CHÁNDI LÓRO JÓNGRANG; or TEMPLES OF LÓRO JÓNGRAN.
These lie directly in front (north) of the village of Brambánan, and about two hundred and fifty yards from the road, whence they are visible, in the form of large hillocks of fallen masses of stone, surmounted, and in some instances covered, with a profusion of trees and herbage of all descriptions. In the present dilapidated state of these venerable buildings, I found it very difficult to obtain a correct plan or description of their original disposition, extent, or even of their number and figure. Those that remain, with any degree of their primary form or elevation, are ten, disposed in three lines, running north and south. Of those on the western line, which are far the largest and most lofty, that in the centre towers high above the rest, and its jutting fragments lie tumbled about over a large area. Nothing can exceed the air of desolation which this spot presents; and the feelings of every visitor are attuned, by the scene of surrounding devastation, to reflect, that while these noble monuments of the ancient splendour of religion and the arts are submitting, with sullen slowness, to the destructive hand of time and nature, the art which raised them has perished before them, and the faith which they were to honour has now no other honour in the land.
After repeated visits to the place, I am perfectly clear, that the temples of Jongrángan originally consisted of twenty separate buildings, besides the enclosures and gateway; that of these, six large and two small temples were within the second wall, and twelve small ones, exactly similar to each other, formed a kind of square about the exterior of the inner wall. The first temple that occurs on entering, is the small central one on the right hand of the present pathway; and though its roof is gone, a most beautiful terrace appears, which supported the building, and measures twenty-three feet six inches by twenty-two feet ten inches. At present the height of it is barely three feet and a half. The lower part contains five small niches on either side, profusely decorated and resting on small pilasters, each niche occupied by a lion, seated exactly similar to those described in the elephant's mouth. The intervals between the niches are very neatly filled with diminutive pilasters and other ornaments, displaying real taste and skill, which again support a double fillet projecting all round. One carved most beautifully, with a running festooned beading, with intermediate knots and pendents, each festoon filled with a lively representation of a parroquet with expanded wings, the other fillet with a fancy pattern more simple. On the opposite, or north side, was a building similar to this, but now a mound of stone.
The largest temple, apparently about ninety feet in height, is at present a mass of ruin, as well as the five others connected with it; but ascending to its northern face, over a vast heap of stones fallen from it and the third temple, at the height of about thirty feet, you reach the entrance: the whole is of hewn stones, fitted and morticed into each other, without rubbish or cement of any kind. Directly in front of the door-way stands the image of Lóro Jóngran. I had previously found a very similar, and I think a more beautiful representation of Dévi, as the Bramin called it, in the village of Kuwíran, about fifteen miles north-east from Brambánan. The image of Lóro Jóngran here has exactly the same attributes and accompaniments as that found at Kuwíran, but it is larger, not at all damaged, perfectly smooth, and with a polished surface: the buffalo is entirely recumbent; the character of the countenance, general figure, and attitudes, are very different, and the shape, attitude, and visage of the goddess, far less elegant and feminine. The figure at Brambánan is six feet three inches by three feet one inch in the widest part at the pedestal; that at Kuwíran is three feet nine inches high by twenty inches. The general description of this goddess, as read to me by the Bramin from a Sanscrit paper he copied at Benares, will serve to illustrate both these images, in the literal precise manner in which I took down his words.
"Bhawáni, Dévi, Soca, Juggudumba, Mahamya, Lutala, Phulmuttis, and Mata, are the designations of this powerful goddess, who resides at Shasi or Basini (Benares), at an angle of the sacred Ganges. Her adoration is called urchit with oblations of flowers, chundun, kundun, and mugt. In her hand she holds a tulwar, called khug: round her neck she has a mala of sumpurun, toolsi, or chundun. Her weight is very great, and wherever her effigy is placed the earth trembles and becomes much heavier. The name of her buffalo is Mahisa, and the Dewth who attempts to slay it is Ussoor. She sleeps upon a bed of flowers."
Thus much could I understand, and repeat verbatim of this goddess's power and attributes. For the rest, in her eight arms she holds, 1st. the buffalo's tail; 2d. the sword called khurg; 3d. the bhulla or janclin; 4th. the chukur or whut; 5th. the lune or conch shell; 6th. the dhat or shield; 7th. the jundah or flag; and 8th. the hair of the Dewth Mahikusor, or personification of vice, who, while attempting to slay her favourite, Mahisa is seized by the goddess in a rage. He raises a dhat or shield in his defence, and a sabre, or some offensive weapon, should be in his right hand.
The apartment in which this image and some other sculptured stones are placed, rises perfectly square and plain, to the height of ten feet, and there occurs a richly carved cornice of four fillets, a single stone to each. From this rises the roof in a square pyramid, perfectly plain or smooth, for ten feet more.
Proceeding over the ruins round to the west face of this building, you pass the intermediate angular projection, carved alternately in a running flower or foliage, which Colonel Mackenzie has called Arabesque, and with small human figures of various form and attitude in compartments, above representations of square pyramidal temples, exactly like those on so many of the entablatures of Bóro Bódo, and similar, I understand, to the Budh temples of Ava, &c. &c., the whole extremely rich and minute beyond description. The western door-way is equally plain with the former, and the entrance is still lower. The apartment is ten feet two inches square, apparently more filled up (that is, the floor raised higher than the other), but in all other respects exactly the same. In front is seated a complete Ganésa, of smooth or polished stone, seated on a throne: the whole a single block, five and a half feet high and three wide. In his hands he has a plantain, a circlet of beads, a flower, and a cup to which the end of his proboscis is applied: a hooded snake encircles his body diagonally over the left shoulder. His cap is high, with a death's head and horned moon in front, and as well as his necklaces, waistband, armlets, bracelets, anklets, and all his habiliments, is profusely decorated. The only damage he appears to have sustained, is in losing all but the roots of his tusks.
The Javans to this day continue to pay their devoirs to him and to Lóro Jóngran, as they are constantly covered with turmerick, flowers, ochre, &c. They distinguish Ganésa by the name of Raja Demáng, Singa Jáya, or Gana Singa Jáya. Going still round over heaps of fallen stone to the south face, you with some difficulty enter by the door-way (nearly closed up by the ruin) into the third apartment, where there is scarce light enough to see a prostrate Siva with his feet broken off and lost. What remains is four feet ten inches and a half long, and two feet two inches wide.
The whole of the apartment on the east side has fallen in, or is closed up by the dilapidation of that entire front.
From the elevated situation of the entrances to all the apartments first described, it is evident that there must formerly have been flights of steps to them. The plan of this temple, and as far as I could judge of the two adjoining ones, north and south, was a perfect cross, each of the four apartments first described occupying a limb or projection of the figure, and the small intermediate protruding angles between these limbs of the cross could only be to admit of a large apartment in the centre of the building, to which, however, no opening was practicable or visible. Moreover, as all the grand entrances to the interior of Hindu temples, where it is practicable, face the rising sun, I could have wished to ascertain from this (the largest and most important at Jongrángan) whether or not the main apartment was in existence, as I had made up my mind, that were I possessed of the means to clear away the stone, I should have found Brahma himself in possession of the place: the smaller rooms being occupied by such exalted deities as Bhawani, Siva, and Ganésa, scarce any other, indeed, than Brahma could be found presiding on the seat of honour and majesty.
The three large temples on the eastern line are in a state of utter ruin. They appear to have been very large and lofty, and perfectly square. The upper terraces, just under the supposed entrances, were visible in some places, at the height of about sixty feet.