Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 6/The Ruins of Boro Budur in Java
THE RUINS OF BORO BUDUR IN JAVA
BY
THE VEN. ARCHDEACON HOSE.
(Read at a Meeting of the Society held on the 14th September, 1880.)
The following letter was received by the Honorary Secretary of the Society in May, 1880:—
"Il y a quelques années le Gouvernement Neêrlandais entreprit la publication de dessins et d'un texte descriptif des ruines dites 'Bôrô-Boudour' dans l'ile de Java.
"Désirant faire connaître cet ouvrage aux sociétés scientifiques étrangères, le Gouvernement du Roi se plait à en offrir un exemplaire à la Société Asiatique.
"Il est persuadé que de cette façon le but scientifique qu'on s'était proposé par la publication, sera atteint.
- "Le Ministre des Colonies,
- "W. VAN GOLTSTEIN.
- "Le Ministre des Colonies,
"À la Société Asiatique (Straits Branch) à Singapore."
The letter was accompanied by the very valuable gift mentioned in it, viz., a set of three hundred and ninety-three designs illustrating the ruins of the temple of Boro Budur in Java, with a descriptive text in Dutch by Dr. C. LEEMANS, Director of the Museum of Public Antiquities at Leyden, and a translation of this work into French by M. A. G. VAN HAMEL. The designs were produced at the expense of the Dutch Government, and under the direction of M. F. C. WILSEN. Dr. LEEMANS' description is founded chiefly on the MSS. and printed works of M. WILSEN and M. J. F. G. BRUMUND. It has seemed right to the Council that this generous gift should be introduced to the Society with some account of the great work which the Netherlands-India Government has undertaken in the interests of science and art, aud of the noble relic of antiquity, upon the description of which so much learning and labour and money has been expended.
It is a most interesting fact for a Society established in Singapore and meeting in a building which bears the name of the illustrious founder of this Settlement that the remains of the noble building which is described in these plates were first brought to the knowledge of Europeans by Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES. The discovery is thus described by Dr. LEEMANS, the author, or perhaps we should rather say the editor, of the descriptive text which accompanies the plates :—
"When Lieutenant-Governor Sir S. RAFFLES was at Samarang in January, 1814, he learned that in Kedu, in the immediate neighbourhood of the hamlet of Bumi Segoro, there were on a hill, or partly hidden by a hill, the extensive ruins of a very ancient Hindu temple. Sir STAMFORD was deeply impressed with the idea that an examination and an accurate study of these ruins would be of very great scientific interest. Possibly he flattered himself with the hope of discovering in this place objects of art not less precious than those which, nine years before, had been found in the neighbouring territory of Prambanan, and of which the Dutch Government had procured a description and some drawings. Whatever were his expectations, the fact is that Sir STAMFORD directed Mr. CORNELIUS, & Lieutenant of Engineers, to carefully examine these ruins, which the natives called Boro Badur, to measure their dimensions, to make plans and exact drawings of them, and to write a clear and detailed description of the whole."
It was no easy task that Mr. CORNELIUS had to undertake. So utterly had the ancient shrine been neglected, that it was covered with a dense jungle. More than two hundred workmen were employed for forty-five days in cutting down the trees, burning the underwood and carrying away the earth under which the ruins were buried. When this preliminary operation was completed, a spectacle appeared which must have seemed to the Lieutenant of Engineers a reward worth all his labour.
This is Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES' description of what came to light. ("History of Java," Vol. II, 31, Ed. 1830.)
"In the district of Boro in the province of Kedu and near to the confluence of the rivers Elo and Praga, crowning a small hill stands the temple of Boro Bodo, supposed by some to have been built in the sixth, and by others in the tenth century of the Javan It is a square stone building, consisting of seven ranges of walls, each range decreasing as you ascend, till the building terminates in a kind of dome. It occupies the whole of the upper part of a conical hill, which appears to have been cut away so as to receive the walls, and to accommodate itself to the figure of the whole structure. At the centre, resting on the very apex of the hill, is the dome before mentioned, of about fifty feet diameter, and in its present ruinous state, the upper part having fallen in, only about twenty feet high. This is surrounded by a triple circle. of towers, in number seventy-two, each occupied by an image looking outwards, and all connected by a stone casing of the hill which externally has the appearance of a roof. Descending from thence, you pass on each side of the building by steps through five handsome gateways, conducting to five successive terraces, which surround the hill on every side. The walls which support these terraces are covered with the richest sculpture on both sides, but more particularly on the side which forms au interior wall to the terrace below, and are raised so as to form a parapet on the other side. In the exterior of these parapets, at equal distances, are niches, each containing a naked figure sitting cross-legged, and considerably larger than life; the total number of which is not far short of four hundred. Above each niche is a little spire, another above each of the sides of the niche, and another upon the parapet between the sides of the neighbour- ing niches. The design is regular; the architectural and sculptural ornaments are profuse. The bas-reliefs represent a variety of scenes, apparently mythological, and are executed with considerable taste and skill. The whole area occupied by this noble building is about six hundred and twenty feet either way. The exterior line of the ground plan, though apparently a perfect square when viewed at a distance, is not exactly of that form, as the centre of each face, to a considerable extent, projects many feet, and so as to cover as much ground as the conical shape of the hill will admit: the same form is observed in each of the terraces. The whole has the appearance of one solid building, and is about a hundred feet high, independently of the central spire of about twenty feet which has fallen in. The interior consists al- most entirely of the hill itself."
The more careful examination of the building, which has been made since Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES wrote this, shews that his description is not absolutely correct in all points, but it is sufficiently so to give a good idea of the whole.
It was, as we have seen, part of Raffles' original purpose to cause plans and drawings of the building to be made, and he says in a note to the passage just quoted:—"Drawings of the present and former state of this edifice and illustrative of the sculptural ornaments by which it is distinguished have been made and have been long in the hands of the engraver."
But not many of these seem to have appeared. Dr. LEEMANS suggests that possibly they may have remained amongst papers that Sir STAMFORD left behind him at his death. A few were printed, and reproduced in various publications; Possibly the frontispiece to the second volume of CRAWFURD'S "History of the Indian Archipelago" comes from this source. Afterwards, from time to time, drawings of various parts of the building and of objects in the building appeared. But after Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES left Java in 1815, until the year 1844, no serious attempt was made to produce a complete series of drawings.
There had, meanwhile, been any proposals, some of them countenanced by the Netherlands-India Government, to have Boro Budur thoroughly measured, described and illustrated. But the difficulties in the way of accomplishing the task seemed again and again insurmountable.
At last, in 1844 the idea was entertained of making use of photography to obtain correct views of the building, and in July, 1845, a German artist named SHAEFIR, who was employed by the Government, actually took fifty-eight views on glass plates, which were eventually sent to Holland. But it was found that, while the cost of this method would be enormous, the results would be un- satisfactory, and the scheme was abandoned.
It was under the auspices of M. ROCHUSSEN, Governor-General of the Netherlands-India, that the long meditated design of making accurate plans and drawings was at length undertaken. On the 16th November, 1847, the Secretary-General wrote to the Directeur du Genie requesting him to instruct one of the draughtsmen of his corps, by way of experiment, to make sketches of some of the bas-reliefs of Boro Budur. The person selected for this duty was M. F. C. WILSEN, at that time third draughtsman of Engineers. The choice was evidently a singularly happy one. M. WILSEN was rather an artist than a draughtsman, and, besides this essential qualification, was an orientalist of no small calibre. M. SCHONBERG MULDER a young officer of the corps of Engincers, was associated with him in the work, but his share in it was a subordinate one and receives less praise from Dr. LEEMANS than that of his distin- guished fellow-labourer. Five years were occupied in making the drawings and plans, which were finished in 1853.
It was at first proposed that the designs should be lithographed in Java by the department of Engineering under the direction of the Batavian Society, and some plates were executed in this manner. But it was found necessary at last to have the designs sent to Holland to be lithographed there. They were put into the hands of M. MIELING, of the Hague, in 1856, and the Royal Netherlands Institute for promoting the knowledge of the Languages, Countries, and Peoples of India was invited to superintend the work. The Institute accepted the invitation, and as it was desirable that one of the members should be intrusted with the business, Dr. LEEMANS, who had made antiquities his special study, was selected, and it was thus that his connection with this important business began.
Dr. LEEMANS relates at great length the difficulties he had to encounter, caused chiefly by the mistakes and the dilatoriness of M. MIELING, the lithographer. His trials in this matter were so great that in 1867 he asked and obtained permission to put the designs which were not yet lithographed into the hands of another publisher, M. E. J. BRILL, of Leyden, who successfully completed the whole series of 393 plates in 1871, just 18 years after M. WILSEN's drawings had been begun, and more than half a century after the idea had first occurred to Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES.
While the work of preparing these plates for publication was going on, the question of producing an explanatory text was under the careful consideration, both of the Dutch Government and of the Institute, whose advice on this subject had been solicited. There was a considerable amount of material for such a text already existing. M. WILSEN himself had contributed a very valuable paper entitled "Boro Budur explained in relation to Brahmanism and Buddhism," which he had placed at the disposal of the Dutch Government for this purpose; and M. J. F. G. BRUMUND, a member of the Committee of the Batavian Society, had made him- self a reputation by writing on the same subject. There were also other papers published in various scientific periodicals, and notices in larger works such as those of RAFFLES and CRAWFURD. The Dutch Government held the opinion, with which the Institute agreed, that it was of importance that all these materials should be compared and used by one Editor in the preparation of a text descriptive of the plates, and wished Dr. LEEMANS to undertake this as well as superintending the issue of the plates themselves. Some difficulty was raised by Mr. BRUMUND, who thought, and apparently with some reason, that he had been distinctly commissioned by Government to perform this part of the whole scheme. His objections were overruled, and the book was finally written by Dr. LEEMANS, who, however, incorporated into his work the previous production of M.M. WILSEN and PRUMUND with such modifications as seemed necessary. The text thus composed was published in Dutch, with a French translation, in 1874. It consists of five parts. 1st—A general description of Boro Budur. 2nd—A description of the bas-reliefs in the different galleries. 3rd—An essay on the character and purpose of Boro Budur founded on a comparison between this building and other sacred edifices on the continent of Asia and in Java. 4th—A discussion upon the date, and the circumstances of the foundation and the decay of Boro Budur in relation to the ancient history of Java; and 5th—An essay upon Boro Budur from the artistic point of view. The whole forms a very learned and yet a very readable book, and gives an exhaustive account of all that can be known with certainty of the extinct civilization of pre-Mohammedan Java.
There has been a great difference of opinion, among those who have investigated the subject, as to both the date of the sacred edifice of Boro Budur and its religious character. CRAWFURD was disposed to fix its date as late as 1341 A.D., while Dr. LEEMANS considers that the 9th or even the 8th century of our era is more probable. The religious character of the building, and indeed the whole question of the nature of the religion professed by the Javanese before their conversion to Mahommedanism, has been much disputed. CRAWFURD originally considered that the religion of Java was a Sivaistic form of Brahmanism much modified by a reforming Buddhism. (See "History of the Indian Archipelago," Book VI., Chap. 1.) But in his "Dictionary of the Indian Islands," which was published thirty years after the History, and contained his more matured opinions, he says that he had then come to the conclusion that the ancient religion of the country was really the worship of Jain, and that his friend Colonel COLIN MACKENZIE, who was well acquainted with the temples of Jain in southern India, had held the same opinion so long ago as 1811.
The Javanese themselves, though the name of Buddha does not appear in any of their writings, say that their religion before. their conversion was "Agama Buddha" or Buda. But the local traditions seem to be singularly worthless. As an instance of this, I may quote a story which M. BRUMUND tells. The modern Javanese who live in the neighbourhood of Boro Budur when questioned as to their knowledge of the origin and purpose of the temple relate the following tradition:—
"A certain prince, of the name of DEWA KASUMA, son of a priest of importance, and a person of some considerable power among the princes of Java, had given grave offence to one of the members of his court. This latter being of an unforgiving disposition, and devoured by rancour, thought of nothing else but how he might revenge himself and inflict upon the prince the most cruel blow he could imagine. The prince had an only child, a little daughter of two years old, the joy and happiness of his life. The disaffected courtier resolved to kidnap this child, and succeeded in executing his dastardly purpose. One day the little girl disappeared leaving not the least trace behind. The prince was utterly inconsolable, and wandered over the country for several years seeking his lost child everywhere, but in vain. Twelve years had passed since the fatal day, and the prince was still mourning his little girl, when one day he met a young woman of singular beauty. It was his daughter, but failing to recognise her, he asked her in marriage, was wedded to her, and a child was born of this unnatural union.
"The offended courtier had now at last reached the moment at which he could satiate his vengeance. He hastened to seek au interview with DEWA KASUMA, recalled himself to the prince's re- collection, and revealed to him the horrible secret. DEWA KASUMA was in despair, he felt himself guilty before the gods, and the priests declared that there was no pardon for such a crime, even though committed in ignorance. To expiate his offence he must allow himself to be shut up within four walls with the mother and child, and end Eis days in penitence and prayer.
"There remained, however, one alternative. The penalty would be remitted if in ten days he could construct a Boro Budur. The undertaking was immense, but he had numerous and powerful resources at his disposal. Hope revived in his heart, and he set to work without delay, employing all the artists and all the mechanics in his kingdom. The ten days came to an end, and Boro Budur was finished with all its images. But, alas, they counted the images (people count them still); one of the whole number which had been declared indispensable was wanting, and the building could not, therefore, be accounted finished. It was then impossible for the unhappy man to escape the doom that menaced him. In vain he poured out his soul in supplications; the gods were inexorable, their decree must be executed; the prince and his wife and child were turned into stone; and it is thus that posterity found them in the three images of Chandi Mĕndut in the neighbourhood."
It is said that this and similar stories which are to be met with are not even very ancient, but that traces of their comparatively recent date arc easily discovered in the stories themselves. The savants who have made the most careful inquiry are convinced that there are no remains of any historical remembrance whatever among the Javanese of the origin and purpose of Boro Budur.
The written traditions, Babads, or genealogical chronicles, which exist, are of little more value. Mr. BRUMUND says of them "the Javanese like the other nations of India offer us fictions for history and the efforts of their ill-regulated imagination for facts." There is, in truth, an almost total absence of trustworthy information upon the subject. And it is to internal evidence we must go, to the testimony of the building itself, its form and its decoration, in order to obtain the light we need respecting the religion of which it was the expression, and the purpose it was intended to serve.
The original germinal idea of a Buddhist temple was a mound to contain a precious casket in which some relic of the Buddha was enclosed. After SAKTA-MOUNI was dead his body was burned, and the ashes of the Master were divided into eight parts, which were distributed among an equal number of the towns or persons who could make good their claim to possess such an inestimable treasure. But 150 years later Asoka, King of the powerful Buddhist kingdom of Maghadu, caused seven of the eight receptacles to be opened and made a new division. The sacred relics were then deposited in 8,400 caskets, and each casket was buried in a species of mound called a Stupa or Tupa. The Tupa then became, in every place to which one of the caskets found its way, the nucleus of the Buddhist temple. Dr. LEEMANSs shews that in every country in which the sacred edifices of the Buddhists are found this may be seen to be the case. The Tupa was much modified, and in many different ways, among the various nations who learned to venerate the Buddha and erect buildings to his honour, but the simple original idea is found everywhere in some form or another. The mound has been built of stone or brick, it has become in one case a pyramid, in another a cupola; the cupola has been exalted on a cylindrical base, it has been divided into terraces and variously decorated, but the mound which contain, or is supposed to contain, the reliquary is always represented.
The outward form then of Boro Budur, as described in the passage of Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES which I have road, and as depicted in the Plate No. I.,[1] is entirely in accord with this ruling idea of Buddhist sacred architecture. The ornaments and images point to the same conclusion. There are no images of the Hindu deities throughout the building; or, if there are any of the figures in the bas-reliefs which must be considered as representing personages of Brahman mythology, they are merely taking a part in the action described by the sculpture and are never in any case receiving worship. On the other hand, the images of the Buddha are to be reckoned by hundreds in the piches of the walls, at the salient points of the architecture, and in the latticed cupolas on the upper terraces. These images agree, to a remarkable extent, with those which are to be found in Buddhist temples elsewhere, and especially in those of Nepaul. The attitudes are the same, the expression is the same, the insignia of sainthood are the same.
In the difference that is found among the statues, and the figures of the Buddha in the bas-reliefs, the places that they occupy and the attributes that distinguish them M.M. WILSEN and BRUMUND have both found an allegorical signification. They see in them the symbols of the progressive ascent through the different degrees of saintliness to the state of supreme perfection— Nirvâna. It is impossible to enter upon the discussion of this question, which occupies many pages of Dr. LEEMANS' book. Plate No. VIII. represents the various forms and attitudes of the statues. M. BRUMUND thinks he has reason to believe that the manner in which the hands are held is confirmatory of the opinion, and brings much learning to bear upon this part of the subject.
There is another much vexed question. The latticed cupolas or Dagobs on the upper terraces have each its image, representing, as is supposed, the Buddha withdrawn from all contact with earth- ly things. But the grand cupola—the central Dagob—which crowns the whole building is empty. Is this by design? or is it simply that the work was not finished? M. WILSEN thinks it was by design, that the empty shrine significs the Buddha become invisible, having lost his outward form—the Buddha in Nirvâna.
I have reserved till the last the argument in favour of the Buddhist theory of this edifice, which is at once the most telling and the most interesting. I mean the argument derived from the subjects of the bas-reliefs. We have already seen in the description of the whole building which I found it convenient to quote from Sir S. RAFFLES' "History of Java," that the five lower terraces or galleries of the edifice have an inner wall towards the hill, and an outer wall towards the plain; and that the surfaces of these walls are throughout sculptured in bas-relief. Each wall has two series of these sculptures—an upper and a lower. All that remain sufficiently well-preserved have been copied, and they are the subjects of 376 out of the 393 plates of the whole collection. They are all described, in less or greater detail, according to their importance, by Dr. LEEMANS, or rather by M. WILSEN edited by Dr. LEEMANS. I propose to draw attention now to onc series only, and indeed to a very small selection from the subjects in that scries. It is the upper line of sculptures on the inner wall of the second gallery. In this set of sculptures, M. WILSEN has found, or believes himself to have found, a pictorial representation of the life and deeds, partly historical and partly legendary, of SAKYA-MOUNI, the Buddha.
In order to do justice to M. WILSEN's discovery, or supposed discovery, it will be necessary, in the briefest possible manner, to recall to your recollection the main facts in the history of SAKYA-MOUNI as they have come down to us. The plates to which I shall make reference now have to do with his early years only, before the great renunciation, and a very few words will suffice to recall to mind those facts or legends which seem to be illustrated by the sculpture. I shall be guided partly by Dr. LEEMANs, who follows M. BARTHÉLEMY ST. HIILAIRE, and partly by Mr. Rays DAVIDS, formerly of the Ceylon Civil Service, who has published a very useful little book upon the subject, called "Buddhism, being a sketch of the life and teachings of Gantama the Buddha." It contains the substance—is in some respects indeed an expan- sion of his article on the same subject in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
The founder of Buddhism was born in the beginning of the 5th century before Christ. His father, SUDDHODANA, was Raja of the tribe of Sakyas, living at his capital Kapila-vastu, on the banks of the Rohini, about 100 miles N. E. of Benares. SUDDHODANA was childless and seemed likely to continue so, when, to his great joy, his favourite wife MAYA gave him hopes of having a child to succeed him.
I am for the moment confining myself to the region of history, and shall leave the mythological accretions which gathered round the simple facts in later times to be mentioned afterwards.
In due time MAYA was going to her parents' house to be confined, but on the way, under some trees in the pleasant garden of Lumbini, her son, the future Buddha, was unexpectedly born. The mother and child were carried back to SUDDHODANA's palace, and there seven days afterwards MAYA died. The child received the name of SIDDHARTHA. This name became lost afterwards among the many titles of respect that were applied to him, but I follow the example of Dr. LEEMANS in using it of the child while still he remained in his father's house.
One story is told of his youth. When he had arrived at an age to be married, his father proposed to him as a bride his cousin GOPA OF YASODHARA, but a complaint was made by the relations that the young man had entirely devoted himself to home pleasures, to the neglect of learning and of the manly exercises which were so necessary for the leader of his people. Piqued at this complaint, SIDDHARTITA is said to have challenged 500 of the young men of the Sakyas to contend with him in intellectual and athletic exercises, and that he easily proved his superiority in both.
In his twenty-ninth year a circumstance happened which took such a powerful effect upon a mind which was probably already keenly alive to the mysteries of sorrow and death that the current of his life was changed by it. Going out with numerous attendants to take the air in the garden of Lumbini he met a man broken down by age, and was so forcibly impressed with the thought that the pleasure and pride of youth are but a stage on the way to feebleness and decay that he returned to the house reflecting deeply upon what he had seen, and unable to prosecute his scheme of pleasure. On three successive days a similar encounter produced similar results. On the first he net a man in extreme sickness; on the second a corpse; and on the third a dignified hermit. The vanity of life troubled him so deeply, that a longing to leave his home and its short-lived comforts and to devote himself to meditation and self-denial took possession of him. He communicated his resolution to his father, who used every effort to dissuade him from such a step, and surrounded the house with guards to prevent his escape. But one night the young man, with the help of his charioteer СHANNA, managed to elude the guards, and leaving his home, his power, his wife, and his only child behind him, rode away to become a penniless and despised student, and a homeless wanderer.
SIDDHARTHA rode a long distance that night till he reached the bank of the Anoma river. Then taking off his ornaments, he gave them to CHANNA to take back to Kapila-vastu. CHANNA asked to be allowed to stay with his Master, but SIDDHARTHA Would not suffer him, and the faithful charioteer returned, while his Master ent off his long hair and exchanging clothes with a poor passerby began his new life as an ascetic mendicant. This is a bare outline of the facts concerning the early life of the Buddha, which are probably historical.
The simple history in the course of years became encrusted with a mass of fable. It was said that the historical Buddha, SIDDHARTHA or SAKYA-MOUNI, had taught that he was only one of a series of five Buddhas who appear at intervals in the world and all teach the same truth. That of these five, three had already appeared, that he himself was the fourth, and that another would appear after him. It was taught that SAKYA-MOUNI was omniscient and sinless, that he descended of his own accord from the throne of the Buddhas in heaven into his mother's womb. After seven days of fasting, the holy MAYA dreamed that the future Buddha entered her side in the form of a superb white elephant. The wise men of the Sakyas interpreted the dream to mean that her child would be a Buddha, who would remove the veils of ignorance and sin, and make all the world glad by a sweet taste of the Ambrosia of Nirvana. When the child was born, it took seven steps forward and exclaimed with a lion's voice "I am the Lord of the world"
I have taken these legends that grew up round the early history of the Buddha chiefly from the work of Mr. RHYS DAVIDS. They are among the subjects which M. WILSEN believes to be disclosed in the bas-reliefs, and that this is the case with some of them I think there is no doubt. We are now in a position to examine the plates.
Plate XVI. 1 represents, according to M. WILSEN, King SUDDHODANA honoured as the future father of the Buddha by celestial beings in the air and various ranks and degrees of men on earth. There is possibly some connection between the two lions couchant on the capitals of the pilasters of the palace, and one of the names borne by the Buddha, i.e., Sakyasinga—the lion of the tribe of Sakyas.
Plate XVII. 3. SUDDHODANA communicating the blessing that is about to be bestowed upon him, and which has been predicted in diverse manners to an assembly of persons, probably of the Shatriya caste.
Plate XIX. 7. The four Buddhas who have already appeared. The fifth (named MATTREYA), who is yet to come and restore the Buddhist doctrine, being unrepresented. The fourth, who was to become incarnate in the person of SAKTA-MOUNI OF SIDDHARTHA, is leaving his celestial seat to descend to earth. Who the person who is floating in the air on the left and apparently bringing some intelligence may be is not clear.
Plate XXVII. 23. A symbolical picture. The Buddha, whom we saw quitting his throne in XIX. 7, is being brought to earth in a magnificent palace covered with all the insignia of earthly royalty, and supported, surrounded and followed by a host of heavenly beings.
Plate XXVIII. 25. The dream of MAYA. The elephant of which she dreamed is in the left hand corner. The Queen herself is sleeping, while her women are tending her gently, rubbing her arms and her eye and keeping the air stirring with a fan. (See photograph No. 4.)
Plate XXX, 20. MAYA returning from a visit to the temple and receiving the humble congratulations of her friends on the honour that is coming to her.
Plate XLI. 51. MAYA, no longer in a condition to receive the visitors who come to her with good wishes and gifts, is in a building by herself in the back of the palace, while a figure, which has become quite defaced, but probably representing SUBDHODANA, receives the visitors and their offerings in or on behalf of the Queen in a building in front of the one occupied by her.
Plate XLII. 53, MAYA, being near her time, is on her way to her parents' house, and is arriving in a chariot at the garden of Lumbini, surrounded by guards and attendants.
Plate XLIII. 55. The Buddha is born. His mother, recovered from her pains, is exalted on a pedestal, resting her left hand on the arm of one of her women, and holding a flower in her right hand. The new-born child, showing his divinity by his exemption from the weakness of infancy, is standing up, receiving the homage of those about him, while a shower of celestial flowers descends upon him. Possibly the picture is intended to represent him taking the seven steps of the legend. (See Photograph No. 5.)
Plate XLV. 59. The widowed SUDDHODANA sitting with SIDDHARTHA upon his knee, and attended by the women of the palace.
Plate XLIX. 67. This plate is interesting, because it represents one of the bas-reliefs which CRAWFURD has given in the "History of the Indian Archipelago," and he interprets it in a different manner from M. WILSEN. CRAWFURD sees in it SIVA in his ear, and recognises in the projections from the head of the central figure (which in WILSEN's plate is almost obliterated) the crescent of SIVA. WILSEN considers that the sculpture represents the young SIDDHARTHA in a chariot with his father and others, and sees in the projections from the head, the ends of the peculiar head-dress which is worn by the child in some others of the scnlp. tures.
Plate L. 69. The young SIDDHARTHA astonishing his royal father, a learned Brahmin and others (possibly the students in a school) by his early-developed intelligence.
Plate LIX. 87. The assembly of the young Sakyas challenged by the prince to a contest in scholarship and athletics. SIDDHARTHA illustrating the triumph of intellectual over moral force by taming an elephant.
Plate LXXI. 111. SIDDHARTHA seated in his chariot meeting the poor old man. The child with the aged pauper probably signifies that he is blind.
Plate LXXII. 113. SIDDHARTHA the next day meeting the sick man at the point of death.
Plate LXXIII. 115. SIDDHARTHA meeting with the dead man.
Plate LXXIV. 117. The fourth encounter. The hermit is in the attitude of a man who is demonstrating some problem. The charioteer CHANNA, whose memory is so carfully preserved in the legend, is talking with his Master.
Plate LXXVI. 121. SIDDHARTHA endeavouring to obtain his father's consent to his new scheme of life.
Plate LXXVIII. 125. Of this plate (of which a photograph is published with this paper) Dr. LEEMANS, or M. WILSEN, says: "SIDDHARTHA continues faithful to the resolution he has taken, and is insensible to the graces of the beautiful women of his house- hold, the number of whom has been largely increased. It is probable that the artist wished to represent, in this in-stance also, an hour in the night, For some of the women are asleep, leaning one against another, or resting on pillows. The artist has known no better way of depicting the firmness of the resolution the prince has taken, and the steadiness with which he continues to resist all temptations, than by placing his hero on a raised throne, having the aureole behind his head, and in the peculiar attitude of a Buddha."
Here a reference to Bishop BIGANDET'S "Legend of the Burmese Buddha" probably throws some additional light upon the artist's intention. I should explain that, in the Burmese version of the story, SIDDHARTHA goes by the name of Phralaong.[2]
"Phralaong had scarcely begun to recline on his couch when a crowd of young damsels, whose beauty equalled that of the daughters of the NATs, executed all sorts of dances to the sound of the most ravishing symphony, and displayed in all their movements the graceful forms of their elegant and well-shaped persons in order to make some impression upon his heart. But all was in vain, they were foiled in their repeated attempts. Phralaong fell into a deep sleep. The damsels, perceiving their disappointment, ceased their dances, laid aside their musical instruments, and soon following the example of Phralaong abandoned themselves to sleep.
"Phralaong awoke a little before midnight, and sat in a cross-legged position on his couch. Looking all around him, he saw the varied attitudes and uninviting appearance of the sleeping damsels. Some were snoring; others gnashing their teeth; others with opened mouths; others tossed heavily from side to side; some stretched one arm upwards and the other downwards; some, seized as it were with a frantic pang, suddenly coiled up their legs for a while, and with the same violent action pushed them down again. This unexpected exhibition made a strong impression upon Phralaong; his heart was set, if possible, freer from the ties of concupiscence, or rather was confirmed in his contempt for all worldly pleasures. It appeared to him that his magnificent apartment was filled with loathsome carcases. The seats of passions—those of Rupa, and those of Arupa, that is to say, of the whole world—seemed to his eyes like a house that is a prey to the devouring flames. At the same time his ardent desires for the profession of Rahan" (an ascetic life) "were increasing with an uncontrollable energy. 'On this day, at this very moment,' said he with unshaken firmness, 'I will retire into a solitary place.'"
I think everybody who examines the engraving carefully will admit that it is this particular incident in the history of the young prince which the artist intended to pourtray.
Plate LXXIX. SIDDHARTHA still in the palace, but about to cscape on the horse that is standing ready, and resisting the entreaties of CHANNA, his charioteer, who tries to persuade him to change his resolution.
Plate LXXX. 129. The escape.
Plate LXXXI. 131. The end of the night-ride.
Plate LXXXII. 188. SIDDHARTHA Laking off his ornaments and giving them to CHANNA to carry back to Kupila-vastu and cutting off his long hair with his sword. (See photograph.)
If we accept M. WILSEN's theory, we shall have to get over some difficulties. The selected plates may be fairly interpreted in the way suggested. But they are only a few among the great many to which the legend, as it is known, supplies no interpretation; and one cannot help being surprised to find that the lower line of sculptures has no relation, so far as has been ascertained, to the upper line. As they are represented in the plates they appear to be parts of the same work, but no connecting thread between the two series has yet been discovered.
However, much might probably yet be learned by careful study, both of the plates and of the various forms of the Buddhistic legend. And I think it most likely that such study will tend to support M. WILSEN's opinion. Certainly one rises, from a first perusal of the book, convinced that Boro Budur is what Dr. LEEMANS and those whose works he has utilised believe it to be—a monument of the religion of Buddha, and one of the most remarkable monuments of that religion that exist in the world.
M. BRUMUMD, who has exhausted all the sources of information, is of the opinion that the Buddhist religion and indeed a great Buddhist empire was established in the centre of Java and that its golden age may be placed in the eighth or ninth century of the Christian era. It was no doubt surrounded by other States professing Sivaistic Brahmanisan; and there is evidence that the Sivaism of the coast borrowed something from Buddhism, and that, on the other hand, the Buddhism of the centre had some Sivaistic elements mixed with it. But of the existence of a very purce Buddhism in the neighbourhood of Boro Budur, he considers there is no room for doubt. He conjectures that it was introduced into Java at a very early period, possibly soon after the third great Buddhist council which took place under Azoba B.C. 264—at which it was resolved that the doctrine of the Buddha should be propagated in foreign parts.
It is true that the Chinese traveller FA HIAN tells us that in the beginning of the fifth century after Christ there were many Brahmins in Java, but that the law of Buddha had no adherents there. But some doubt is thrown upon his evidence by the fact that his informants were Brahmins who were possibly anxious to conceal the truth, and who shewed their hostility to the religion of the Buddha by requesting the Captain of the ship in which they sailed to abandon FA HIAN, during a storm, upon the inhabited coast of an island which they sighted, as the probable cause of their danger, he being a heretic Buddhist.
There is reason to believe that Buddhism was decaying during the period of the last great Hindu Empire in Java—that of Majapahit—and it disappeared finally when Islam triumphed over that last refuge of Hinduism in A.D. 1400. M. WILSEN indeed attributes the ruinous condition into which Boro Budur had fallen to injuries received by the building during the wars of religion between the supporters of the old and the new faith. He supposes the Buddhists driven by the victorious Moslems within the sanctuary of Boro Budur and pursued from gallery to gallery, not knowing how else to defend themselves, to have used as projectiles the architectural ornaments which they could easily remove or break off; and he thus accounts for the fact that an immense number of these ornaments, which are wanting in their proper places, are found strewing the ground all around the building. "The Buddhists," says M. WILSEN, "overpowered and driven back, saw themselves surrounded and threatened with destruction in the neighbourhood of Boro Budur. The monument is transformed into a fortress. But nothing stays the Moslems—neither the sanctity of the place nor the despair of its defenders. The air resounds with their fanatical war-cry of "Allah," and the turbaned zealots advance to the assault of Boro Budur. The Buddhists at bay lay their hands upon the antefixes on the cornices, the bells, and other ornaments; they tear them down and hurl them upon the assailants. But it is in vain; the Moslems mount one gallery after another. The dead bodies of the Buddhists lie on one another in heaps, the last of the defenders fall on the circular terraces, and the crescent planted on the summit of Boro Budur looks down in triumph upon all the country round, and seems to utter a sarcastic defiance of the Buddhas."
M. BRUMUND, on the contrary, thinks there is no sufficient historical support of the truth of this picture. He doubts whether there were wars of religion of this violent character in Java, and considers that there would be more evident marks of them in the defacement of the statues if this had been the case. He attributes the destruction of the temple or monument of Boro Budur to the natural results of the neglect into which it fell after the triumph of Islam, and to the powers of nature—the earthquakes, the luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation, and the influence of the droughts and the rains in their turn.
Since the building has been discovered and cleared of the jungle and the earth in which it had been buried, the work of destruction has been continued by fresh agents. The natives have carried off some of the stones to build their own houses. Boys tending their buffaloes and sitting down under the shadow of the walls have amused themselves with chopping the sculptures with their knives, and—worst of all—civilised Europeans have carried off the statues, or, if these were too heavy, have taken the heads of the Buddhas from the outside walls and the niches to place them in their collections. It is even said that a troop of IIussars, who were encamped in these parts during the Javanese war, used to try the edge and the temper of their sabres upon the statues, and that they cut off the heads of more than one of them.
I will conclude this paper, which has already exceeded the limits I originally proposed to myself, by quoting from M. WILSEN the following account of a most curious and interesting fact, viz., that the statues of Boro Budur are to this day objects of reverence to the Javanese. He says: "Persons come every day from long distances bringing offerings of flowers and incense to one or other of the statues of the Buddha upon the higher terraces. These pious pilgrims place their flowers on a banana leaf before one of the two Buddhas of the first circular terrace to the right of the eastern entrance, or by the side of the huge statue of the great Dagob in the middle, and burn incense before the statues. They often bring with them some of the yellow powder called ‘bore bore’ to cover the statue of the Buddha with, just as newly married people cover their bodies with the same powder. They pay this offering of devotion in cases of sickness, after a marriage, after an easy and fortunate childbirth, and on occasion of many other of the events of daily life. It is also said that women who aspire to the honours of maternity try to pass their fingers through the openings in the latticed cupolas, in order to touch the Buddha concealed within; and that they sometimes pass a whole night in one of the galleries or on one of the higher terraces. The Chinese too imitate the Javanese in some of these acts of devotion, and assemble once a year on new year's day at the ruins of Boro Budur. The ancient shrine then becomes the object of a general pilgrimage, the scene of joyous merry-making, accompanied by many sacrifices, by fireworks, and public amusements of all kinds. We dare not assert positively that the ancient purpose of Boro Budur is the reason why these strangers from the celestial empire (so far as they profess the doctrine of Fo or Buddha) attribute to it still a sacred character. The thing, however, is not improbable; and the very nature of the homage that is now offered, might thus have put us in the way of understanding the ond which the founders of the sanctuary proposed to themselves, even if we had not the advantage of being better informed on the subject by the character of the edifice itself and its bas-reliefs. But we have before us an example of the religious sentiment. After so many centuries, after all remembrance of the origin of this remarkable edifice has been lost, and while tradition is silent, the sentiment of the Chinese Buddhist is sufficient to make him say; 'This country, this hill covered with venerable buildings, images, statues, sculptures, was consecrated to the great Master. Here the ashes of the Buddha have rested, here the relics of the Buddha have been preserved.'"
- ↑ A photograph of his engraving is inserted at the beginning of this paper. I take this opportunity of stating that this and the other photographs of these engravings have been executed by the Government Photograpber at Singapore under the direction of the hon'ble Major McNair, R.A., C.M.G., Colonial Engineer, Straits Settlements.
- ↑ Vide Journal of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. VI., page 509. I have somewhat abridged the passage.