South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c9.58

c9.58

that the style of the architecture of many of the temples of Java suggests kinship with the Pallava architecture at Kanchi and Mamallapuram. The earliest record of Saivaite worship in Java is found in the Sanskrit inscription of the Saka year 654 (A.D. 732) which attests the erection of a lingam by King Srinjaya, the son of Sannaha who calls himself ruler of the Isle of Java. The image in question may be assigned to the earliest period of Saivaite activity under the Pallavas which can be roughly dated at about the sixth century A.D. We reproduce here for the purpose of comparison two bronze images found in Java, one representing Siva (Figure 15) and the other Vishnu (Figure 16). The latter figure in the treatment of the dress and the decorations, festoons, and ornaments certainly suggests analogies with the South Indian School of Sculptures. The figure of Siva except in the manner of its head-dress (jata mukuta) and the symbol of the bull at the foot of the pedestal, affords very little similarity with the South Indian type and probably represents a local Javanese style based originally on the prototypes introduced from India such as the image of Siva and Parvati referred to above (Plate II). That the practice of representing the Vahana of an image by a miniature effigy of the same at the foot of the pedestal was a peculiarity of a group of South Indian Sculpture will be apparent from the bronze figure of Ganesa (South India) in the collection of the Museé Guimet (vide Petit Guide, 1910, page 70).