Ruins of Buddhistic Temples in Prågå Valley—Tyandis Båråbudur, Mendut and PawonGroneman, I. (Isaac)
Religion
Ruins of Buddhistic Temples in Prågå Valley—Tyandis Båråbudur, Mendut and Pawon
Groneman, I. (Isaac)
Buddhist temples; Temples -- Indonesia -- Java
On this ground of birth the child was _called_ Mûrdhyaya, and Mândhâtar
or Mûrdhatar when both names are joined together.
It was the Kasymir poet Ks_yemendra who gave Foucher this missing link
to explain the sculptures.
On the two first relievoes we see the distribution of presents done in
the name of the king that he might get a child.
On the third sculpture the king is departing.
On the fourth we see Upasyada dismounting, and the sacrificial vase he
is going to drink from.
5 shows us the child got by this.
6 and 7 refer to the horoscope of the future _tyakravartin_ or suzerain
of the world, and the astrologer’s reward.
On 8 the young prince bids his father farewell in order to travel about
the country.
On 9 he is informed of his father’s death, and his succession to the
throne.
10. Between the young prince and two risyis floating in the air,
recognisable by their large tuft of hair and their rosaries, we
see some broken winged birds sitting on the ground. The curse of
one of the 500 risyis, living in a neighbouring wood, broke their
wings.
The king, indignant at such cruelty, denies the risyis every right for
staying on his territory.
11. On his further journey Mândhâtar forms a plan to cause a rain of
corn so as not to oblige his people to work any longer.
12. Cotton shall be cultivated no more, neither spinned nor weaved, and
now ready clothes are falling down out of the clouds.
13. Taking offence at the fact they ascribe the merit of all these
wonders to themselves, the king now produces a seven days’ rain of
gold which fell within the walls of his palace, and with the
exception of the king himself and his ministers we only see women
gather the treasures falling down out of vases hidden in the
clouds.
14. Mândhâtar marches out to conquer the world. The feet of none stir
the earth.
15. A _yaksha_ shows the king the way as how to make new conquests. The
sculptor represented this yaksha as a brahmin-minister.
16. The guide brings the king to his pinnacle of glory. Two kings having
a striking resemblance to each other, throne in a palace on seats
which are equally high.
One of them is Syakra, the Indra of deities, and on Mândhâtar’s
unuttered wishes he ceded to him half his territory. Only by his
non-blinking the god is to be distinguished from the man-king, and it
goes without saying that the sculptor was not able to show this.
17. Deities fighting _asuras_ (devils). With the assistance of their
human ally the deities gain the victory over them.
18, 19, and 20 don’t exactly correspond to the text which teaches us
that Mândhâtar asked his ministers who got the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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