Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c46.40

c46.40

[Figure: JAVA STUPA OF BOROBUDUR c.800 A.D. SMALL ATTACHED STUPA PILASTER GATEWAY ELEVATION SECTION PLAN SCALE OF 50 0 50 100 150 200 250 FEET to rise to any great heights in the creation of examples of serious architecture, their buildings, chiefly local shrines, although valuable ethnologically, have no special significance except as objects of worship and in their decorative aspect. A few instances of rock-architecture are to be found in Bali including an ancient monastery known as the Goenoeng Kawi near Tampak-sering, and another in the vicinity of the pilgrim shrines of Poera Wato Kaoe in the Tabanan section. At the former a series of cells have been excavated in the rock containing rudely shaped altars hewn out of rock slabs, and there are also niches in the walls believed to have a royal funerary origin, the whole presumed to date as late as the eleventh century. Also in the Tabanan area at Bedhulu there is an "Elephant Cave", the Goa Gadjah, consisting of a rock carved in the semblance of a giant elephant's head with an opening under its trunk leading to a dark cell, in some respects recalling the "Tiger Cave" (c. 150 B.C.) at Udaigiri, Orissa, India. Mention should be made of a hunting scene of some spirit carved in rock relief, and known as Tojo Poela also near Bedhulu. Such attempts in the rock technique are however relatively unimportant except that they may support the theory of an early and direct contact with India.