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
Even now Javanese princes carry the _tyåkrå_, the _trisulå_ and other
weapons of deities in their _ampilan_[62], and so Vishnu’s _tyankra_
doesn’t mean that the person whom it is carried after, should refer to
this deity, though it is true that the _Buddha_ of the _Mahâyânists_
must be this god’s _avatâra_.
Among the following imageries I more especially see Hindu-gods as
Buddha’s predecessors. (_Bodhisattvas_).
The four-armed sculpture we see on 18 (_southern_ staircase, _fourth_
corner 5), in Buddha posture on a throne carried by a bull, the _nandi_,
the _vâhana_ or Shiva’s carriage, makes us think, even without any other
characteristic, of a _Bodhisattva_, perhaps. The lost head might have
given more certainty.
Similar images we find on 100, 101, 102 and 104 W. L.[63].
On the first (_northern_ staircase, _second_ corner, 1) we see a
four-armed sculpture on a lotus-throne in Buddha posture, with the
glory, and in his left hand an elephant’s hook and a flower. The objects
in his right hand are to be recognised no more. The throne itself has
been adorned with elephants, lions and _nâgas_. The four arms near the
single face may possibly refer to Vishnu or another deity, but not to
Brahma which we see generally hewn four-faced: the small Buddha image in
the crown only speaks of Buddhism[64].
And as Buddha, according to the northern church, had been Vishnu’s
_avatâra_, this deity may by no means raise our astonishment because of
his being represented here as a _Bodhisattva_.
Even the following sculpture (2 after the _second_ corner) has been hewn
four-armed, but too badly damaged to be recognised as the deity it
should represent.
This also refers to the third sculpture (3 after the corner). The _six_
arms may point to Shiva.
The fourth sculpture (5 after the same corner, W. L., 104) would not be
easily recognised on Wilsen’s drawing. On the ruin itself however, there
is no doubt whatever, because we here see clear enough that the
_upavîta_ is nothing else but the _Cobra_ (snake) with a nicely modeled
and crowned head. And this only speaks of Shiva or of his son Ganesha
who has been always represented as an elephant or with an elephant’s
head so that here he can’t be meant as such.
Another sculpture (W. L., 106, the _seventh_ after the _second_ corner)
is still note-worthy, because the temple wherein it sits (_not_ on a
lotus-cushion) has been crowned by five shivaïtic _trisyulas_. Should
this be a _woman_’s image it then may represent a _Târâ_ or female
deity, but it hasn’t any token to be recognised as Durgâ, the _syakti_
of Shiva[65].
Unique of its kind is the _sixty-ninth_ sculpture on the back-wall of
the following, _third_, gallery (_northern_ staircase, _second_ corner,
2).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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