Vol. I, No. 3.] Archeologisch Onderzoek op Java en Madura. 95 
ENE S.1 
to Prambanam. We might have perhaps expected that the system- 
atic research now inaugurated would begin with those master- 
pieces of art. The survey has taken a contrary course, beginning 
with Eastern Java, where art was in its decline and leading in- 
vestigation from the latest relics of true Indian art to the earliest 
and at the same time the most glorious representatives of Indian 
workmanship. 
I say “true Indian art.” For when you go through the 
splendid photo-series illustrating this volume, you will immedi- 
ately be impressed by the truly Indian character of the ornament. 
This is not only the case with the decorative ornament in general. 
The true Indian character shines forth above all in the sculpture 
cycles decorating the terraces of the monument. It was one of the 
characteristic features of the Hindoo artists in Java, that they 
decorated the walls not only with detached sculptures and statues, 
but with a continuous line of scenes representing a whole cycle of 
legends. They reached their highest perfection i in the sculpture 
cycles of central Java. At the Brahmanical sanctuary of Pram- 
banam the legend of the Ramayana is worked out in a splendid 
set of reliefs. But in the Buddhist sanctuary of Boro Bodur we 
have the whole legend of the life of Buddha as told in the 
Lalitavistara, put before our eyes within the frame of more than 
sixty reliefs. Another series of sculptures represents in continu- 
ous line more than thirty Jatakas, that is to say, more than all the 
Buddhist monuments of India proper and of Afghanistan toge- 
ther contain. Besides there is another sculpture cycle of more 
than sixty highly-refined reliefs, of which the meaning has not yet 
been discovered. We meet with the same characteristic feature 
in the monument described in the present volume. 
The Sanctuary is mounted on a threefold terrace, one terrace 
rising above the other. The walls of every terrace have their 
peculiar cycle of legends. In the first terrace we meet with a set 
of legends evidently taken from the fables of the Pancatantra ; the 
reliefs of the second terrace represent scenes of the Rama legend ; 
those of the third terrace give the Arjunavivaha and especially 
Arvjuna’s fight with Civa; finally the walls of the Sanctuary itself 
are decorated with scenes of the Krishna legend. So we see 
here united within the architectural limits of a small sanctuary 
a good number of favourite topics of Hindoo epic poetry. 
Now as regards artistic workmanship the sculpture-cycles of 
Tjandi Toempang are, as I have already pointed out, far inferior 
to those found in Central Java. For comparison’s sake I have laid 
before you a few of my own photos, representing scenes of the 
sculpture cycles either of Boro-Bodur or of Prambanam. Nay, 
the artistic value of our Tjandi must be held even much inferior 
to the reliefs of Panataran, lying in the same region of Hastern 
Java. 
But it is not the artistic value, which gives to the sculpture- 
cycles here represented their importance. This is to be sought 
for in quite another line of comparison. 
