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Construction and style of Borobudur temple:
Famous as one of the seven wonders of the world, Borobudur is one of the biggest stupa in the world. It was built in the most glorious time of the Shailendra Dynasty. It is located some 42 kms from Yogyakarta half way the length of Java Island of Indonesia. The implication of the above is that borobudur was constructed in this location as a sacred edifice intended to keep the land stable and protect the country from nefarious influences coming from the south. Whereas my interpretation for this location is that the first samavasaran of Lord Mahavira was established here and that too it had a special significance that the speech of Mahavira came out only after 65 days of waiting. However, the Shailendra kings had a much more precise conception of the foundation and had a particular aim in mind [3].According to one inscription Professor Boechri [13] dates it back to the beginning of the seventh century and concludes that Dapunta Shailendra might have been the founder of Shailendra dynasty. According to two inscriptions of AD 824 both from Magelang, Kedu in central Java, a village was transferred by Shailendra queen in 842 together with its wet and dry rice fields to the authority of religious foundation so that grants of all revenue and other rights and privileges may be used for the construction and maintenance of Borobudur.
Casparis was of the opinion that Shailendras had been a local family in southern Kedu, whose members became powerful in the middle of the gth century. After some time they were converted to Buddhism. I am not convinced with this view of Casparis because he is centering around his argument only on the belief that Borobudur is Buddhist monument. Actually Shailendras belonged to the Ganga Dynasty of India who ruled Gwalior for more than 25 years and built large number of temples and tirthankara statues. Another monument Kalasan was built under the influence of the gurus of the Shailendra family. Most of the architectural forms of these temples seem to hace come from Pallava India.[5].
Taken together with scores of other smaller buildings around Borobudur, the Shailendra construction activity was truly stupefying, as remarkable evidence of their wealth, taste and organizational abilities. The Shailendra king Indra wanted the main temple to serve as a tomb to house his own soul after his death. The upper nine levels were meant for the souls of his nine ancestors's nirvana (16]. Casparis [6] writes 'unless the monument was completely abandoned, one would naturally assume that it had been transferred to one of the Buddhist's
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