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

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Singhalese scholars the moon stone is not so much a
cosmic symbol as an emblem of Time and the World,
a reminder also of the miseries and dangers of the
world which the devotee steps over on his way to the
Truth enshrined in the sanctuary. Cf. S. Paranavitana,
'The Significance of Sinhalese Moonstones',
Artibus Asme, xvn (1954),
197 ff.
21. S. Paranavitana, 'The Sculpture of Man and
Horse near Tisavava at Anuradhapura', Artibus Asiae,
xvi, 3 (1953),
167 ff.
372. 22. These formulas of drawing reappear in the
(lost) eighth-century wall-paintings of Horyuji at
Xara (Japan). See Xaito, Horyuji, plates 50-3.
375. 23. Paranavitana, plate xxi.
24. This shrine (the Dala-da-ge) was built under
Parakrama Bahu I. Hata-da-ge (House of sixty relics)
and Ata-da-ge (House of eight relics) are modern
misnomers.
376. 25. A continuous hamsa frieze may be seen on the
basement of the Rajrajesvara temple at Tanjore and
so may the inscription used as rustication.
26. Culavamsa, 11, trans. Geiger, 39 ff.
378. 27. The presence of these four statues need not
be taken as an indication that this was a Mahayana
temple and the Buddhas representations of the
Dhyani Tathagatas: even in Hinayana Buddhism
the association of various events of the Buddha's life
with the points of the compass would explain the
duplication of images of Sakyamuni himself at the
four directions.
379. 28. The decor is strikingly suggestive of the
exterior ornamentation of such monuments as the
Rajrajesvara temple at Tanjore.
380. 29. Coomaraswamy, History, 167.
30. The exterior decoration of the Thuparama at
Polonnaruwa shows a similar importation of Chola
motifs, used here to decorate a Buddhist shrine.
Coomaraswamy, History, figure 303.
383. 31. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Arts and Crafts of
India and Ceylon (New York, 1964).
32. Op. cit., figures 120-9.
CHAPTER 21
385. i . The Dominican father, Gabriel Quiroga de San
Antonio, who was engaged in preparing for a Spanish
conquest of Cambodia, published an account of the
ruins in 1604.
2. Most likely this tale is of Indian origin, where a
similar legend is attributed to the founder of the
Pallava Dynasty. At all events, a cult of nagas appears
to have been native to Cambodia before the intrusion
of Indian influences. It survived into the great days of
the Khmer civilization at Angkor when, it is related
by the Chinese historian, Chou Ta-kuan, the king
slept every night with a nagini, in a kind of magic
renewal of the power of kingship.
3. Thus for instance Han settlements have been
found in Annam, and, testifying to trade relations
with the Roman world as well, a Roman lamp at
P'ong-tuk. See Annual Bibliography ofIndian Archaeology,
1927 (Leyden, 1929), plate viii. See also the
finds of Indian Classical and Sasanian objects at
Oc-Eo in Cochin China {Annual Bibliography of
Indian Archaeology, 1940-7 (Leyden, 1950), li and
plate vii.)
4. These images could be described as 'portrait
statues' of the kings as Siva, Vishnu, Harihara, etc.
387. 5. A stone temple in the shape of a pyramidal
tower surmounted by a kalasa finial has been found at
Asram Maha Rosei. Its elevation is vaguely reminiscent
of such Pallava monuments as the Shore Temple
at Mamallapuram. See Annual Bibliography ofIndian
Archaeology, 1935 (Leyden, 1937), plate xi.
390. 6. Harihara is a combination of Siva and Vishnu, a
synthesis indicated in this statue by the differentiation
of the two halves of the head-dress. The present
image was found in a vesara temple of the type seen at
Bayang.
7. Coomaraswamy, History, 183.
8. As may be seen in other examples preserved in the
Musee Albert Sarraut at Phnom Penh, it appears
likely that both the Harihara and the Stoclet statue
were originally enclosed in a horse-shoe shaped frame,
which was at once a nimbus and a technical precaution
to prevent the breaking off of the arms of the
deity and to ensure its stability.
392. 9. Related to Chen-la is the modern word, Cambodia,
which stems from Kambuja, 'born of Kambu',
the founder of the dynasty that originally reigned in
the northern portions of present-day Indo-China. It
was, in other words, the Kambujas or Khmers who
overran Funan and gave their name to the country.
10. H. Parmentier, 'The History of Khmer Architecture',
Eastern Art, in (1931), 147 ff.
393. The 1 1 pyramidal terraced form of structures like
.
Baksei Chamkrong was intended as an architectural
replica of the supposed shape of the world mountain
Meru. The installation in the centre of the capital of
such a facsimile of the mountain at the centre of the
world was designed magically to transfer the navel of
the world to the Khmer capital and to ensure the
dominance over all the Empire.
12. This concept was introduced by Jayavarman II
(802-53), wno came from Java. An inscription of 802
reads in part, 'The Brahman Hiranyadama having
carefully extracted the essence of the sastras, with full
knowledge and experience of the mysteries, established
for the increase of the prosperity of the world
the magic rites of the Devaraja. This Brahman,