BY THE REV. J E. TENISON-WOODS. 575' 



skulls round the waist. The eyes are very prominent, so that the 

 expression is one of surprise, especially as the mouth is half open, 

 revealing two large canine teeth. Close by is a fine colossal statue 

 of Ganesha, the Hindoo god of wisdom. He is represented as a 

 short fat man, with the head of an elephant. He has four arms, 

 in one of which he carries the elephant-hook or driver, in the 

 second hand a shell, in the third a ball, and in the fourth some 

 cakes, upon which his trunk is feeding. In every respect this 

 figure corresponds with the common Hindoo representations of 

 the elephant-headed Ganesha. There is also a fine statue of 

 Brahma, with the four heads nearly perfect, though it has been 

 mutilated. Fully a dozen statues of the bull Nandi have been 

 excavated since Sir S. Raffles' time, as well as many other tablets 

 and inscriptions. A part of the terrace on which these statues 

 rested can be traced, as well as the foundations of several large 

 buildings covering many acres of ground. There is a square stone 

 pedestal which evidently supported some statue, and it represents 

 the chariot of Surya, the god of heat and light, or the personifica- 

 tion of the sun. He is seated on a splendid car with one wheel 

 draiwn by a seven-headed horse, but the heads are wanting, and 

 the remains of this stone would lead one to believe that seven 

 separate horses were carved upon it. Altogether the statues were 

 more elaborate and ornamental than those usually seen in India. 



There are plenty of inscriptions about ; in fact, there are stones 

 which are just like tombstones standing straight out of the ground, 

 and they are covered with inscriptions on both sides and on the 

 edges. These are in the Devanagri character, or that in which 

 Sanskrit is usually written. A good many of them have been 

 translated, but they do not throw much light on the history of the 

 building. They are usually passages from the Vedas and Hindoo 

 scriptures. As to the date there are various opinions. They must 

 at least have been erected before Mahometanism became the 

 dominant creed in Java, which was certainly about the year 1478. 

 It was then that the idols were overturned and disfigured, and 

 thus we see Durga, Ganesha, Nandi, and Siva reduced to their 

 present disreputable plight. Before that Singosari was a seat of 



