DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0680
656
FURTHER INDIA.
Book VIII.
others circular, and enlarging as it descends, being 7 ft. or 10 ft. wide
at top.
Both Heer Bruimind and Dr. Leemans expend a considerable
amount of ingenuity in trying to explain the mystery of these well-
temples.1 Both assume that the wells were covered with pavilions
or cell-temples (Kamer tempels), but without any warrant, so far as
I can make out. At Panataram, for instance, the parapet of the
upper terrace is a frail structure, that any man with a crowbar might
destroy in a morning, or any earthquake would certainly shake down ;
yet neither it nor a single stone elsewhere in this temple has been
displaced; but of this central pavilion not one vestige now remains,
either in situ, or strewn around. Besides this, a temple without a Moor,
and with nothing inside but a faeilis descensus of 20 ft. or 30 ft., and
no means revocare gradum, does not seem likely to have been popular
either with priests or people, and in fact no form of worship can be
suggested that would be suitable to them. Neither here nor else-
where does there seem anything to controvert the theory that these
wells were always open to the upper air.
The only suggestion that occurs to me as at all likely to meet
the case is that they were Tree-temples ; that a sacred tree was
planted in these well-holes, either on the virgin soil, or that they
were wholly or partialljr filled with earth and the tree planted in
them. The Bo-tree at Buddh Gaya is planted on a terrace, and
raised 30 ft. above the plain, ascended on one side by steps; but no
excavations have been made, or at least published, which would
show whether or not there were three storeys on the three other
sides. The Naha Vihara at Ceylon, or the temple of the Bo-tree,
is, in reality, just such a temple as that at Panataram. It is ap-
parently in five—practically, in three—storeys, with the tree planted
in a well-hole on its summit. We have, unfortunately, no plan of
it or of the Javan temples; but if any one will read Captain
Chapman's description of the Maha Vihara,2 and compare it with
Heer Brumund's of temples in Malang and Kediri, abstracted by
Dr Leemans,3 I do not think he can fail to see the resemblance.
No plan has yet been made of the Ceylonese vihara, and such photo-
graphs as exist have been taken with no higher aim than to make
pretty pictures ; so that it is extremely difficult to arrive at any
correct notions as to its form. Meanwhile the following woodcut
(No. 369), copied literally from one in Sir Emerson Tennent's
book, will convey an idea of its general appearance. The structure
is wholly in brick, and its ornamentation was consequently painted
1 'Boro Bocddoer,'p. 439. ' Verhaude-
lingen,' vol. xxxiii. p. 222.
- ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic So-
ciety,' vol. xiii. p, 1C6.
3 ' Boro Boeddoer,' pp. 433-439.
FURTHER INDIA.
Book VIII.
others circular, and enlarging as it descends, being 7 ft. or 10 ft. wide
at top.
Both Heer Bruimind and Dr. Leemans expend a considerable
amount of ingenuity in trying to explain the mystery of these well-
temples.1 Both assume that the wells were covered with pavilions
or cell-temples (Kamer tempels), but without any warrant, so far as
I can make out. At Panataram, for instance, the parapet of the
upper terrace is a frail structure, that any man with a crowbar might
destroy in a morning, or any earthquake would certainly shake down ;
yet neither it nor a single stone elsewhere in this temple has been
displaced; but of this central pavilion not one vestige now remains,
either in situ, or strewn around. Besides this, a temple without a Moor,
and with nothing inside but a faeilis descensus of 20 ft. or 30 ft., and
no means revocare gradum, does not seem likely to have been popular
either with priests or people, and in fact no form of worship can be
suggested that would be suitable to them. Neither here nor else-
where does there seem anything to controvert the theory that these
wells were always open to the upper air.
The only suggestion that occurs to me as at all likely to meet
the case is that they were Tree-temples ; that a sacred tree was
planted in these well-holes, either on the virgin soil, or that they
were wholly or partialljr filled with earth and the tree planted in
them. The Bo-tree at Buddh Gaya is planted on a terrace, and
raised 30 ft. above the plain, ascended on one side by steps; but no
excavations have been made, or at least published, which would
show whether or not there were three storeys on the three other
sides. The Naha Vihara at Ceylon, or the temple of the Bo-tree,
is, in reality, just such a temple as that at Panataram. It is ap-
parently in five—practically, in three—storeys, with the tree planted
in a well-hole on its summit. We have, unfortunately, no plan of
it or of the Javan temples; but if any one will read Captain
Chapman's description of the Maha Vihara,2 and compare it with
Heer Brumund's of temples in Malang and Kediri, abstracted by
Dr Leemans,3 I do not think he can fail to see the resemblance.
No plan has yet been made of the Ceylonese vihara, and such photo-
graphs as exist have been taken with no higher aim than to make
pretty pictures ; so that it is extremely difficult to arrive at any
correct notions as to its form. Meanwhile the following woodcut
(No. 369), copied literally from one in Sir Emerson Tennent's
book, will convey an idea of its general appearance. The structure
is wholly in brick, and its ornamentation was consequently painted
1 'Boro Bocddoer,'p. 439. ' Verhaude-
lingen,' vol. xxxiii. p. 222.
- ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic So-
ciety,' vol. xiii. p, 1C6.
3 ' Boro Boeddoer,' pp. 433-439.