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
In the lower series on the front-wall of the _first_ gallery we see, on
the second sculpture south of the eastern staircase, the _Bodhisattva_
ploughing his field as a farmer. Performing this task he suddenly finds
a treasure the fourth part of which he presents the needy. (W. L.,
engraving CXXXVI). This is the _Kanytyanakhandhajâtaka_.
In the upper series on the very same wall van Erp thought the last of
the 4 sculptures, after the _fourth_ corner west of the southern
staircase, to be another _Sigala-jâtaka_. In imitation of professor
Speyer’s however, I described this as the _jâtaka_’s conclusion, the
starving _sparrow_ asking the lion for a little bit of the prey he
killed shortly before. (W. L.’s engraving CLXX).
And in 5 _relievoes_ on the same front-wall, but on the northern side of
the ruin (not engraved in L’s) he meant he saw the _Mora-jâtaka_, where
the _Bodhisattva_, caught as a peacock by the hunter of the king of
_Bénarès_, teaches the doctrine to the prince.
Another _jâtaka_ has been still mentioned in Leemans’ (Engraving
CLXXXIII, and CLXXXIV and 3 other ones), where the _Bodhisattva_ died a
monkey when he sacrificed his life for the sake of his blind mother. His
younger brother did likewise all which can’t prevent the hunter from
shooting down even the mother-monkey after having first killed the two
others.
It is the _Syula-Nandiya-jâtaka_ in which the wicked hunter is being
severely punished.
According to the pâli-text the _Buddha_ himself related that this former
hunter afterwards became his wicked nephew Devadatta; his younger
brother-monkey Ananda, and that their blind mother was afterwards
reincarnated in his step- and foster-mother Gotamî[67].
Van Erp gives us at last an explanation of another _relievo_ we see on
the lower series of the same wall, but this hasn’t been engraved in
Leemans’ work either. Consulting the ground-plan we come across number
120 which refers to the panel it has been sculptured upon. Van Erp
possesses a photography of this.
It corresponds pretty well to the relievoes I described as 11 and 12 of
the upper series behind the second corner south of the eastern
staircase, because in the two jâtakas the _Bodhisattva_ represents a
hare who flings herself into a fire to feed a hungry traveller; in this
_Syasya-jâtaka_ however, the mentioned hungry man does not represent the
deity Indra but rather a _risyi_ or anachorete, who rescues the hare out
of the flames as well as Indra did.
I further mention that each of the terraces under foot lies about 3
yards higher than the preceding one, and communicates with each other by
staircases of about 10 treads on an average.
Further, that each gallery between the walls is about 2 yards wide, and
that these walls have a thickness of 1½ yard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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