Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/502

420 FURTHER INDIA. BOOK VIII. so rude that even Gane^a can hardly sometimes be recognised ; and it frequently requires an almost Hindu trustfulness to believe that these rude stones sometimes represent even Siva and Vishnu and other gods of the Hindu Pantheon. 1 It seems as if the early Brahmans tried to teach their native converts to fashion gods for themselves, but, having no artistic knowledge of their own to communicate, failed miserably in the attempt. The Buddhists, on the contrary, were artists, and came in such numbers that they were able to dispense with native assistance, nearly, if not altogether. The next recorded event that seems to bear on our investiga- tions is the mission of the children of Deva Kasuma to Kling or India, in order that they might be educated in the Brahmanical religion. 2 This event took place in A.D. 914, and seems to point to a time when the Buddhist religion, as evidenced by the erection of Boro - Budur, had died out, and the quasi-Hindu temples of Prambanan and Singasari had superseded those of the Buddhists. Those at Prambanan are said to have been completed in A.D. 1097, which seems an extremely probable date for the Chandi Sewu or " 1000 temples." From that period till the beginning of the I5th century, the series of monuments many of them with dates upon them 3 are tolerably complete, and there will be no difficulty in classifying them whenever the task is fairly undertaken. At this time we find the island divided into two kingdoms ; one, having its capital at Pajajaram, about 40 miles east of Batavia, occupied the whole of the western or Sunda part of the island. The Sundas, however, were not a building race, and the portion occupied by them need not be again referred to here. It contains no buildings except the rude Hindu remains above referred to. The eastern portion of the island was occupied by the kingdom of Majapahit, founded, apparently, about the year 1300. It soon rose to a higher pitch of power and splendour than any of the preceding kingdoms, and the capital was adorned with edifices of surpassing magnificence, but mostly in brick, so that now they are little more than a mass of indistinguishable ruins. When, however, it had lasted little more than a century, Muhammadan missionaries appeared on 1 About half of the earlier photographs of the Batavian Society are filled with representations of these rude deities, which resemble more the images of Easter Island than anything Indian. 2 Raffles, ' History of Java,' vol. ii. P- 93- 3 The compilers of the catalogue of the photographs of the Batavian Society use 53 instead of 78 or 79 as the factor for converting .Salt a dates into those of the Christian Era. As, however, Brumund, Leemans, and all the best modern authors use the Indian Index, it is here adhered to throughout.