The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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JAVA 461
traditional Indian forms of the stupa and prasada,
so, too, the style of the sculpture is re-made
in Javanese terms to meet the requirements of
what was essentially a complete plastic embodiment
of a cosmic diagram. As has already been
suggested, there are not one, but many, styles
of relief carving. The piquant naturalism of the
Jataka and Avadana panels is in some ways
reminiscent of the carvings of Sanchi. The
relief has an orderliness, both from the point of
view of composition of the main elements of
figures and settings and its inevitable presentation
in not more than two distinct planes, that
is at once very rich in a decorative sense and also
architecturally appropriate. This is a quality
that perhaps may be recognized as distinctly
Javanese, since the description could apply with
equal validity to the sculpture of many other
monuments of the Middle Javanese Period.
The reliefs of the upper galleries in their greater
simplicity and the isolation of forms against a
plain background seem like a development out
of the Gupta reliefs of the Sarnath workshops
[174]-
The great temple of Barabudur is the final
monument of Mahayana Buddhism in Java.
Indeed, it was not long after its completion that
the worship of Siva became the official religion
of the realm. One of the principal monuments of
this final phase of art in eastern Java was the
temple at Loro Jongrang near Prambanan that
was apparently intended as a Hindu rival to
Barabudur [393 and 394]. There are three main
shrines dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,
surrounded by no less than one hundred and
fifty individual chapels/all placed on an artificial
terrace. The principal shrines are repetitions of
the cruciform plans of some of the earlier temples.
The Siva Temple at Loro Jongrang,
datable a.d. 860-915, consists of a shrine with
projecting porches placed at the summit of a
steep truncated pyramid; stairways at all four
sides convert the plan into a cruciform shape.
The elevation is immediately suggestive of the
393 (left)- Loro Jongrang, Siva temple
394. Loro Jongrang, Prambanan
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