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Fig 2
Fig 5
I visited temples
located in central Java near the modern city of Yogyakarta. These sites
included the Larajonggrang temple complex at Prambanan, the temples on Dieng
Plateau, and the Gedung Songo temples in the foothills of the mountain
Gunung Ungaran (fig. 2).
The structures at Dieng date from the 8th
century AD; they are Java's earliest, having been erected before the influx
of Buddhism. Although the Buddhists drove Hindu culture eastward, Hindus
returned to central Java in the 9th century and co-existed with the newer
religion. It was in this period that the Prambanan shrines were built. Of
the temples I saw, those at Prambanan were the most impressive, with
relatively elaborate reliefs. The body of this essay focuses on this
particular group.
The temple complex at Prambanan
consists of an inner courtyard with three main shrines: the Shiva, which is
the largest, the Vishnu, and the Brahma. Directly opposing these structures
lie smaller shrines housing each god's respective vehicles: Nandi, or bull,
for Shiva, Garuda, or mythical bird, for Vishnu, and Brahma's goose called
Hamsa (Fig 5). Ten still smaller shrines surround the perimeter of the courtyard.
Upon approach, the scale of the shrines and their distance is difficult to
judge. The structures seem to recede from the observer, even when in close
proximity, so they always appear beyond reach, otherworldly. Symmetry
typically plays a strong organizational role in Hindu temple architecture,
as it does here in the plan of the buildings and in the decorative and
narrative reliefs. Because of its symmetrical plan, I had the experience
that each side of the temple was the same -- an identical entrance porch
leading up to a uniform cell (there are four in the Shiva shrine), and
similar image relationships repeated again and again. For the lay person it
is easy to lose one's orientation and to believe that one hasn't moved at
all. However, the Hindu convention of placing particular images in specific
positions with religious implication distinguishes north from south, east
from west.
The Hindu temple, the place where humans may approach the world of the gods,
is believed to possess the potential for enlightenment. It is considered a
model of the universe. Consequently, being in a temple and participating in
religious ritual means to partake in the workings of the cosmos. Upon
entering the shrine, the devout ascends a set of stairs moving from daylight
to the dimly-lit, cave-like inner sanctuary where the main icon of the god
is housed. This movement from the starkly-lit and sensually perceived
outside world inward to the simple, shadowy cell parallels the path toward
enlightenment, a progression from the apparent complexity of phenomena
inward to the abstract soul. The temple's sculptural friezes symbolize this
progression. The images located on the outer walls are more complex and of
greater number. They represent a variety of formal styles, from naturalistic
scenes to geometric ornamentation. They also exhibit a variety of kinds of
signification including icon, narrative and decorative motif. By contrast,
the interior is nearly bare, with few friezes, if any.
The outer walls of the Prambanan temples are
wrapped in horizontal bands of distinctly treated reliefs . From this view,
the narrative panels are hidden behind the balustrade (see below). Located
on the base of the main shrines are fauna motifs executed in a naturalistic
style. Images of gods in various poses cover the body of the temple along
with a stylistic lotus motif in-the-round which tops the balustrade. In
between the base motif and the top band, there are bands of geometric and
floral ornamentation. The crown of the temple consists of geometric forms
that gradually decrease in size as they near the pinnacle. The size shift of
this form gives the temple the illusion of being larger than it actually is.
Perhaps the multiplicity of types of imagery
and their formal treatment is indicative of the character of Hinduism, where
the divine is believed to have infinite manifestations and multiple
approaches to the gods are not only tolerated but expected. Yet despite its
appearance, unity underlies pluralism. In the following passage, Alain
Danielou addresses Hinduism's diverse expression of a common principle: In
the Hindu cosmological theory symbolism is conceived as the expression of a
reality, as a search for particular points where different worlds meet and
where the relation between entities belonging to different orders of things
may become apparent. According to the Hindu view, all the aspects of the
manifest world spring from similar principles-- have, we might say, a common
ancestry. There is of necessity some sort of equivalence between sounds,
forms, numbers, colors, ideas, as there is also between the abstractions of
the subtle and tanscendent worlds on one side and the forms of the
perceptible universe on the other.
Fig 8
Fig 9
Fig 10
Fig 11
Forms range from very simple to detailed and the stone
support is treated in varying degrees from linear bas-relief to deeply
recessed surfaces. Types of representation include the following: abstract,
stylistic floral patterns and abstract geometric patterns which function as
decorative borders around panels and help to define the architectural body
of the temple (fig. 8); narrative panels which derive from religious text
(fig. 9); icons (fig. 10); naturalistic renderings of animals and
vegetation; and creatures of fantasy, e.g. vegative borders often
metamorphose into demonic masks (fig. 11).
Fig 14 There are a few panels which show a
series of time sequences simultaneously within the same field, and not just
two progressive, yet separate, scenes. The 15th panel is a good example of
this (fig. 14). It illustrates the hero shooting a golden deer with his
arrow. The animal transforms back into his previous state, an evil giant,
and flees. All of this is evident on one frieze: Rama with arrow, the giant
in his magical disguise as deer, and the giant himself. Since each image
appears synchronous, a correct reading of time progression relies on
previous knowledge of the text and not on the image alone.
The problem of time is inextricable from the question of representation in
works of art which deal with portraying the eternal. Diverse visual clues
must have been developed and utilized to signify the contrast between
timelessness and time. Generally, the eternal world of the gods is shown as
frontal, stylized iconographic forms. The transitory, relative human world
is represented by narrative panels depicting time sequences (such as
Prambanan's Ramayana panels). Although they represent a different sense of
time, these two extreme forms exist within the same structure as if to
illuminate several planes of reality simultaneously. In the book The Hindu
Temple, George Michell writes:
Mythology juxtaposes relative time sequences and cosmic eras as the keys to
the inner mechanics of the universe. This overlapping of cycles of time and
repetition of cosmic eras finds visual expression in the forms of the
temple, where architectural and sculptural motifs repeatedly appear in
different sizes in different parts of the building. The finial placed at the
summit of the temple symbolizes the absolute and timeless principle beyond
repetition and relativity, and is intended as a reminder of the ultimate
goal of the journey that man embarks upon.
Hinduism's spiritual and philosophical tenets helped give a particular form
to its art. As a model of the cosmos, the temple provides a means to
establish a connection with the gods; it opens a pathway toward
enlightenment. The sculptural reliefs were created to aid in this spiritual
ideal, their forms determined in part by this religious conception. The
experience of time, and the idea of timelessness, are also central to the
development of diverse forms of signification as it is necessary to
distinguish one sense of time from the other. I suspect that the notion of
unity underlying diversity permits a general tolerance of plurality in
visual representation in Javanese-Hindu temple sculpture, thus allowing for
various forms to co-exist on the same architectural surface.
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