[1] See, e.g., the edict, issued more than thirteen centuries ago by the Emperor Majorian, as quoted by Gibbon: Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio; et ut aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc iam occasio nascitur, etc.

[2] Strictly speaking, says Dr. Brandes in his notes to his translation of the Pararaton, or the Book of the Kings of Tumapel and Mojopahit (p. 178), there is only one babad tanah jawi, which received its final redaction about 1700. The other babads, though they may contain recapitulations of the general history of Java, treat of local affairs or of certain selected periods, as the babads Surakarta, Diponegoro, Mangkunegoro, Paku Alaman, etc.

[3] Emblem of Siva’s fructifying virility.

[4] Emblem of the fecundity of Siva’s sakti or female complement, Parvati or Uma, Doorga, Kali or whatever other name she goes by according to the nature of her manifestations.

[5] Generic name for ointments and salves, used specifically for a preparation of turmeric and coco-nut oil, which is smeared over the body on gala occasions and applied to objects held in veneration.

[6] An aloon aloon is an open square before the dwelling of a native chief; the kratons or palaces with their dependencies of the semi-independent princes in Central Java have two aloon aloons, one to the north and one to the south, on which no grass is allowed to grow.

[7] Kedaton has the same meaning as kraton, but is generally used for that part of a princely residence occupied by the owner himself with his wives, concubines and children, as distinct from the quarters of his retinue.

[8] Chandi means in its correct, restricted sense: “the stones between and under which in olden times the ashes of a burnt corpse were put,” or “a mausoleum built over the ashes of one departed” (Roorda and Gericke); by extension, in native speech, any monument of the Hindu period. The chandi Sari is supposed to have been a vihara or Buddhist monastery.

[9] A tax of f. 50 (ten pence), the payment of which secures also admission to the chandis Pawon and Boro Budoor.

[10] Thanks to Major T. van Erp of the Engineers, who conducted the work of restoration, this pious wish has been granted.

[11] Governor of Java’s northeast coast from 1801 to 1808, in whose garden at Samarang “several very beautiful subjects in stone were arranged, brought in from different parts of the country.” Raffles, History of Java, vol. ii., P. 55.

[12] Paraphrases of a fossil statute, periodically paraded and then returned to its pigeon-hole, like a relic carried round in procession on the day of the particular saint it belongs to and then shut away in its repository for the rest of the year. Of what avail are enactments and ordinances persistently ignored and never enforced?

[13]

[14] The oldest, perhaps the only original form of native poetry, happily compared, by Professor R. Brandstetter, with the Italian stornelli. In contradistinction to the sha’ir, the charm of the pantoon lies, or should lie, in its being improvised. It consists of four lines, of which the third rimes with the first and the fourth with the second; the first two contain some statement generally but loosely connected with the meaning of the last couplet, except, to quote Dr. J. J. de Hollander, that they determine the correspondence of sound. Here is one in translation:

[15] The title of Sooltan was assumed, probably for the first time in the history of Java, by the ruler of Pajang when, in 1568, he added Jipang to his domains.

[16] This lady was a prisoner of the Pangeran of Jakarta (Yacatra) from whom Baron Sookmool, charmed by her beauty when he arrived in Java to trade for his father, the wealthy merchant Kawit Paru, bought her for three big guns, whose history, in the legendary lore of the island, is inextricably mixed up with the mariage À trois of Kiahi Satomo (for the nonce taking domicile at Cheribon), Niahi Satomi and the maryam of Karang Antu referred to in the preceding chapter.

[17] Plumeria acutifolia Poir., fam. Apocynaceae, planted extensively in cemeteries; its flowers, for this reason called boonga kuboor (grave-flowers), have a very pleasant odour and are used to scent clothes, etc.

[18] About 1468, by Raden Patah.

[19] It is told that the intrepid Governor-General Daendels once tried to invade the sanctity of this house of prayer, but even he had hastily to retire.

[20] Venggi inscriptions, brought to light in West Java, go back to the sixth and fifth centuries of the Christian era and name Kalinga in India as the region from which the Hindu colonists emigrated.

[21] Banaspati or Wanaspati is the conventional lion’s (or tiger’s) head, a frequent motive in the ornament of Javanese temples, especially of common use over their porches and gateways.

[22] Dr. A. B. Cohen Stuart, however, derives DiËng from dihyang, the name found by him in old records.

[23] The remains of both these exquisite little temples suffered severely from a gale in 1907, which blew some of the surrounding trees down, their trunks and branches falling heavily and disjoining the still tolerably erect walls, the chandi Perot, according to latest intelligence, being wholly destroyed by the toppling of the tamarind it supported.

[24] The Brata Yuda Yarwa is the Javanese version of the famous Kawi poem Bharata Yuddha which, in its turn, is founded on the Sanskrit epos Mahabharata. The war for the possession of Hastinapura is transplanted to Java; the Sanskrit proper names have passed into the nomenclature of Javanese history and geography; the Indian heroes have become the founders of Javanese dynasties, the progenitors of Javanese nobility.

[25] One of those chasms, near the dessa Gaja Moongkoor, swallowed not merely a dancing-girl, a most common occurrence in Javanese legendary lore, but a whole village.

[26] A very active mofette which the natives call the Pakaraman, i.e. the “selected spot” where King Baladeva had his arms forged in the Brata Yuda war.

[27]

[28] The native’s deferential fear for the animal in question, makes him reluctant to pronounce its name, a liberty likely to give offence; referring to the lord of the woods, he speaks rather of his respected uncle (paman) or grandfather (kakeh), which satisfies, at the same time, his lingering belief in the transmigration of the soul.

[29] Siva as Kala, the destroyer with the lion’s or tiger’s head, Banaspati, devouring the sea-monster Makara: time finishing all things and alleviating all distress, in respect of which notion Voltaire’s short but pointed story of Les Deux ConsolÉs may be profitably read.

[30] Query: Has St. Patrick ever been on the DiËng?

[31] Or Bhimo, one of Arjuno’s four brothers and avenger of the honour of the family on Kichaka, who had fallen in love with their common wife Draupadi.

[32] No buildings in the Northern Indian or Indo-Arian style have been found in Java.

[33] Reporting to the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, January 11, 1909.

[34] That which has been, returns and will return through all time.

[35] Whence its name, derived from api (fire).

[36] The title Loro designates a lady of very high birth.

[37] LegÈn is the liquor prepared by fermentation of the sap drawn from some trees of the palm family.

[38] From tangkis, tinangkis, which, derived from nangkis, “ward off”, means “to repel one another.”

[39] Telaga means “lake” and powiniyan, derived from winih, “seed”, means a flooded ricefield in which the ears on the stalks, bound in sheaves, are put to serve for seeding.

[40] Not the last, as this legend has it, for Ratu Boko’s roaring can yet be heard on still nights, if we may believe the people who dwell on the banks of the Telaga Powiniyan.

[41] Padi is rice in the hull, shelled by the women and girls, usually very early in the morning, by stamping it in blocks of wood hollowed out for the purpose.

[42] Bondowoso’s curse took dire effect and the Javanese lassies of the neighbourhood, who enter the bonds of matrimony about their fourteenth year, comment with sarcastic pity on the fact that their sisters of Prambanan have, as a rule, to wait some ten rainy seasons longer—not without seeking compensation, it is alleged, after the example set by their patron saint Loro Jonggrang, whose maidenly life, according to the babad chandi Sewu, of which more later on, was not altogether blameless.

[43] The very precise ridicule this appellation, which originated in the childish credulity of the natives, who persist in paying homage to a statue of Doorga as if it were actually their petrified Mboq Loro Jonggrang; but the real name of the group being unknown, why should we reject a distinction not denoted by the less definite term Prambanan?

[44] Major, then still Captain T. van Erp in his report to the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, January 11, 1909.

[45] The sculptor showed his independence by disregarding the more canonical number of sixteen or ten.

[46] Stimulated especially by Buddhist and JaÏn influences.

[47] Squirrels: Sciurus nigrovittatus and Pteromys elegans and nitidus.

[48] Pasar is held once every five days and once every thirty-five days it falls, therefore, on a Friday.

[49] Batikking is the art of dyeing woven goods by immersing them in successive baths of the required colour, protecting the parts to be left undyed by applying a mixture of beeswax and resin.

[50] A stupa, lit. a mound, a tumulus, is a memorial structure, sometimes raised over a relic of the Buddha, one of the eight thousand portions into which his ashes were divided, or a tooth, or any other fragment of his remains. The combination of such a memento of the Most Chaste with the emblem of supreme virility is syncretism indeed!

[51] Professor Dr. H. H. Juynboll in the Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch IndiË, Ser. vii., vol. vi., nr. 1.

[52] Those not in the Government service: planters, industrials, etc., always of lower caste in general, especially official esteem, than the select who draw their salaries from Batavia. Hence the native designation of such an inferior individual as a particulier saja, “only” a private person.

[53] Recho or rejo is the name given to any sort of statue.

[54] From circulus, circle, something round, which rolls easily away into oblivion as it is intended to; but, if nothing else, la folie circulaire keeps the fiction of governmental guidance and control alive.

[55] Speaking at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of the Netherlands, December 27, 1902.

[56] Vishnu’s vahana or bearer, the monster-bird.

[57] By G. P. Rouffaer, Indische Gids, February 1903.

[58] The fall of Mojopahit has been put at 1478 (Javanese chronicles), 1488 (Veth’s Java, 2nd ed.) and between 1515 and 1521 (Rouffaer).

[59] Paku Buwono, like Paku Alam, means “nail which fastens the universe.”

[60] Lit. “the one who has the world in his lap,” i.e. the supporter (ruler) of the world.

[61] Lit. “the one who has the empire in his lap,” i.e. the supporter (ruler) of the empire.

[62] Lit. “the one who has the universe in his lap,” i.e. the supporter (ruler) of the universe.

[63] A fourth semi-independent domain, created at the expense of Jogjakarta for the benefit of Pangeran Nata Kusuma, ally of the British during the troubles of 1811 and 1812.

[64] Common abbreviations, in speaking and writing, of Surakarta and Jogjakarta; Solo is, to put it correctly, the name of the place where Paku Buwono II., after his old kraton had been destroyed by fire in the civil war diligently fostered by the Company, built the present one, Surakarta Hadiningrat, i.e. the most excellent city of heroes.

[65] Ngoko is spoken among the common people, among children, by adults to children and by those of superior to those of inferior rank; kromo by those of inferior to those of superior rank and by people of high rank amongst themselves unless differences in social degree or grades of relationship require another mode of address; dagellan or gendaloongan (in Surakarta) and madya (in Jogjakarta), a mixture of ngoko and kromo, by people of equal rank conversing in an unofficial capacity, politely but without constraint, by those of superior to those of inferior rank, their seniors in years whom they wish to honour, by merchants of equal rank and the higher servants of the nobility to one another; kromo-inggil comprises a group of words used when referring to whatever is divine or very exalted on earth; basa kedaton is the language of the Court, spoken by all males in the presence of the reigning prince or in his kraton whether he be present or not, but in addressing him or his heir presumptive, kromo is used; the reigning prince employs ngoko interspersed with kromo-inggil words when referring to himself; the women in the kraton speak kromo or kromo-madya among themselves, basa kedaton to such men-folk as they are allowed to see and kromo to the reigning prince or his heir presumptive; ngoko andap is a coarse sort of speech which descends to the use of words, in relation to man, ordinarily applied only to animals; kromo-dessa means rustic speech in general.

[66] The central and most refined Javanese of Mataram or Surakarta, spoken in the Principalities, the Kadu, the Bagelen, Madioon and Kediri; the western Javanese, spoken in Cheribon and Banyumas; the basa or temboong pasasir (speech of the coast), spoken in Tagal, Pekalongan, Samarang, Yapara and Rembang; the eastern Javanese, spoken in Surabaya, Pasuruan, Probolinggo and Besuki.

[67] A cult with a ritual handed down from the past and scrupulously observed. Cf. the account of a visit to Selo in 1849, published from papers left by Dr. M. W. Scheltema, in De Gids, December, 1909.

[68] The Javanese do not kiss in the disgusting, unwholesome, western fashion; they smell or sniff, using the olfactory instead of the osculatory organs, as sufficiently indicated by the words of the native vocabulary describing the operation referred to. In this matter again, the Hindu immigrants may have made their influence felt. Cf. Professor E. Washburn Hopkins’ interesting paper on The Sniff-Kiss in Ancient India, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xxviii., first half, 1907.

[69] Including, besides the palaces and palace grounds, thickly inhabited little towns. The kraton of Surakarta contains, e.g., more than ten thousand people, all belonging to the imperial family and household, from the princes to their dependents, servants and hangers on: court dignitaries, court functionaries, gold- and silversmiths, wood-carvers, carpenters, masons, musicians, etc. Within its walls is also the imperial mesdjid, a fine, large building with a widely visible gilt roof.

[70] The garebeg mulood, garebeg puasa and garebeg besar, corresponding with the maulid (feast of the Prophet’s birth), id al-fitr (feast of breaking the fast) and id al-qorban (feast of the sacrifice).

[71] Krissing, a form of capital punishment until recently still in use in the island of Bali, consisted in driving a kris to the heart of the condemned man, sometimes under circumstances of refined cruelty, the executioner not being permitted to put an end to his victim’s agony before the prince, presiding in person or by deputy, had given the signal for the coup de grÂce.

[72] A story is told of a Susuhunan of Surakarta having ordered a magnificent landau from one of the first carrossiers in Paris, that the favoured industrial was advised to send some cooking-pans with it on delivery. Asking: What for? he got the answer: To poach the eggs his Highness’ chickens will lay in your carriage. Splendour and squalor live near together in the households of thriftless oriental potentates.

[73]

[74] Governor and Director of Java’s northeast coast, afterwards member of the Governor-General’s Council at Batavia.

[75] Published by H. D. H. Bosboom from papers in the Dutch National Archives.

[76] Titular Major, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel of the Corps of Engineers, Director of Fortifications and Inspector of Canals, Dams, Dikes and Waterways.

[77] Reimer’s description leaves Taman Ledok in dubio and a reason for his probable non-admittance there, may be found in the circumstance that it appears to have been the part of the pleasance reserved for the recreation of the Sooltan’s concubines.

[78] Whence the name: oombool, like sumoor, means “well” or “spring”, and gumuling, derived from guling, means “rolled up”, “lying flat.”

[79]

[80] Kiahi is a very common one. Dr. J. Groneman, whose description of the water-castle at Jogjakarta contains a good many interesting particulars, mentions the name of the barge of state, presented to Paku Buwono I. by the East India Company, Niahi Kuning, as, to his knowledge, the only instance of a female appellation being given to royal paraphernalia—perhaps on the same principle as that which makes us, too, speak of a ship as of a “she”.

[81] Emblems of royalty; more strictly: objects of virtu belonging to the reigning family.

[82] A pusaka is an heirloom, generally with luck bringing properties either to the rightful owner or to any one who secures possession of it.

[83] Lit. “the high place” of the kraton.

[84] Short for dos-À-dos, a kind of vehicle naturalised in Java; offering only problematic comfort at its very best, the ramshackle specimens plying for hire in the streets of the capital towns of the island, beat everything ever invented anywhere else in the world for inflicting torture on the pretext of conveyance.

[85] Doits are copper coins of endless variety, demonetised more than half a century ago but still used by the natives almost exclusively and to the prejudice of the legal “cent”, the hundredth part of the “guilder” or legal unit of the Dutch East Indian currency, notwithstanding the Government’s efforts (on paper) through the medium of financial geniuses, whose name is Legion and whose practical performance is Nihil, to put the monetary system and colonial finance in general on a firm, workable basis.

[86] ... Not yet, the work of (our) time has not yet reached its fullness.

[87]

[88] Cf. Miss Martine Tonnet’s article in the Bulletin of the Dutch Archaeological Society, 1908, on the work of the Archaeological Commission.

[89] Cf. Professor J. H. C. Kern’s paper on SivaÏsm and Buddhism in Java apropos of the old Javanese poem Sutasoma, Amsterdam, 1888.

[90] The Pangerans of Giri continued for almost two centuries to exercise their spiritual authority, opposing the supremacy of the Princes of New Mataram until the Susuhunan Mangku Buwono II. had the last of them assassinated with all the male members of his family (1680).

[91] Mojo means “fruit”, pahit means “bitter”.

[92] Kerto means “shining, glittering”.

[93] These dates are taken from Miss Martine Tonnet’s paper in the Bulletin of the Dutch Archaeological Society already cited, where she calls attention to the ardent religious life in that region at that time, as also attested to by the zodiac-beakers, mostly unearthed in Kediri and bearing dates between 1321 and 1369.

[94] More generally known as Giovanni da Bologna, though a native of Douay.

[95] On the summit of the Wilis are four heaps of debris and two enclosed terraces; on its eastern slope is a place of prayer, consisting of three terraces with bas-reliefs and called Penampihan, where the natives still congregate for sacrifice.

[96] Borassus flabelliformis of the palm family, which, though hardly used in these times of cheap paper as a provider of writing material, serves the natives for a hundred other purposes.

[97] Two of the eight arms were already missing in 1815 to judge from Raffles’ reproduction.

[98] See his article, Pictorial Art in Asia, in the Contemporary Review of May, 1911.

[99] Bas-relief on the remains of a small building detached from the chandi Panataran proper.

[100] Bijdrage tot de Kennis van het Javaansche Tooneel.

[101] Kulit means leather, the material of which the puppets are made.

[102] The gamelan, as already remarked, is the Javanese orchestra, and besides the gamelan salendro and the gamelan pelog, the gamelan miring should be mentioned, which varies from the former in the higher pitch of one of the five notes as produced by some of the instruments. The Kiahi Moonggang, a relic of mighty Mojopahit, the oldest, most sacred and least melodious of the royal sets of gamelan instruments, is played every Saturday evening and so long as its tones fill the air, all other gamelans must remain silent. Cf. Dr. J. Groneman, De Gamelan te Jogjakarta.

[103] The topeng actors are masked conformably to the meaning of the word. Masques and masquerades seem to be of high antiquity in Java; the Malat of the Panji-cycle already mentions that kind of dramatic entertainment.

[104] Utilised for prose works in the langen driya, devised by Pangeran Arya Mangku Negara IV., and in the langen asmara, devised by Prabu Widaya, a son of Paku Buwono IX.

[105] In Balinese decoration, writes Miss Martine Tonnet (see her article already cited), the naga- (or kala-naga-) seems to flourish beside the makara-ornament.

[106] Lit. “white tiger”, situated in Banyuwangi.

[107]

[108] An endowed convent whose inmates spent their lives in studious seclusion.

[109] The Indian Empire: its Peoples, History and Products.

[110] After this was written a remarkable article by Dr. L. A. Waddell in The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review (January, 1912), insisting upon the theistic nature of Buddhism and speaking of the profound theistic development which had taken place—about 100 B.C.—in the direction of the Mahayana form of that faith, pointed to the fact of Brahmanic gods being also conspicuous in the earliest Buddhist sculptures of India, adorning, e.g., the stupa of Bharhoot.

[111] On rereading this sentence, I see that in writing it I was with Ruskin at the Shepherd’s Tower. No harm done! His observations bear repetition, notwithstanding the present fashion of pooh-poohing him, and setting myself in the pillory as a plagiarist, I improve the opportunity by making amende (honorable, I hope) also for what this book owes to many other lovers of and thinkers on art, not scrupulously acknowledged in every instance because I compose without the help of numbered and dated notes, and memory, though not failing in the essence of what has been stored from their treasures, disappoints at times in the matter of chapter and verse.

[112] The chandi Kalasan is the only one in Central Java of which we possess the exact date.

[113] The taras are the saktis of the five Dhyani Buddhas that occupy a place in Javanese speculative philosophy, Vajradhatvisvari pairing with Vajrochana, Lotchana with Akshobhya, Mamaki with Ratnasambhava, Pandara with Amitabha, and Tara par excellence with Amoghasiddha, these unions being responsible for the Bodhisatvas Samantabhadra, Vajrapani, Ratnapani, Padmapani and the coming Vishvapani.

[114] Here another quotation may be permitted from Dr. L. A. Waddell’s article, Evolution of the Buddhist Cult, its Gods, Images and Art (The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, January, 1912): And notwithstanding that the Mahayana was primarily a nihilistic mysticism, with a polytheism only in the background, the latter soon came to the front and has contributed more than anything else to the materialising and popularity of Buddhism.

[115] Mas, meaning “gold”, is used as a predicate of nobility and also as a title conferred in polite address on persons of lower birth.

[116] Alocasia macrorrhiza Schott of the Aracaceae family; the leaf, which once betokened dignity, is still used to protect the head and upper part of the body against rain; other parts of the plant serve sometimes as food.

[117] The pit there discovered makes the monastic character more than doubtful while it accentuates the syncretism in which also the ornament of these chandis does not differ from all Central Javanese religious structures of the period, except those on the DiËng plateau.

[118] Best translated by “ruin”.

[119] An exclamation of wonder and surprise.

[120] And removed to the “museum” at Jogjakarta.

[121] The three gems: the Buddha, the law and the congregation.

[122] Offering accommodation, inclusive of the holy of holies, for 42 statues, which had already flown in 1812.

[123] Different of yore, different now.

[124] There is no help for it; lit. “what can be done?”

[125] The very appropriate name bestowed on the Dutch East Indies by Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli), Holland’s greatest writer of the preceding century.

[126] General name given to various plants of the bean family; the kackang here meant, is the kackang china or tanah (Arachis kypogaea) the oil of which is used as a substitute for olive-oil.

[127] The beans or nuts pressed into cakes and used as manure, especially in the cultivation of sugar-cane.

[128] According to another explanation they represent King Sudhodana and Queen Maya with Siddhartha, the future Buddha, as a baby in her arms, which leaves us in the dark about the other children.

[129] Lacking money and wanting money, always more money: a summary of Dutch colonial policy as it strikes the native.

[130] The influence of eastern fables on western literature and art in all its branches cannot be overestimated as exemplified for instance, with special relevance to the one just referred to, by the late Emm. PoirÉ (Caran d’Ache) when he made our old friend Marius imitate the snail’s braggadocio in his delightful cartoon Les Pantoufles en peau de tigre (Lundis du Figaro). And the story of the vulture and the turtles found its way, via American plantation legends, into J. C. Harris’ tales of Uncle Remus. Concerning the manner of the “Migration of Fables” from East to West, most interesting particulars can be found in Max MÜller’s Chips from a German Workshop, iv., p. 145 ff.

[131] The Buddha’s characteristic tuft or bunch of hairs between the eyebrows.

[132] In consequence of the young enthusiast Sarvarthasiddha cutting his long locks with his sword when leaving his father’s palace to adopt the life of a recluse as Sakyamuni, the solitary one of the Sakyas, and meditate upon the redemption of the world.

[133] The words chaitya and dagob are often used indiscriminately and every dagob is, in fact, a chaitya, but a chaitya is a dagob only if it contains a relic.

[134] De Tjandi Mendoet vÓÓr de Restauratie, publication of the Bataviaasch Genootschap, 1903.

[135] Major van Erp, in the Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1909.

[136] Dapoor means “a producer of heat”, “a place where things are produced by heat”, hence an oven, a kitchen, the priming-hole of a gun.

[137] Before the road was relocated to correspond with the relocation of yet another new bridge after the last but one’s tumbling down, the chandi Dapoor stood almost at the wayside; its having been smuggled out of sight has not improved its chances of preservation.

[138] Bombax malabaricum of the numerous Malvaceae family.

[139] By the architect van der Ham.

[140] Canarium commune, fam. Burceraceae.

[141] Or ramelan (ramadhan), the great yearly fast.

[142]

[143] Such is the name given to a stretch of beach, not far from Tanjoong Priok, the harbour of Batavia, much resorted to, for bathing and advertisement, by that city’s frail sisterhood, and Batavians will appreciate the young naval officer’s bon mot better than did his aunt, a provincial spinster, when at length she fathomed it.

[144] A description, dated October 12, 1858, informs us that the piece of ivory, supposed to have garnished the jaw of Gautama, is about the size of the little finger, of a rich yellow colour, slightly curved in the middle and tapering. The thickest end, taken for the crown, has a hole into which a pin can be introduced; the thinnest end, taken for the root, looks as if worn away or tampered with to distribute fragments of the relic.

[145] Reports and Communications of the Dutch Royal Academy, 1895.

[146] According to another explanation these incompleted pieces of sculpture, found lying about, were rejected in the building because they did not come up to the architect’s requirements.

[147] The Ruin of the Boro Budoor or Vandalism, signed Goena Darma. It is no indiscretion, I believe, to reveal behind this significant pseudonym Father P. J. Hoevenaars, of whose sagacious observations I shall avail myself repeatedly in the following account of the temple’s history.

[148] Invention being stimulated by quasi-historical novels like Gramberg’s Mojopahit.

[149] Vide De Java-Oorlog, commenced by Captain P. J. F. Louw, continued by Captain E. S. de Klerck and published under the auspices of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, vols. i. and ii.

[150] This holds good for western as well as eastern lands and, whether true or false, the story of Napoleon’s dragoons converting the refectorium of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan into a stable and adjusting their horses’ mangers against da Vinci’s Cena, expresses very well what cavalry on the warpath are capable of.

[151] The form of the characters, etc., according to Professor Kern, points to about the year 800 Saka (A.D. 878).

[152] See also the Westminster Review of May and The Antiquary of August, 1912.

[153] Roger Fry on Oriental Art, January, 1910.

[154] In the position called silo by the natives, but with the body straight, not bent forward.

[155] The lowest circular terrace has or ought to have 32, the second or middle one 24, the highest and last 16 of them.

[156] M. A. Foucher points out in the Bulletin de l’Ecole FranÇaise d’ExtrÊme Orient, iii., that the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang found another unfinished statue in the Mahabodhi temple near the Bo-tree of Enlightenment, a statue which, according to the description, represented the Buddha in the same position, his left hand resting in his lap, his right hand hanging down, etc.

[157] The literature concerning this statue, says Goena Darma in the Javapost of December 5, 1903, is extensive and rich in curious conjectures but poor as to scientific value.

[158] Proceedings of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, January 11, 1910.

[159] Professor Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, Nederland en de Islam.

[160] Since this was written, the information reached me that the recho belÈq has been taken out of its hole to give it a place somewhere in the temple grounds where it will be open to inspection, which the reconstruction of the dagob would have made impossible if left in its original station. The sacrilege may be condoned to a certain extent if it implies the disappearance of the tablet intended to keep alive the memory of the disastrous royal visit.

The illustration opposite page 280 shows the upper terraces and the dagob after their restoration: the pinnacle of the dagob having been reconstructed with its crowning ornament, this was afterwards taken away because of some uncertainty as to its original arrangement.

[161] Gardus are guard-houses erected for the accommodation of the men who take their turn in watching the roads at night; near the entrance of each hangs the beloq (block), a piece of wood which, being hollow, is beaten with a stick to proclaim the hour or to signal fire, amok, the appearance of kechus (armed thieves), etc.

[162] The Javanese reed-pipe.

[163]

[164] J. J. Meinsma, Babad Tanah Jawa, text and notes, 1874-1877, commented upon by Dr. J. L. A. Brandes in Het Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1901.

[165] The insurrection headed by Raden Suryakusumo broke out in 1703 and, according to letters from the Governor-General then in function at Batavia, to the Honourable Seventeen at home, this Javanese Hotspur gave a good deal of trouble. Having regained his liberty, he rebelled again at Tagal, was captured once more and brought to Batavia, whence the Dutch authorities sent him into banishment at the Cape of Good Hope, agreeably to the request of Mangku Rat IV. Cf. J. K. J. de Jonge, De Opkomst van het Nederlandsche Gezag over Java, vol. viii.

[166] To rampok is to attack one, crowding on him, generally with lances. The rampokking of tigers after they are caught and again set free in a square formed by rows of men with pikes, is still a favourite amusement.

[167] Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch IndiË, vi., 1 and 2.

[168] J. K. J. de Jonge, Op. cit., vol. x., p. 329.

[169] The story points a moral not less relevant to western than to eastern ethics and runs as follows:

Once upon a time there lived in Mathura a courtesan renowned for her beauty and her name was Vasavadatta. On a certain day her maid, having been sent to buy perfume at a merchant’s, who had a son called Upagoopta, and having stayed out rather long, she said:

—It appears, my dear, that this youth Upagoopta pleases you exceedingly well, since you never buy in any shop but his father’s.

—Daughter of my master, answered the maid, besides being comely, clever and polite, Upagoopta, the son of the merchant, passes his life in observing the law.

These words awakened in Vasavadatta’s heart a desire to meet Upagoopta and she bade her maid go back and make an appointment with him. But the youth vouchsafed no other reply than:—My sister, the hour has not yet arrived.

Vasavadatta thought that Upagoopta refused because he could not afford to pay the high price she demanded for her favours, and she bade her maid tell him that she did not intend to charge him a single cowry if only he would come. But Upagoopta replied in the same words:—My sister, the hour has not yet arrived.

Shortly after, the courtesan Vasavadatta, annoyed by the jealousy of one of her lovers, who objected to her selling herself to a wealthy old voluptuary, ordered her servants to kill the troublesome fellow. They did so without taking sufficient precautions against discovery; the crime became known and the King of Mathura commanded the executioner to cut off her hands, feet and nose, and abandon her thus mutilated among the graves of the dead.

Upagoopta hearing of it, said to himself: When she was arrayed in fine clothes and no jewels were rare and costly enough to adorn her body, it was a counsel of wisdom for those who aspire to liberation from the bondage of sin to avoid her; with her beauty, however, she has certainly lost her pride and lustfulness, and this is the hour.

Accordingly, Upagoopta went up to the cemetery where the executioner had left Vasavadatta maimed and disfigured. The maid, having remained faithful, saw him approach and informed her mistress who, in a last effort at coquetterie, told her to cover the hideous wounds with a piece of cloth. Then, bowing her head before her visitor, Vasavadatta spoke:

—My master, when my body was sweet as a flower, clothed in rich garments and decked with pearls and rubies; when I was goodly to behold, you made me unhappy by refusing to meet me. Why do you come now to look at one from whom all charm and pleasure has fled, a frightful wreck, soiled with blood and filth?

—My sister, answered Upagoopta, the attraction of your charms and the love of the pleasures they held out, could not move me; but the delights of this world having revealed their hollowness, here I am to bring the consolation of the lotus of the law.

So the son of the merchant comforted the courtesan doing penance for her transgressions, and she died in a confession of faith to the word of the Buddha, hopeful of rebirth on a plane of chastened existence.

[170] Sawahs are ricefields, terraced and diked for the purpose of copious irrigation, in contradistinction to ladangs (Jav. gagas, Soond. humas) without artificial water-supply.