The God with the Horse’s Head

Abstract

In a treatise still to be written on the Hindu-Javanese art of bronze-casting, an interesting chapter might be dedicated to the large group of prayer bells which, in the course of time, have come into the possession of public and private collections. Its subject matter might be found not only in the appraisal of the by no means slight aesthetic qualities of these objects with their perfect harmony of proportions and exquisite taste in ornamentation, but also in the assessment of their significance both in cult and in iconography The attention of the student of the latter subjects will be drawn especially to the emblems of which the bronze ghaṇṭās are the bearers, literally as well as figuratively, and the variety of which is but faintly reflected in present-day Balinese craft. Whereas the brass bell handled both by the Saiva and the Bauddha priest in Bali is invariably topped by the five-pointed vajra ¹), there was quite a variety of such emblems in Java.