INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS 219 



friezes on the great Buddhist shrine of Boro Budur {i.e. "Great Buddha") in Java, 

 erected in the eighth or ninth century, show large two-masted vessels provided with 

 a massive outrigger formed of a compound float, held in position by either three or four 

 stout booms ' (fig. 28). As Boro Budur was built by Indians or under the direction 

 of Indian rulers, architects, and foremen, these sculptured representations go far to 

 substantiate the view I take, based upon the many disconnected survivals of the 

 outrigger design on Indian coasts, that certain of the ancient trading vessels of South 

 India and Ceylon were furnished with outriggers ; that the Ceylon sewn-plank out- 

 rigger coasting dhoni, and the Point Calimere kalla dhoni, represent survival modifica- 

 tions of the original type of South Indian trading vessel in use when sea-trade first 

 arose. 



At the same time I agree with Mr. R. D. Banerji ^ that the Boro Budur ship scenes 

 cannot be accepted as representing the emigration of Indian colonists to Java. They 

 undoubtedly represent incidents in the life of the Buddha and what they do show is 

 the type of Javanese ship familiar to the Boro Budur sculptors. A large square 

 sail is carried on each mast, while from the bowsprit is hung a square artemon or 

 spritsail. In the smaller vessels, a large steering oar is hung on the port quarter ; 

 there must have been a corresponding one on the starboard side. The larger two- 

 masted type shows the rudder passing upwards into a trunkway such as the Chinese 

 use in their junks ; it has the appearance of being set laterally, hence it would seem 

 that these vessels used two separate rudders precisely as the large Malay praus to be 

 seen in Macassar harbour have at the present day. In these latter, as I had the 

 opportunity of seeing recently, there is an opening or window in each quarter, 

 considerably below the poop deck, which provide the steersmen with access to the 

 two large rudders — one on each side. The Boro Budur ships customarily show a 

 steersman clinging to the upper portion of the rudder blade — a conventionalism 

 similar to that which represents a sailor working his way along the bowsprit. 



In some (fig. 29), the simpler quarter rudder is retained, apparently held in posi- 

 tion by rudder bands as seen in representations of Roman cargo ships. 



The superstructure above the waterline appears to be built outboard beyond the 

 sides of the hull proper, similarly, but far more developed, to that seen in many Macas- 

 sar praus. To obtain lightness, this superstructure was built with the wales separ- 

 ated by spaces — openwork bulwarks which in the largest Boro Budur ships suggest 

 "basket-work." The smaller vessels lack this or show only a few added open wales 

 of quite ordinary dimensions and pattern. 



1 No Indian or Sinhalese outrigger boats have more than one float supported by two booms, and the same design is 

 characteristic of the outlying Polynesian islands; multiple booms, three and four most commonly but occasionally as 

 many as ten and used in combination with a float on each side are still frequent in the Celebes, Moluccas, and Melanesia. 

 The size of Polynesian outrigger canoes is now much smaller than in pre-Eliropean days, the large sizes having been 

 supplanted by island-built schooners. In the Marshall Islands and elsewhere outrigger canoes of 60 to 70 feet in length 

 are said to have been common prior to the advent of the white man, and long distances were travelled in them, many 

 families taking passage. For an interesting account of Polynesian outriggers see Notes on the Boats, Apparatus and Fish- 

 ing Methods of the South Seas, by A. B. Alexander, in the Report of the U.S. Fish Commission for the year 1901 , Washing- 

 ton, 1902. 



* The Modern Review, Calcutta, August, 1917. 



