208 THE RUINS OF BORO BUDTJR IN JAYA. 



the whole series of 393 plates in 1871, just 18 years after M. 

 Wilsen's drawings had been begun, and more than half a century 

 after the idea had first occurred to Sir Stamford Baffles. 



While the work of preparing these plates for publication was 

 going on, the question of producing an explanatory text was under 

 the careful consideration, both of the Dutch Government and of 

 the Institute, whose advice on this subject ha:l been solicited. 

 There was a considerable amount of material for such a text already 

 existing. M. Wilsen himself had contributed a very valuable 

 paper entitled " Boro Budur explained in relation to Brahmanism 

 and Buddhism," which he had placed at the disposal of the Dutch. 

 Government for this purpose ; and M. J. E. G. Brumund, a 

 member of the Committee of the Batavian Society, had made him- 

 self a reputation by writing on the same subject. There were also 

 other papers published in various scientific periodicals, and notices 

 in larger works such as those of Raffles and Crawflrd. The Dutch 

 Government held the opinion, with which the Institute agreed, that 

 it was of importance that all these materials should be compared 

 and used by one Editor in the preparation of a text descriptive of 

 the plates, and wished Dr. Leemans to undertake this as well as 

 superintending the issue of the plates themselves. Some difficulty 

 was raised by Mr. BrtjmttjStd, who thought, and apparently with 

 some reason, that he had been distinctly commissioned by Govern- 

 ment to perform this part of the whole scheme. His objec- 

 tions were overruled, and the book was finally written by 

 Dr. Leemans, who, however, incorporated into his work the 

 previous production of M.M. "Wilsen - and Brtjmund with such 

 modifications as seemed necessary. The text thus composed was 

 published in Dutch, with a French translation, in 1874. It con- 

 sists of five parts. 1st — A general description of Boro Budur. 

 2nd — A description of the bas-reliefs in the different galleries. 

 3rd — An essay on the character and purpose of Boro Budur founded 

 on a comparison between this building and other sacred edifices on 

 the continent of Asia and in Java. 4th — A discussion upon the 

 date, and the circumstances of the foundation and the decay of 

 Boro Budur in relation to the ancient history of Java; and 5th— An 

 essay upon Boro Budur from the artistic point of view. The 

 whole forms a very learned and yet a very readable book, and gives 



