Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/512

 430 FURTHER INDIA. BOOK VIII. built between A.D. 750 and A.D. 800. It shows, too, a progress in design at a time when Buddhist art in India was marked by decay ; and it exhibits such progress in mythology, that though there can be no doubt as to the purity of the Buddhism of Boro- Budur, any one might fairly argue that this temple belonged either to that religion or to Hinduism. It is in fact one of those compromises that in India might be called Jaina ; in other words, one of those transitional examples of which we have many in Java, but the want of which leaves such a gap in our history of architecture in India. 1 Close to Chandi Mendut is another small temple of similar design known as Chandi Pawon ; 2 it is raised on a platform 28 ft. square and 5 ft. 6 in. high. The plan of the temple is cruciform, being 17 ft. in its extreme dimension, and when perfect was probably about 30 ft. high. It was apparently surmounted by two storeys with eight miniature dagabas above the ground storey and a large dagaba forming the summit. DIENG PLATEAU. , About 35 miles to the north of Boro-Budur is a group of temples on the tableland at the foot of Mount Prahu. They consist only of simple sanctuaries and are not remarkable for the beauty of their details when compared with those of the buildings we have just been describing : but they are interesting to the Indian antiquary, because they are Indian temples pure and simple and dedicated to Indian gods. So far, we feel at home again ; but what these temples tell us further is, that if Java got her Buddhism from Gujarat and the mouths of the Indus, she got her Hinduism from Telingana and the mouths of the Krishna. These Dieng temples do not show a trace of the curved-lined jikharas of Orissa or of the Indo-Aryan style. Had the Hindus gone to Java from the valley of the Ganges, it is almost impossible they should not have carried with them some examples of this favourite form. It is found in Burma and Siam, but no trace of it is found anywhere in Java. Nor are these temples Dravidian in any proper sense of the word. They are in storeys, but not with cells, nor any reminiscences of such ; but they are Chalukyan, in a clear and direct meaning of the term. The building most like these Javan temples illustrated in the preceding pages is that at Buchhanapalli (Woodcut No. 254), which might pass without remark in Java if deprived of its peristylar portico. It, however, 1 Rapporten van de Commissie Neder- j Kersjes en C. Den Hamer (with 22 landsch-Indie ' 1903, p. 64, and plates 46- plates), 1903. 58; 'De Tjandi Mendoet,' door B. ' 2 Ibid. pp. 73ff. and plates 59-61.