Candi Jago and its Illustrations of the Story of the Pārthayajña

Peter Worsley1*, Lesley Pullen2, and Eko Bastiawan3

Illustrations of the story of the Pārthayajña decorate the walls of the second terrace of Candi Jago above a lower band of illustrations of the story of the Kuñjarakarna. Both mpu Prapañca’s mid-fourteenth century kakavin Deśawarṇana and the fifteenth century Pararaton record that the Buddhist temple Jajāghu, identified by later scholars as Candi Jago, was the site of the enshrinement in a Buddhist statue (sugatawimbha) of the Singhasari king Viṣṇuvardhana, following his death in 1268 C.E (Śaka 1190). King Viṣṇuvarhana was enshrined at Candi Jago as Amoghapāśa Lokeśwara in the company of his four attendants, Tāra, Sudhanakumara, Hayagrīwa and Bhṛkuṭī. The paper will first discuss the political-cultural significance of his enshrinement at Candi Jago where he was invoked in ritual as an agent of political unity of the kingdoms of Sinhasari and Majapahit. Although uncertain, it seems very likely that the illustrations which decorate the walls of Cand Jago were added as part of a renovation of the temple which took place in the fourteenth century at a time when we know from the kakavin Deśawarṇana that the temple was the site of royal rituals. The paper sets out to explain the place of illustrations of the story of the Arjuna’s meditation in the context of the architectural design of the temple, a possible allegorical reference to the life story of the ruler Wiṣṇūwardhana remembered as a successful “kingdom-builder” and his perceived importance in the twelfth century kingdom of Singhasari, and the ongoing importance of his enshrinement in the ritual life of rulers of the kingdom of Majapahit in the fourteenth century and of rulers of the Sumatran kingdom of Maulawarmadeva in the late thirteenth century and Adityavarman in the fourteenth century.