1850.] 



of Continental India, Sfc. 



129 



To return to the antiquities of Brambanaw, and other places, it 

 appears to me, that though there is apparent a sufficient mingling 

 of relics having evident relation to Brahmanism, such as Siva's 

 bull, figures of Ganesa, and possibly of Durga ; yet that the pre- 

 vailing characteristics of the temples and relics seem to me 

 Bauddhistical. I write doubtfully about Durga, because I no where 

 discern her lion vehicle ; and she seems to me to be rather tramp- 

 ling upon a cow, the emblem # of Hinduism, than contending en- 

 face, with the buffalo Mahisa ; concerning which emblem there 

 has been much fine spun speculation, among some writers, of its 

 emblematizing the abstract power of evil, with which Durga or the 

 abstract typification of virtue ! is contending. Such a blending of 

 western, with oriental, ideas has done much disservice to the 

 cause of simple truth. I know no point of comparison whatever 

 in which the sanguinary Durga, can be duly made to represent the 

 ideal personification of virtue incarnate on earth. She is the de- 

 stroying power, in exertion, of the destroying deity Siva ; and the 

 bull, or buffalo Mahisa, I rather think, tj^pifies the species of schism 

 of the Bauddhists ; which though it was like Hinduism at the 

 outset, yet soon manifested a nature as diverse, as the buffalo 

 differs from the cow ; and whereas Durga, on her lion, contending 

 with the buffalo might aptly typify the inveterate and hostile 

 struggles, (attended with no common destruction of life) of Brah- 

 manism against Bauddhism, even so the reverse, would not be in- 

 appropriate in Bauddhism being emblematized by a female, some- 

 thing like Diirga ; but differently armed, grasping, in one hand, 

 the hair of a wretched Brahman, while in other hands weapons of 

 destruction are flourished, and she tramples under foot the pros- 

 trate helpless cow, the emblem of the Brahmanical system.* Such 

 seems to me to be the rendering of the hieroglyphical sculptures 

 found in Java : but I may possibly hypothematize, as well as 

 others ; and therefore do no more than place opinion in compari- 

 son with opinion. 



Two or three figures of Ganesa, one of jYandi, and some perhaps 

 of Diirga, being excepted, all the other relics of sculpture are 

 either indifferent, or are characteristic of Bauddhism. Two fi- 



* The preceding description is founded on one of the plates in Raffles' Java. 

 vol.xti. jto. xxxvii, R 



