A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s7: Section VIII. Java
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s7
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Section VIII. Java
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The extensive and long-continued emigration from India to the Far East—including Pegu, Siam, and Cambodia on the mainland, with Java, Sumatra, Bali, and Borneo among the islands of the Malay Archipelago—and the consequent establishment of Indian institutions and art in the countries named, constitute one of the darkest mysteries of history.¹
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¹ The Hinduized Javanese founded considerable colonies in Madagascar during the early centuries of the Christian era (*Journal Asiatique*, 1910, p. 330).
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The reality of the debt due to India by those distant lands is attested abundantly by material remains, by the existence to this day of both the Buddhist and Brahmanical religions in the island of Bali to the east of Java, by Chinese history, and by numerous traditions preserved in India, Pegu, Siam, and the Archipelago. But when the attempt is made to transmute vague, conflicting traditions and imperfectly known archaeological facts into orderly history the difficulties in the way of success appear to be largely insurmountable. In this place it is, of course, impossible to probe deeply the mystery referred to. The critical investigation of the subject, even if confined to Indian colonization and its consequences in the Malay Archipelago alone, would require a large book. But, in order to render at all intelligible the fact of the existence of magnificent achievements of Indian art in Java, to which island the summary observations in this work will be confined, some attempt, however imperfect, at historical explanation is indispensable. In Java the forms of art to which a few pages will be devoted are thoroughly Indian in subject and style, of high aesthetic quality, and sufficiently dated to permit of their correlation with the art of India. The less purely Indian and less meritorious ramifications of Hindu art in the other countries of the Far East must be left unnoticed.
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It is certain that during the early centuries of the Christian era India possessed an active and enterprising seafaring population on both coasts—that of the Bay of Bengal on the east, and that of the Arabian Sea on the west; and it is highly probable that from the first to the eighth century emigration to the Malay Archipelago continued to proceed from both sides of India. If Javanese tradition may be believed, a large body of Indian emigrants led by Aji Saka landed in the island from the east of India in the year 1 of the local era, equivalent to A.D. 75 or A.D. 78 according to various computations, but the details of the story are obviously open to sceptical criticism.
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The observation of Fa-hien, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who visited Java in A.D. 414, and found 'plenty of heretics and Brahmans, but not enough Buddhism to be worth mentioning',² is excellent evidence that a strong Indian colony professing the Brahmanical religion must have been then already settled in the island for a long time. The statement made in a late Chinese work that an Indian colony arrived in Java during the reign of the Han emperor, Kwang Wu-ti (\textsc{a. d.} 25–57), is credible, although the authority on which it is based has not been found.¹ From the testimony of Fa-hien and other indications there is no doubt that Brahmanical Hinduism reached Java long before Buddhism. According to the Chinese *History of the Sung Dynasty*, the conversion of the island to Buddhism was effected by Gunavarman, Crown Prince of Kashmīr, who had renounced his rank in order to become a monk. He then joined a monastery in China and died at Nanking in \textsc{a. d.} 431. This statement dates the conversion immediately after Fa-hien's visit.²
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² *Travels*, chap. xl, in Giles's version. The other versions (Laidlay, Beal, Legge) agree substantially with Giles. Fa-hien's statement is corroborated by certain nearly contemporary inscriptions in Java and at Koetei in Borneo (Kern, ‘Gedenkteekenen der oude indische beschaving in Kambodja,’ *Onze Eeuw*, Jan. 4, 1904, p. 46).
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¹ *The Pilgrimage of Fa Hian* (Calcutta, 1848), p. 363, Laidlay's translation of Klaproth's note.
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² de Beylié, *L'Architecture hindoue en Extrême-Orient*, p. 335; Pelliot, *Bull. E. F. E. O.*, iv. 274.
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Javanese writers, supported to some extent by local traditions of Gujarāt and Southern Mārwār in Rājputāna, affirm that in the year \textsc{a. d.} 603 a numerous body of colonists sailed from Western India to Java.³ The Siamese annals record that in the year \textsc{a.d.} 685 (= 607 of Mahā, or Saka era)
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³ A. M. Jackson in *Bombay Gazetteer* (1896), vol. i, Part I, App.
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‘great political disturbances occurred all over India, and the inhabitants, finding it impossible to make a living, were forced in large numbers to leave their home and country and settle among other nations. . . . At that time four tribes of Brahmans, consisting of a considerable number of persons, made their way eastward from “Wanilara” to Burma, Pegu, then independent, the Laos States, Siam, and Cambodia.’⁴
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⁴ A. Steffen, art. No. 125, *Man*, 1902. ‘Wanilara’ has not been identified. *Quaere* does *lara* = Lāṭa = Gūjarāt? ‘Wanilara’ might be Wano (Valabhī, Wālā) in Lāṭa.
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Traditional dates like those cited notoriously require to be treated with caution, but in this case both the dates in the seventh century happen to be credible, as marking times of ascertained political disturbance in India. The earlier date, \textsc{a. d.} 603, which falls within the period of anarchy and strife due to the Hun invasions, precedes by a few years the consolidation of the empires founded by Harsha in the north and by Pulakesin II Chalukya in the Deccan. The later date, \textsc{a.d.} 685, approximately coincides with the fall of Valabhī, which is believed to have been destroyed about that time by the Arabs then settled in Sind.⁵ The Chinese statement in the *History of the Sung Dynasty* dating the conversion of the island between \textsc{a.d.} 414 and 431 is the most trustworthy of all, though of course the assertion that the whole population was converted cannot be accepted. As in India, Brahmanical Hinduism continued to exist side by side with Buddhism. The earliest known dated Indo-Javanese inscription is said to be one of the year \textsc{a.d.} 732.⁶ We are, therefore, justified in believing that the ancient Indian Brahmanical colonies in Java received strong reinforcements from the mother-country during the fifth, seventh, and eighth centuries. Considering that all, or nearly all, the Buddhist remains in the island are later than the middle of the eighth century, we may further infer that the new-comers were largely Buddhist in religion, and included many skilled craftsmen. The most ancient objects in the island possessing value as works of art are Buddhist. The late Dr. Brandes, who had a good right to express an authoritative opinion, held that the buildings at Boro-Būdūr, with their incomparable sculptures, should be dated between a.d. 778 and 928 (= 700–850 Saka). According to M. Tissandier the Kali Bening and Sari temples at Prambānam (Brambanam) were begun in a.d. 779.¹
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⁵ *A. S. W. I.*, vi. 3; ix. 4.
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⁶ According to the late Dr. Brandes quoted by Mr. Sewell (*J. R. A. S.*, 1906, p. 421). Earlier Indian inscriptions not bearing precise dates exist from the fifth century. In Cambodia the earliest recorded Indian ruler, Śrutavarman or Kauṇḍinya, lived in the middle of the fifth century. In the following age Bhavavarman founded many temples in honour of Indian deities, especially Śiva, at which daily readings of the epics and *Purāṇas* were held Indian influence was at its height in Cambodia in the sixth century (Kern, *op. cit.*, p. 47).
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¹ *Cambodge et Java*, Paris, 1896, p. 126.
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Other Indo-Javanese works, however, are much later, the Chandi Sewa temple, for example, being assigned to a. d. 1098. The Hindu kingdom of Majapāhit in Eastern Java was overthrown by the Muhammadans in a.d. 1478, when the persecuted Hindus fled to Bali, where their descendants still practise Brahmanical rites, including *satī* (suttee) in its most appalling form, while another section of the population is Buddhist.²
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² The dates are those given by M. Tissandier.
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From these facts it follows that the whole history of Indo-Javanese Buddhist art must lie between a.d. 420 and 1478, a period of more than a thousand years. The finest works may be assigned to the ninth century.³
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³ The distinctly Brahmanical art is much inferior in quality to the best Buddhist.
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In Java, as elsewhere, the late Mahāyānist Buddhism so closely approximated to Hinduism, that sculptures which at first sight appear to be purely Brahmanical may be really Buddhist. ‘Brambanam and Chandi Sewa,’ Mr. Sewell observes, ‘are to all external appearances purely Brahmanical, though we learn on examination that Brahmā, Vishnu, and Siva were there held to be Bodhisattvas and not gods. And this is the case everywhere in Eastern Java, the temples being mostly Hindu in type (though always with a difference), and having statues adapted generally from Brahmanical originals.’
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The best known monument in the island is the vast pyramidal pile of Boro-Būdūr, ‘a hill in nine stages,’ combining the character of a *stūpa* or *dāgaba* with that of a temple. As an architectural composition the building, more than 400 feet square at the base, is of small account. Its importance in the history of art depends upon the immense series of about 2,000 bas-reliefs adorning the galleries, which, if laid end to end, would extend more than two miles.⁴ The best reliefs are the panels of the so-called ‘second gallery’, exceeding two hundred in number, which are arranged in two series. The upper series presents in easily recognizable stone pictures the life of Buddha, as told in the ancient Sanskrit work the *Lalita Vistara*. The scenes of the lower series, artistically of equal merit, resisted interpretation until lately, but have now been proved to be illustrations of the *Divyāvadāna* and other Buddhist romances, including some of the *Jātakas*, or stories of the former lives of Buddha. About two-thirds of the 120 panels in that series have now been identified, and in time the balance probably will yield their secrets. The intention of the designer of the monument was that the worshipper, while making his ritual perambulation (*pradakshiṇa*) of the building, should be instructed ocularly in the whole doctrine of Buddhism, according to the system of the *Mahāyāna*, or ‘Great Vehicle’.¹
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⁴ Some 1,600 out of the 2,000 still exist.
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¹ The name Boro-Būdūr means ‘the many Buddhas’ (cf. Sanskrit, *Bṛihad-devatā*). The older books give erroneous interpretations. The building, although apparently a staged pyramid, is really constructed on the plan of a circular *stūpa*, all the angles being inscribed in circles. The so-called ‘second gallery’, designed to be the first, became the second when the original plinth was encased in a structure of later masonry. The literary works illustrated by the reliefs all belong to the *Mūla-Sarvāstivādin* school of Buddhism, to which the seventh-century pilgrim I-tsing adhered (Foucher, ‘Notes d’archéologie bouddhique,’ *B. E. F. E. O.*, Janv.–Mars, 1909, pp. 1–50).
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It is difficult to choose among the numerous beautiful reliefs of the ‘second gallery’ of Boro-Būdūr. Several of the best have been reproduced by Mr. Havell, and in the new edition of the *History of Indian and Eastern Architecture*. I select one from the lower series (Fig. 198).
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All critics can go as far as to concur in M. Tissandier’s rather faint praise that the bas-reliefs are ‘motifs ciselés dans la pierre avec une puissance rare’; or M. Foucher’s more liberal criticism that they are justly celebrated for their good proportions, naturalness of gesture, and the variety of attitude in the figures. But not everybody can agree with Mr. Havell that the reliefs exhibit ‘supremely devout and spontaneous art’, far excelling by their simplicity, unaffected *naïveté*, artistic feeling, imagination, and magnificent conventionalism of the accessories the work of Ghiberti on the bronze doors of the Baptistery at Florence, which Michael Angelo declared ‘to be worthy to be the gates of Paradise’. The same critic holds that the simple life led by the artists of Boro-Būdūr left them in peace to concentrate their whole soul on this work, and kept their minds free and able to listen to the voices of Nature and of their own inspiration—‘the soul of Nature speaking to the soul of man’. In reality, as M. Foucher truly observes, the immense processions of scenes at Boro-Būdūr have a ‘caractère livresque’ in virtue of their being illustrations of sacred story-books, which deprives them of the spontaneity and emotional (*vibrant*) expression that can spring only from contact with living oral tradition. The compositions were prompted, not by the ‘voices of Nature’, but by a business-like, systematic endeavour to give visual expression to set passages in favourite authors; and we have not the slightest reason for believing that the artists led particularly simple lives. We know, in fact, nothing whatever about them or their lives. A certain uniformity of effeminacy (*mollesse*) characterizes the forms, as it does some of the much earlier compositions of Gandhāra. But, although it is true that the reliefs are carefully planned and must be criticized as selected book illustrations rather than as the spontaneous utterance of simple souls in direct contact with nature, they are extremely good and charming. When compared with the ancient reliefs of Sāñchī and Bharhut they exhibit a delicate refinement of design and a beauty in feature which are sometimes lacking in the more virile works of the early Indian schools. They deserve the most careful critical study by professional sculptors, who alone would be in a position to realize how much praise is due to artists capable of executing more than two miles of stone pictures, almost uniform in beauty and the display of technical skill of a high order.
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FIG. 198. Offerings to a Bodhisattva. (van Kinsbergen, *Oudheden van Java*, No. 16.)
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Works of such unparalleled magnitude must have been executed by a multitude of expert artists. Whence did they come? By whom were they trained? Which Indian school is most closely related to them? These questions and others, easy to ask, are difficult to answer. The style, as well as the subject-matter of the reliefs, is distinctly Indian, and yet with a difference which marks it as Javanese. Nobody with the least experience could mistake a Javanese relief for one executed in India. But when we compare the Boro-Būdūr sculptures with the seventh-century reliefs at Māmallapuram (*ante*, 220), or the sixth-century friezes at Bādāmi (*ante*, 210), the difference almost amounts to that between fine art and barbarism. The artists of Boro-Būdūr cannot have been taught by their comparatively rude predecessors at either Māmallapuram or Bādāmi. It is difficult, merely from study of the sculptures
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[Figure: FIG. 199. Sarasvatī enthroned; from Jogyokaita, Java. (van Kinsbergen, *Oudheden van Java*, Pl. 179.)] [Figure: FIG. 200. Prajñā Pāramitā. (Photo. supplied by Dr. Coomaraswamy.)]
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and without the aid of external evidence, to form a definite opinion whether the art of Boro-Būdūr was derived from the east or the west side of India.¹ The individual figures have a beauty of countenance which, unfortunately, is rare in Indian sculpture.
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¹ The character of the sculptures and the details of the ornamentation in the later caves of Western India do not appear to me to be 'so nearly identical with what is found in the Javan monument' as Fergusson affirms (*Hist. Ind. and E. Archit.*, ed. 1910, ii, p. 426). The differences rather than the resemblances impress my mind.
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Plate LII. Stone Buddha. Photo. by Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy; Havell, *Ind. Sculpture and Painting*, Pl. II: No. 5, van Kinsbergen, *Oudheden van Java*.
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Possibly Chinese teaching may be one of the causes of the excellence of the sculptures ; but the subject requires study much deeper than any it has yet received, and at present it is impossible to solve the many problems suggested by the reliefs. The Indian sculptures which most nearly resemble the Javanese work are those executed under Chola patronage in the eleventh century (*ante*, Figs. 159–62).
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Notable sites, crowded with ancient buildings, are far too numerous in Java to be even named. The most important, perhaps, after Boro-Būdūr is Prambānam (Brambanam), an early capital, where the temples are said to include six large and 150 small ones, supposed to date from about the tenth century.
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FIG. 201. ? Mañjuśrī ; Raffles Coll., B. M. ; 6 15/16 inches high. (Photo. by Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, *J. R. A. S.*, 1909, Pl. II. 4.)
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The Javanese sculptures, in addition to reliefs, comprise multitudes of large detached stone images and small bronzes, of which only a small number of specimens can be illustrated here.
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From van Kinsbergen's plates I select a very pleasing image of Sarasvatī, consort of Brahmā and goddess of speech and learning, who is represented enthroned. The mongoose or ichneumon is her special attribute (Fig. 199).
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The other illustrations are from photographs kindly supplied by Dr. Coomaraswamy and already published by him, and also, in part, by Mr. Havell.
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The stone Buddha (Plate LII) is one of several similar images, nearly equal in quality, which exhibit the Indian *yogī* ideal in an exceptionally dignified and agreeable manner.¹ The expressive modelling of the right hand deserves special commendation.
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¹ e. g. Nos. 6, 7, 8 in van Kinsbergen's plates.
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Figure 200 gives a side view of the beautiful image of *Prajñā-Pāramitā* now at Leyden, of which Mr. Havell has published a front view. The name is that of the most sacred book of the Mahāyānist scriptures, ascribed to Nāgārjuna, and thence transferred to a personification of Supreme Wisdom in female form. Mr. Havell, who regards the image as being 'one of the most spiritual creations of any art, Eastern or Western', compares it with the Madonnas of Giovanni Bellini.
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The little bronze (Fig. 201), supposed to represent Manjusri, is one of the most attractive of the Raffles collection in the British Museum. The monstrosity of the extra arms must be endured.² The plan and limits of this book do not admit of further discussion of Indo-Javanese art.
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² The small bronzes in the British Museum are numerous. Several have been published by Dr. Coomaraswamy.
Linked texts (7)
- Jātaka — Pāli
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Bṛhaddevatā — Śaunaka, Sanskrit
- Sāñcī
- Bharhut
- Mamallapuram
- Badami