    _s\u0115mbah_ in the very same manner as done by the Javanese, and\n    _Siam_\u2019s king and queen when on the _B\u00e5r\u00e5budur_ and in _tyan\u1e0di\n    M\u0115ndut_, and in the same manner I saw this mark of veneration hewn\n    on all the buddhistic imageries known to me. Perhaps, it was the\n    Buddhists who once introduced this _s\u0115mbah_ in Java.\n\n[62]See my illustrated work \u201c_In den K\u0115daton te Jogj\u00e5kart\u00e5_\u201d published\n    in 1888 by _E. J. Brill_ at _Leyden_, picture II, and the IXth.\n    photo of my illustrated work \u201c_De gar\u0115b\u0115gs te Jogj\u00e5kart\u00e5_\u201d\n    (published by the \u201c_Royal Institute_\u201d in 1895).\n\n[63]At _Parambanan_ and _P\u0115lahosan_ we already knew these deities to be\n    _Bodhisattvas_. (See my above mentioned works: \u201c_Tyan\u1e0di Parambanan\n    na de ontgraving_\u201d and \u201c_Boeddhistische tempel-en kloosterbouwvallen\n    in de Parambanan vlakte_\u201d.)\n\n    Some time before the digging up of _Parambanan_ Mr. Groeneveldt\n    wrote to me: \u201cThe theory as if these sculptures should represent\n    known princes we must give up.\u201d\n\n    \u00c7iva was one of the loki\u00e7varas of the Buddha-pantheon, and we know\n    even other brahmin deities to have been admitted into this. Such is\n    also the case with the holy queens of Leemans\u2019 work who are _T\u00e2r\u00e2s_\n    or _\u00c7aktis_ (wives or powers of deities).\n\n[64]Till 1896 I also thought that these small Buddha images, we see in\n    the crown, characterised the wearers as _Bodhisattvas_, that is, the\n    Bodhisattvas of the _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas_ whose small images were hewn in\n    the crowns. The king of _Siam_ denied this. Because of his being a\n    buddhistic prince himself he also wore such small images in his\n    crown. Moreover, I never saw another image in these crowns, except\n    the one with the _two_ hands in his lap, which is to signify the\n    _mudr\u00e2 dhy\u00e2na_ or meditation, a posture the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2nists gave to the\n    _fourth_ Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddha, Amit\u00e2bha, the Redeemer of _this_ world. If\n    now these small images were to characterise _Dhy\u00e2ni-Bodhisattvas_,\n    why, another Bodhisattva but Padmap\u00e2ni the fourth, would have been\n    never hewn.\n\n    Should they refer to buddhistic _princes_ it then may be easily\n    imagined that they never referred to another Buddha but the one of\n    _this their_ world. On undeniable images these small ones therefore\n    only point to the buddhistic character the northern church\n    adjudicated to these deities.\n\n[65]The crescent of the moon _Leemans_ ascribes to this sculpture we\n    don\u2019t see anywhere, but is to be perceived on the preceding one,\n    105.\n\n[66]On the _fourteenth_ sculpture on the front-wall of this gallery the\n    sun and moon have been sculptured with _seven_ stars (planets?).\n\n[67]\u201cOudheidkundige aanteekeningen\u201d IV, p. 55-58.\n\n[68]\u201cOudheidkundige Aanteekeningen\u201d I and II.\n\n[69]Dr. _Vogel_ doesn\u2019t come.\n\n    But I also do expect very much from the younger sanskritic scholar,\n    Dr. N. J. Krom, the appointed president of the \u201c_Oudheidkundige\n    Kommissie_\u201d whose acquaintance I\u2019ve made to my great satisfaction.\n\n    _Later note_, October 3^th 1910.\n\n[70]I don\u2019t know how it must have been possible for von Saher to see\n    _linggas_ and _yonis_ in these buddhistic produce of art. Buddhism\n    doesn\u2019t know any _lingga_- or _yoni_-worship. See his \u201c_Versierende\n    kunsten in Ned: Oost-Indi\u00eb_\u201d, p. 15, 18, 21 and 64.\n\n[71]When the sky is not overclouded we see from this point 9 volcanoes\n    with the exception of the _Sind\u00e5r\u00e5_ and _Diy\u00e8ng_ which hid\n    themselves behind the _Sumbing_-giant. This old volcano still rises\n    3336 Metres above sea-level, the _M\u0115rbabu_ and _Sind\u00e5r\u00e5_ (or\n    _S\u0115nd\u00e5r\u00e5_) reach a height of 3145 Metres, the _M\u0115rapi_ 2875 Metres,\n    the far, not always visible _Slam\u0115t_ 3472 Metres; the adjacent\n    neptunian _M\u0115noreh_ (or _Minoreh_) doesn\u2019t reach more than 1000\n    Metres.\n\n    Never shall I forget the first night I partly spent on this full\n    moon lit spot, a death past under, and over me the immortal light.\n    This happened more than 37 years ago.\n\n[72]The last mentioned estimation of name I got from a former _Mag\u0115lang_\n    regent, now called _haji_ or _kaji Danu ning Rat_. The Javanese\n    generally wrote and write _budd\u00e5_, in Javanese characters: {Javanese\n    script}\n\n[73]According to Kern the word _\u00fbrn\u00e2_ means a symbol of both the _sun_\n    and _lightning_.\n\n[74]A young Dutchman, whom I met in 1898 in the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur\u2019s\n    pasanggrahan, thought he saw a mutual difference in the posture of\n    the hands of these 72 dagob-Buddhas. This difference really exists,\n    but only in the manner in which the different sculptors interpreted\n    the _positively meant_ posture of the two hands.\n\n    This very same difference in the execution of one and the same task\n    is also to be seen on other Buddha images. Should it have another\n    meaning the thesis that these sculptures are to represent the\n    different five _Dhy\u00e2ni-Buddhas_ would then be frustrated, because\n    there would be _much more than five_, indeed.\n\n    The man appealed to the official draughtsman accompanying him, an\n    absolutely unscientific fellow.\n\n[75]The other objects were a little metal vase with cover\u2014formerly\n    containing some ashes, perhaps\u2014; some ancient javanese coins and\n    another small metal image. In the pits of other _tyan\u1e0dis_ in Java we\n    also found stone urns with ashes, and coins or other objects of\n    precious metal, and some coloured precious stones which were given\n    to the dead in their graves, and symbolically representing the\n    _sapta ratna_ or _seven treasures_. See my \u201c_Boeddhistische tempel-\n    en klooster-bouwvallen in de Parambanan-vlakte_\u201d and my \u201c_Tjan\u1e0di\n    Idjo_\u201d in the \u201c_Tijdschrift v. Ind. T., L. en V. K._\u201d published in\n    1888.\n\n[76]Out of the six Buddhas of the B\u00e5r\u00e5budur we don\u2019t see any trace of a\n    sixth Buddha such as we found in a different form at _Nip\u00e2l_:\n    four-armed, in a mythical dress, crowned and provided with peculiar\n    attributes.\n\n[77]See my \u201c_Een Boeddhisten-koning op den B\u00e5r\u00e5budur_\u201d appeared in \u201c_het\n    Tijdschrift van Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde_\u201d of 1896, and\n    the manuscript of the interpreting second part, not published by the\n    editors, but of which I afterwards sent a copy to professor _Kern_\n    and other learned men.\n\n[78]On the twenty-seventh sculpture (W. L. 53).\n\n[79]_I_ for me don\u2019t know any analogue of these three groups though they\n    may exist elsewhere in the mainland, so that this explanation of\n    mine will be a questionable thesis only.\n\n[80]See _Oldfield_\u2019s \u201c_Sketches from Nipal_\u201d p. 90 and 157 and the\n    pictures opposite p. 219 and 260 of the second volume.\n\n[81]See my apologetics mentioned in VI note 14 and my \u201c_Oudheidkundige\n    Aanteekeningen_\u201d, I.\n\n[82]Notes of the \u201c_Kon. Instituut_\u201d (Royal Institute) from 1887, p. XCIV\n    and following ones.\n\n[83]G 5 has been wrongly marked with 6, just as the following one has\n    been numbered G 6.\n\n[84]Each _dagob_ is a _tyaitya_, but not each _tyaitya_ is a _dagob_.\n    This word is only given to the depositary of one or more than one\n    relic. See Kern\u2019s \u201c_Geschiedenis van het Boeddhisme in Indi\u00eb_\u201d, II\n    p. 139 and following ones.\n\n    In the same manner I saw _Ceylon_ Buddhists render due homage to the\n    _dagob_ at _Kelany_.\n\n[85]I\u2019m not a Buddhist myself though I highly esteem the undegenerate\n    Buddhism of the southern church.\n\n\n\n\n                                ERRATA.\n\n\n  p. 15 line 3 from bottom: ground instead of groud.\n  p. 30 note 22 line 1 from top: as well instead of as weil.\n  p. 38 line 7 from bottom to be read: the knot of hair on his crest,\n          with the lotus-cushion and disc of the sun worshipped by\n          princes and inferior people, by priests etc.\n  p. 60 line 17 from top: but instead of bu.\n\n\n\n\n                          Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\n\u2014Silently corrected a few typos, including listed errata.\n\n\u2014Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook\n  is public-domain in the country of publication.\n\n\u2014In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by\n  _underscores_.","title":"Ruins of Buddhistic Temples in Pr\u00e5g\u00e5 Valley\u2014Tyandis B\u00e5r\u00e5budur, Mendut and Pawon","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":32070}