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The Candi Mendut

by Alfred Foucher

Originally published in Journal Asiatique, Jan.- Feb. 1909.

It would be a task more within our reach to identify, by way of a specimen, the images which decorate the Candi Mendut. This edifice, placed in the axis of the oriental gate of, and at three kilometers from, Borobudur, consists, in fact, of a cella 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 Prambanan. 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. The three enormous statues of the cella have been replaced on their pedestals.² They are characterized by a curious detail. Whereas at Borobudur, and even on the walls of the Chandi Mendut, the nimbuses of the divine personages retain, as in Southern India, the simply oval form, those of the three figures rise to a point, like the leaf of the Bodhi-tree, in the Sino-Japanese fashion. It would be interesting to date as exactly as possible the appearance of this form in Java. It would, in fact, mark with sufficient certainty the moment when the two great currents of artistic influence, which, diverging from their common Indian source, had followed respectively the land routes through Central Asia and the sea route south-eastwards, met again in the island and there, so to speak, closed their circuit.

The central statue, about 2.50 m 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 mudra, 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. Besides, to cut short all discussion, the lower band of the pedestal is still stamped with a “Wheel of the Law” that is accompanied by the two characteristic antelopes of the Mrgadava.

On each side of the teaching Shakyamuni, on a throne having a back likewise adorned with superposed animals, a Bodhisattva is seated in lalitakshpa, the left leg bent back, the right foot hanging down and resting on a lotus. At the right of Buddha Avalokiteshvara may at once be recognized, thanks to the effigy of Amitabha which he bears in his headdress. As usual, his right hand makes the gesture of charity; his left is folded back in the position of discussion, but without at the same time holding a lotus. His counterpart, with the palm of his left hand leaning on the ground and the right hand turned back in front of his chest, does not present any particular mark allowing us to determine his identity. It is solely the traditional force of custom which compels us to attribute to him the name of Mañjushri: the more so as, after having despoiled these two acolytes of every characteristic attribute, the sculptor must have relied upon their simple presence by the side of Buddha for a means of recognition.

The walls of the vestibule bear on the right and left, in panels of about 1.90 m wide the figures of the genius of wealth and his wife Hariti, which have already been published by Dr. J. Ph. Vogel. ³ We shall not insist further upon them. Of the principal facade of the temple ? exceptionally oriented towards the northwest 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.  

If we now commence on the terrace the pradakshina of the monument, we come first to the northeastern 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. Unfortunately the head is broken; but it seems, in fact, that it had only one face; and this suffices to put aside the identification with the Vajra-Tara with four faces in favor of Cunda. Her right arms do hold the shell, the thunderbolt, the disc, and the rosary. Of her left arms, the first from the top is broken; the three others carry an elephant's hook, an arrow, and some object which we could not distinguish. On either side stands a Bodhisattva holding a fly flap: the one on the right has further the pink lotus of Avalokiteshvara, the one on the left the blue lotus of Mañjushri. Finally, on the two lateral panels, the same standing bodhisattva; his right hand in the vara-mudra bears a flower quite analogous to the nagapushpa emblem of Maitreya.

On the next facade the central figure is an Avalokiteshvara with four arms. One of the right arms is broken but 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 southwestern, and last, facade is again feminine (see Pl. XLIV below).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. 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. The symbols and the attitudes combine, therefore, to indicate a second representation of the goddess Cunda, the form with four arms. The two Bodhisattvas, her attendants, reproduce exactly those of her counterpart on the opposite facade, With regards to the lateral panels they carry on blue lotuses a sword and a book respectively: we must, therefore, see in them two replicas of the same Mañjushri, of whom these are the two traditional emblems.

Plate XLIV: Photograph by Major Van Erp. On the plinth stretches the top of a palisade of large wooden stakes joined by a thin crossbar. Behind are seen the waves of a lotus pond, in which are supposed to grow the lotuses which support the three principal persons. Two Nagas, recognizable by their serpent head-dresses, hold up the stem of the central lotus, and thus recall those of the Great Miracle at Cravasti. The stereotyped trees attest a remarkable feeling for ornament. At the foot of the two lateral ones are placed treasure-vases. The central tree, surmounted by a parasol, is further embellished with birds and hanging bells, and, conformably to tradition, is flanked by adoring divinities, here enframed in finely chiselled folds of cloud. The iconographic motif, carved in position, thus extends over the whole wall of the temple.

To sum up: in the personages who decorate the exterior of the three uninterrupted faces of the Mendut temple of we propose at first sight to recognize, in the middle, two images of Cunda with four and eight arms, and one of Avalokiteshvara with four arms; on the sides, two replicas each of Maitreya, Vajrapani and Mañjushri: 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 labor 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.

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 Yogyakarta and in the museum of the Asiatic Society of Batavia. Of the first collection a catalogue has been published by Dr. Groneman. The most interesting objects to be mentioned in the second are some inscribed images of the Dhyani-Buddhas Akshobhya and Ratnasambhava, of the shakti Locana, of Tara in the form of Bhrkuti, of Hayagriva, etc. Every one will appreciate the interest of these names, ⁴ taken at hazard from our notes on the lapidary museum. We must likewise mention as belonging to the museum of the capital a considerable collection of small figures of more or less precious metals (gold, silver, or bronze), which are for the most part already classed. ⁵ Let us cite among others some very artistic statuettes of Avalokiteshvara, Vajrasattva, Kubera, Tara, Marici, etc. All have this in common, that they are remarkably faithful to their Indian models.

There is one at which it is perhaps worth while to stop for a moment, because of the rarity 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, ⁶ one of which is now in London, another at Leiden, and the third at Batavia. He had likewise the merit of discovering in Schiefner ⁷ a legend which explained the bellicose pose of this divinity, whose left foot treads upon the face of a man, and his right upon the bosom of a woman. This would be a mode of deciding, with no possible equivocation, the question of the supremacy of a simple Buddhist “guardian of the law” over the great god of the Brahmans. Shiva had the imprudence to refuse obedience to Vajrapani under the pretence that the latter was only a yaksha. Contemplate for your own education the punishment of his crime. We in our turn may note that on this point the descriptions of the siddhanas, or magic charms, confirm the Tibetan tradition by likewise giving to the persons overthrown the names of Maheshvara and his wife Gauri : while for the genius, instead of making of him simply a furious transformation of Vajrapani, they use the more precise appellation of Trailokyavijaya. Let us add that this last reappears among the divinities of the Japanese pantheon under the vulgar designation of Gosanze. His pose has not changed, nor his double, living pedestal; and, if he has no longer more than one pair of arms. His hands, at least, continue to execute the vajrahumkara-mudra characteristic of his anger and common to all his representations. ⁸ On the Javanese statuette we find again the four visages which the Sanskrit manuscripts and the stele of Magadha ascribe to him, and even the eight attributes (sword, disc, arrow and bell, thunderbolt, elephant's goad, lasso and bow) which they agree in placing in his eight hands.

Any special inquiry would lead us, we believe, to this double conclusion : on the one hand, the close filiation of the Javanese Buddhist images in relation to their lndian prototypes, and, on the other hand, their more or less distant kinship with the Tibetan, Chinese, or Japanese idols, derived from the same origin. If no profound divergence from the composition or style of the common models seems to guarantee to this province of Buddhist iconography any great originality, its interest, on the other hand, promises to extend far beyond the local horizon. It is important for the general advancement of Asiatic studies that it should at last form as a whole the subject of some publication. Not only would the harvest be abundant, but we have carried away the impression that it is ripe and ready to be gathered. It is much to be desired that the enlightened government of the rich colony should provide some Dutch savant with the necessary leisure.

FOOTNOTES

(1) We know that the meaning of this 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 neighborhood of Yogyakarta under the guidance of Dr. J. Groneman, and on which we may consult his guide, entitled Boeddhistische Tempelen Klooster-Bouwvallen in de Parambanan-Flakte, Surabaya, 1907.

(2) Cf. B. L. F. E. O., IX, 1909, p. 831.

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

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

(5) 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.

(6) Cf. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- m Volkenkunde van Ned.-Ind., Zesde Volgreeks, Tiende Deel, afl. 1 and 2, pp. 195-202, and our Et. Sur I'lcon. Bouddh. de I'lnde, II, 1905, Fig. 4.

(7) A. Schiefner, Fine Tibetische Lebenslieschreibung Shakyamunis, p. 244.

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