TMROu&HOUTti^e whole of the buildings, there is one general obfer- 

 matron, which may be made upon them, viz.'that they are diflinguifhed- 

 by a 'commendable decency, and among the great variety of reprefenta^* 

 . tions which is found i fiiould be at a lofs to point out a fingle object that 

 ©Quid give offence to the moil' fallidious delicacyi This is the more re^- 

 makable, when we advert to the nature of the rehgion to which thefe 

 ftcmples are dedicated, and contrafl them in this refpect with the grofs ' 

 indecencies^ which foifequeDtly-dif grace the temples of Hindu/tan,' 

 Ait^r this fketch ofthe temples and their decorations, I fhall make a few 

 obfervstion on their sera, on the nature of die agency by which they 

 Mve been brought to their p re fen t ft ate of' dilapidation, on the nature 

 and cbara6ler of the worlhip, to which they appear to have been dedi- 

 cated, and laftly offer fonie conjeftures refpeding the founders of thefc 

 remarkable flructurei, 



I HAVE already hinted that the temples of Prambanan, are not of a 

 wry remote antiquity, and accordingly in the memorial verfes, as 

 Sir William Jqne«, Galls them, • in which the' chronology of the 

 Javanefe, as well as of the Hindus k preferved, the date of the oldeft 

 ofthe temples, thofe to the call ofthe river Umpahy goes no further 

 back than ii%% oi Salivana, or 5^^^^ as it is called m- Java znd Bali, 

 and the other temples, thofe to the well of that river, are by thirty- 

 years, more modern. This traditional date, for it carr hardly be coik 

 iidered.as much better, is however corroborated, in a remarkable 

 degree, by the approximation to it which is difcovered in all the mo- 

 numents fituated in the fanae part of the ifl^md ; none of thefe go ^ 

 farther back than the beginning of the 12th century of Sdivand, and 

 none of the real hindu temples which bear the mark of an indiant 

 origin later than the middle of the 13th: the whole reign of genuine 

 Hinduifmi as well as can be afcertained from fach dates, is confined 



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