DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0681
Chap. III.
TREE AND SERPENT TEMPLES.
G57
on plaster, which has wholly1 disappeared, so that no means of
comparison exist between the two modes of decoration. With regard
to 'the Javanese sculptures on these temples, it is safe to assert
that not one of them shows any trace of Buddhism—none even that
8o9. View or the Malia Vifcara, Anura-lhapura. (From Sir E. Tenneut's ' Ceylon.')
could be called Jainism—nor any trace of the Hindu religion as now
known to us. We are, for instance, perfectly familiar with the Hindu
Pantheon, as illustrated by the sculptures of the nearly contemporary
temple of Hullabid {ante, p. 402); but not a trace of these gods or
goddesses, nor of any of the myths there pourtrayed, is to be found
in these well-temples. Whatever they are, they belong to a religion
different from any whose temples we have hitherto met with in this
volume, but one whose myths pervade the whole story of Indian
mythology. The worship of trees seems to have been taken up in
succession by the Buddhists, Jainas, and Vaishnavas, but may be
earlier than either, and ma}', in like manner, have survived all three.
In India, at the present day, there is nothing so common as to
see in the villages of Bengal little three-storeyed pyramids of mud
—exact models of these Javan temples—on the top of which is
planted the Tulsi shrub, the sacred phnt of the Vaishnavas (Ocymum
sanctum, or Sweet Basil), which succeeded the Ficus rdigiosa in the
affections of the Hindus. Frequently, however, this emblem is planted
in vases, or little models of ordinary temples, the top of which is
hollowed out for the purpose. Numbers of these exist also in Java;
but no one—at least in recent times—having visited the island who
was familiar with the ordinary domestic religion of the Hindus, the
1 This is by no means so certain ; but till some one capable of observing visits the
place, we must assume it.
2 u
TREE AND SERPENT TEMPLES.
G57
on plaster, which has wholly1 disappeared, so that no means of
comparison exist between the two modes of decoration. With regard
to 'the Javanese sculptures on these temples, it is safe to assert
that not one of them shows any trace of Buddhism—none even that
8o9. View or the Malia Vifcara, Anura-lhapura. (From Sir E. Tenneut's ' Ceylon.')
could be called Jainism—nor any trace of the Hindu religion as now
known to us. We are, for instance, perfectly familiar with the Hindu
Pantheon, as illustrated by the sculptures of the nearly contemporary
temple of Hullabid {ante, p. 402); but not a trace of these gods or
goddesses, nor of any of the myths there pourtrayed, is to be found
in these well-temples. Whatever they are, they belong to a religion
different from any whose temples we have hitherto met with in this
volume, but one whose myths pervade the whole story of Indian
mythology. The worship of trees seems to have been taken up in
succession by the Buddhists, Jainas, and Vaishnavas, but may be
earlier than either, and ma}', in like manner, have survived all three.
In India, at the present day, there is nothing so common as to
see in the villages of Bengal little three-storeyed pyramids of mud
—exact models of these Javan temples—on the top of which is
planted the Tulsi shrub, the sacred phnt of the Vaishnavas (Ocymum
sanctum, or Sweet Basil), which succeeded the Ficus rdigiosa in the
affections of the Hindus. Frequently, however, this emblem is planted
in vases, or little models of ordinary temples, the top of which is
hollowed out for the purpose. Numbers of these exist also in Java;
but no one—at least in recent times—having visited the island who
was familiar with the ordinary domestic religion of the Hindus, the
1 This is by no means so certain ; but till some one capable of observing visits the
place, we must assume it.
2 u