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Some Remarks on Pre-Hinduistic Burial Customs on Java

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Studies in Indonesian Archaeology

Part of the book series: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ((VKIV))

Abstract

When in 1903 Hendrik Kern revealed the importance of the Nāgarakṛtāgama for historical research of the Malay Archipelago, it became known for the first time that it had been customary among the Javanese to erect statues for their deceased rulers, in the shape of a deity, but with the lineaments of the deceased.1) Although already in 1896 it had become evident from Brandes’ translation of the Pararaton that the Javanese used to bury their rulers in sanctuaries, while some of the sanctuaries mentioned in this text could be identified with existing ruins, it did not follow that this also implied the erection of statues.

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References

  1. Indische Gids, 1903, repr. in Verspreide Geschriften, VIII, p. 231 sqq.

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  2. See T. G. Aravamuthân, Portrait Sculpture in South India, India Society, 1931.

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  3. TBG, 48 (1905), p. 53.

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  4. Ibidem, 50 (1907), p. 140 sqq.

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  5. Ibidem, 52 (1909), p. 183 sq.

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  6. Ibidem, 56 (1914), p. 442 sqq.

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  7. Ibidem, 58 (1919), p. 493 sqq. and 60, (1921), p. 78 sqq.

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  8. JAOS, 51 (1931), p. 1 sqq.

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  9. Nāg., canto 63–68; JAOS, 51 (1931) p. 1 sqq.

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  10. I suppose that it is this what is meant in canto 65: 3–6. The custom still generally prevails in Java.

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  11. W. Caland, Verh. Kon. Akad. Afd. Lett. I no. 6 (1896) p. 72–114. This memorial seems to have assumed sometimes the shape of a miniature temple, in the style of the numerous miniature chaṇḍis found on Java. Sometimes such a memorial developed into a real temple (pilgrimage temple), as in the Muslim world saints’ graves grew into tomb-mosques. (See JRAS, 20, p. 47–71; 272–276; 545–547).

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  12. Catalogus Groeneveldt nos. 374, 783, 379, 783a.

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  13. In 1938 two kemiri-nuts were found at Sanggariti between the magical contents of such a coffin, which can only have been put there during the foundation in the IXth century.

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  14. R. Goris, Bijdrage t. d. kennis d. O. Jav. en Bal. theologie (Contribution to our knowledge of Old-Javanese and Balinese theology), p. 126 sqq. A beautiful representation of Çiwa with his eight aspects is given in Oudheden van Bali (Antiquities of Bali), fig. 85.

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  15. The erection of the statue was called (su)pratiṣṭakrivā (Nāg., canto 64 : 5 ; 69:1).

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  16. Nāg., canto 69 : 3, where the Bayalangu monument is meant. As is known it consisted of a substruction with a pit and a statue. The rest of the structure was of wood and was consequently renewed.

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  17. Nāg., canto 69 :2 ; this consecration seems to have been preceded by a brakmayajña (Nāg., canto 67 : 3). See further Tijdschr. Bat. Gen., 74 (1934), p. 464, note.

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  18. angça, angçawatāra (Adip. 48, 47) ; (Nāg., canto 67 :2) ; it always seems to mean that only part of the god was incarnated.

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  19. mekala (Nāg., canto 37 :1 ; 38 : 1 ; 57 : 5 ; 70 :2) which contained a gate, gopura.

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  20. Another term is caṇḍi; it is not clear, however, whether this indicates a type architecturally different from the prāsāda (Nāg., canto 17 :4, 10 ; 56 :5 ; 57 :4). Both names occur in Bali and indicate stone structures, which have something to do with the ancestral cult.

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  21. chaṇḍi Barabuḍur, Name, Form and Significance, see pp. 25 sqq. above.

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  22. In the Bali merus objects are put in the attic in which the gods will descend.

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  23. See P. A. J. Moojen, Bali, p. 87, fig. 23.

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  24. Stupas are rare in Java. Apart from those at Barabuḍur and Palgading, already known for a long time (for the latter see OV, 1925, p. 61 sqq.) in Central Java, and chaṇḍi Dadi in East Java (BKI, 81 (1925), p. 543 sqq.), a stupa has recently been excavated and restored at Sumberawan OV, 1937, p. 21). The word is not used in the Nāg., whereas the shape of chaṇḍi Bayalangu indicates that the word caitya occurring in the Nāg. does not indicate a stupa but another construction, for chaṇḍi Bayalangu, called a caitya in this text, was a stone basement with a wooden superstructure.

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  25. Museum Batavia no. 392. Knebel speaks of a sarcophagus (?) in OR, 1908, p. 244.

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  26. OR, 1923, p. 97 sqq.

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  27. Catalogas Groeneveldt, no. 369–373; further OR, 1915, under the residencies of Madiun, Surabaya and Kĕḍiri. Several others been found since then.

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  28. Catalogas Groeneveldt, p. 118.

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  29. Catalogus Groeneveldt, no. 370a, 372 and three specimens elsewhere.

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  30. Find of 1925. The piece was excavated when making the drainage tunnel of the lake and so it was originally lying near the entrance of the bowl of the crater.

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  31. Museum at Batavia, no. 1210.

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  32. J. L. Moens, TBG, 58 (1919), p. 504 sqq.

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  33. Care must be taken not to make the mistake to consider the goddess Çri as the goddess of the dead. She might rather be called the goddess of resurrection. That is why her symbols need not always be connected with death and must certainly be associated with germinating life, the increase of vital strength, happiness, love, beauty etc. like those appearing on the lids of rice-pots, rice-spoons, mirrors, rings and earrings. See Djåwå 17 (1937), pp. 44 sqq. 51 sqq ; the objects indicated in Djåwå 14 (1934) on p. 186 as lids of pots for holy water may, viewed in this light, have originally covered rice-pots, or have even served on pots for bones. See especially also K. A. H. Hidding in De Opwekker, 1933, and in his thesis (Leiden), 1929.

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  34. Van der Tuuk, Kawi-Bal. Ned. Wdbk. (Kawi-Balinese-Dutch Dictionary) II, p. 626.

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  35. Nāg., canto 67 : 2.

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  36. Krom, Inleiding II, p. 329 sqq. BKI, 89 (1932), p. 269 sqq. and plate opposite, p. 271.

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  37. On my last visit to this hermitage situated on the eastern slope of the Wilis it struck me that the similarity of the mountain lake and the small house represented there with the mountain lake of Ngebel with its small house lying at the other side of the Wilis gets a particular meaning on account of the fact that both are situated on exactly the same degree of latitude.

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  38. T’oung Poo 16 (1915), p. 244.

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  39. Verh. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. Afd. Letterk. 32 (1933) no. 3, p. 37.

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  40. Ma Huan came from Ki Shan, the situation of which seems to be unknown (T’oung Pao, 16 (1915), p. 69).

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  41. H. H. Bartlett, Papers Michigan Acad. of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Vol. 1 (1921).

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  42. The oldest dated house is of 982, the oldest dated Javanese version of Mahābhārata material of 996.

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  43. Op. cit., p. 29 sqq.

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  44. Djåwå, 16 (1936), p. 82 sqq.

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  45. See a.o. Playfair, China Review, 5 (1876); Schotter, Anthropos, 3 (1908), 4 (1909), 6 (1911) ; Stübel, Die Li Stämme etc. (1937).

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  46. See especially R. von Heine Geldern, Wiener Beiträge 2ur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Asiens, VIII (1934), p. 5 sqq.

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Stutterheim, W.F. (1956). Some Remarks on Pre-Hinduistic Burial Customs on Java. In: Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5987-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5987-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-5681-5

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