R. Jordaan R. Wessing Human Sacrifice at Prambanan In

R. Jordaan R. Wessing Human sacrifice at Prambanan

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 152 (1996), no: 1, Leiden, 45-73

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Introduction While the discovery of a. human skeleton is nothing extraordinary in Indo- nesian archaeology, that of one in the central area of the famous Hindu temple complex of Candi Prambanan in Central Java, which dates from the first half of the ninth century A.D., does call for an explanation. Such explanations as have been put forward up to now have all been unsatis- factory. Although an explanation in terms of human sacrifice was sug- gested at the time, the idea received scant recognition in the archaeological literature. Only after another human skeleton was found in a neighbouring Buddhist temple complex could the possibility of the practice of human sacrifice in ancient Central Java no longer be ignored. The phenomenon remained a difficult topic among archaeologists, however. The problem that hampered scholarly progress was the choice of the appropriate ideological framework in which to place such sacrificial practices: Hindu-Buddhist religious ideas or Javanese folklore. It is this problem that we want to discuss and try to find a solution for in this article.

The evidence The skeleton in question was found by J.W. Uzerman, a Dutch civil engineer who, as chairman of an amateur archaeological society in Yog- yakarta, undertook the excavation of the Prambanan temple complex in 1885. This entailed the clearing of the temple site of its luxuriant tropical vegetation and of the tons of volcanic deposits that had covered up the buildings in the course of the centuries, as well as the removal of rubble from the chambers of collapsed temples and the careful investigation of the deep shafts - so-called 'temple pits' - hidden beneath the pedestals of overturned statues. The ritual deposits which Uzerman and his team

ROY E. JORDAAN obtained his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Leiden. He is currently a private scholar mainly interested in ancient Javanese society and culture, in particular the position of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, and is the author of In Praise of Prambanan; Dutch Essays on the Loro Jonggrang Temple Complex, Leiden: KITLV Press, forthcoming.

ROBERT WESSING is an anthropologist who obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in Urbana. He has worked for many years on problems surrounding the relations between people and tigers as well as people and spirits in Indonesia and has previously published The Soul of Ambiguity; The Tiger in Southeast Asia, and 'The Gunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise?'

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discovered in the pits of the main temples varied in composition, as will become clear from the summary below. In the Siva temple the excavators discovered, underneath the pedestal of the statue of Siva Mahadeva, a stone box surrounded by soil mixed with charcoal and the burnt bones of a goat and a hen at a depth of about 6 metres. In among all this was found a small gold plate bearing the names of Varuna, god of the sea, and Parvata, god of mountains. The box itself contained the remains of some small copper plates, as well as some soil mixed with charcoal and ashes - which latter were established after labora- tory analysis to have originated from burnt animals. Other things found in this temple pit were some twenty coins, several small gems, some glass beads, small gold-leaf and silver cuttings, a sea shell, and twelve small gold plates. Of these twelve plates, five were in the shape of a tortoise, a naga, a lotus flower, an altar, and an egg respectively. The other plates were square and had each been inscribed with syllables that are assumed to be connected with some magical system. About these syllables Stutterheim writes (1940:226): 'In six cases these inscriptions comprise the syllables ah, ah, a, a, ang and ë; a seventh consists of an utterly unpronounceable and unrepeatable combination of letters. Apparently, therefore, these are mystical-magical syllables belonging to some Tantric system of corres- pondences between gods, elements and characteristics.'1 The ritual deposits in the Brahma and Visnu temples included earthen- ware potsherds, various pieces of sculpted stone, some soil mixed with charcoal, some animal teeth and bones, some pieces of copper, and various small silver objects in the shape of a flower, tortoise, disc, cross, and so on. The finds in the smaller temples in the inner courtyard of the temple complex were even more spectacular. Although Ijzerman at first stated that these pits, on their excavation, 'proved not as yet to have been used for their intended purpose' (1887:272), he later disclosed that the pits had not in fact been found empty and that their contents were really extraordinary, in spite of his earlier remarks to the contrary. For instance, in the Nandi temple, opposite the temple dedicated to Siva, were unearthed the remains of an especially large, unburnt ant-eater (or pangolin, Manis Javanica), part of the lower jaw of a squirrel, two porcupines' teeth, and a cow's tooth. The southern temple (now known as Candi A), opposite the Brahma temple, contained the body of a dog, 'not scorched by fire'. In the

1 The syllables may be inlerpretable as kinds of bijaksara, i.e., the syllables of a mantra or spell with which to invoke particular deities (Monier-Williams 1986:732). In this case, however, rather than only an initial letter or syllable, whole names and words seem to be given. In Uzerman's figure 92 we can make out the names of Varuna and Parvata, while the syllables in his figures 93 to 98, which Stutterheim read as the various above-mentioned forms of the syllable ah, might be read as 'Om Sri', although the Sri part remains dubious. The syllables in figure 99 are illegible (see Ijzerman 1891 II:figs. 92-9, appendix). We would like to thank Dr. Willem van der Molen for his assistance in deciphering these syllables.

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Fig.101

Fig.100

Fig.103

IUustration 1. Plates and figuresfoun d in the stone casket undemeath the large statue of Siva (reduced in size). Source: Ijzerman 1891.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Illustration 4. Prambanan. Skeleton to the south-east of the Nandi temple. Source: Oudheidkundig Verslag 1938, p. 22, fig. 11, photo OD 11192 (used by courtesy of the Kern Institute, Leiden).

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Illustration 2. Gold and copper plates inscribed with syllables, found in the stone casket undemeath the large statue of Siva (reduced in size). Source: Ijzerman 1891.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 49 northern temple (known as Candi B), Ijzerman reports laconically, 'nothing extraordinary was found, except for an almost complete, well- preserved human skeleton at a depth of 5.30 to 6 metres' (Ijzerman 1891:68). Unfortunately, Ijzerman gave no further information on the position in which the skeleton was found, whether or not it had been dressed, or whether the person in question had been old or young, male or female, and so on. He did, however, put forward the suggestion that the traces of animal sacnfices in the ritual deposits might indicate that a Tantric sect was responsible for the construction of the temple complex. He referred to studies by Colebrooke and Coleman, who both mentioned animal sacrifices in honour of the goddess Kali among the Hindus (Ijzerman 1891:72). With respect to the presence of the human skeleton, Ijzerman asked: 'Should this be ascribed to a deliberate burial in the pit, or did it come to be there by chance, as the result of an accident or a crime? Or was it perhaps there as a consequence of a human sacrifice, which admittedly has not been practised in India for a long time, but is theoretically very important in the worship of Kan, as the murders by the Thugs testify. This leaves ample room for speculation, though we shall refrain from this' (Ijzerman 1891:68). IJzerman's remarks about Tantric sects and their practice of bloody sacrifice were hardly taken seriously at the time, mainly for two reasons. In the first place, scholars before the Second World War were convinced that in the Central Javanese period (7th-10th century A.D.) this kind of Tantrism was negligible, being confined to isolated cases of minor sects living in mountainous areas (see, for instance, Stutterheim 1929). They assumed that a full-blown form of Tantrism, which evolved simultaneously with the development of a syncretic Siva-Buddha cult, only became important in Java in the East Javanese period, i.e., between the early tenth and the fifteenth century (Krom 1931:189, 220; Moens 1924; Schnitger 1934). Other signs of Tantrism from the Central Javanese period were never fully recognized as such, usually being taken for 'Tantric trumpery' (Brandes) or referred to as 'mildly' Tantric, i.e., 'notions that were related or conducive to Tantrism' (Krom 1931:222; see also Bosch 1961:488). The second reason was the generally negative view of Tantrism, which was commonly considered to be synonymous with demonology and the sinister practices of sorcerers or black magie. Any association of Tantrism with 'classical' monuments such as Borobudur and Prambanan was hence simply inconceivable (Krom 1927 11:327; Pott 1956:58; Bosch 1959:239). Being incompatible with the prevalent scholarly opinion, Prambanan's animal and human skeletons were relegated to the background. The human skeleton, in particular, was only casually mentioned in the archaeological literature, if indeed it was mentioned at all. An early example of the suppression, no doubt unintended, of information of this kind is provided by Bosch's pioneering study on the origins of Hindu-Javanese temple architecture. Dismissing the prescriptions for some Vedic offerings, among

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Illustration 3. Cross-sections of the temple pit in Candi B and the Siva temple (not drawn to scale). Source: Ijzerman 1891.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 51 them purusamedha (human sacrifice), in the silpasastra (technical treatises on architecture and sculpture) as academie, Bosch stated: 'One can assume that such sacrifices never took place, but may be considered as pure fantasies of "learned" Brahman priests' (Bosch 1920; 1924:32, n. 87).2 Krom mentioned both the human skeleton and the animal remains without further comment and simply repeated Ijzerman's observation that 'clearly none of the pits, without any exception, were dug [as such], but rather the necessary space was reserved, during the construction [of the temples], in the base [of the foundations]' (Krom 1923a:486; see Ijzerman 1891:69). Apparently no one paid any attention to IJzerman's additional finding that 'the filling in of the shafts in all the temples was begun from the base of the foundations upwards', which, as we see it, implies that a deceased could not have ended up in a shaft by accident or as the result of a crime. The only possible conclusion must be that we have here a case of deliberate burial, very likely that of a sacrificial victim. As an anonymous referee of the present paper commented, the fact that the human remains were found amid a mass of rubble that filled the pit led him or her to suspect that these remains might be those of a plunderer trapped by the collapsing masonry lining the pit. Where there had been no such collapse, the pits were found to be empty. This referee moreover pointed to what had happened in Candi Siva, where there is a niche half- way down the pit, on top of an earlier layer of rubble, which prompted the conclusion that the temple was probably restored after having once collapsed, and that the pit was filled in after the 'ultimate destruction of the temple, during which the statue and its pedestal rocked to and fro' (see Illustration 3). This raises two points: that of the rubble in Candi B and the Siva temple pits, and the 'empty' state of the other pits. To address the second point first: it is not true that the other pits were empty; some even contained some fragments of stone and broken pieces of statuary. While there were no human remains reported in their case, the Nandi temple pit was found to contain the remains of an ant-eater, as was pointed out above. The pits of the other temples contained, among other things, some ritual deposits, a pot, and the remains of a dog. Why the Javanese did not fill these shafts with rubble is, of course, an interesting question, but not one that can be answered at this remove. As for the first point, that of the rubble, a close inspection of IJzerman's illustrations shows that the number of blocks in the pit of Candi B is much larger than the few stones that could possibly have fallen into it from the upper part of its walls. What is more important, a comparison with the Siva temple makes clear that such a disintegration or

2 Lately, Bruce Lincoln put forward a near-identical explanation for human sacrifice in ancient India: 'In practice humans were probably never offered in India, the purusamedha (sacrifice of a man) remaining only a priest's fantasy of the sacrifice to end all sacrifice' (quoted by Smith and Doniger 1989:220, n. 31).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access 5 2 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing collapse does not need to be presumed. Here, too, an apparently disorderly mass of stone blocks has ended up in the pit, but, unlike at Candi B, there is nothing to indicate that these stones came from the walls of the pit, since the lining of the walls is undamaged. The stones cannot have landed in the pit accidentally, either, unless one assumes that there were two earthquakes. This line of reasoning seems to us unduly complicated, and is moreover difficult to reconcile with the fact that the rubble from the second hypothetical earthquake, which allegedly resulted in the temple's ultimate destruction, was covered anew with three layers of neatly sorted stones (see also Ijzerman 1891:60). Whatever the reason for the scant attention that was paid to IJzerman's additional finding with regard to the filling in of the shafts, the human skeleton at Prambanan hardly received consideration after Krom's mention of it. The only time it was mentioned again, to our knowledge, was in Stutterheim's review of Van Blom's monograph on Candi Sojiwan, a temple located a few kilometres south of Prambanan, which probably also dates from the first half of the ninth century. This mention was prompted by Van Blom's (1935:13) reference to the discovery of a human skeleton in the grounds of this Buddhist sanctuary. Stutterheim, in keeping with the ideas of his time, said nothing about a possible Tantric Buddhist back- ground of this phenomenon, either. Instead, he pointed to the Javanese folk-tradition of human sacrifice in the course of the execution of important construction projects. What strikes one here, aside from the rather casual mention of the fact in a footnote, is Stutterheim's unusually cautious formulation, leaving ample room also for 'chance': 'The author [Van Blom] reports the discovery of the remains of a skeleton. I recollect that a skeleton was found as well to the southeast of the so-called Nandi temple at Prambanan (Photo OD [Archaeological Service] 11192). Obviously we can draw no conclusions from this similarity of circumstance and must leave considerable margin for coincidence. Nevertheless, it is advisable to be cautious here, inter alia in view of the Javanese culik belief, which involves a belief in human sacrifice in connection with large construction projects.' (Stutterheim 1935:84, n. 1.) It will not have escaped the reader's attention that the human remains mentioned by Stutterheim cannot have been the same as the skeleton found by Ijzerman in 1885, as the latter was found not to the southeast of the Nandi temple, but in the temple pit in Candi B, to the north of the Nandi temple. Moreover, the later discovery of the second skeleton was made not in a shaft underneath the base of a statue, but in the central temple area, at least, as far as we can infer from the extremely summary account accompanying the above-mentioned photograph in the archaeological reports. The reports of the former Netherlands Indies Archaeological Service {Oudheidkundig Verslag 1938), unfortunately, again lack data on the sex, age, and probable cause of death of the deceased.

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Illustration 4. Prambanan. Skeleton to the south-east of the Nandi temple. Source: Oudheidkundig Verslag 1938, p. 22, fig. 11, photo OD 11192 (used by courtesy of the Kern Institute, Leiden).

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In spite of the disappearance of this skeleton in an archaeological closet, Stutterheim's reference to Javanese folk-beliefs concerning kidnapping and human sacrifice in connection with large construction projects was bound to be taken even less seriously than the idea of Hindu or Buddhist Tantric influence, largely because the notion of the influence of indigenous ideas and practices was hard to reconcile with the scholars' fïrm conviction of the conservative character of Hindu-Buddhist religious worship. In this connection Krom had written that 'Even if one may note some typically Javanese features in the official sanctuaries, in general the religion tends to conservatism, and traces of non-Hindu religious ideas and practices can sooner be expected in other places' (Krom 1931:175; see also Krom 1923a:58 and 1923b:37). A similar view was taken by Bosch, as is apparent from, among others, one of his later writings, dealing in particular with the interface between the Indian sphere of influence and ancient indigenous folk-beliefs (Bosch 1954). Putting it forward as 'an established fact', Bosch asserted that 'from the ancient Central Javanese period onwards down to present-day Bali, a hard core, a nucleus of pure Indian origin, which is indissoluble in the magma of its Indonesian environment and impervious to the influences of place and time, has been sustained. This nucleus being the priestly ritual ...' (Bosch 1954:13). This priestly ritual comprised both the sacra privata and the more public sacred proceedings, such as consecration ceremonies and temple rituals. Given this assumption, there seemed to be no need to consider the relevance of Javanese folk-customs for the explanation of ritual deposits in Hindu- Buddhist temples.

Intermezzo: The rise and demise of the funerary theory Having landed in an impasse with regard to the question about the right religious tradition from which to explain the animal and human skeletons, most scholars focused their attention on the contents of the ritual deposit boxes, particularly the ashes. With Ijzerman (1887:272), they assumed these boxes to be 'urns' containing human ashes, in spite of the fact that the ashes had been identified as those of animals. These ideas, which had actually been current since Raffles and the British Interregnum, became the basis for the interpretation of the Javanese temple as a sepulchral monument or mausoleum. In view of the widely recorded presence of charcoal and ashes in the ritual deposit boxes of various Hindu-Buddhist sanctuaries, even Krom did not doubt the influence of an ancient Indonesian form of ancestor worship, in spite of his above-quoted remark about the conservative character of Hindu religious worship (Krom 1923a:l 19, 143; 1923b:39). The fact that the Javanese usually referred to these pre-Islamic ruins as candi led him to surmise that 'originally the word denoted a stone monument erected over the ashes of a dead person, irrespective of whether this was a simple pile of stones or a small building.

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Possibly the name is derived from Candika, one of the names of Durga, a goddess who appears to have been closely associated with the dead, and whose temple is absent from no Balinese burial place down to this very day. The shift in meaning, from "tombstone, burial monument, mausoleum", to "sanctuary in general", seems obvious.' (Krom 1923a:143.) Stutterheim developed the idea of the funerary function of the Javanese temple into a full-fledged theory (Stutterheim 1931; 1940; 1956). There is no need to discuss this well-known theory in full here. Suffïce it to recall Stutterheim's statement that the worship of rulers in the form of gods was a practice that was unknown in India and was attributable solely to the persistence of ancient Indonesian ancestor worship practices. He believed the attempt to maintain regular contact with a lofty ancestor, now dressed in Hindu and Tantric-Buddhist ritual garb, to be a traditional means of securing the well-being of the descendants, and of the people at large.3 To Stutterheim, therefore, a Javanese candi was not a temple in the true sense of the word, but a monument: 'the temple was not a place of worship, but rather an ancestor house [..,]. Temples in the true sense of the word do not exist in Java. What is called by that name in ninety out of a hundred cases is a funerary monument, where the king, now identified with a god, communicated with his descendants.' (Stutterheim 1931:1; see also Stutterheim 1956:87-8.) It was not until well after the Second World War that doubt was cast upon the funerary thesis. Stutterheim's theory was superseded especially as a result of research by Bosch (1954), O'Connor (1966), and Soekmono (1974).4 The main thrust of Bosch's criticism was that Stutterheim had adopted an extreme point of view, 'which could not be defended against the testimony of the facts'. One of these facts was the nature of the royalty

3 The Tantric influence that was recognized here related solely to the presence of the small metal plates in the ritual deposit boxes (pripih), which were inscribed with various so-called 'mystical' syllables supposedly representing the gods who dwelt in the temple (Van Eerde 1911:16-8). Viewed as mere 'Tantric trumpery' by Brandes (see Brandes and Groeneveldt 1887:221) and as 'mildly' Tantric features by Bosch (1961:488), the true significance of these inscribed objects was never fully appreciated. Further research is needed, however, to find out whether the Javanese temple deposits served the same Tantric purpose as that discovered by Treloar in his chemico-symbolic analysis of the gold foil found in some Malaysian sanctuaries (Treloar 1967; 1972). 4 In spite of all this, some temples, among them Prambanan, are still occasionally mentioned as having a funerary function, however, for instance by Ensink (1978:184), who referred to Prambanan as a mausoleum for King Balitung, and by Helfritz (1979:112-9), who interpreted this edifice not only as a sepulchral monument for a deified ruler, but also as a burial shrine for Mahayanic Buddhist monks. Contrary to Wagner's suggestion (1961:103), there has been no subsequent research done to find out whether the designation 'sepulchral monument' is a more accurate one for catydi than 'temple'. Even if it were true that some Javanese temples also had a commemorative function, this would not, in our opinion, justify their being designated as 'sepulchral monuments'.

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cult. Even though the extent to which the Javanese deified royalty may have been exceptional, Bosch argued, closely related practices were nonetheless known to have existed both in India and among certain peoples of mainland Southeast Asia, such as the Cham and the Khmer. To illustrate his point, he referred to the Indian practice of designating Siva statues, or linga, by the name or surname (biruda) of their royal founders, in combination with the word ïsvara, which attests to some kind of identification of these kings with the god Siva. He also pointed to the devardja cult evolved by the Angkor kings (Bosch 1954:6-8). The other fact, which Bosch had discovered after a careful analysis of the information on freehold foundations (dharmma lëpas) given in the well-known Javanese panegyric text, Ndgarakrëtdgama, was that of a total of 1365 Javanese foundations or dharmma, only 12% had been dedicated as royal funerary temples. The other 88%, which included many temples and shrines, had been established inter alia to contribute to the maintenance of particular religious or sectarian communities (Bosch 1954:9-10). The objections raised by Bosch to the funerary theory were corroborated by O'Connor's (1966) study on the function and origin of ritual deposit boxes in Southeast Asian sanctuaries. O'Connor concluded that 'the existence of ritual deposit boxes in the foundations of ancient sanctuaries of Southeast Asia can be easily integrated in the religious traditions of India. It is also evident that the mere existence of such boxes in a sanctuary does not in itself indicate the practice of enshrining the ashes of dead kings as in Java, nor is the existence of stone nine- chambered boxes in itself any evidence of Javanese cultural influence.' (O'Connor 1966:60.) One of the religious traditions of India which the Southeast Asian practices may have been related to or derived from is that observed in the construction of stüpas in the days of Asoka (r. 272-231 B.C.). As is pointed out by O'Connor, the idea behind this, too, was that 'these [buried] objects usually combined with relies or a text gave the stüpa its internal vivifying and spiritual force and were part of the essential ritual of consecration or pranapratistha. Later Buddhism, the Mahdydna and especially the Vajraydna [...] codified the ritual of consecration which does without the presence of a relic. Instead it substituted the liturgical imposition of a divine spirit.' (O'Connor 1966:60.) Where O'Connor, on Stutterheim's authority, left room for a deviant pattern in Java and Bali which he described as 'a local inflection' of an original Indian tradition, Soekmono believed such an exceptional position to be impossible to prove and even to be inconceivable. Basing himself on Bosch' study (1920) on the origin of Hindu Javanese temple architecture, he observed that precisely in rituals people tend to display a strict adherence to the rules, so that the Javanese could not have adopted a variant position with regard to ritual deposit boxes (Soekmono 1974:103). Indeed, after a thorough analysis of a wide range of archaeological inscriptions and Old Javanese literary works, Soekmono concluded that

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 57 there is no real textual evidence that the funeral remains of kings were ever collected for safekeeping in a temple. Rather, it seems to have been the custom to throw the funerary ashes and other remains into the sea or in rivers flowing to the sea. Moreover, the idea of funerary enshrinement is hardly conceivable to the people of present-day Bali because this would amount to a violation of the ritual purity of their temples (Soekmono 1974:42, 340). Regrettably, Soekmono does not report what the Balinese would have thought of the burial of animal and human remains in temple grounds. Apparently he himself could not explain this, as is clear from his discussion of the reports of the excavation of Candi Sojiwan, where he suggests there was uncertainty about the identification of the human skeleton. If there was any uncertainty, however, it was only in relation to the charred bones found in the pit of a lost subsidiary shrine, about which the amateur archaeological society of Yogyakarta failed to report whether these bones were those of an animal, of a human being, or of both (see Van Blom 1935:109). The skeleton that was found in the north-western corner of the temple site was definitely human. Van Blom explicitly refers to 'someone who had died there [...] whose skull has been fairly well preserved' (Van Blom 1935:13).5 As for the animal remains found at Prambanan, Soekmono, in contradiction with his earlier remarks about the strict adherence to the rules of temple rituals by the Javanese, suggested a possible connection with the still current village ritual of pëndëman, involving the sacrificial burial of a buffalo head on a new building site. This led Jordaan (1993:44) to remark that: 'Just as a buffalo head cannot simply be equated with the sacrifice of a dog and an ant-eater, so the sacrifice of a human being at the central courtyard of one of the most important Saivite temple complexes in Southeast Asia cannot simply be explained as a Javanese folk-belief. On the contrary [...] both the practice and the persistent belief in the efficacy of human sacrifices can only be accounted for as borrowings based on Indian examples.' Regardless of the question of the origin of the practice of human sacrifice - a subject to which we shall return presently - it is clear that the Javanese temple can no longer be regarded as a royal sepulchral monument. This conclusion subsequently leads us to suggest that candi in Javanese, rather than having been derived from a word which Krom glossed as 'burial monument' or 'mausoleum', perhaps initially referred to

5 Van Blom's information does not indicate whether this skull had been removed from the skeleton through decapitation. This is regrettable, because such information would indicate more definitely whether or not the ceremony performed here was a Tantric one, if there was indeed question of a human sacrifice. As far as the mode of immolation is concerned, Desmukh (1886:115) has noted that 'In all Vedic sacrifices animals are killed by suffocating them, while in Tantric sacrifices they are decapitated. The Vedic mode of killing preserves the blood of the animal in the body, while the Tantric mode allowed it to run out.'

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access 5 8 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing a sanctuary where animals and human beings had once been immolated in honour of Candika. If this is correct, the word is better rendered as 'sacrificial monument', in addition to Zoetmulder's definition (1982:298) as 'temple or sanctuary (in which the deity descends, is worshipped, and contact with it is achieved)'.

New perspectives on Tantrism and human sacrifice Well before the decline of the funerary theory, changes took place in the views on 'Tantric religion'. These changes concern both the (earlier) date at which Tantrism became manifest as a distinct phenomenon in India as well as in Southeast and East Asia, and the better understanding of the complexity of this phenomenon, including its symbolic, its psychological, and, to a much lesser extent, its sacrificial aspects. Pioneered by scholars like P.Ch. Bagchi, B. Bhattacharyya, Sir John Woodroffe (pseudonym Arthur Avalon) and S.B. Dasgupta, the study of Tantrism has by now developed into a respectable branch of Indian studies, producing a rapidly growing body of literature (see, e.g., Bharati 1975; Goudriaan 1979; Padoux 1987; Lorenzen forthcoming). Intermittent attempts have also been made to analyse Borobudur and other Central Javanese Buddhist temple structures by reference to various Tantric texts (e.g., Stutterheim 1929; Pott 1956; Lokesh Chandra 1979a, 1979b). As regards Hindu Tantrism and Saktism in ancient Central Java, however, our knowledge is much more fragmentary.6 In view of this state of affairs, Jordaan (1993:44-46) drew attention anew to Ijzerman's neglected observations on Prambanan's animal and human sacrificial remains and to the parallels drawn by the latter with the practices of certain Tantric sects in India. These Indian parallels seemed worthy of note again particularly in view of the flaws in Stutterheim's and Soekmono's interpretations of these sacrifices in terms of Javanese folklore. As an Indian example Jordaan mentioned the Kapalikas, a sect that is known to have practised human sacrifice, pointing out at the same time, however, that not much was known about this long-extinct Saiva sect except for the data collected by Lorenzen (1972; 1989). Furthermore, the information we do have is confined largely to the Indian sub-continent and cannot yet be extrapolated to Southeast Asia. As a systematic study of religious beliefs and sectarian movements in ancient Java still remains to be

6 For instance, Stutterheim's (1939:151, n. 2) remarks on Saktism in Central Java have been refuted by Lokesh Chandra's demonstration that the alleged Mother Goddess depicted on one copper plate was none other than Harïti, the Buddhist goddess of fertility and guardian of children (Lokesh Chandra 1977:466-71). Hence, in the absence of irrefutable evidence of Saktism, it seems safer to speak of Tantrism, since Saktism, though distinct from Tantrism, is closeiy related to and presupposes it (von Glasenapp 1936), and 'Saiva or Sakta sects are unquestionably Tantric' (Padoux 1987:276).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 59 undertaken, we cannot determine when the Kapalikas existed here.7 What we can do is review the archaeological data on animal and human sacrifice in ancient Java and assess the implications of this for the accepted views on Tantrism in Java and on the mutual accommodation between Hinduism and Buddhism, which was to culminate in the syncretic Siva- Buddha cult. The first problem we must face here is that of the rather careless way in which the ashes and bones in ritual deposits were dealt with in the past. In the firm conviction that these were the remnants of royal cremations, earlier scholars generally referred only to 'ashes and charcoal' and 'bones', some of which were reported to be charred. Prambanan, as we have seen, was an exceptional case, though this did not prevent Ijzerman and others from referring to the ritual deposit boxes as 'urns' and even as 'coffins'.8 Unfortunately, with the demise of the funerary theory, the Indonesian Archaeological Service seems to have lost interest in the traces of organic material altogether. In recent reports on the excavation of Candi Sambisari, a Hindu temple located about ten kilometres west of Prambanan, the investigators refer to 'bones' without further ado, which makes it impossible for us to decide whether these are of one or more animals or of a human being. To be on the safe side, we shall assume that the bones mentioned in the archaeological reports are those of animals if they are referred to as such or are said to be 'partly burnt', as in the case in Jolotundo and Trawulan in East Java (see Soekmono 1974:78- 94). Uncertain are the cases of Jabung (Mojokerto, East Java) and Sambisari (Central Java), which yielded the 'remnants of bones' and 'bones' respectively (Soekmono 1974:86; Suaka Peninggalan n.d.: 6).9 The only other human skeleton that has come to our notice is that found at the Gunongan, a mountain-shaped stone structure in Aceh, which may predate the old Sultanate in North Sumatra (see Wessing 1991:7, n. 56). Including this, the total reported number of skeletons found on Indonesian

7 The only piece of evidence for the presence of Saiva Tantrics in ancient Central Java is the poorly recorded discovery near Mount Merapi of a unique bronze skull cup, a Tantric ritual object which probably dates from between the eighth and tenth centuries A.D. (Stutterheim 1929:14-5). Though reminiscent of the 'skull-bearing' Kapalikas, we do not know for certain if this object was once theirs. The Indonesian archaeologist Hariani Santiko (1987:370; 1990) suggests that the Kapalikas were perhaps designated as Bhairavas, but this is contradicted by Zoetmulder's (1982 1:797) mention of the term kapalikabrata as occurring in the Udyogaparwa. The earliest written evidence on the Bhairavas dates from the East Javanese period. s This usage was first criticized by Bosch (1961:487, n. 3), who recommended the use of a more neutral term like 'casket' rather than 'reliquary', as was done by Lamb in his report on the excavation of Chandi Bukit Batu Pahat in Kedah. 9 Bondan, Latupapua and Djajadiningrat (1982:87) report that Candi Kalasan was once 'surrounded by a series of stupas covering the buried ashes of monks, together with some of their belongings', which were found at the site during excavations 'some years ago', without any reference to excavation reports or any explanation why the ashes of these monks would have been buried there, if indeed they were the ashes of monks.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access 60 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing temple sites now is four, which is too large to be attributed to 'chance' again but at the same time too small for any definite conclusions to be drawn about this. Nevertheless, some preliminary observations may be made. The first remarkable thing about the Javanese skeletons is that they were all found in Central Java. This is difficult to reconcile with the accepted ideas about the rise of Tantrism, especially the 'left-hand' or demoniacal forms of Tantrism which existed from the beginning of the East Javanese period onwards (that is, after the tenth century A.D.). The animal and human skeletons found at Prambanan and Sojiwan hint at the observance of 'left-hand' forms of Tantrism during the Central Javanese period. It seems inevitable that this finding will have important implications for art-historical research. Not only does it rebut categorical statements about the absence of Tantric influences in Central Javanese art, but it also calls for a rectification of euphemistic terms like 'bacchanal' for the Tantric scènes of intoxicated dancers and musicians depicted on reliëfs at Prambanan, Sewu, and Borobudur (see, e.g., Bernet Kempers 1950:25; Bosch 1959:239; De Casparis 1956:266, n. 99).10 Even the strict symmetry evidenced by the layout of the Prambanan temple complex may now be interpreted in Tantric terms, considering that 'the notion of the bipolar structure of the ultimate is one of the keystones of Tantric speculation' (Goudriaan 1979:54)." Another remarkable fact is that one of the human skeletons was found on the site of a Buddhist temple, which would seem to contradict the oft- repeated assertion that 'Buddhism rejected sacrifice in principle' (Henniger 1987:555; see also Rhys Davids 1920:7; Kirfel 1951:46; Smith and Doniger 1989:214-5). The only other example known to us of human sacrifice in Buddhism as practised in Indonesia12 is connected with the worship of Heruka among the Batak of Sumatra. Heine-Geldern (1972:325) writes about this: '[Heruka], one of the most terrible gods of Vajrayana Buddhism,

10 Clearly, alcohol drinking and indulgence in sensual pleasures can be qualified as pahcamakara, or 'the rite of the Five M's' followed by Tantric adepts (Moens 1924:530). Hence, to say that the scènes of Padang Lawas were of a more demoniacal variety of sadamada ('always drunk') than those of Borobudur is incompatible with Bosch's (1959) conclusion that the latter monument was free from Tantric influence. 1' One could also argue that there is a need for a re-assessment of Treloar's dating of the ritual deposits in Malayan temples in the light of the information yielded by Prambanan. Besides, references to alchemy in various Buddhist scriptures suggest a much earlier date for alchemical practices in the Indonesian archipelago than the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as assumed by Treloar on the basis of the evidence supplied by Chandi Batu Pahat (see, e.g., Waley 1932:1102-3). 12 Examples from other areas are mentioned by Heine-Geldern (1917:30), according to whom King Mindon, 'who was otherwise known as a strict Buddhist and opponent of spirit veneration', had a pregnant woman sacrificed on the occasion of the founding of the city of Mandalay in 1857. See also Zürcher (1959) for several examples of such 'heterodox' sacrifices performed by Buddhist monks in early medieval China.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 61 who was offered bloody sacrifices, probably even human ones. [...] This worship of Heruka formed a point of contact between the Indian and the indigenous rites [...] and gave impulse to the transformed interpretation of Batak cannibalism into a magie rite of degenerate Buddhism.'13 We shall look at this explanation more closely in a later section. Given this evidence, we are unable to corroborate Henniger's observation on 'tendencies to the spiritualization and ethicization of sacrifice' in Indian religions, at least as far as those practised outside the Indian sub-continent are concerned. Nor can we attest O'Connor's above- cited remarks about the process of substitution, which is also described by Smith and Doniger in their valuable essay focused on sacrifice and substitution: 'Under the influence of Buddhism or, more generally, of the doctrine of ahimsd that became part of Hinduism and Buddhism, a revisionary attitude toward the use of vegetable offerings came to the fore [...] The carnivorous Vedic gods were replaced by strictly vegetarian Hindu deities who are said to accept no blood offerings, but only rice, fruits, and so forth [...] Hindus, Buddhists and Jains all rejected Vedic sacrifice, especially the animal sacrifice; but they also dressed up their new doctrines and religious activities in the guise of Vedic sacrifice' (Smith and Doniger 1989:214-5). Rather than substitution, the remains found in Prambanan and Sojiwan testify to the side-by-side existence of human and various animal sacrifices. This does not negate the f act that at both temple sites the human remains were found not in the main temple, but rather at or near a subsidiary one. It seems quite likely to us that the officiating priests, in their choice of location, wished to give covert expression to the subordinate nature of the role played by human sacrifice in the ritual of consecration of the temple. In support of this argument, we would cite von Glasenapp, one of the few scholars to appreciate the less attractive side of Vajrayana Buddhism, including its sanctioning of animal sacrifices and even murder (von Glasenapp [1940]: 145-6). Von Glasenapp noted that in later Bengalese and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism an increasingly important role was assigned to all kinds of terrifying gods and demons, to whom evidently even meat and alcohol were offered. Because this took place mostly at night and, furthermore, not in the inner sanctum but in an adjoining area, von Glasenapp inferred that the cult could be characterized as being 'outside the saving doctrine' (von Glasenapp [1940]: 128). Similarly, Bolle (1983:41) observes that 'in a village that is thoroughly

13 The expression 'degenerate Buddhism' is in line with the accepted view on the rise of an indigenized form of Tantric Buddhism during the East Javanese period. However, in the case of Padang Lawas, where Heruka was worshipped, the 13th- century dating of the temple seems to be the result of a circular argument, as this date was said to have been arrived at 'on account of these obvious traces of late tantric Buddhism' (Bosch, as cited by Heine-Geldern 1972:325).

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brahmanized, the attendant gods can become the official recipients of the [bloody] sacrifice rather than the central deities themselves'. What is worth noting specifically is the conclusion suggested by the sacrifïcial remains at Prambanan and Sojiwan that there must have been a very close similarity between Hinduism and Buddhism in the Central Javanese period. This conclusion corroborates Sarkar's (1967) theory about the evolution of the Siva-Buddha cult in Java, the ground for which, according to him, must have been prepared already in the eighth and ninth centuries. Support for this theory is also provided by the architectural and stylistic similarities between Prambanan and some of the neighbouring Buddhist temples that have long since been observed by many archaeologists. Whether these similarities can indeed be taken as evidence for the assumed 'process of approximation' between Buddhism and Hinduism, however, depends on the question of when and exactly how they came about. This problem having been dealt with elsewhere (Jordaan 1993; in press), we will here only reiterate the supposition that Buddhist influences in the art of Prambanan are most readily explained in terms of the involvement of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, which seems only conceivable in an atmosphere of religious tolerance and mutual accommodation.l4 Now we can adduce, in addition to the sacrifïcial remains, the evidence of recent excavations at two different temple sites close to Prambanan. These unearthed among other things a small silver statue of Siva at Candi Sewu, a Buddhist temple, and a small bronze figure of Vajrapani at Candi Sambisari, the Hindu temple already referred to above.15 These finds are not unique. Brandes (1887:24), for instance, reported the discovery in Central Java of a silver statuette of Durga with the Buddhist credo 'ye dharmmd hetuprabhawd ..." inscribed in Nagarï script on its back. More recently, Fontein (1990) mentioned the discovery in Surocolo, Central Java, of a jar containing 19 small bronze statues of Buddhist divinities as well as three others, one of which represented Siva. Judging by workmanship and size, Fontein did not believe it probable that these all formed part of the same set. Concerning the Siva statuette in particular, he concluded that 'it could not have been part of the original Buddhist ensemble, which constitutes

14 By those archaeologists and art historians who subscribe to the conflict model first put forward by Krom (1931:173) and subsequently elaborated by De Casparis (1956), the similarities are usually taken as evidence of an 'architectural confrontation' between Buddhism and Hinduism in ancient Central Java, and of 'appropriations of the Sailendras' mode of discourse' by the Hindu Javanese rulers after the expulsion of the Sailendras from Java (Miksic 1994:444; see also Dumarcay 1981; 1986:42-9; 1993:74). 15 Apart from Vajrapani, a small bronze statue was found here, which was rather vaguely described as an arca wanita (statue of a woman) but which may well represent the Buddhist goddess Tara, as she displays the varadamudra with her right hand and holds a (utpalal) flower in her left hand, which are both of them attributes of Tara par excellence (Ghosh 1980:31).

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the remnants of a three-dimensional mandala in which a large number of Buddhist divinities were arranged ...' (Fontein 1990:223), obviously excluding the possibility of a Hindu deity being used in a Buddhist mandala. Lokesh Chandra, however, pointed out that the Siva and the other two statues excluded by Fontein could have fitted quite well into a Buddhist mandala, as did the five bronze images representing Brahma, Kuvera, Indra, Yama and Varuna that were found underneath the pedestal of the monumental Avukana Buddha in Srilanka.16 Considering these facts, we are inclined to question the validity of some current designations as 'Hinduism' and 'Buddhism' and to wonder whether these terms do full justice to the ideas of the Javanese of the times, for whom such terminological distinctions may have been merely formal and relative. Both early Hinduism and Buddhism were flexible enough to accommodate and utilize each other's icons, as well as those of other religions (cf. Ghosh 1980:22; Bayly 1986). This kind of situation would be consonant with Stutterheim's view that 'the designation "Buddhism" is quite misleading for Java. It would be better tó speak of Tantrism on a Buddhist basis. But Tantrism is as much Saivite as Buddhist and the difference is more one of accent than of fact. In reality they are equal, and were so in India as well' (Stutterheim 1925:288). ; Needless to say, this form of 'Buddhism' was not Hïnayana, but represented some later development of Mahayana, probably Mantrayana or Vajrayana. In this connection we would call to mind the curious report by a Chinese pilgrim, Hiüan-tsang, that the Hinayana monks from Orissa denounced their colleagues in Nalanda — the famous centre of Mahayana Buddhist learning that maintained close links with the Sailendras in Indonesia - as heretics, saying that they did not differ in any way from the Saivite Kapalikas (see Kern 1888:156). Of course, one might question the adequacy of this single piece of - possibly biased - information as evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in Nalanda. Indeed, as Snellgrove asserted, '[i]t would be quite erroneous to assume that the literal contents of the tantras describe the type of life led by the monks of the great monasteries of Vajrasana, Vikramasila and Nalanda. The references are all to yogins who wander free from all ties, coming together with their fellows only for the seasons and at the places of pilgrimage' (Snellgrove 1957:87). Although we are unable to settle this particular issue at present, we do wish to bear in mind that in the case of Prambanan and Sojiwan, too, the practice of human sacrifice as part of official Hindu-Buddhist ritual was until quite recently considered to be inconceivable. As far as religious

16 We hesitate, however, to accept Lokesh Chandra's (1995:134) suggestion that 'Their workmanship is inferior on purpose, to denigrate their status in the Buddhist context', in view of the fact that the Siva and Durga statuettes found in other Buddhist contexts are made of silver. We would also point to the size and beauty of Candi Prambanan, the Hindu shrine constructed with the support of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty.

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doctrine is concerned, it is relevant to realize that both these temples are located in the same area as Kalasan, which was known in old Indian texts as Kalasa(pura) and was a religious centre nearly as famous as Nalanda. One might counter this with the argument that Kalasan, though famous, was a regional centre far removed from 'Sanskritic India', which would have allowed the reciprocal influencing that would account for the regional variations noted in Tantrism (see Stutley and Stutley 1977:299). This was, in fact, the very argument used to denounce as 'heterodox' those Buddhist monks who had copied Taoist sacrificial practices, including human sacrifice, in early mediaeval China (Zürcher 1959:26, 37, 55). Even so, it should be noted that the distinctions between centre and periphery, Sanskritic India and its 'adaptations' abroad, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy are not as clear-cut and rigid as they may at first appear to be. For instance, Nalanda did not exist in splendid isolation but was located in or close to those areas in north-east India (Bihar, Bengal, and Assam) that were of old associated with kidnapping and human sacrifice (Gait 1898; Joshi 1892). It lay close not only to the well-known Kali temple at Kalighat, where in the days of Hiüan-tsang Hindus may still have practised human sacrifice, but also to the aboriginal tribes who had just been converted to Hinduism or Buddhism and who were still in a process of transition, trying, with the help of the priests and monks of these religions, to bring their old customs in line with the dogmas of the new creeds (see, for instance, Van Kooij 1972:8, 32). It is quite possible, therefore, that the Orissan Hïnayanists' accusation was really levelled at these monks. Perhaps the latter did not leave it at this, moreover, and, as some scholars have argued, the Hindus in turn adopted the practice of bloody sacrifices as a result of these contacts. Gait, for instance, writes that: 'The terrible goddess [Kali] whose cult is described in the Puranas and Tantras is [...] a comparatively recent addition to the Hindu pantheon. It is believed that her worship and the bloody orgies with which it was attended were adopted from the religion of non-Aryan tribes with whom the Hindus came into contact on the north-east frontier of India' (Gait 1913:851). Thus Tantrism served as a vehicle by which foreign and exotic elements made their way into Hinduism (Eliade 1960:207). Heine-Geldern developed this argument a step further by pointing to a connection between human sacrifice, head-hunting, and a so-called 'matriarchal' ideology in these tribal societies. The survival of some of these archaic elements in India itself may then have facilitated the advance of Tantric Saktism here (Heine-Geldern 1917:28, 49-59). Eliade has rightly remarked, however, that these are the ethnological elements of the problem, which 'also has a historico-religious aspect - the spiritual revalorization of prehistorie customs entailing human sacrifices and the cult of skulls' (Eliade 1960:299). This revalorization contributed to the introduction of new types of bloody sacrifice, which had fallen into oblivion with the decline of the Vedic religion (Basham 1967:336-7; Van Kooij 1972:21).

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Several mutually contradictory processes may therefore have gone on simultaneously in one and the same locality or society: the processes of substitution and replacement, leading to vegetarianism and asceticism among some groups, and the processes of either revalorization or devalorization of bloody sacrifices among others. Thus, Heine-Geldern's explanation of the Padang Lawas human sacrifice as 'a transformation of Batak cannibalistic customs into a magie rite by a degenerate form of Buddhism' seems to lend itself particularly well to restatement in terms of revalorization and devalorization (see also Eliade 1960:299).

Valorization of bloody sacrifices in the ancient Javanese setting Awaiting the results of future research into human sacrifice as it features in Indian Hindu-Buddhist Tantric texts and into the supposed role of the Kapalikas in the transmission of the temple ritual to Central Java, we will try to investigate the nature of the local traditions that favoured the adoption of this cult and provided the officiating priests with the means with which to bring it into harmony with the ideology of the recipiënt culture. All references to such former indigenous ideas, whether these were ancient Batak or Javanese, tended to be received with the utmost reserve, if not scepticism, by Krom and Bosch. Although Bosch himself, as regards the extraordinary development of the cult of royalty in ancient Java and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, had recognized the possibility that this might be explained by the fact 'that there were among the Javanese, Khmer and Chams certain individuals who had fleshed out foreign-looking rituals with notions derived from their own native world view and in this way arrived at a syncretism of the cult of royalty and indigenous ancestral worship' (Bosch 1954:8), he never ceased to doubt the usefulness of statements of this kind. It was his opinion that, 'since we know nothing of what went on in the minds of the individuals concerned, it seems safer to relegate this kind of assumptions to the realm of useless speculation' (Bosch 1954:9).n Bosch can not have suspected that, for an explanation of the Javanese royalty cult, it would nevertheless have been useful to seriously consider such a synthesis of Indic rituals and native ideas, and that the idea of this could even have been made plausible to a certain extent. A point of departure now is provided by the human sacrifice at Prambanan and the Javanese culik belief that was already mentioned by Stutterheim. Recent research in other parts of Indonesia has shown that the rumours of kidnappings in connection with construction sacrifices are not just a product of Javanese folk-belief but are a pan-Indonesian phenomenon of quite long standing (see Barnes 1993 for a well-considered recapitulation

17 That Bosch himself was not always consistent in this is shown by his statements about a possible fusion between Hindu notions of Parvafï as an Indian mother figure and ancient Minangkabau ideas and institutions such as those of matrilineality and the position of the primordial ancestral mother (Bosch 1961:480).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access 66 Roy E. Jordaan and Robert Wessing of the debate on this in the journal Oceania).™ Considerations of space permit us to discuss only two conclusions of recent research on the subject, relating to the political dimension of the phenomenon and concerning the types and the purposes of construction sacrifices. We will then look at the human sacrifice at Prambanan again in the light of the information uncovered. First let us look at the political dimension of the practice of human sacrifice, for insights into which we are indebted to Barnes. His analysis has lent the subject a greater depth than any of those of the other participants in the debate, who only mentioned the alleged involvement of the Dutch colonial and the Indonesian national governments - a projection of their informants' limited historical consciousness. According to Barnes, the phenomenon of human sacrifice should be related to political power as such: 'If a state or leader is potent, then presumably it or he can afford to sacrifice human heads when important projects are undertaken, such as opening fields or building temples' (Barnes 1993:155). Barnes' important claim that 'rather than being a new phenomenon and the product of the colonial era, these rumors may well have been characteristic of Indonesia from ancient times ...' (Barnes 1993:146), however, is not as fully developed as it might have been had he known of the evidence that lay buried in Central Javanese temples and Dutch archaeological reports. In the light of this evidence, some archaeologists and historians may find it useful to link Barnes' hypothesis to other recent theories in their disciplines, such as those about the 'Big Man' or 'man of prowess' and about 'localization', particularly in connection with the Javanese and other Southeast Asian cults of royalty. Second, let us look at the problem with the above-mentioned and other articles on construction sacrifice to which we drew attention earlier, namely the failure of the authors, when talking about construction, to differentiate between the construction of a bridge or a road and that of a single family dwelling, a longhouse, or a [village] temple. It is our contention that there is an essential difference between the different categories of construction and that this difference is reflected in the kind of offering at each. In the case of the first category it is the appeasement of any spirits whose habitat is in any way disturbed by the construction activities that is important, and in that of the second the animation of the structure by means of a sacrificial victim's soul in order to establish favourable relations with benevolent ancestors or other supernatural beings. Our distinction between appeasement and animation sacrifices can be easily brought into relation with the difference in religio-political importance of the construction: the more important the structure, the more elaborate the sacrifice, and the slighter the opportunity for substituting

18 The authors wish to thank Rosemary Robson for drawing their attention to the articles in Oceania.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 02:55:31PM via free access Human Sacrifice at Prambanan 67 animal or human offerings with vegetable ones. Formulated as a general rule, this may be held to apply not only to East Indonesian village temples, but also to the Hindu-Buddhist temples of Central Java and India. Let us now return to the animal and human remains at Prambanan to see whether our distinction between appeasement and animation sacrifice corresponds in any way with the ideas of the builders of this temple complex. A unique opportunity for this is provided by a stone inscription recording the inauguration of this temple complex in A.D. 856. We will proceed from De Casparis' epigraphic analysis of this inscription (De Casparis 1956:280-343), with a few emendations prompted by Aichele's (1969) re-interpretation of parts of the Old Javanese text. In stanza 25 of the metrical text we read that 'after the Civa sanctuary had been completed in its divine splendour [...] there was no danger from the wicked ones, for they had all received their due; then the grounds were inaugurated as temple grounds [...] with the gods' (De Casparis 1956:328). We agree with De Casparis' suggestion in the accompanying note that: 'There is no doubt that these words [i.e., "there was no danger"] refer to the wicked spirits (bhütas etc), who might disturb the ceremonies if they were not satisfied. These "gifts" include caru, for instance, rice strewn on the ground, and perhaps even meat for the Rdksas etc.' (De Casparis 1956:328, n. 96.) As we have argued, the 'satisfaction' of potentially evil spirits is the main objective of appeasement rituals, which constitute a distinct type of construction sacrifice. Regrettably, the inscription does not yield decisive information about the kinds of offerings that were used for the appeasement of these malevolent spirits. Still, we feel that De Casparis is unnecessarily cautious when he says that, in addition to food, the offerings may have consisted of meat for the rdksas, while he was in a position to know about Ijzerman's discovery of the remains of a dog, an ant-eater, and various birds. Perhaps one of the reasons why the inscription refers to 'the wicked ones who had all received their due' without any further specification, is that in this way the Hindu priests were able to put a slight upon the indigenous element in the consecration ceremony. By using the term 'wicked ones', or demons, they may have tried to convey their opinion about the lesser status of the local gods and spirits, something that has also been suggested by Van Kooij (1972:21) in connection with the attitude of Vedic priests towards the gods of the non-Aryan folk religion. Similarly, by using the phrase 'their due', the priests did not have to bother to mention the curious set of animals that were sacrificed, which seem very difficult to match with the kind of animals (horses, buffaloes, goats, sheep, fowl) commonly immolated in Indic sacrifïces.19

19 Unfortunately, because of the paucity of the data, it is impossible to say what, if any, were the symbolic considerations in the selection of the sacrificial animals, except to define these in only very general terms such as the oppositions wild/tame, land

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An interesting question is whether the offering of the 'flesh' of these animals can be equated with that of the two human beings. Confirmation of the relevance of the distinction between them might be provided by the final sentence of the same stanza, were it not for De Casparis' omission to reconstruct the sentence fully because of uncertainty about the meaning of some of the Old Javanese words used in it. The words concerned are humet - trima harang. De Casparis observes in a footnote that the word trima, which he understands as tarima, 'to receive', may point to a parallel between the earlier mentioned offerings for the lower spirits and certain other ones intended for the gods, noting: 'One might connect trima harang huma sahiyang, "the rice-field with [sic] the Gods received ..." {harang in the meaning of harëng, "charcoal", does not make sense), I have no idea what humet could mean' (De Casparis 1956:328, n. 97). In view of these diffïculties, an epigraphical re-analysis of this inscription is very much needed. Whatever the case may be, the sacrifices here apparently were aimed not only at appeasing local spirits, but also at animating the temple structure. The appeasement of spirits in Javanese ruwatan (exorcism) ceremonies is generally supposed to take place before the ground is broken for the construction work. For this reason one might suppose that the offerings the remains of which were found in the temple grounds served this purpose. Animation, on the other hand, involves the infusion of a live spirit into the structure itself, which could have been accomplished by burial in the temple pit. We are supported in this inference by the information supplied in an earlier stanza of the text, which mentions a tree, Ki Muhür by name, which has come to full maturity as a result of its proximity to the temple. Literally translated, the 16th stanza reads: 'There also was a Tanjung tree [...] Ki Muhür, the stem was only one year old; the neighbourhood of the Lord was the reason of its matchless growth at the Eastern side; its beauty was extraordinary, equal to the (divine) Pdrijdtaka tree; it was the place where the God would descend and (its branches) would be a parasol (for the God); was not it a God for the God' (De Casparis 1956:323). That it is indeed animation, comparable to the 'internal vivifying and spiritual force' which O'Connor attributed to the ritual deposits, that is concerned here is demonstrated by the emphasis placed on 'the neighbourhood of the Lord' rather than on the proximity of the temple as such. It is worthwhile to dweil a little longer on the statement that the tree is associated with the descent of a god (or gods). According to the inscription, this miraculous tree was planted to the east of the main temple, where the principal entrance to the complex is located. As was noted by animals / birds. Additionally, there is the sea/land opposition, as testified by the gold- foil objects bearing the names of Varuna, god of the sea, and Parvata, lord of the mountain.

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De Casparis, Tanjung trees (Mimusops elengi) are frequently mentioned in Old Javanese literature as being planted near temple sites and in Javanese royal courtyards (De Casparis 1956:304, n. 94). Though only a Tanjung tree, its beauty was so exceptional as to prompt comparison to the Parijata(ka), one of the five divine trees produced during the Churning of the Ocean (cf. Stutley 1977:220). What is more important, the tree is referred to also as pariawataran, i.e., 'place for an avatdra', which De Casparis has taken as 'the place where the God would descend when coming to Earth, using it both as a ladder and as a payung [parasol]' (De Casparis 1956:304,324). Elsewhere, Jordaan (1991:169) has argued that the special character of the tree probably has something to do with the fact that the inauguration of the Siva temple in 856 coincided with the anniversary of Rakai Pikatan, the Javanese king who was involved in its construction (Aichele 1969; Djoko Dwiyanto 1986). This may well have been the reason for the curious statement in the inscription that the tree, planted in front of the temple as a young tree, 'its stem being only one year old' had grown to divine proportions. The connection with the deceased king is also corroborated by the name of the tree, Ki Muhür, which may be a pun on Ki Luhur, 'Venerable Ancestor'. The doublé link of the tree with a god and a deified royal ancestor is quite significant, justifying our surmise of a close relationship, if not complete identity, between the god (or gods) and the ancestor(s).20 Not only is the Tree of Life as a place for the gods and ancestors known as well in other parts of Indonesia (see, e.g., Stutterheim 1926:347, Aichele 1928:38, Scharer 1966), but this idea also seems to be compatible with ancient Euro-Asian, and even Vedic, notions (see, e.g., Bosch 1948, Sauvé 1970:182-3). Whatever the Indian parallels, taken together, these data are a strong confirmation of the hypothesis of a syncretic adaptation of the Indic cult of royalty to indigenous Javanese ancestral beliefs - the very hypothesis which Bosch once relegated to the realm of useless speculation.

20 See further Ras (1968:175-6) for a discussion of a similar Borneo folk-motif linking the growth of another large kind of shade tree with the fate of the local dynasty.

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