Tyanḍis Båråbudur, Mĕndut and Pawon BY Dr. I. GRONEMAN, translated from the dutch by J. H. Druk van H. A. BENJAMINS, Semarang, 1912....

When in 1896 I was obliged to retire from practice, on account of sickness, I shortly after took up my residence at Jogyåkartå again in order to devote myself to the antiquarian and ethnological studies dear to me, and to which purpose I had to establish myself in the neighbourhood of the principal Hindu ruins in Java, that is, in the plain of Parambanan , and in the valley of Prågå whereas I could not rely on being assisted by the Dutch Government or whomsoever; I had grown too old under a syst

The Buddhists believe their community, their worship, their church, or whatever one may be inclined to call this, to have been founded 24 centuries ago by the wise and humane king’s son of Kapilavastu , called Gautama , the Shâkja muni or wise Shâkja , Buddha or the Enlightened . All that which the later legends related either of Buddha himself or of his former lives , they consider historically true. Competent Orientalists, among whom the Dutch ex-professor Dr. H. Kern , stated however that, mu

The Buddhists assert the ashes of their Buddha to have been divided after his cremation into eight towns, and buried there. King Ashoka is said to have seven of these graves re-opened again so as to distribute the holy ashes among some 84000 metal, crystal or stone vases or urns to cause them to be spread throughout his empire and without, and kept under barrows or stûpas . We know the proper history of Buddhism to begin with this king in the third century before our era, and in several parts of

Not anything do we know about the Buddhists of eleven centuries ago who once populated these regions where afterwards arose the Mohammedan empire of Mataram . We only know that there formerly must have existed a Hindu empire of this name because of a found copper engraving all covered with ancient-javanese writing which contained in a oath-formula the words: “ Sri mahârâja i Mataram .” We understand them to have come from India, probably from the North, but we don’t know when this happened, and

Leaving Jogyåkartå by steamtram or by carriage, and driving through the dessa of Muntilan —properly speaking a Chinese settlement—,turning two or three miles farther on near the stopping-place of Kalangan , 8 miles south of Magĕlang , into a by-path leading westward to the Båråbudur, we, within an hour, shall arrive at the real javanese village of Mĕndut , which is situated on the left bank of the river Élo . On this spot, as it were under the shadow of the Buddha temple, eleven centuries old at

Leaving the native village of Mĕndut behind us, crossing shortly after the small iron bridge built over the river Elo , and after having been ferried over the Praga, when a mile’s drive farther westward, we arrive at the little dukuh of Bråjånålå (or Bråjånalan ) where we see the very small tyanḍi Pawon before our having turned into the broad kĕnari -avenue which leads through the native village of Bårå to the hill of the Båråbudur. Some years ago this tyanḍi had been pulled down and afterwards

After having walked through the umbrageous kĕnari -avenue and the village of Bårå which we meet on our way when starting from the dukuh of Bråjånålå , we shall arrive within half an hour at the hill upon which we see stand the pasanggrahan, and the colossal ruin. By carriage in less than a quarter of an hour. The first sight of this wonder of architecture is a rather disappointing one because, when standing at the end of the avenue, we only perceive the outer-walls of its south-easterly angle. B

When, for more than thirty years ago, I began to study the majestic ruin, I thought (like I afterwards wrote [43] in my first essay about the Båråbudur) many other imageries, at least those of the undermost series of the back wall, and those of the uppermost row on the front wall of this first gallery, to be the representations of Buddha’s former lives, of the jâtakas of the man honoured by all the Buddhists of the northern and the southern church as the Redeemer of this world, the Dhyâni-Buddha

A short word about some sculptures we see on the three higher galleries. No double series are to be seen there, but the hewn panels, especially those of the back-walls of the second and fourth gallery, are a little higher, and have been partly modeled in an excellent style. Wilsen ’s and Leemans’ engravings are not always true representations of the sculptures themselves, f. i. no: 214 (W. L.) representing the unpardonably bad drawing of Maitrakanyaka’s mother. But for professor Speyer ’s acute

Finding ourselves on the fourth gallery we see there twelve-treaded staircases leading to the twenty-angled upper plane which had been walled in to its outside only. Successively (concentrically thus) we see there three circular terraces continually rising one yard and a half, declining three yards, and connected with each other by means of seven or eight-treaded staircases. Along the outer-edge of the first we see stand 32 open worked dagobs or tyaityas ; on the second there are 24, and on the

It only remains for me now to add a short description to the Buddha sculptures which made the ruin call: Båra-buddå or Pårå buddå , that is, the many or conjoint Buddhas . [72] . All of them are in a sitting posture with crossed legs, almost in the same posture the Javanese call silå , but upright. They are dressed in a thin mantle uncovering their right arms and shoulders—such as the monks of the southern church wear their cowls—and have the tiara , the round hair-knot, on their heads all cover

A few remarks about the sculptures of the original foot of the outer-wall we didn’t discover before 1886. In 1890 I proposed them to be uncovered and photographed, afterwards they were covered again in the ancient manner, and hidden from sight. They have been hewed on a projecting wall-foot which goes tolerably deep beneath the heavy ogive, now resting as a socle again on the surrounding outer-terrace that has been afterwards built all round the 36-angled basis of the temple, but only on 24 of t

In a small compass I suppose to have mentioned all that may be discussed about the three buddhistic monuments speaking in this valley, on the two banks of the river Prågå , of a former high civilisation and of a very developed art. Those who require, or desire, a better insight into the ancient Buddhism, and those who wish to know more about its sanctuaries to be found here in Java and elsewhere in India, are kindly referred to the works I consulted by the study of this subject, and to those I w