________________
NOVEMBER, 1876.]
civil servant, arrived in Java in 1846. His remarkable aptitude for Oriental studies at once attracted the attention of the Government, and he was sent to Solo (Soeryakarta) to devote himself to those pursuits, which he did with the greatest singleness of mind and consequent success.
His chief works (among many of lasting value) are a critical edition and translation of the Javanese Brata Jorda (i.e. Mahábhárata) composed after a Kawi poem of 1097 A.D., and his collection of Kawi (or Old Javanese) inscriptions. Both were published by the Batavian Society. The first is especially important, as it is the only critical edition and translation that we have of a great Indian epic in a language foreign to North India. The parallel versions in Tamil and Telugu have been neglected, or nearly so, for Mr. C. P. Brown's unfinished edition of the Telugu Mahabharata is all that India can show. The difficulty of such a work as this few can understand, but the value of it is evident. Such versions, in fact, enable us to partly control the matter of the uncertain Sanskrit recensions. His collection of Kawi inscriptions extends to two parts-a folio volume of facsimiles (to the accuracy of which I can testify, as I have compared parts with the originals), and an introduction and complete transcript in Roman letters. Most of the documents are of the ninth and tenth centuries A.D., and are chiefly in Old Javanese, with a large admixture of Sanskrit. The author's untimely death has prevented an explanation of these most difficult texts, but he has left an invaluable aid in the shape of a complete index to the whole, which, with many other MSS., his widow has generously deposited in the library of the Batavian Society.
The Society has an admirable museum, rich in Hindu and Buddhist relics of an early period, of which we have hardly any remains in India. The excellent laws of Java have greatly contributed to this. In India ancient statues or inscriptions that may be discovered are invariably destroyed for the metal-they are usually of copper; so are coins. In Java it is penal to destroy such, but the finder is entitled to claim the full value. Thus I saw a gold image which, though very small, had been bought for about 20%., and is one of the greatest treasures of the museum.
The preparation of a catalogue is in the hands of Mr. Groeneveldt, and it will be of the greatest value to Indian archæologists. The library of the Society is rich, for the East. The Catalogue of Arabic MSS. (chiefly on law), by Dr. van den Berg, is sufficient proof. A scientific Oriental Jurisprudence has long been recognized in Java, though not as yet in India.
MISCELLANEA.
Even in the country towns there is much scientific zeal. At Solo, Mr. Wilkens showed me his
315
MS. Javanese Dictionary, in about thirty folio volumes. It comprises proverbs, traditions, customs, and everything of interest connected with the Javanese people. Dr. van der Tunk has resided for some years on Bali in order to study the remaining Polynesian Hindus. Dr. Kern, the very eminent Leyden Professor, has explained several Old Javanese texts; in his hands Kawi (or Old Javanesc) studies are now left. I must omit particular mention of several important treatises on numismatics, &c. Dutch powers of work and the national sincerity of character have thus done far more for Oriental research in Java than has been done in any presidency of India, or even in the whole of India, in the same space of time.
6
During my stay in Java I was able-thanks to the unrivalled facilities for travelling-to visit the chief Hindu and Buddhist remains in the central provinces of the island. The chief Hindu temple is at Brambanan, or the place of Brâhmans.' To give an intelligible account of this and of the Buddhist temples would need a volume; I must confine myself, therefore, to the chief facts I have noticed, especially as Mr. Fergusson's great work affords a ready means of finding plans and views to those to whom the Dutch works are inaccessible. The Šiva temple at Brambanan is of the (for India) unusual form termed chaturmukha; in one of the four faces the old Javanese custodian opened a make-shift wicker door, and I saw, to my surprise, an image of Durga, evidently worshipped still, just as it would be in a modern Indian village. There was a streak of red paint on the forehead, and around were offerings of messes of curry and rice, and the like. For more than four centuries Buddhism and Hinduism have been supplanted in Java by Muhammadanism, but bigotry and fanaticism seem to have found no place. The temples are in ruins, but from natural causes. Originally built of small blocks of stone without mortar, the upper courses have been thrown down to a great extent, but the lower are only partly dislocated. The cause is evident; the ruins are on the slopes or in the valleys around the stupendous volcanic cones of Merapi and Merbabu, and occasional earthquakes have done the mischief.
Brambanan is in the native state of JocjoKarta; but it is to be hoped that the Dutch Government will some time have a clearance made round the bases of the great and subordinate Hindu temples, for enough is left standing to enable one, by the rules of Indian architecture, to make a satisfactory restoration of the whole, and these ruins are of the highest archæological interest. The Saivism of Java was evidently of the old school, and before Vedantic influences had
begun to work. Siva was then the supreme being
