Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/503

 CHAP. IV. HISTORY. 421 the island, and gradually not by conquest or the sword, but by persuasion induced the inhabitants of the island to forsake the religion of their forefathers and adopt that of the Arabian Prophet. In the year 1479 the Muhammadans had become so powerful that the city of Majapahit was taken by them by storm, and the last Hindu dynasty of the island overthrown, and those that remained of the foreign race driven to take refuge in the island of Bali. 1 Then occurred what was, perhaps, the least-expected event in all "this strange eventful history." It is as if the masons had thrown away their tools, and the chisels had dropped from the hands of the carvers. From that time forward no building was erected in Java, and no image carved, that is worth even a passing notice. At a time when the Muhammadans were 476. THE PRINCIPAL TEMPLES OF JAVA. A. Dieng Plateau. B. Prambanan. i. Chandi Plaosan. 2. Chandi Sewu. 3. Chandi Lumbang. 4. Chandi Loro Jong-grang. 5. Chandi Sari. 6. Chandi Sojiewan. 7. Chandi Kali-Bening. adorning India with monuments of surpassing magnificence no one in Java thought of building either a mosque, or a tomb, or a palace that would be deemed respectable in any second- class state in any part of the world. For nearly nine centuries (A.D. 603-1479) foreign colonists had persevered in adorning the island with edifices almost unrivalled elsewhere of their class ; but at the end of that time, as happened so often in India, their blood had become diluted, their race impure, their energy effete, and, as if at the touch of a magician's wand, they disappear. The inartistic native races 1 These latter dates are taken from Raffles and Crawfurd, but as they are perfectly well ascertained, no reference seems needful.