DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0661
Chap. IIf.
JAVA
637
CHAPTER III.
JAVA.
contents.
History—Boro Buddor—Temples at Mendoet and Brambanam—Tree and
Serpent Temples—Temples at Djeing and Suku.
There is no chapter in the whole history of Eastern art so full of
apparent anomalies, or which so completely upsets our preconceived
ideas of things as they ought to be, as that which treats of the archi-
tectural history of the island of Java. In the Introduction, it was
stated that the leading phenomenon in the history of India was the
continued influx of race after race across the Indus into her fertile
plain, but that no reflex wave had ever returned to redress the
balance.1 This seems absolutely true as regards the west, and practi-
cally so in reference to the north, or the neighbouring countries on
the east. Thibet and Burmah received their religion from India, not,
however, either by conquest or colonisation, but by missionaries sent
to instruct and convert. This also is true of Ceylon, and partially so
at least of Cambodia. These countries being all easily accessible by
land, or a very short sea passage, it is there that we might look for
migrations, if any ever took place, but it is not so. The one country
to which they overflowed was Java, and there they colonised to such
an extent as for nearly 1000 years to obliterate the native arts
and civilization, and supplant it by their own. What is still more
singular is, that it was not from the nearest shores of India that these
emigrants departed, but from the western coast. We have always
been led to believe that the Indians hated the sea, and dreaded long
sea voyages, yet it seems almost certain that the colonists of Java
came not from the valley of the Ganges, but from that of the Indus,
and passed round Ceylon in thousands and tens of thousands on their
way to their distant sea-girt home. The solution of this difficulty
may perhaps be found in the suggestion that the colonists were not
Indians after all, in the sense in which we usually understand the
term, but nations from the north-west—the inhabitants in fact of
1 "As for the Indian kings none of
them erer led an army out of India to
attempt the conquest of any other
country, lest they should be deemed
guilty of injustice."—Arrian, 'Indies,'
cb. ix.
JAVA
637
CHAPTER III.
JAVA.
contents.
History—Boro Buddor—Temples at Mendoet and Brambanam—Tree and
Serpent Temples—Temples at Djeing and Suku.
There is no chapter in the whole history of Eastern art so full of
apparent anomalies, or which so completely upsets our preconceived
ideas of things as they ought to be, as that which treats of the archi-
tectural history of the island of Java. In the Introduction, it was
stated that the leading phenomenon in the history of India was the
continued influx of race after race across the Indus into her fertile
plain, but that no reflex wave had ever returned to redress the
balance.1 This seems absolutely true as regards the west, and practi-
cally so in reference to the north, or the neighbouring countries on
the east. Thibet and Burmah received their religion from India, not,
however, either by conquest or colonisation, but by missionaries sent
to instruct and convert. This also is true of Ceylon, and partially so
at least of Cambodia. These countries being all easily accessible by
land, or a very short sea passage, it is there that we might look for
migrations, if any ever took place, but it is not so. The one country
to which they overflowed was Java, and there they colonised to such
an extent as for nearly 1000 years to obliterate the native arts
and civilization, and supplant it by their own. What is still more
singular is, that it was not from the nearest shores of India that these
emigrants departed, but from the western coast. We have always
been led to believe that the Indians hated the sea, and dreaded long
sea voyages, yet it seems almost certain that the colonists of Java
came not from the valley of the Ganges, but from that of the Indus,
and passed round Ceylon in thousands and tens of thousands on their
way to their distant sea-girt home. The solution of this difficulty
may perhaps be found in the suggestion that the colonists were not
Indians after all, in the sense in which we usually understand the
term, but nations from the north-west—the inhabitants in fact of
1 "As for the Indian kings none of
them erer led an army out of India to
attempt the conquest of any other
country, lest they should be deemed
guilty of injustice."—Arrian, 'Indies,'
cb. ix.