22 Ancient Javanese Remains. [No: I, 



the work generally, appeared to me to fall off towards the top, as if the 

 builders had wearied of their work. 



Among the architrave ornaments both here, at Mundot, and at 

 Brambanan, I observed frequent repetitions of the monstrous grinning 

 head, suspending festoons of beads and bells, which is so common in 

 ancient Indian buildings from Assam and Benares to Ceylon, and 

 which is also so common in the ancient Burmese temples at Pagan, 

 probably nearly coeval with Boro Bodor. Mr. Crawfurd on the 

 authority of an ambassador of the king of Bali, concludes this to 

 represent Siva. But I believe this is utterly unfounded. It is, what- 

 ever the symbol may have meant, (if it meant anything more than 

 a lion's head on a Greek entablature,) one of the most ancient forms of 

 ornament in Indian buildings, probably older than the worship of 

 Siva. 



The construction of the small dagobas encircling the apex is 

 very peculiar. They are hollow cages or lattices of stone, each con- 

 taining a patient Buddh immured, who is visible through the diamond- 

 shaped openings in the dome. Each of these openings is formed by 

 the apposition of two hour-glass-shaped stones. Each of the stones 

 has been cut with tenon and mortice attaching it to its neighbours ; 

 and an elaborate system of morticing and dove-tailing appears to run 

 through the whole construction, but which has been lamentably 

 insufficient to keep the joints together in that volcanic region, 

 (Figs. 4, 5). The larger dagoba forming the apex is thoroughly 

 shattered, and will not last much longer. It is said to have been 

 first opened by the English in 1812. 



Mr. Crawfurd describes the Boro Bodor as being merely a shell of 

 masonry round a natural nucleus of hill. I had regarded this merely 

 as a conjecture. But we found an excavation tha,t had been made 

 (lately as it seemed) in the interior of the chief dagoba. And this 

 appeared to show that there was no solid nucleus of masonry. The 

 sides of the pit appeared to be a rubble of earth and stone only. 



Mr. Fergusson, who gives a good account of the Boro Bodor in his 

 Handbook of Architecture, considers it to be a kind of representation 

 of the great Buddhist monasteries, which are described in the 

 Ceylonese writings as having been many stories high, and as contain- 

 ing hundreds of cells for monks. In Tennent's Ceylon (Vol. II. p. 588) 

 there is a wood- cut of a singular pyramidal building at Pollanarua, 



