History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c33.s18: Dieng Plateau.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c33.s18

Language: English

Dieng Plateau.

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About 35 miles to the north of Boro-Budur is a group of temples on the tableland at the foot of Mount Prahu. They consist only of simple sanctuaries and are not remarkable for the beauty of their details when compared with those of the buildings we have just been describing: but they are interesting to the Indian antiquary, because they are Indian temples pure and simple and dedicated to Indian gods. So far, we feel at home again; but what these temples tell us further is, that if Jâva got her Buddhism from Gujarât and the mouths of the Indus, she got her Hindûism from Telingana and the mouths of the Krishnâ. These Dieng temples do not show a trace of the curved-lined sikharas of Orissa or of the Indo-Aryan style. Had the Hindûs gone to Jâva from the valley of the Ganges, it is almost impossible they should not have carried with them some examples of this favourite form. It is found in Burma and Siam, but no trace of it is found anywhere in Jâva.

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Nor are these temples Dravidian in any proper sense of the word. They are in storeys, but not with cells, nor any reminiscences of such; but they are Chalukyan, in a clear and direct meaning of the term. The building most like these Javan temples illustrated in the preceding pages is that at Buchhanapalli (Woodcut No. 254), which might pass without remark in Jâva if deprived of its peristylar portico. It, however, An empty page (blank page).

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like all the Chalukyan Temples we know of in India, especially in the Nizam's territory, is subsequent to the 10th, most of them belonging to the 13th century.

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The most important and best preserved of these Dieng Plateau temples is the Chandi Bhîma in Plate XLIX. It is square on plan, with a projecting porch on the west side, and is surmounted by a series of five storeys, each set back so as to constitute a pyramidal roof, which is in accord with the interior construction, consisting of horizontal courses of stone corbelled out each in front of the course below till they meet at the top. It might be noted here, that decoration of the storeys as they rise diminishes in scale so as to increase the apparent height. The summit was probably covered with the lotus plant, of which examples are shown in bas-relief sculptures.

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482. Plan and Section of Temple of Chandi Bhîma.

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On each of the storeys are sunken niches with figures of Buddha in them,¹ three niches on each side of the two lower storeys, one niche in each centre above and at the angles of the third storey, and a lotus finial, probably a small replica of the crowning feature of the temple.

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¹ Van le Coq, found at Turfan, in Chinese Turkestan, an example of a temple of precisely similar design, but built in brick — there also were five storeys each *in situ* with niches which had once contained figures of Buddha.

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What is most remarkable in this temple of Bhîma is its classic character. The ogee mouldings and their decoration, the corbel bed-mould of the principal cornice and the swags underneath and the egg and tongue mouldings round the niches, are all direct transcripts from classic sources, such as those of Gandhâra. That which, however, is not in accordance with classic design is the cutting of the doorway through the mouldings of the podium; this in a more recent example, the Chandi Arjuna (Plate L.), is avoided, the doorway being reached by a short flight of steps below, and curved stone rails terminated with rising Nâga heads.

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It is a remarkable fact that in the temples of Jâva there is not a single example of a pier or column. When we think of the thousands that were employed by the Dravidians in the south of India, and the Jains in the north-west, it is curious they escaped being introduced here. The early style of Orissa, as mentioned above, is nearly astylar; but in the Jâva temple this is absolutely so, and, so far as I know, is the only important style in the world of which this can be predicated. What is not so curious, but is also interesting, is, that there is not a true arch in the whole island. In the previous pages, the Hindû horror of an arch has often been alluded to; but then they frequently got out of the difficulty by the use of wood or iron. These materials, however, do not seem to have been used in any Javanese temple, though the wooden origin of many of the decorative features can clearly be traced in them. Thus the pilaster strips which flank the doorways and the dwarf pilasters dividing the sculptured panels of the temple podium or platform are all enriched with boldly moulded capitals, bases, and central bands, evidently derived from wooden piers or columns. The bas-reliefs also at Boro-Budur (Plate LI.) and elsewhere abound in representations of pagodas and small houses, in which both the pier and column are clearly shown carrying wooden superstructures, and in some cases an upper storey with timber roof, carried aloft on a series of moulded piers or columns. Although, therefore, in the temples of Jâva all the architecture is in stone the decorative features are largely derived from secular buildings in timber.

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It may also be mentioned here, while describing the negative characteristics of Javan art, that no mortar is ever used as a cement in these temples. It is not that they were ignorant of the use of lime, for many of their buildings are plastered and painted on the plaster, but it was never employed to give strength to construction. It is owing to this that so many of their buildings are in so ruinous a state. In an island where CHANDI ARJUNA.