Buddhist Art in Java

by Alfred Foucher

Originally published in Bulletin de I'Ecole fransaise d'Extreme-Orient, vol. IX, 1909
English translation by L. A. and F. W. Thomas in
Beginnings of Buddhist Art (1914)

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I

The Stupa of Boro-Budur.

The ruins of Boro-Budur (1) constitute indisputably the most important Buddhist monument of the island of Java. We know also that they alone can compete, in the amplitude of their dimensions and the profusion of the bas-reliefs with which their walls are covered, with the other gem of Far-Eastern archaeology, I mean Angkor-Vat. In beauty of site they even far surpass the rival wonder of Cambodia. Occupying a detached position in advance of a small chain of mountains, which forms a screen on the south, the eminence on which stands Boro-Budur dominates the vast valley of Progo, all covered with shimmering palm-groves and framed on both sides by the majestic summits of great volcanoes. To the west stretch the deep recesses of the Menoreh, flanked by the imposing sugar-loaf of the Sumbing, in height exceeding 10,000 feet; to the east extend the wonderfully pure curves of the twin peaks of the Mer-Babu, the Mount of Ashes, and of the Mer-Api, the Mount of Fire, the latter still active; and in the northern distance, half-way to the sea, whose vapours may be faintly descried, the rounded hill of Magelang represents the head of the nail which, according to the native tradition, fixed Java to the bottom of the ocean.

(1) Extract from the Bulletin de I'Ecole fransaise d'Extreme-Orient, vol. IX, 1909, pp. I sqq. These notes are a result of a too brief stay--which the author was able to make in Java during the month of May 1907.

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No doubt, we must in the first place take account of the difference in dimensions. The rectangular base of the Khmer monument has an exterior measurement of 187 by 215 metres; the lower terrace of the Javanese building forms a square of in metres on each side. The former attains an elevation of 57 metres, whilst the present summit of the second does not reach 35 metres above the first steps. It is well likewise to note that the latter, older by three centuries or so and exposed to the same destructive agents - torrential rains and the luxuriant vegetation of the Tropics - is in a worse state of preservation (1). But, after all, we must acknowledge that the two monuments, even at the time of their unimpaired splendour, had from an architectural point of view nothing in common. Angkor-Vat deploys on tiers rising above the plain its three enclosing galleries, intersected by portals, flanked by eight towers and crowned by a ninth: Boro-Budur encompasses the summit of a hill with the sacred number of its nine terraces, connected at the four cardinal points by stair-cases and surmounted by a dome.

(1) Boro-Budur is commonly ascribed to the IXth Century, and Angkor-Vat to the XIIth. The leaning walls of the Javanese Stupa threaten ruin to such a degree that the Government-General of the Dutch East Indies has been moved thereby. The friends of archseology will learn with pleasure that a first grant of 60,000 florins (about £ 5.000) is at present being devoted to works of preservation under the expert direction of Major van Erp, of the Engineers.

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That the architectural form of the temple is infinitely more favourable to the effect of the whole than that of the mausoleum, no one will deny. Still this reason is not entirely satisfying; nor does it suffice to explain what at first sight is « wrong » with the aspect of Boro-Budur (pl. XXXI, I). It is not a dome with simple lines, like the most ancient Indian stupas which are preserved to us, for example at Sanchi and at Manikyala. Neither is it a superposition of quadrangular diminishing terraces, a kind of pyramid in steps, such as the Chinese pilgrims describe the « pagodas » of north-western India. Nor has it the lengthy slenderness of its Burmese or Siamese congeners, which point very high into the air as it were the handle of an enormous bell.

(1) Cf. pll. XXXI, 2 and XXXII, 2.

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(1) We know that the discovery of this peculiarity is due to an engineer, Heer J. W. yzerman. The primitive plinth must have very early been buried in the new masonry along with the bas-reliefs -wherewith there had been a commencement of decoration. Doubtless it was found necessary to strengthen the foundations, which threatened to give way under the thrust of the upper stories : at the same time perhaps orthodox tradition found the addition of a terrace advantageous, thus completing in the most patent manner the sacred number of nine. This addition is indicated on pi. XXXII, I by the divergent hatchings.

(2) In case the reader should be tempted to think that these criticisms are made by a prejudiced and particularly surly visitor, he is begged to refer.

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Thus we learned our error. It had, in fact, become usual with archaeologists to regard Boro-Budur as a stupa. erected on superposed terraces after the manner of those of north-western India (2). In reality, it is only a stupa in the form of a dome, according to the old Indian mode, but much more elaborate, being cut horizontally by a series of promenades and itself crowned with a second cupola. The influence which it has undergone, both in its general conception as in the detail of its mural decoration, comes to it not from Gandhara, but, as is natural, from southern India, where to the opinion of Brumund in Leemans, Boro-Boudour dans I'lle de Java, Leiden, 1874, p. 579,

(1) This is the Malay name for the traveller's house, corresponding to the Indian bungalow and the Cambodian sola.

(2) Such, for example, is the idea expressed in the passage of our Art greco-bouddhique du Gandhara, I, p. 80, to which the present note may serve as erratum.

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(1) Cf. Art. g.-b. du Ga-ndh., fig. 58, a model of a sfupa from Amaravati, where the procedure in decorating the -walls of the monument with the aid of bas-reliefs and the recourse to a promenade intended to facilitate access to the upper row of these latter are already clearly indicated. Let us add that the excavations judiciously conducted by Major van Erp have already borne fruit in the discovery of fragments of the balustrade, furnished with doors, which formerly surrounded the base of Boro-Budur.

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(1) The difference between the steps at the bottom and those at the top is so great that from the first to the second gallery, for example, thirteen steps only go back m. 3,56 in rising m. 3,84, whilst the seven steps--which lead to the first circular gallery, the sixth of the whole, have a depth of m. 3,40 in rising m. 1,80; Wilsen (ap. Leemans, p. 576) asks whether we must not, in the steepness of the first steps, see a symbol, suggested to the minds of the faithful by the intermediary of their legs, of the difficulty of attaining to Nirvana! We conjecture, at least, that the impossibility of imposing upon them still steeper ones is one of the reasons which decided the architect not to conform in all things to the ancient Indian formula of the « air bubble on water », and made him recoil before the idea of assigning to his monument the form of a complete hemisphere.

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II

The Bas-reliefs of Boro-Budur

(PRINCIPAL WALL OF THE FIRST GALLERY)

Whatever from an architectural point of view has been lost to Boro-Budur through the tyranny of religious tradition is abundantly compensated in the decorative aspect. The 2,000 bas-reliefs, more or less, which formerly covered its walls, and of which about 1,600 still exist today, are all borrowed from the legend, or from the Pantheon, of Indian Buddhism, and it was the testimony of these that from the first established the sectarian character of the monument.

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(1) S. d'Oldenburg, Notes on Buddhist Art, St. Petersburg, 1895 (in Russian, translated into English in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, XVIII, I, January 1897, pp. 196-201).

(2) C. M. Pleyte, Die Buddha- Legende in den Skulpturen des Tempels van Boro-Budur, Amsterdam, 1901, in-4. - In general we are in agreement with Dr. pleyte as to the identification of the 120 figured scenes, which in fact follow religiously the text which they have undertaken to illustrate. All the same, his figure 14 seems to us to represent not « Cakra and the Guardians of the Cardinal Points », which would convey nothing particularly edifying, but the Bodhisattva, supposed to be seated in his mother's womb beneath the « pavilion of precious stone », at the moment when Brahma brings to him in a cup the drop of honey, quintessence of worlds, which he has just collected in the magic lotus figured in the preceding scene side by side with the Conception (Lalitavistara, ed. Lefmanm, pp. 63-4). As to figures 47 and 48, not identified by Dr. Pleyte, we believe, paradoxical as the assertion may seem, that they represent twice the episode ofthe Bodhisattva's wrestling, first with a single competitor, and then with all his rivals together (Lalitavistara, pp. 152-3). This is why on fig. 47 we see a single individual, and on fig. 48 all the young Cakyas, standing motionless and facing the Bodhisattva, who also is motionless and standing : so inveterate was the horror of the sculptors of Boro-Budur for all violent movements. - See below the additional note on p. 269.

(3) Cf. Art greco-bouddhique du Gandhara,  p. 268.

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It is all the more expedient not to ignore this law, inasmuch as the identification of the bas-reliefs of this first gallery is, as we have said, very far from complete. Our attention was immediately and forcibly drawn to the 120 magnificent panels on the right wall, below the scenes from the last life of Buddha. Measuring, like these last, from m. 0,70 to m. 0,80 in height by circa m. 2,40 in length, about three quarters of them have until now - partly through the fault of the artists and much more through the imperfections of the only reproductions which have been published (1) - resisted all attempts at explanation. At the time of our visit we had at our disposal nothing but the text of the Divyavadana and the excellent Guide of Dr. J. Groneman (2). The latter indicates in the series in question only two identifications, both again due to Dr. S. d'Oldenburg: one is that ofthe legend of Sudhanakumara; the other, which is connected with the history of Maitrakanyaka, has quite recently been corroborated and developed by Prof. Speyer and Dr. Groneman at the cost of an extensive correction of one of Wilsen's drawings.

(1) We would speak of the enormous folio album of 393 lithographed plates, which is annexed to the already mentioned work of Leemans and which was so uselessly and so expensively designed at Java by Wilsen and Schonberg Mulder from 1849 to 1853, then published in Holland from 1855 to 1871 under the care ofthe Government-General ofthe Dutch Indies.

(2) Boeddhistische Tempelbouwvallen in die Praga-Vallei, de Tjandis Bara-boedoer, Mendoet en Pawon, by Dr. J. Grosemann, Semarang-Soerabaia, 1907. The venerable archaeologist of Jogyakarta was so kind as to accompany us himself into the galleries and even to the summit of Boro-Budur; we cannot thank him too warmly for his trouble.

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I. South-Eastern Corner. We shall begin our pradakshina, according to rule, at the gate facing the east, which formerly constituted the principal entrance. The proof, if any is needed, is given by the fact that here begins on the upper series of bas-reliefs, the legend of the Buddha Cakya-muni. The 30 pictures of this series which are comprised between the eastern and southern staircases exhibit the very early events of his last life, from the preparations for his descent from the heaven Tushita until, and including, his last rebirth upon earth.

(1) In order to save the reader all confusion and to facilitate the references to the already published documents, we should explain that we here treat in detail only the 120 bas-reliefs called by Leemans « lower row of the back wall of the second gallery », which, occupying the base of plates XVI to CXXXV of his album, are described (but not identified) from page 194 to page 217 of his book. We will retain provisionally between parentheses the numbers 2-240 assigned to them, - the odd numbers 1 to 239 being reserved for the 120 bas-reliefs of the « upper row » on this same wall, the row which, reproduced at the top of the same plates and described on pp. 121-193, is entirely devoted to the last life of Buddha and has been studied by Dr. C. M. Pleyte.

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Sudhanakumaravadana. - I. (L., pl. XVI, 2). « Once upon a time, says the text, there were in the country of Pancala two kings, the king of the north and the king of the south... » The former was virtuous, and his kingdom prosperous ; with the second it was quite otherwise. Leemans describes the bas-relief in these terms: « A prince and his wife, seated in a pendopo (2) not far from their palace, are receiving the homage of a great number of persons of rank ». Is it the monarch of the north who is presented to us in all his glory in the midst of his court? Is it the sovereign of the south whom we perceive in the act of deliberating with his ministers concerning the means of restoring prosperity to his kingdom? This it is not in the power of our image-makers to specify.

2. (L., 4). What lends more probability to the first supposition is the fact that in the following picture we must in any case recognize as the king of southern Pancala the prince who, sheltered by his parasol and followed by a numerous cortege, is riding on horseback through a conventional rocky landscape. Under a pretext of hunting, as the text tells us, he is making a tour of inspection through his kingdom, which he finds completely ruined and deserted.

(1) S. d'Oldenburg, loc. cit., p. 200; Divyavadana, XXX, ed. Cowell and Neil, pp. 435-461.

(2) Probably a corruption of the Sanscrit word mafidapa, which signifies a kind of hall or open pavilion.

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3. (L., 6). The following panel represents no less than three episodes. On the rightthe young ndga-recognizable, as on the sculptures of India, by his coiffure of serpents' heads-asks upon his knees, and obtains, the protection of the hunter Halaka. In the middle (cf. pl XXXIV, I) the same Janmacitraka, grieving and under compulsion, is driven from the midst of the waters and lotuses of his pond by the influence of incantations pronounced (at his right side) by a Brahmanic ascetic before a sacrificial altar; fortunately the hunter, standing (on the other side) with his weapons in his hands, is watching over him. According to the text, he is about to put the charmer to death, not without first having made him annul the effect of his charm. In the third group (on the left) we must therefore, it seems, recognize the same Brahman, not reporting to the king, whose agent he is, a mischance which he has not survived, but at the moment when he receives from this king his secret mission. It follows, therefore, that, by an exceptional, but not impossible, arrangement, the episode on the left, like that on the right, must have preceded in time the one which they both enclose.

4. (L., 8). Next, in the text, comes a brilliant reception at the house of the father and mother of the young naga in honour of the saviour of their son. This is indeed what the bas-relief represents; but then we are forced to admit that for this occasion the hunter has donned a princely costume, much superior to his caste. It is also necessary to supply the fact that in the meantime he has received from his hosts a lasso which never misses.

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6. (L., 12). At this moment, we are told, Sudhana, the Royal Prince of northern Pancala, is passing with a hunting party: Halaka perceives him, and, in order that his captive may not be forcibly taken away, presents her to him. We believe we must twice recognize the hunter in the two persons respectfully stooping down between the prince and the fairy, who are standing: in the first row he is offering his captive; in the second he receives the reward for it. Leemans was wrong in speaking of « a few women of rank »: Manohara is the only person of her sex. It goes without saying that, as in our stories, love springs up immediately between the young people.

7. (L., 14). A king, seated in his palace, in the midst of his court, is in conversation with a Brahman. Without the text we should never be able to guess that this king is the father of Sudhana, and that the interlocutor is his purohita, or chaplain, the traitor of the melodrama. The latter is in the act of perfidiously counselling his master to confide forthwith to the royal prince the perilous task of subduing a rebellious vassal, against whom seven expeditions have already failed.

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9. (L., 18). Sudhana, as it is written, stopped « at the foot of a tree » near to the rebellious town. Fortunately, Vaicravana, one of the four gods who reign in the air, foreseeing his defeat, sends to his aid his general Fancika with a troup of Yakshas, or genii. These are the « five giants, or evil spirits », mentioned by Leemans. The latter continues:

10. (L., 20). « A prince, seated in his house with his wife and two servants, is giving audience to six men, perhaps wise Brahmans, with whom he is engaged in a very animated conversation... » Here, again, it is only from the text that we learn that the locality of the scene is transfer- red back to Hastinapura, the capital of northern Pancala, and that the father of Sudhana is asking his Brahman astrologers for an explanation of a bad dream. The wicked chaplain takes advantage of this to prescribe, among other remedies forestalling such bad omens, the sacrifice of a Kinnari. The king seems to make a gesture of protest, and his wife shows manifest signs of sorrow.

11. (L., 22). But in the heart of the king the instinct of self-preservation at last gains the victory. Thus, on the following picture we see the fairy Manohara, with the assent, and even the complicity, of the Queen Mother, flee away gracefully through the air (pl. XXXIV, 2).

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13. (L., 26). The prince has no sooner remarked the disappearance of Manohara and learned the « unworthiness and ingratitude » of the king than he again has recourse to his mother : it is interesting to compare this interview, in respect of variety of attitude, with that at which we were present above (no. 8).

14. (L., 28). Once again a royal personage is presented to us, seated in his palace in the midst of his court; but this time he has a halo. By this sign we shall recognize here, as well as in nos. 17 and 18, Druma, king of the Kinnaras. It is, therefore, his daughter, Manohara, who, crouched at his left, is relating to him the story other romantic adventures on earth. It results, further, from this that the scene is suddenly transported beyond the first chains of the Himalayas to the distant and inaccessible country of the genii and fairies. The sculptor does all that he can to vary in imagination, if in execution he hardly succeeds, the places and persons.

15. (L., 30). However Sudhana has set himself to search for his beloved. It occurs to him to enquire of the anchorite, whose incautious words formerly led to the capture of the fairy by the hunter. Now it happens that the faithful Manohara, bearing no malice, has left with this same rishi a ring and an itinerary, which he is respectively to deliver and to communicate to the prince.

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17. (I-, 34). The stratagem succeeds: Druma, warned by his daughter of the arrival of the prince, after threatening « to make mincemeat of him », is appeased, and consents to prove him. The bas-relief represents Sudhana standing at the left, his bow bent, ready to pierce seven palms with one single arrow; on the right Druma, seated and with a halo, witnesses his prowess.

18. (L., 36). Finally he resolves, as is written and as we can see, to grant the prince his daughter's hand.

19. (L, 38). The newly-wedded couple lead a life of pleasure in the midst of the gynseceum. According to the customary Indian and Javanese formula these delights are provided by a dancing girl, accompanied by an orchestra of musicians of both sexes. As Leemans has shrewdly remarked, the royal couple do not seem to pay great attention to these amusements: they do not, in fact, suffice to cure the prince of homesickness.

20. (L., 40). And this is why, on the following and last picture, we see him and his wife signalizing by a distribution of bounty their return to Hastinapura.

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(1) A story, likewise Indian and Buddhist, translated from the Chinese by M. Chavannes (Fables et Conies de I'lnde, extraits du Tripitaka chinois, in Actes du XIVs Congres international des Orientalistes, I, p. 94) begins with this double and reciprocal exchange of ideal models : but the continuation of the story does not seem to accord with the scenes of our bas-reliefs. We may also recall, in the legend of Mahakacyapa, the detail of the fabrication of a type of girl in gold (Beal, Romantic Legend, p. 317 ; Schiefner, Textes fraduits du Kandjour in Melanges Asiat. de St. Peterb., VIII, pp. 296 sqq., or Tibetan tales, p. 191).

(2) Ed. Senart, II, pp. 94-115. On the other hand, the version of the Tibetan Kanjur, translated by schiefner (Tibetan tales, pp. 44-74), follows exactly the text of the Divyavadana, that is, as has lately been shown by MM. S. Levi and Ed. Huber, the canon ofthe Mula-Sarvastivadins; we shall have to return to this point. Let us again cite two versions of the Sudhanakumaravadana, the one from the Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata (no. 64), the other (pointed out by Dr. S. d'Oldenberg, Legendes buddhiques, St. Petersberg, 1894, p. 43) from the Bhadrakalpavadana, no. 29.

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II. South-Western Corner. - We should be tempted to apply it without further delay to the bas-reliefs which we encounter immediately after having passed the point where the southern staircase crosses the first gallery of the stupa.

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The analogy of the south-eastern corner seems to supply stronger reasons for supposing that the first twenty bas-reliefs of the south-western corner were likewise dedicated to a single legend, that is to the Mandhatravadana: only the sculptor must have commenced at a much earlier point than the compiler. The first goes back, it seems, as far as the incidents which preceded the birth of the hero, whilst the second, in an exordium obviously shortened and drawn up in telegraphic style, gives a- rapid resume of his first youth, and proceeds to expatiate at large on the exploits of his reign. Until we have fuller information, everything leads us to believe that the story of Mandhatar commenced at the corner of the southern staircase and not right in the middle of one of the faces of this twenty-cornered gallery, and that it terminated, like that of Sudhana, at the fourth angle after the staircase.

When we had arrived at this point in our hypothesis, the reading of the Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata came to confirm it in a most unexpected manner. The abridged and colourless version of the Pali Jataka No. 258 had been of no assistance whatever.

(1) XVII. Ed. Cowell and Neil, pp. 210-228. -Cf. a Pali version in the Jataka, no. 258 (ed.,II, p. 310; trans., II, p. 216), another Tibetan version in the Kanjur (schiefner, Mil. As. de St.Pet., pp. 44osqq.,or Tibetan tales, pp. 1-20), and a third Sanskrit version in the Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata, no. 4 (Bibl. Indica, New Series, no. 750, pp. 123-153).

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Neither had we been helped by the Tibetan text of the Kanjur in the translation of Schiefner which, in fact, follows with great fidelity the Divyavadana, that is the version of the Mula-Sarvastivadins. Kshemendra does the same, but for once, in the midst of his insipid concetti, he has, at the beginning, preserved for us one topical detail (st. 8-10):

« One day Uposhadha, anxious to assure the protection of the anchorites by the destruction of the demons, mounted on horseback, and began to go through the hermitages.

« There certain rishis of royal race were holding a vessel ready for a sacrifice celebrated with a view to obtaining a son : very hot with the fatigue of the long journey, the king drank the contents at one draught.

« No one was there to prevent him; and, because he had swallowed the contents of the enchanted vesseLthe monarch, on returning to his capital, found that he had conceived... »

All the versions agree in telling us that there came on the head of king Uposhadha an enormous tumour, very soft to touch and in nowise painful. When it had matured, there issued from it a fine boy, for the charge of whose nurture the 60,000 women of the royal harem disputed. To the wonderful circumstances of his birth he owes his double name of Murdhajaand Mandhatar -or even, by confusion of these two, Murdhatar. But what is of special importance to us is that the Kashmir poet furnishes us with the only link which was missing in the interpretation of the bas-reliefs (1).

(1) Cf, nearly the same story in Mahabharata, Dronaparvcw., LXII.

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8. (L., 76) « Having become a royal prince, Mandhatar goes to see the country. » We do, indeed, perceive the young prince at the moment when, starting on his journey, he respectfully takes leave of his father.

9. (L,, 78). During his absence the latter dies. Among the marvels susceptible of representation which are adjuncts of his coronation the text signalizes the sudden appearance of the « seven jewels » of the cakravartin. This is why we see depicted here among the surroundings of the prince, who has become king, a disc, a jewel, a horse, an elephant, a woman, a general, and a minister.

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11. (L., 82). Mandhatar, continuing his tour, decides not to have the fields of his kingdom any more cultivated; for the corn will rain down from heaven. The peasants do, in fact, gather up before his eyes bunches of ears of rice, which have fallen from the clouds: we expressly say bunches, and not sheaves, because in Java the rice is not cut, but gathered by hand.

12. (L., 84). In the same way Mandhatar decides that his subjects will no longer need to cultivate cotton, or to spin, or to weave. Immediately there fall from the clouds pieces of woven material, which the people have only to catch in their flight and to fold up for subsequent use (pl. XXXVI, I).

13. (L., 86). Somewhat vexed, because his subjects attribute partly to themselves the merit of all these miracles, Mandhatar causes for seven days a shower of gold, but only within his own palace. This explains why, beside the king and his ministers, we see here only women, engaged in collecting the treasures pouring from jars set amid the clouds.

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15. (L., 90). Here the text, in order better to depict the insatiable greed of the human heart, enters upon a series of repetitions impossible to reproduce on stone. King Mandhatar has for a herald (purojava) a yaksha or genius, who at each fresh conquest informs him of what still remains for him to conquer. On the monument we are in the presence, once for all, of this periodical council meeting; for the rest, the sculptor has given to the yaksha the ordinary appearance of a Brahmanic minister.

16. (L., 92). On the following panel he conducts Mandhatar at a swoop to the summit of his prodigious fortune. Two kings, exactly alike and both with haloes, are seated in a palace side by side on seats of equal height, in the midst of their court. Without the slightest doubt the moment chosen is that when Cakra, the Indra of the Gods, has, on the mere mental wish of the king of men, yielded up to him the half of his throne : and there was no difference to be seen between them, except that the eyes of Cakra did not blink.

17. (L., 94). If this interpretation were at all doubtful, it would be confirmed by the picture immediately following, which represents a combat between the gods and the Asuras. Thanks to their human ally, the gods triumph.

18-20. But from this moment a certain hesitation begins to manifest itself between the text and the bas-reliefs; and immediately the uncertainty in our identifications reappears. According to the Divydwdana, Mandhatar after the battle asks: « Who is conqueror?» « The king », is the reply of his ministers; whereupon the infatuated king carries his presumption so far as to wish to dethrone Indra, in order to reign alone in his place.

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(1) It is well known that we still have no Indian Buddhist version of this form of the legend. Except for the Brahmanic epopee, it is known to us only from the allusions of the Chinese pilgrims Fa-hien (trans. Legge, p. 30), Sung Yun (trans. Chavannes, B. E. F. E.-O., Ill, p. 427), Hiuan-tsang (trans. Stan. Julien, I, p. 137), and from Chinese versions, such as that which was retranslated from Chinese by M. Ed. Huber, Sutralankara, Paris, 1908, p. 330, and from Tibetan by Schmidt, Der Weise und der Thor, p. 120. I

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III. North-Western Corner. - The bas-reliefs of the third portion of the first gallery (on the right-hand wall) are known to represent in the upper row the departure of Buddha from his home, that is to say, his entry into the religious life, and all the trials which preceded the attainment of perfect illumination. Out of the 30 in the lower row at least 22, and perhaps 25, are, as we shall show step by step, consecrated to the celebrated historical legend of king Rudrayana. Again it is in the Divyavadana that we may read it (1). In the B. E. F. E.-O. of 1906, M. Ed Huber gave, in accordance with the Chinese translation and the Sanskrit text, an analysis of it, from which it clearly appears that this avaddna, like the preceding ones, is only an extract from the Vinaya of the Mula-Sarvastivadins. In this connection

M. Huber had seemed to discern through the drawings of Wilsen that one of the episodes of the story, viz. that of the two cats (cf. below, no. 17), was represented at Boro-Budur; but, justly discouraged by the inexactitudes of the only accessible reproductions, he was obliged to abandon this clue. Direct comparison of the text with the monument has permitted us to follow it up from one end to the other.

(1) XXXVII, ed. Cowell and Neil, pp. 544-586. It is known that burnouf translated a fragment of it in his Introduction a I'histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, pp. 341-344.

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Rudrayanavadana. - First of all, we must state that we do not see any way of making the story on the stone begin at the corner of the western staircase, but only at the first reentering angle after the face intersected by that staircase. Do the three first bas-reliefs on the left of the entrance, in which Cakra plays his accustomed role of deus ex machina, form a whole by themselves, or must they not rather be a continuation of those on the right? Or, on the contrary, may we not some day come to think that the story of Rudrayana also comprises a prelude omitted in the Divyavadana. Only the chance of reading some Indian text may some day tell us, even if we have not to await a solution by a Tibetan or a Chinese translation.

1. For the moment we begin with the Divyavadana at no. 128, pl. LXXIX of Leemans, where Rudrayana, king of Roruka, questions merchants, who have come from Rajagriha, the capital of Bimbisara, concerning the merits of their master.

2. (L., 130). A king is seated in his palace; on his right a courtier holds in both hands a rectangular tablet: this must represent the letter which, in the first fire of his enthusiasm, the sovereign of Roruka resolved to write to his cousin of Magadha. Further, two suppositions are permissible: if the king represented is the sender, his name is Rudrayana; if, as seems more natural, he is the addressee, he is Bimbisara. We do not ask our sculptors to decide this by attributing to each of the two monarchs a characteristic physiognomy : that would be exacting too much from them.

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4.(L., 134). This time the attitudes of the minor persons and the obvious character of the offering define very distinctly the hero and locality of the scene: Bimbisara is receiving at Rajagriha the casket of jewels which Rudrayana has sent to him together with his letter.

5. (L., 136). The case of stuffs sent in return by the king of Magadha to his new friend occupies the middle of the scene: but the pensive air of the king and the respectful immobility of the attendants make it doubtful whether we have to do with Bimbisara deciding upon his present, or Rudrayana receiving it and already wondering what he can give in exchange (1).

6. (L., 138). However that may be, the following bas-relief again represents Bimbisara, receiving from Rudrayana his precious cuirass. This object has been so terribly mal- treated in the representation, where it is absolutely unrecognizable, that we think it advisable to give a photographic reproduction (pl. XXXVII, I).

(1) We were somewhat inclined towards this last supposition: but, all taken into account, it seems impossible to establish a regular alternation between the heroes of these first six bas-reliefs. If we must admit any symmetry between them, we should rather be inclined to think that in nos. 1-3 the scene is at Roruka, and in the three following at Rajagriha. Then we return to Roruka until no. 13.

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8. (L., 142,'). This picture is quite analogous to no. 1, not to mention that it is likewise placed at the turn of an angle: only, in the interval the subject of the conversation has changed in a most edifying manner. It is no longer the merits of their king which are the boast of the people of Rajagriha, but those of Buddha himself.

9. (L., 144). Rudrayana, as soon as converted, begged to receive instruction from a monk, and the master despatched to him the reverend Mahakatyayana : a monk is, in fact, sitting at the right of the king, and even on a higher seat than he. In the most gratuitous - and also the most perplexing - manner the designer considered it necessary to surmount the shaven head of this monk (cf. pl. XXXVII, 2) with the protuberance of the ushnisha, which is special to Buddhas. Let us add that Mahakatyayana seems, in the midst of the edified hearers, to be making a gesture of refusal: what he refuses is, doubtless, to preach in the gyneeceum of the king: that is the business of the nuns.

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11. (The drawing does not appear in L.). The scene is obviously the same, except in two points. Firstly, a second nun, squatting behind Caila, represents doubtless the quorum necessary for an ordination. In the second place, there are now only women in the audience, and the place formerly occupied by the king is taken by a third ihikshuni kneeling. Immediately the text invites us to recognize in this novice queen Candraprabha, who, conscious other approaching death, has obtained from Rudrayana authority to enter into religion (pl. XXXVIII, 2),

12. (The drawing is not to be found in L.). That on the following bas-relief the king is again in conversation with his favourite wife would likewise not be understood, did we not learn elsewhere that Candraprabha was born again in the nearest heaven, and that she promised her husband to return after her death to advise him as to the ways and means of reunion with her in another life. Here she is fulfilling her promise (pl. XXXIX, I).

13. This explains also why the very next morning Rudrayana decides to go and be ordained a monk by Buddha, and announces to his son Cikhandin that he abdicates in his favour (pl. XXXIX, 2).

(1) In the same order of ideas we may again notice that the real padmasana, with the legs closely crossed, the soles of the feet turned upwards and the right foot forward, is reserved by our sculptors for Buddha alone (cf. on the upper corners of our plates XXXVII, 2 and XL, I the image of the Bodhisattva, already represented in the form of a Buddha).

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14. (L., 154). If the four preceding pictures are either totally or partially missing from Wilsen's album, the following one is, in compensation, more than complete. The designer began once more - with the aggravation of an indication of locks of hair covering an imaginary usbwha - the mistake of which he had already been guilty in no. 9 : of a monk with a round, shorn head he made a Buddha! Furthermore the two scenes nos. 9 (pl. XXXVII, 2) and 14 (pl. XXXIX, 3), which are quite symmetrical, bring face to face with one another, in the customary surroundings of a royal residence, the type of the monk and the type of the king. Only the continuation of the text reveals to us that this time the monk is no longer Mahakatyayana, but Rudrayana himself, who has just been ordained by Buddha in person at Rajagriha. In a long dialogue he rejects, for his first round in public as a mendicant monk, the seductive offers of Bimbisara. You may well imagine that it was impossible to pass by so fine an opportunity for reproducing, both on the monument and in the text, the famous episode of the temptation of the future Sakya-muni by this same Bimbisara.

15. (L., 156). The bas-relief is divided into two parts by a tree, and the different orientation of the characters emphasizes this separation. On the right, at Rajagriha, the monk Rudrayana (still wrongly represented by Wilsen as a Buddha) learns from merchants, natives of his country, that his son Cikhandin is conducting himself badly on the throne, and he promises to go and put things in order. Onthe left, at Roruka, King Cikhandin is warned by his evil ministers that there is a rumour of his father's early return, and he forms with them a plot to assassinate him. In the background is to be seen already, in her private palace, the Queen Mother, who in this portion of the story will play a very important part.

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17. (L., 160). There remains the task of exonerating him from the not less inexpiable murder of an arhat, or Buddhist saint. Is it worth while to recall the ingenious stratagem conceived by the evil ministers in order to prove that there is no arhal, or, at least, that those who pretend to be such are only charlatans? On the left we perceive, each hidden under his stupa (which Leemans wrongly took for « vases in the form of globes »), the two cats which have been trained to answer to the name of the two first saints formerly converted by Mahakatyayana. On the right the Queen Mother and Cikhandin take part in the demonstration, which to them appears convincing.

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19. (L., 164). Like Cikhandin in his palace, we witness the rain of jewels which, according to the prophet, must precede the fatal rain of sand. The eagerness of the inhabitants to gather up the precious objects, cast down from vessels (1) in the height of the clouds, is painted with a vivaciousness which seemed to us quite deserving of reproduction (pl. XL, 2). In the first row a boat which is being loaded with jewels proves that the good ministers have not forgotten a very practical recommendation of Mahakatyayana (2).

20. (L., 166). The destinies are accomplished : Roruka has been buried with almost all its inhabitants. When the curtain rises again, we are in the village of Khara, the first halting-place of Mahakatyayana on the route of his return to India. The tutelary goddess of Roruka, who has followed him in his flight through the air, is detained at Khara by an imprudent promise: but, on leaving her, the monk presents her with a souvenir in the shape of his goblet, over which a stupa is raised.

(1) These vessels, which we have already encountered above (Mandhatar, No. 13 ; L., pl. LVIII, 86), seem to be a current accessory of Indian imagination. Compare the passage from the Jatakamala, XV, 15 (ed. Kern, p. 97; trans. speyer, p. 138), where the clouds pour down « like overturned vessels ».

(2) Let us remark in passing that the departure of the two good ministers in ships scarcely fits in with the localization (which was surely already known to the author of the text, and which M. Huber recently treated again in the B. E. F. E.-0.,VI, 1906, pp. 335-340) of Roruka in Central Asia.

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21. (L., 168). We are carried to the next halting-place, Lambaka. Qyamaka,the young layman, the sole companion who remained with Mahakatyayana, receives from the people of the country an offer of the throne. A miracle, which is frequent in the texts, but unsuitable for representation on stone (the shade of the tree under which he stands remains stationary, in order to shelter him), has revealed to them the excellence of his merit.

22. (L., 170). We pass on to the third halting-place, Vokkana. Here Mahakatyayana leaves to her who in a former existence was his mother his beggar's staff, a fresh pretext for building a stupa. As in no. 20, we are present at the inauguration of the monument. At least, the continuation of the narrative accords with the introduction of this subject on the bas-reliefs in too striking a manner for the identification not to impose itself.

Better still: just as Leemans' nos. 166, 168 and 170 set before us religious feasts interrupted, thanks to a not excessive desire for variety, by a profane subject, so nos. 172, 174 and 176 intercalate a land scene between two maritime episodes. Now this intervening scene (L., 174) represents the entrance of a monk - notwithstanding the drawing of Wilsen, who lends him hair and jewels, it is indeed a monk - into the palisaded enclosure of a town, whilst a group of inhabitants approaches to give him welcome. Here again, with the text in our hands, it seems difficult not to recognize the return of Mahakatyayana to Cravasti.

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23. (L., 172). Landing of Him and foundation of Hiruka.

24. (L., 174). Return of Mahakatyayana to Cravasti.

25. (L., 176). Landing of Bhiru on the future site of Bhiruka or Bhirukaccha (1).

The double repetition of the scene of the stupa and of the ship will be noticed. We do not see any plausible explanation of it, unless we suppose that the sculptor, after having skipped more than one important incident in the history of Rudrayana, has been obliged, in order to fill up the space for decoration, to lengthen out the epilogue. In fact, we must not forget that the bas-reliefs, which were carved in situ and in the very stones whose juxtaposition constituted the monument, could be neither removed nor replaced. There is no absurdity, therefore, in supposing that the artist, on approaching the last angle before the northern staircase, perceived that he still had to fill five or six panels, of which he could not decently devote more than two to the Kinnara-jataka: he will then have rid himself from his embarrassment by a double repetition, which moreover was justified by the texts, while bringing right to their destination all the few persons who had escaped from Roruka, that is the goddess, Cyamaka, Mahakatyayana, and the two good ministers.

(1) Apparently it is Bharukaccha, the Barygaza of the Greeks and the present Bharoch, or Broach, which is meant.

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This strange combination of the bust of a man or a woman, with or without arms, grafted on to the body of a bird, is found almost everywhere. It fits as well into the corners of the pediments of the temple of Martand in Kashmir as into those of the metopes of the Parambanan temple in Java. It has continued to be especially frequent in the decorative and religious art of Siam.

(1) Gandhabbaputta they are called by st. 7 of Jdf. no. 481 (IV, p. 252, 1 x6).

(2) It is not that monsters of this kind are unknown to ancient Indian sculpture; but the woman with a horse's head, who, on a medallion of the balustrade of Bodh-Gaya. (Raj. mitra, Buddha-Gaya, pl. XXXIV, 2) and of that of the smaller stupa at Sanchi, is carrying away a man, is at the commencement of Jat. no. 432, which relates her history, simply called a yakkhini assamukhi.

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We consider ourselves none the less authorized by this inscription to consider the two numbers 178 and 180 as a replica of this same jataka : what other justification can be given for the edifying character of these scenes and for their introduction into the series? Certainly the subject is once again borrowed from one of the previous lives of the Master: the only question is exactly which « re-birth » is concerned. Here the two prolix pictures of Boro-Budur will be of assistance in determining retroactively the real identification of the bas-relief of Barhut, so poor in details.

It is here quite clear, for example, that the scene of the adventure is a rocky solitude : we must at once put aside a certain episode in the Takkdriya-jdtaka (no. 481), since it takes place in a royal court, where two Kinnaras, put in to a cage, refuse to display their talents. Moreover, we cannot fix upon the Candakinnara-jdtaka (no. 485), although that too has for scenery a piece of jungle: for our king is evidently not thinking of killing the male Kinnara, in order to get possession of the female.

(1) We brought back a photograph of it : the inscription is: Kinnarayugmayugma.

(2) Cunningham, Stupa of Barhut, p. 69 and pi. XXVII, 12 (cf. above, p. 53). Grunwedel, Buddhisfische Sfudien, p. 92, points out that the connection between the Kinnara-ja.ta.1ia. of Barhut and that of Boro-Budur has already been shown by Heer J.-W. IJzerman in the Bijdragen fat de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Ned. Ind., Vijfde Volgreeks, d. I, afl. 4, pp. 577-579. Since the above was written representations of Kinnaras have also been found on three paintings of Central Asia.

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(1) In other words, relying on the replica of Boro-Budur, \ve believe we may for the bas-relief of Barhut leave aside the identifications proposed by Cunningham (Joe. cit.) and Prof. Hultzsch (J.nd. Ant., XXI, 1892, p. 226) and advocate that of Mr. S. J. warren and of Dr. S. d'Oldenbcrg, who, besides, is right in believing it as not more demonstrable merely by the aid of the sole Indian document than the two others (loc. cit., p. 191).

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On the north-eastern corner these latter extend from Buddha's attainment of the Bodhi to his first preaching. Below, the legend of Maitrakanyaka is related to us between two others, of whose titles we are still ignorant. Our first care, therefore, must be to determine as exactly as possible where it commences and where it ends. The texts which have preserved it for us (2), and to which we are indebted for the explanation of the meaning of the bas-reliefs, agree in rendering the story in two symmetrical parts, separated by a turning-point. Maitrakanyaka, the orphan son of a ship-owner, follows at first various trades, in order to provide for the needs of his mother, to whom he successively offers gains increasing according to a geometrical progression of 4, 8, 16, and 32 karshapanas; but, as she wishes to prevent him from following his father's example and going to sea, he forgets himself so far as to kick her prostrate head.

(1) Cf. the already-quoted paper of Dr. S. d'Oldenburg, the Guide of Dr. J. Groneman, pp. 66-67, Speyer, Bijdragen tot de Tool-, Land- en Folken-kunde van Ned.-Indie, 1906, v Deel., and for the comparison with Burmese and Siamese images, Grunwedel, Buddh. Stud., p. 97.

(2) The Avadana-jataka (ed. speyer in Bibl. Buddhica, p. 193, and trans. peer in the Ann. du Musee Guimef) gives us, it seems, a canonical version of it, No. XXXVIII of the Divyavadana (ed. Cowell and Neil, p. 586) is already a literary rifacimento.

Further, let us quote Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata, no. 92, Bhadrakalpavadana, no. 28, and, for comparison, Jataka, nos. 41, 82, 104, 369, 439. A Chinese version has been re-translated by Beal, Romantic Legend, p, 342.

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I. (The drawing of L., no. 212, pi. CXXI, is almost entirely missing). Under a mandapa Maitrakanyaka, seated on the ground with his hands joined, is offering to his mother a purse, which he has just placed before her upon a tray adorned with flowers (pl. XLI, 2). The bystanders are numerous: behind the mother are seven women, standing or crouching; behind the son may be counted five of his companions. Quite at the left a house is seen in outline. We reproduce in plate XLI, 2 only the central group, which alone is of importance for the identification of the scene.

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2. (L., 214). An edifice cuts the panel into two distinct parts. On the right Maitrakanyaka is practising his last sedentary occupation, that of a goldsmith, as is proved by the small balance held by a woman, who may be either his mother or a simple customer. In the foreground a purse, bigger than that of the preceding picture, is doubtless supposed to contain the 32 karshapanas. The four legendary gifts would thus have been reduced by the sculptor to two. -- On the left, in fact, despite the poor state of the bas-relief, we see the mother of Maitrakanyaka vainly prostrated at his feet (pl. XLII, I). Wilsen had given her a moustache, which cut short all identification; and this explains why that of Dr. S. d'Oldenburg, based upon the lithographs, began only at the following picture, that of the wreck.

3. (L., 216). The supplications of his mother failed to restrain Maitrakanyaka; on the right we see the sad end of his sea-voyage, on the left his encounter with the four first nymphs. Here the sculptor seems to have been afraid neither of repeating himself nor of wearying the spectator by the sight of so many pretty women; for we perceive successively :

4. (L., 218). The encounter with the 8 nymphs;

5. (L., 220). The encounter with the 16 nymphs (in point of fact they are 11);

6. (L., 222). The encounterwith the 52 nymphs (14 in reality).

7. (L., 224). At last the mania for roaming has led Maitrakanyaka as far as a town of hell (pl. XLII, 2) : apparently he is gathering information from the terrible guardian of the place, whilst in the background we perceive, with a burning wheel upon its head, the condemned soul whose place, unwittingly, he has come to take.

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We must not forget, in fact, that he is the Bodhisattva in person. According to the texts, the wheel of fire has scarcely mounted upon his head, than he forms a vow to endure this terrible suffering for ever with a view to the salvation of humanity : whereupon he is immediately freed from all suffering. Does the left part of the panel forth-with represent this apotheosis? Or does the palisading which intersects the building, whUe at the same time determining the boundaries of the interior of the infernal town, serve as a framework for a new action? This it is almost impossible for us to decide, so long as we have not identified in their turn the eight panels of the following and final story.

Let us sum up : the principal wall of the first gallery of Boro-Budur is decorated with 240 bas-reliefs, arranged in two rows; all those of the upper row have already been identified by the help of the Lalita-vistara; thanks especially to the Divyavadana, the same may now be said of two thirds of those of the lower row. This recapitulation of the results obtained not only encourages us to hope for the fortunate completion of this enterprise in a relatively near future: it also allows us to discern the ways and means to the ultimate success, as well as the difficulties which we shall continue to encounter.

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Does this mean that it is sufficient to cast one's eyes upon exact reproductions, or even upon the originals, of these bas-reliefs, whose narrative aim is not doubtful, in order to understand their meaning? The preceding identifications prove clearly enough that it is also necessary to know beforehand the story which they would tell. And, doubtless, the blame for this belongs to some extent to the sculptors: still it would be well, before devolving upon them the burden of our ignorance, to have present to our minds the conditions under which they must have worked.

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(1) It is, of course, understood that we are here speaking from the point  of view of the identification of these bas-reliefs. All the less must -we forget that we are treating of images of piety, the more mindful the sculptors themselves were of this. Their evident decision to put aside all scenes of violence (bloody sacrifices, executions, murders, parricide, etc.) offered by their subjects, is justified, like their irreproachable chastity, by the desire to arouse in the mind of the faithful none but calm and collected, in one word, truly Buddhist impressions. This they have perfectly succeeded in doing, and we are rather in the wrong to reproach them for it. It is not entirely their fault if our western taste, corrupted by an excessive striving for expression and movement, is especially affected by the monotony of these series, whose edifying character remains to us a dead letter.

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But the chief and most evident fault of these bas-reliefs is the persistent incapacity of their authors, in spite of their manual skill, to create figures having a characteristic individuality. Assuredly, it would be unfair to regard it as a crime on the part of the artists of those distant isles not to have reached a pinnacle of art which remained unknown to the Indian school and to which Greek art itself attained only at its best period. But the fact is patent. They are capable of representing types, but not individuals. They possess a model of a king, which serves without distinction for gods, as does that of the queen for goddesses; a model of a monk, which, with the exception of the coiffure, is equally suitable for Buddhas; a model of a courtier, annchorite, a Brahman, a warrior, etc.

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This bookish character of the sculptures of Boro-Budur is from the philological point of view the most curious conclusion to which we are led by our rapid inquiry directed to the particular point of view of their identification. If these bas-reliefs cannot be understood except by a constant comparison with the texts, it is because they were composed after the texts and to serve as illustrations thereto.

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(1) Art greco-bouddhique du Gandhdra, vol. I, p. 617.

(2) Cf. Ed. Huber, B. E. F. E.-O., VI, 1906 and S. Levi, Toungpao, series II, vol. VIII, no. i; Beal, Romantic Legend, pp. 386-7.

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This agreement in the evidences deserves to be noticed. All taken into account, it does not impair the interest of our bas-reliefs. Assuredly, in spite of the talent of their authors, they were condemned beforehand to lack that indefinable spontaneity and animation which can be communicated to the work of the artist only by labour in communion with a still living oral tradition. The sculptors of Boro-Budur, in the effort to revive an inspiration at times languishing, have had to be content with dipping into foreign and already ancient texts: but, on the other hand, they have the merit of having supplied us with several series of illustrations for authentic fragments of the sacred scriptures of Buddhism, treated with a technical skill which would deserve to be studied in detail by those whose metier it is. If our conclusions run the risk of somewhat lessening the aesthetic value of their works, the documentary interest emerges, by way of compensation, considerably increased.

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Buddhist iconography in Java

Boro-Budur. - We shall not undertake a detailed review of the bas-reliefs deployed along the upper galleries of the stupa. We restrict ourselves to noticing that, as we mount, they assume a character more and more iconographic, less and less « narrative », and that the edifying story finally

(1) I-tsing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion, trans. Takakasu, p. 10. Lit. « there is almost only one ...».

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The sculptors weary so much the less of all these repetitions as each one of them represents so much progress in covering the considerable surface which it was their task to decorate. There would be no advantage in noting here and there in passing a few specially characteristic figures, such as, in the second gallery, some Avalokitecvaras with four or six arms, and a Manjucri carrying the Indian book (pustaka) on the blue lotus (utpala); or again, in the third gallery, a group composed of a Buddha between these same two Bodhisattvas, etc. The problem is much more vast, and demands a solution of very different amplitude.

It would be necessary to make a census of all these images and each of their varieties, to draw up an exact and complete table of them, and to study attentively their graphic distribution; then only, after having allowed for the necessities of decoration and having among this crowd of idols discerned the really essential types, we might attempt the identification of what for the artists of Java constituted the Buddhist pantheon. We must hope that some Dutch archaeologist will find time to undertake this delicate and extensive task; it is unnecessary to say that it is forbidden to a simple visitor.

(1) But see, supra, the identification of one of the bas-reliefs of the upper gallery, pp. 165-6 and pl. XXII (Great Miracle of Cravasti).

(2) Cf. Etude sur I'icongr. bouddhique de I'lnde, I, 1900, pp. 45-6.

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1. in the four first rows of niches (in the proportion of 92 to each facade), to the east, those in bhumisparsa-mudra (1);

2. at the south, those in vara-mudra;

3. at the west, those in dhydni-mudra;

4. at the north, those in abhiya-mudra;

5. in the fifth row of niches, on the four facades (viz. 64 altogether), those in vitarka-mudra;

6. in the 72 little open cupolas of the three circular terraces, those in dharmacakra-mudra;

7. the single image found under the great central cupola.

Whatever identification may be proposed, will, it is understood, have to take into account each of these varieties, without omission and without confusion. Therefore we cannot admit that of Humboldt (2), which confuses and mixes up nos. 4 and 5. If we must identify:

(1)  For the mudras or gestures of the hands, cf. ibid., p. 68,

(2) Cf. Leemans, loe. cit., p. 480.

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2. Ratnasambhava, by the gesture of giving,

3. Amitabha, by the gesture of meditation,

4. Amoghasiddha, by the gesture of protection, it is clear that in the last row of niches we must recognize,

5. the fifth Dhyani-Buddha, Vairocana, by the gesture of discussion, although the gesture of teaching is more usually reserved for him and although, on the other hand, the vitarka-mudra is scarcely distinguished from the abhaya-mudra by the fact that in it the index-finger is joined to the thumb. It follows likewise that with the five rows of niches belonging to the polygonal galleries we have, as was natural, exhausted the list of the five Dhyani-Buddhas.

6. The 72 images of the circular terraces would then all be consecrated to the historic Buddha, Sakya-muni, and would exhibit him teaching.

7. As for the purposely unfinished statue which was discovered under the great central cupola, it has been the subject of many hypotheses. Dr. Pleyte regards it as the last enigma of Boro-Budur : « The great Dagaba », he says (1), « was formerly without any opening; but at present one can have access right into the interior, part of the wall having been removed. The removal brought to light a hidden image of Buddha, which represents him seated in bhumisparfa-mudra. This image of Buddha is thus the centre of the sanctuary. By reason of its incomplete form it is considered by Groeneveldt to be a representation of the Adi-Buddha. This would be a manner of symbolizing the abstract essence of this supreme divinity of Mahayanism. Kern, on the contrary, recognizes in this unfinished figure an embryo Buddha : this would be an allusion to the Bodhisattva in the womb of his mother... »

(1) C. M. Pleyte, Die Buddialegende in den Skulpturen des Tempels van Boro-Budur, Amsterdam, 1901-2, p. ix. For the bibliography see ibid., notes on pages i-iii.

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Let us, then, make a tabula rasa of all this metaphysics and consider again, as briefly as possible, the essential elements of the question. Under the central dome of the stupa of Boro-Budur, at the spot where we should expect to find the usual deposit of relics, or at least the upper deposit - for it happens sometimes that there are along the perpendicular which joins the summit to the base several of them, one above the other - was discovered an image of Buddha, whose emplacement sufficed to prove its specially sacred character. Now this statue was intentionally left unfinished : « The hair, the ears, the hands and the feet are not completed », says Leemans; and further on he adds:

(1) Cf. Leemans, op. cit., pp. 486-7.

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If it were permissible to judge by the facility of the solution, the question would in this case be well put: at least, in order to answer, it is not necessary to push far our interrogation of the Indian tradition. The two most celebrated prototypes of the pretended portrait images of Buddha are that of Kaucambi (or Cravasti) and that of Mahabodhi, near to Gaya. The former is in this case out of the question. Concerning the second we possess two versions of an identical legend, the one reported by Hiuan-tsang, the other by Taranatha (2). Anxious before all to guarantee the authentic resemblance of the image, they naturally attribute its execution to a supernatural artist : on two points they seem none the less in harmony with historic truth. First of all, we learn from the texts, in the most formal manner, that the original work was regarded - rightly or wrongly, matters not - as not being finished, an accident which people were unanimous in explaining as due to an unfortunate interruption in the mysterious work of the divine sculptor.

(1) See the discussion, loc. cit., pp. 484-6.

(2) See, for the first, the translation of Stan. Julien, II, pp. 465 sqq., or of S. Beal, II, pp. 120 sqq.; and, for the second, the translation of Schiefner, p. 20.

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In short, the image of « Vajrasana of Mahabodhi », to use the term under which it was known, made the gesture of bhumispara, and was, or - which for us comes to the same thing - passed for being, incomplete.

We leave to experts the task of concluding. To us this double rapprochement appears sufficiently precise to allow of our putting forward the idea that the central Buddha of Boro-Budur, incomplete and in bhumisparsa-mudra, is, or at least intends to be, nothing but a replica of the statue of Bodh-Gaya. In addition to its simplicity, the hypothesis has also this great advantage, that it frees us from the necessity of attributing exceptionally to the artists of Java, always so respectful towards Indian tradition, the creation of a new model which India would not have known. Finally, if it does away with one difficulty, in our opinion a considerable one, we do not think that it raises another in its place.

(1) The references are to be found in our Etude sur T Iconograpliw bouddhique de I'lnde, I, pp. 90-94.

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Such, at least, is the hypothesis which we could nothelp long ago (2) submitting to Indianists, with all the respect inspired by the experience of our predecessors and the reservations imposed by the necessity, in which we still were, of trusting to the descriptions of others. At the time of our visit to Boro-Budur we found nothing to add concerning this statue, inasmuch as it was still in the same state in which Dr. Pleyte had seen it, once again covered up to the neck and left in a state of abandonment very unworthy of all the ink which it had caused to flow. Thus we were obliged to restrict ourselves to reiterating the wish that it might once again be cleared and more closely studied. If we have returned in some detail to this subject, it is because in the interval this wish has been fulfilled, and because the kindness of Major Van Erp allows us to produce at last a photograph of this famous idol (pl. XLIII, l).

(1) Cf. Ed. Chavannes, Les Inscriptions cMmises de Bodh-Gaya in Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. XXXIV, i, 1896.

(2) B. E. F. E.-O., HI, 1903, pp. 78-80, -whence these pages are taken.

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The Chandi Mendut. - It would be a task more within our reach to identify, by way of a specimen, the images which decorate the Chandi Mendut. This edifice, placed in the axis of the oriental gate of, and at three kilometres from, Boro-Budur, consists, in fact, of a cdia only, with a vestibule in front. The whole is, according to the Javanese custom, perched on a terrace in the same manner as are the Brahmanic temples of Parambanam. In Buddhist terminology it is what is properly called a vihara (1). Naturally it shelters statues, and the walls of its entrance vestibule, like the exterior faces of the building, are decorated with figures whose purely Buddhist character may be recognized at once by anyone who is a little familiar with the Indian iconography of this religion. The building, fairly well preserved, except in the upper parts, has been the object of a restoration the architectural details of which we shall not undertake to discuss.

(1) We know that the meaning ofthis term (temple of divinity or monk's cell) has been unduly extended by European archaeologists to the whole of the monastery (Cf. Art g.-b. du Gandhara, p. 99). -We deliberately leave aside the other Buddhist edifices which we likewise visited in the neighbourhood of Jogyakarta under the guidance of Dr. J. Groneman, and on which we may consult his guide, entitled Boeddhistische Tempel-en Klooster- Bouwvallen in de Parambanan-Flakte, Soerabaia, 1907.

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The central statue, about m. 2,50 high, cut out of an enormous block of andesite, represents a Buddha seated in the European manner, the hands joined in the gesture of teaching. Not only the Asana and the mudrd, but even the details of the hair, the lotus-stool, the throne with a back, etc., recall in a striking manner the images found at Sarnath, in the northern suburb of Benares, on the traditional site of the master's first preaching (cf. Icon. bouddh., I, fig. 10). Besides, to cut short all discussion, the lower band of the pedestal is still stamped with a « wheel of the law », accompanied by the two characteristic antelopes ot the Mrigadava.

(1) Cf. B. E. F. E.-O., IX, 1909, p. 831.

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The walls of the vestibule bear on the right and left, in panels of about m. 1,90 x m. i, figures of the genius of wealth and his wife Hariti, which have already been published by Dr. J. Ph. Vogel (1). We shall not insist further upon them. Of the principal facade of the temple - exceptionally oriented towards the north-west instead of to the east - only the wall to the left of the entrance is preserved; it bears a standing Bodhisattva, holding a lotus surmounted by a stupa: it seems that we must by this sign recognize Maitreya (cf. ibid., pp. 112-3).

If we now commence on the terrace the pradakshina of the monument, we come first to the north-eastern facade. In the middle of the central panel, framed by pilasters bearing atlantes in their capitals, we see, seated on a throne covered with a lotus and under a stereotyped tree, a feminine divinity with eight arms.

(1) B. E. F. E.-O., IV (1904), pp. 727-730 : cf. above, p. 141 and below, pl. XLVIII, 2.

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On the next facade the central figure is an Avalokitecvara with four arms (ibid., I, p. 104, etc.). One of its right arms, which is broken, must have been lowered in the gesture of giving, whilst the other holds up a rosary. A pink lotus and a book adorn the left hands; the flagon of ambrosia rests upon another lotus on the same side. Two feminine attendants, doubtless forms of Tara, worship him. In the Bodhisattvas figured on the two lateral panels the thunderbolt with which both are armed proclaims Vajrapani.

The principal figure of the south-western, and last, facade is again feminine (pl. XLIV). She is seated in the Indian manner upon a lotus supported by two nagas. The two attributes of the upper pair of hands, on the right the rosary and on the left the book, should indicate the Prajna-paramita with four arms (ibid., pl. IX, 3 and 4). But in that case the normal hands should make the gesture of teaching, instead of that of meditation. Similarly, if she were a four-armed Tara, the first right hand should make the gesture of charity (ibid., II, p. 65).

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To sum up: in the personages who decorate the,, exterior of the three unpierced faces of the temple of Mendut we propose at first sight to recognize, in the middle, two images of Cunda with four and eight arms, and one of Avalokitecvara with four arms; on the sides, two replicas each of Maitreya, Vajrapani and Mafijucri : all being important figures of the Buddhist pantheon. But, naturally, this preliminary review would have to be severely tested.

It would be necessary, in particular, to examine these bas-reliefs more closely with the help of ladders or a hanging stage, so that no detail could escape; and, this minute labour accomplished, it would still be necessary to verify by comparison with other Buddhist statues of Javanese origin whether there is not occasion to modify in some measure, for local reasons, the Indian attribution of these images. At that cost only could these too rapid identifications become reasonably certain.

The Museum of Batavia. - We have just spoken of a kind of general confrontation of the Buddhist statues of Java. The material would not be lacking, in spite of the relatively restricted number of Buddhist monuments in the island. Many of them have already been brought together, both in a building near to the residency of Jogyakarta and in the museum of the Asiatic Society of Batavia.

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There is one at which it is perhaps worth while to stop for a moment, because of the- rarety of the type in India and the success which it has had in the Far East. We have already had to occupy ourselves with the sole example preserved by chance at Bodh-Gaya. Now Dr. Pleyte - and we apologize for not having known this reference at the time - had for his part published three Javanese replicas (3), one of which is now in London, another at Leiden, and the third at Batavia (pl. XLIII, 2).

(1) Several of these statues have already been published by the late J. L. A. Brandes, Bescbrifving van de ruine... Tjandi Djago, The Hague and Batavia, 1904.

(2) For access to this collection we are indebted to the kindness of Dr. C. M. Pleyte, who was so good as to take the trouble of opening the glass-cases for us.

(3) Cf. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- m Volkenkunde van Ned.-Ind., Zesde Volgreeks, Tiende Deel, afl. i and 2, pp. 195-202, and our Et. sur I'lcon. bouddh. de I'lnde, II, 1905, fig, 4.

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(1) A. Schiefner, Fine tibetisc'he Lebenslieschreibung Cakyamuni's, p. 244.

(2) Cf, J. Hoffman, Pantheon van Nippon (vol. V. of the Beschreibung van Japan of Von Siebold), p. 75 and pi. XIX, fig. 164; and Si-do-in-dzou (Ann. du Musee Guimet, Bibl. d'etudes, vol. VIII, Paris, 1899), pp. 100- 101 and pl. XII.

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[Note additional to note I on p. 214 : Upon reperusing M. August Barth's Bulletins des Religions de L'Inde (Rev. de L'Hist. des Religions, t. XLV, 1902, p. 354 n. i, or vol. II, p. 442 n. i, of the edition of his OEuvres) we see that the identification suggested above for the bas-relief no. 14 of Dr. Pleyte's publication has been already proposed by him. He -works out in full the same interpretation : « That the maternal womb, the scene of the central incident, has been omitted, is entirely in conformity with the conventions of this art... » We are doubly fortunate in finding ourselves ex post facto at one with him and in rendering to him the priority as regards the identification.]