Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c46.33

c46.33

Resuming the account of the course of the Hindu-Javanese mode in the island, the end of this movement approached with the close of the Majapahit power in the fifteenth century, which coincided with the introduction of Islamism, and with it the great classical school of Javanese art terminated. From this time the people took on a new orientation, and although buildings of an Islamic order, such as mosques, are to be found in several of the towns, showing occasionally some slight evidence of a revival of the ancient and mediaeval forms, the minarets and mihrabs with which these are provided proclaim the dominance of other ideals. Such are a mosque at Kudus, and another at Sendang-duwar. Later, towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Dutch occupation brought with it the influence of the European style of building. As an example of the transition from the indigenous to the alien and more modern is a palace or water-castle, the Taman Sari at Jokjakarta, described as an oriental Trianon, and erected in the middle for the eighteenth century for the Sultan Mangku Buwono Designed by a Portuguese, it is a synthesis of eastern and western elements, but is now a picturesque ruin so that its parts are almost unidentifiable A further Portuguese connection with the country is shown by a church at Batavia, containing a handsome pulpit typical of the style. Buildings of a Dutch character however predominate, of which the Government Record Office in Batavia is a copy of the old type found in the Low Countries ; others such as the Amsterdam Gate and the Palace of the Governor-General, also in Batavia, are of the more recent order.