Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/533

CHAP. IV. SUKU. 439 piers of the same size. The extreme dimensions were 73 ft. east and west by 53 ft. north and south, and it was raised on a platform with three steps. Sir T. Stamford Raffles came to the conclusion that this building might have been a Hall of State, in which case it is almost the only example of a secular building of which the plan still remains. SUKU. At a place called Suku, not far from Mount Lawu, near the centre of the Island, there is a group of temples, which, when properly illustrated, promises to be of great importance to the history of architecture in Java. 1 They are among the most modern examples of the style, having dates upon them of A.D. 1435 and A.D. I44O, 2 or less than forty years before the destruc- tion of Majapahit and the abolition of the Hindu religion of Java. So far as can be made out, they are coarser and more vulgar in execution than any of those hitherto described, and belonged to a degraded form of the Vaishnava religion. Garuda is the most prominent figure among the sculptures ; but there is also the tortoise, the boar, and other figures that belong to that religion. The principal temple, of which an illustration is given in Sir T. Stamford Raffles' work, 3 consists of a truncated pyramid raised on the top of three successive terraces. Its base is 43 ft. 6 in. square which, as it rises, decreases in size to about 22 ft, and it is constructed of horizontal stone courses forming steps to the height of 19 ft. ; on the top is a boldly moulded podium or platform 4 ft. 9 in. high, with a projecting wing in the centre on the western side, in front of which is a narrow flight of steps down the side of the pyramid enclosed between stone curbs. On the top of the wing are two serpents, but otherwise the whole building is plain and unornamented with sacred emblems. The most interesting feature connected with the remains at Suku, is their extraordinary likeness to the contemporary edifices in Yucatan and Mexico. It may be only accidental, but it is unmistakable. No one, probably, who is at all familiar with the remains found in the two provinces, can fail to observe it, though no one has yet suggested any hypothesis to account for it. When we look at the vast expanse of ocean that stretches between Java and Central America, it seems impossible to conceive that any migration can have taken place eastward 1 Sir S. Raffles' ' History of Java,' plates 31 and 61, vol ii. pp. 49 et scqq. 2 Crawfurd, 'Diet. Indian Archipelago, ' sub voce. 8 ' History of Java,' Plate XXXI.