Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 99

MARCH, 1911.]
BOOK-NOTICE
BOOK-NOTICE.
H. H. JUYNBOLL, CATALOGUS VANISRYKS ETHNO
GRAPHISCH MUBRUM. Deel v, Javaansohe Oud Heden, Leiden 1909. IT is a matter of regret that the antiquities of Java, so closely related to those of India, are but little known among students of Indian arobaology. The main cause of this apparent neglect lies no doubt in the circumstance that nearly all the works devoted by my countrymen to the study of Javanese archæology are written in Dutch, and are consequently difficult of access to most European and Indian scholars. It is for this reason that the publications of the Batavia Society of Arts and Sciences, as well as the splendid monographs of the Archeological Survey of Java, are hardly known among antiquarians here and in England.
In these circumstances it will be no superfluous work to draw the attention of the readers of this periodical to the recently published Catalogue of Javanese antiquities in the Ethnographical Museum at Leiden (Holland) by Dr. H. H. Juynboll, the able director of that institu. tion. The Leiden Museum and that at Batavia contain by far the largest and most representative collections of Javanese antiquities. Of the latter we already possess an excellent catalogue by Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt and Dr. J. L. A. Brandes which appeared at Batavia in 1887. The two chief collections of Javanese antiquities have thus been catalogued in a most scholarly fashion-a fact of which Dutch scholars may rightly be proud. It may be remembered here that neither of the two collections of Indian antiquities in the British and South Kensington Museums nor those of most museums in India have been listed or described.
Dr. Juynboll's catalogue is a model of patient labour and painstaking accuracy. The enormous stride which has been made in the study of Javanese archeology will be apparent from a comparison of this catalogue with the former one edited in 1842 by Dr. O. Leemans and republished in an abridged form in 1885. The collection itself has been greatly extended at the same time. In 1842 it numbered only about one hundred objecte, in 1885 about fourteen hundred, and in 1909 more than two thouBand.
The present catalogue, & quarto of nearly three hundred pages, is admirably got up, as might be expected from a production of the Leiden publishing firm of E. J. Brill, well known to all orientalists. It is illustrated with fifteen plates, each of two figures, and nearly one hundred text-illustrations. Some of the latter, namely those which are reproduced from photographs, are somewhat blurred and do not show as much detail as would be desirable for the purpose of iconographical study. But this is certainly the only objection one could reasonably. raise.
Dr. Juynboll has followed the same systematic arrangement adopted by Messrs. Groeneveldt and Brandes in their catalogue of the Batavia Museum. It is divided into six main sections dealing with A. Stone images and other objects, B. Metal (mostly bronze) images and other objects, C. Pottery, D. Coins, E. Inscriptions (including casts) and F Casts of temples, images, bas-reliefs and seal-rings. These sections are again subdivided.
Sections A and B chiefly containing images hoth Brahmanical and Buddhist are of peculiar interest for the study of Indian art and iconography, as they appear in Java. That this art is essentially Hinda will be seen at a first glance, but a closer study will reveal peouliar indigenous developments which show that the Javanese artist was by no means a slavish copyist of his Indian teacher.
This is exemplified by the curious stone image reproduced in plate I, fig. 2, which represents a three-faced, four-armed deity seated on the shoulders of a cross-legged male figure. I do not know of any Indian prototype from which this sculpture could be derived. The unusual vehicle would at first sight lead one to identify the deity represented with Kubera (nara-vahana !). But Dr. Juynboll notes that the cross-legged figure wears a hood in the shape of the head and neck of a harsa, while the main personage of the group holds the four attributes of Brahma. The author is therefore undoubtedly right in identifying the main figure with this deity. It may also be noted that the attributes of Brahma in Javanese art only partially correspond with those found in Indian sculpture, the Veda having apparently been replaced by the fly-whisk (chämara).