Abstract
Whoever examines from which standpoint we in present-day scholarship are in the habit of considering the problem of the origin, the development and the significance of the Hindu-Javanese religious syncretism, soon becomes certain that it has undergone no essential changes since Professor Kern, now nearly forty years ago, gave his well-known Academy lecture “On the blending of Sivaism and Buddhism in Java, based on the Old Javanese poem Sutasoma”.1 The real aim that Kern set before himself in writing this treatise, was to show the untenability of Hodgson’s contention that there is no reason to interpret the striking agreement, (also noticed by this scholar himself in Nepal, the country where he lived), between all kinds of symbols of Buddhism and Sivaism as indicative of a strong Sivaistic influence in the northern section of the Buddhist church. Kern produced irrefutable proof that the Sivaistic influence had been present in no small degree, and in doing this, used data from widely-separated periods and countries.
“It is the duty of one who attempts to analyse a culture to formulate a mechanism whereby an introduced element of culture has become part of the complex in which it is now found”.
W. H. R. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society, (1914), vol. II, 4.
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References
Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Kon. Akademie van Wetenschappen, 3de reeks, dl. V (1888); reprinted in: Ver-spreide Geschriften, IV (1916), 149–177.
Krom, Inleiding tot de Hindoe-Javaansche Kunst (Introduction to Hindu-Javanese Art) (1923), I, 107; Over het Çiwaïsme van Midden-Java (Concerning Sivaism in Central Java), in: Mededee-lingen der Kon. Akademie van Wetenschappen, afd. Letterk. (Literature Section), dl. 58, Serie B No. 8, 27 (225).
Krom, Inleiding I, 106, 118.
Stutterheim, Rāma-legenden und Rāma-reliefs in Indonesien (1925), 228.
Pigeaud (De Tantu Pcmggelaran, 1925, pp. 24–25) remarks that the Tantristic view of Siva as the teacher (guru) who teaches his pupils the doctrine of salvation, can probably make the dogma of the unity of Siva and Buddha somewhat intelligible. “The Buddhas also are teachers, gurus, of the doctrine of salvation”. He recalls at the same time that a certain division between the two religions has always been maintained in Java and Bali.
Krom, Over het Çiwaïsme van Midden-Java, 16 (214), 20 (218).
Cf. for instance Stutterheim, ibid. 135: Wir haben also für Mittel-Java hintereinander eine buddhistische Regierung, von der die Urkunden der Tempelgründungen zeugen, und eine nicht-buddhistische, die ihre Fortzetzung oder ihren Hauptsitz in Ost-Java hatte, aber auch über Mittel-Java die Herrschaft ausübte.
Nāgarakṝtāgama, 8:4.
Krom, Inleiding, II, 146; the same, Het oude Java en zijn kunst (Ancient Java and its Art), (1923), 119, 165.
Verspreide Geschriften, VII (1917), 269.
Voorlopig verslag van het eiland Bali; (Preliminary account of the island of Bali) in Verhand. Batav. Genootsch. XII (1849), 29.
Hindu-javaansche en Balische eeredienst (Hindu-Javanese and Balinese religious worship); in Bijdr. Kon. Inst. dl. 5 (1911) 9 ff.
Ibid., dl. 65 (1911), 13.
Tijdschr. Batav. Genootschap, dl. LVIII (1919), 348 ff.
Krom, Inleiding, II, 278.
Dr. Pigeaud (De Tantu Panggĕlaran, 40) also points out that the Bubukshah story and several other works that seem to be pre-eminently Buddhist, and which even present Buddhism as more excellent than Sivaism, probably have no propagandist tendency.
P. V. van Stein Callenfels, De Sudamalain de Hindu-Javaansche Kunst (The Sudamala in Hindu-Javanese Art), p. 66.
Ibid., p. 67.
Ibid., p. 67.
De Wolkentoonelen van Panataran (The cloud scenes of Panataran (1909), 14*.
Inleiding, II, 279.
P. V. van Stein Callenfels, De Sudamala, p. 61.
Ibid., p. 68.
Tijdschr. Bat. Gen. LVIII (1919), 351 ff.
Above, 4–6.
In the Tantu, Kĕbo milih and Kĕbo ngrawĕg appear only under their later names, Gagang-aking and Bubukshah. Here they are the sons of the marriage between Tĕkĕn-wuwung, who has magical powers and is the mythical bringer of Javanese civilization from India, and the daughter of Wawu-langit, a prince in prehistoric times. Here also they are brought into connection “with the beginning of the development, the course of which the Tantu wants to describe”.
Cf. the name (kayon, gunungan) of the wayang-figure which is always placed as a primitive stage-setting, in front of the screen when the scene is empty.
In one place in the Tantu Panggĕlaran (Pigeaud, ibid., 175) the origin of Sivaism and Buddhism in Java is told in a way that reminds us of the chief features of the Bubukshah story; even the feature of the miraculous birth of the twins has been preserved. Mahampu Palyat (who is the supreme god Guru himself), a Bhuyangga of the Siva school with magic powers, divides his body into two pieces; these halves take on the forms of a Saiva (Empu Barang) and a Saugata (Empu Walubang). It is now, however, remarkable that when these two brothers go looking for a “school” (ibid., 178) it seems to occur in exactly the opposite way to the Bubukshah story; the saugata Walubang goes to the west and founds the patapan Warag, Barang goes to te east and establishes himself on the peak Kalyasĕm. We can only guess that here in the Tantu, where cosmogonic myths have become traditions of the foundation of maṇḍalas, and the ancient stories must serve to motivate mediaeval Javanese relationships, the geographical situation of existing ascetic communities has taken the place of mythical orientation.
Above 21. 27.
Above, 25; and cf. R. Hertz, La prééminence de la main droite; étude sur la popularité religieuse. (Revue philosophique, LXVIII, 1909, 553–580).
It is striking that the mechanism is fundamentally the same as the complex of ideas which, Professor Krom guessed, made possible in an earlier period, the acceptance of Sivaism as a Javanese people’s religion. See: Over het Çiwaïsme van Midden-Java, 20, (218).
Bosch. Het Lingga-heiligdom van Dinaja (The Lingga shrine of Dinaya); in Tijdschr. Bat. Gen. LXIV (1924), 253.
It goes without saying that we do not here deny that the opposition of the “fire”- and “water”-vratas also goes back to a primitive (Indian) classification.
Krom, Het oude Java en zijn kunst, 113, 117.
Concerning the meaning of Panataran as a Sivaistic state temple, see the remarks of Stutterheim, Note 4, p. 181.
Stutterheim, Ràma-legenden, chap. IX.
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Rassers, W.H. (1982). Siva and Buddha in the East Indian Archipelago. In: Pañji, The Culture Hero. Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6657-9_2
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