Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 690 pages of information about Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3.

Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 690 pages of information about Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3.

Tjandi Djago is in the province of Pasoeroean.  According to the Pararaton and the Nagarakretagama,[416] Vishnuvardhana, king of Toemapel, was buried there.  As he died in 1272 or 1273 A.D. and the temple was already in existence, we may infer that it dates from at least 1250.  He was represented there in the form of Sugata (that is the Buddha) and at Waleri in the form of Siva.  Here we have the custom known also in Champa and Camboja of a deceased king being represented by a statue with his own features but the attributes of his tutelary deity.  It is strange that a king named after Vishnu should be portrayed in the guise of Siva and Buddha.  But in spite of this impartiality, the cult practised at Tjandi Djago seems to have been not a mixture but Buddhism of a late Mahayanist type.  It was doubtless held that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are identical with Brahmanic deities, but the fairly numerous pantheon discovered in or near the ruins consists of superhuman Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with their spouses.[417]

In form Tjandi Djago has somewhat the appearance of a three-storied pyramid but the steps leading up to the top platform are at one end only and the shrine instead of standing in the centre of the platform is at the end opposite to the stairs.  The figures in the reliefs are curiously square and clumsy and recall those of Central America.

Tjandi Singasari, also in the province of Pasoeroean, is of a different form.  It is erected on a single low platform and consists of a plain rectangular building surmounted by five towers such as are also found in Cambojan temples.  There is every reason to believe that it was erected in 1278 A.D. in the reign of Kretanagara, the last king of Toemapel, and that it is the temple known as Siva-buddhalaya in which he was commemorated under the name of Siva-buddha.  An inscription found close by relates that in 1351 A.D. a shrine was erected on behalf of the royal family in memory of those who died with the king.[418]

The Nagarakretagama represents this king as a devout Buddhist but his very title Sivabuddha shows how completely Sivaism and Buddhism were fused in his religion.  The same work mentions a temple in which the lower storey was dedicated to Siva and the upper to Akshobhya:  it also leads us to suppose that the king was honoured as an incarnation of Akshobhya even during his life and was consecrated as a Jina under the name of Srijnanabajresvara.[419] The Singasari temple is less ornamented with reliefs than the others described but has furnished numerous statues of excellent workmanship which illustrate the fusion of the Buddhist and Sivaite pantheons.  On the one side we have Prajnaparamita, Manjusri and Tara, on the other Ganesa, the Linga, Siva in various forms (Guru, Nandisvara, Mahakala, etc.), Durga and Brahma.  Not only is the Sivaite element predominant but the Buddhist figures are concerned less with the veneration of the Buddha than with accessory mythology.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.