Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/524

 434 FURTHER INDIA. BOOK VIII. each side, three of which are subsidiary cells and the fourth an entrance porch to the central cell, the whole being raised on a podium about 4 ft. high with terrace round and projecting bays following the cruciform plan of the temple and approached by flights of steps in the centre of each side. The sides of the podium are enriched with fine figure sculpture, as also the plinth, of the temple, the upper portion of which above the lintel of the chief doorway is gone. The five other temples, though smaller, are of similar design, and they would all have seemed at one time to have had statues in them representing Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and others, two of them, Surya and Chandra, being raised on bases carried by bulls. Midway between the two outer temples are what would seem to be tanks, cruciform on plan, consisting of parapets about 3 ft. high, which are sculptured on the inside. The 156 temples in the outer enclosure are all similar in design, consisting of a square cell with porch always facing outwards. The whole group may be of the age of Deva Kasuma, or the beginning of the loth century, and are possibly not the earliest Hindu temples here. The most important example of the Prambanan temples is that situated about one-third of a mile north of Loro Jonggrang, and known as the Chandi Sewu or "thousand temples," which is, or was when complete, only second to Boro- Budur in interest. The general character of Chandi Sewu will be understood from the plan (Woodcut No. 483), which shows it to have consisted of a central temple of large size surrounded by a great number of small detached cells, each of which con- tained statues, of which twenty-two remain still in situl The central cell of the temple measures 45 ft. square, and with the four attached cells, one of which served as the entrance porch to the central cella, it formed a cross 85 ft. each way, the whole being raised on a richly ornamented square podium or base. This building is richly and elaborately ornamented with carving, but with a singular absence of figure-sculpture, which renders its dedication not easy to be made out ; but the most remark- able feature of the whole group is the multitude of smaller temples which surround the central one, 240' in number. Immediately outside the square terrace which supports the central temple stand twenty-eight of these a square of eight on each side, counting the angular ones both ways. Beyond these, at a distance of 35 ft., is the second square, forty-four in number ; between this and the next row are wide spaces of 72 ft. on the east and west and 102 ft. on the north and south sides. The two outer rows of temples are situated close to 1 Shown on the plan by black dots,