DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0685
Chap. III.
SUKU.
661
having dates upon them of a.d. 1435 and a.d. 1440,1 or less than forty
years before the destruction of Majapahit and the abolition of the
Hindu religion of Java. So far as can be made out, they are coarser
and more vulgar in execution than any of those hitherto described,
and belonged to a degraded form of the Vaishuava religion. Garuda is
the most prominent figure among the sculptures; but there is also
the tortoise, the boar, and other figures that belong to that religion.
The sculptures, too, are said, many of them, to be indecent, which is
only too characteristic a feature of Vishnuisin.2
The most interesting feature connected with the remains at Suku,
as well as of all the later buildings in Java, is their extraordinary
likeness to the contemporary edifices in Yucatan, and Mexico. It may
be only accidental, but it is unmistakable. No one, probably, who is at
all familiar with the remains found in the two provinces, can fail to
observe it, though no one has yet suggested any hypothesis to account
for it. When we look at the vast expanse of ocean that stretches
between Java and Central America, it seems impossible to conceive
that any migration can have taken back eastward—say after the
10th century—that could have influenced the arts of the Americans ;
or, if it had taken place, that the Javans would not have taught them
the use of alphabetical writing, and of many arts they cultivated,
but of which the Americans were ignorant when discovered by the
Spaniards. It seems equally improbable or impossible that any
colonists from America could have planted themselves in Java so as
to influence the arts of the people. But there is a third supposition
that may be possible, and, if so, may account for the observed facts.
It is possible that the building races of central America are of the
same family as the native inhabitants of Java. Many circumstances
lead to the belief that the inhabitants of Easter Island belong to the
same stock,3 and, if this is so, it is evident that distance is no bar
to the connexion. If this hypothesis may be admitted, the history
of the connexion would be this :—The Javans were first taught to
build monumental edifices by immigrants from India, and we know
that their first were their finest and also the most purely Indian.
During the next five centuries (a.d. 650-1150) we can watch the
Indian influence dying out; and during the next three (a.d. 1150-
1 Crawfurd, 'Diet. Indian Archipelago,'
sub voce.
2 Both Sir S. Raffles and Crawfurd seem
to be mistaken in ascribing them to the
Saivites ; they seem to have been misled
by the appearance of a Phallus, but
there is no lingam.
11 In the first three volumes of the
photographs published by the I'ataviaii
Society are numerous examples of rude
sculptures, which are indistinguishable
from those of Easter Islmd. Cravf'uid
and other ethnologists do not si-em to
feel the least difficulty in extending the
Malay race from Easter Island to Mada-
gascar ; and if this is so, it diminishes
the improbabilities of another neaily
allied family, extending through the
Pacific Islands from Java to the Ameri-
can continent.
SUKU.
661
having dates upon them of a.d. 1435 and a.d. 1440,1 or less than forty
years before the destruction of Majapahit and the abolition of the
Hindu religion of Java. So far as can be made out, they are coarser
and more vulgar in execution than any of those hitherto described,
and belonged to a degraded form of the Vaishuava religion. Garuda is
the most prominent figure among the sculptures; but there is also
the tortoise, the boar, and other figures that belong to that religion.
The sculptures, too, are said, many of them, to be indecent, which is
only too characteristic a feature of Vishnuisin.2
The most interesting feature connected with the remains at Suku,
as well as of all the later buildings in Java, is their extraordinary
likeness to the contemporary edifices in Yucatan, and Mexico. It may
be only accidental, but it is unmistakable. No one, probably, who is at
all familiar with the remains found in the two provinces, can fail to
observe it, though no one has yet suggested any hypothesis to account
for it. When we look at the vast expanse of ocean that stretches
between Java and Central America, it seems impossible to conceive
that any migration can have taken back eastward—say after the
10th century—that could have influenced the arts of the Americans ;
or, if it had taken place, that the Javans would not have taught them
the use of alphabetical writing, and of many arts they cultivated,
but of which the Americans were ignorant when discovered by the
Spaniards. It seems equally improbable or impossible that any
colonists from America could have planted themselves in Java so as
to influence the arts of the people. But there is a third supposition
that may be possible, and, if so, may account for the observed facts.
It is possible that the building races of central America are of the
same family as the native inhabitants of Java. Many circumstances
lead to the belief that the inhabitants of Easter Island belong to the
same stock,3 and, if this is so, it is evident that distance is no bar
to the connexion. If this hypothesis may be admitted, the history
of the connexion would be this :—The Javans were first taught to
build monumental edifices by immigrants from India, and we know
that their first were their finest and also the most purely Indian.
During the next five centuries (a.d. 650-1150) we can watch the
Indian influence dying out; and during the next three (a.d. 1150-
1 Crawfurd, 'Diet. Indian Archipelago,'
sub voce.
2 Both Sir S. Raffles and Crawfurd seem
to be mistaken in ascribing them to the
Saivites ; they seem to have been misled
by the appearance of a Phallus, but
there is no lingam.
11 In the first three volumes of the
photographs published by the I'ataviaii
Society are numerous examples of rude
sculptures, which are indistinguishable
from those of Easter Islmd. Cravf'uid
and other ethnologists do not si-em to
feel the least difficulty in extending the
Malay race from Easter Island to Mada-
gascar ; and if this is so, it diminishes
the improbabilities of another neaily
allied family, extending through the
Pacific Islands from Java to the Ameri-
can continent.