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Chapter 16

The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images:

Pallava Script and Petroglyphic Images
on Semi-portable Stones from Bandung
Museum, Indonesia (Western Java)
George Nash

Introduction

To the observer, a walk through Bandung Museum, or any other early historic
museum within this part of Java, would suggest that the Hindu–Buddhist sites,
such as the massive temples of Prembanan and Borobudur (both in central Java),
completely dominate the archaeological and historical record. The limited, but
highly significant, corpus that forms part of an important, yet idiosyncratic,
regional assemblage of portable and semi-portable rock art has been largely
ignored, certainly on the international stage. Much of this rock art dates from the
fifth century AD and incorporates Pallava script and images. The examples used in
this essay – all inscribed boulders and large stone tablets – stand in a small
courtyard in Bandung Museum. All contain textual imagery that has received
palaeographic rather than artistic attention (de Casparis, 1975; Chhabra, 1965;
Wisseman Christie, 1998).
In this essay, I will explore the idea that such imagery should be considered as
rock art, a concept defined in terms of power, rhetoric and display. Previously,
rock art researchers, in particular those working on rock art from south-east Asia,
have tended to concern themselves with art to the exclusion of mechanisms that
control and manipulate the carved or painted image (Heekeren, 1952; Kosasih,
1988, 1999; Nash 2003; Soejono, 1962, 1981; Srisuchat, 1995; Tanudirdjo, 1985).
There has been a tendency in rock art studies to include only images with
recognized artistic value – that is, images that include human, animal, abstract and
geometric figures. As part of the recording process, a certain amount of
interpretation has traditionally accompanied the archaeological evaluation of the
rock art panel. Until recently, however, interpretation – limited to (processual)
observation methods – has stated the obvious (hunting scenes represent hunting
magic and farming scenes represent the fertility of the land and so on). Over the
past 150 years, the European corpus of literature has tended to follow a recognized
and predictable pattern: the collection of data, its recording, presentation and

235
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236 Aesthetics and Rock Art

discussion, the latter including chronology, description and artistic style, usually
culminating in the ascription of rock art sites to some particular school or style.
The question I address here is: can marks on rock configuring a text, either
accompanying other visual representation or by itself, be considered rock art? In
this essay I will argue that text can indeed constitute rock art. I will use several
examples to demonstrate that text may form an integral part of the art of rock art
panels and that we may appreciate such rock text for its aesthetic qualities.
I will suggest why rock art was commissioned as well offering reasons for its
execution, use and transformation as part of this discussion. Recent edited
interpretative studies, including Chippindale and Taçon (1998), Goldhahn (1999),
Nash (2000), Nash and Chippindale (2002), Price (2002) and Chippindale and
Nash (2003a), have successfully applied this formula. These edited works have
focused on various elements relevant to the study of rock art; for example,
landscape, shamanism and superimposition. In addition to these themes, aesthetics
has become a new and important philosophical perspective within the field of
rock-art studies. Coote and Shelton (1996) have successfully applied the aesthetics
of art history to anthropology.

Diversity of Forms of Representation

Rock art is considered one of the most diverse, discussed and debated cultural
assemblages. Thomas Heyd says that:

‘Rock art’ is the name conventionally given to marks made by human beings marks on
rock, often perceived as pictures or representations. They occur all around the world,
among a great many all cultures and in many time periods, beginning in prehistory and
ranging into the present. Marks paintings, stencils and drawings, made by adding
material to the surface, are called pictographs; engravings and petroglyphs are made by
removing material from the surface. (This volume, p. 3)

Raymond Firth, moreover, describes the term ‘art’ as:

…indicating a conventional category of great diffuseness. It can refer to almost any

patterned application of skill, from cooking or public speaking (rhetoric) to a variety of
graphic and plastic creations. (Firth, 1996, p. 15)

Equally, Alfred Gell, looking at the technology and enchantment involved in

Trobriand canoe manufacture, has suggested that:

… the capacity of the aesthetic approach [is] to illuminate the specific objective
characteristics of the art object as an object, rather than as a vehicle for extraneous social
and symbolic messages. (Gell, 1996, p. 40)

Taking these accounts of the terms ‘rock art’ and ‘art’ into consideration, I
would propose that textual imagery, the product of a literate society, falls within
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 237

the realm of artistic representation. As we see in Table 16.1, literate and non-
literate marks on rock appear to possess a number of similarities. More
importantly, the end-product – the grammar of the image – is conveyed either
universally or restrictively (that is, to particular groups within society).
Whichever, the message may be understood. In order to achieve this, both pictorial
images and text are arranged into an ordered syntax whereby the text/image can
be understood. Both individual letters and words, when organized into a
grammatical arrangement, become sense; thus pictorial imagery and text become
language.
From a cynical point of view, any mark on rock can be seen merely as a form
of idle graffiti, doodling or defacement. Conversely – and adding to Heyd’s
eloquent description – marks on rock identified as rock art can also possess great
meaning as pictorial storytelling (myth) or political and religious assertion. The
pictorial nature of rock art imagery may extend from simple description to
complex panel narrative that involves abstract imagery, schematic, stylistic and
naturalistic forms; in other words, rock art may be polysemic.
I would suggest that rock art may arise at the end of a process that begins with
the interplay among economic, political, social symbolic and religious
mechanisms in society which issue in power relations that are politically
controlled, but symbolically manipulated. Such symbolic manipulation of power
relations may be expressed through art forms, such as rock art.
Eventually this process may lead to a form of semiotic display involving the
deliberate placing of images, which form a grammar or textual imagery.
Ultimately, figures may constitute a coherent text and, over time, text might
become superimposed by new ideas, expressed in diverse forms of art, be it as text
or otherwise. It is usually in the final stage of this process that one sees the
superimposition of non-textual art with text.

Table 16.1 Forms of literate and non-literate representation on rock

surfaces

Literate Non-literate
carved and painted forms carved and painted forms
chronologically phased chronologically phased
grammar coded grammar coded
graffiti present little graffiti present
not restricted, endless range of text restricted to certain subjectivity
rhetorical power rhetorical power
usually superimposed and phased rarely superimposed and phased
usually communicating to all sometimes restricted communication
usually unstratified sometimes restricted to elite and gender
textual non-textual
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238 Aesthetics and Rock Art

There are many instances around the world in which text is present along with
standard forms of rock art. Notably, there is the graffiti that have been scrawled
over many North American Palaeo-Indian rock art sites. One such site is Buena
Vista, French Glen, south-east Oregon (Figure 16.1). Here, all five panels possess
schematic and semi-representational figures, including lizards and stick people
(Nash and Children, 2000, pp. 163–71). Overlying these probably shamanistic
images are late nineteenth-century graffiti scratched into the panels by white
European and American settlers (Figure 16.2).
One could argue that the Palaeo-Indian figures are themselves just idle graffiti;
each figure is a simple gouge. However, on one panel there is also a series of cup
marks or dots forming a complex geometric design. This multi-phased panel,
along with the numerous schematic figures, suggests that the site was in use over
a long period. Graffiti or not, this initial phase of turning a space into a place was
obviously considered important by a people whose belief system and concept of
social and symbolic spaces (landscape) were very different from those of the
settlers. The later graffiti was deliberately etched over the Palaeo-Indian images
and, arguably, took longer to execute than the original figures.
The imagery is mainly that of personal names and dates. Cynically, though, the
act of inscribing totemic images, such as lizards and, later, white European settler
personal notation, may be the result of identical social and symbolic mechanisms.
For both the white settler and the native Indian, one could suggest, the Buena Vista
site was a convenient place to meet, either between individuals or groups. By
carving on to the rock surface, one is indelibly stamping one’s authority on both
the landscape and the people who utilize that landscape. This is certainly what
nineteenth- and twentieth-century white settlers were attempting to do when
inscribing their names over the Palaeo-Indian art. The statementing here is
political as well as social. The act of defacement and superimposition is reflected
in the bitter relationship between white settlers and the native American Indians.
The two phases of rock art become a metaphor for reality.
The act of placing one image over another is found within many rock art
assemblages and is not confined to recent history. At the rock shelter of Cogal in
the province of Lérida there is a large Mesolithic hunter-gatherer fresco which is
superimposed by Roman graffiti (Almagro, 1952; Beltrán, 1968, 1982; Breuil,
1935; Dams, 1984). This rock shelter, featuring black and red painted bovine bulls,
chamois, human figures (mainly female) and red deer, is located at around 279m
AOD. Discovered in 1908 by Rocafort and later recorded by Breuil (Breuil, 1908),
the rock art is painted on one panel, measuring 2m in length (Figure 16.3). The
Roman graffiti – SECUNDUS A FAIT UN VOEU – has been scratched across the
upper section of the panel. This imprint, however trivial, imposes a personal
statement over another. The text has become part of the rock art narrative and,
arguably, can be regarded as textual art. Certainly, previous literature has always
included the text element with the earlier art narrative.
However, the inscribed stones in the Bandung Museum, to be discussed next,
represent a missed opportunity.1 These stones have received palaeographic interest
but have not been classified as rock art, even though all of them may be considered
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 239

Figure 16.1 Panel I of the Buena Vista rock art site (French Glen, Oregon,
USA)
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240 Aesthetics and Rock Art

Figure 16.2 Section of panel III of the Buena Vista rock art site showing
twentieth-century graffiti superimposed over Palaeo-Indian
schematic zoomorphic figures (French Glen, Oregon, USA)
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 241

Figure 16.3 Rock art panel at Cogal showing the superimposition of

Roman graffiti over hunter-gatherer images (Lerida, south-
eastern Spain)

visually pleasing. These Javanese examples comprise text and imagery, both
abstract and representative. The images are arranged in a semiotic form,
recognition of which may have been restricted to certain individuals (that is,
literate Javanese). At a more fundamental level, these images convey
evocativeness and emotion; they portray power, be it socially, economically or
politically induced. Here, imagery acts as a communicator of power relations
between the patron, the artist, the art and the audience. It could be said that these
stones, which have so far escaped the eye of the rock art historian, are not just a
way of conveying textual messages, they also present a different visual world.

Contextualizing the Aesthetic and Looking at Stones

I propose that text can be deemed rock art if two criteria are observed: first, when
primary and/or secondary images are added or are already present, enabling
textual images to become chronologically phased; second, to when the text
possesses meaning, whether restricted (that is, directed to particular groups within
society) or universal.
Symmetry may be considered an important design tool in that single and
multiple images can establish repetition. Repetition establishes a recognized
grammar which is repeated on numerous rock art panels, including the five
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242 Aesthetics and Rock Art

Javanese stones. Here, text is elegantly proportioned on the rock surface; each
character is carved a similar size as, and spaced equally with, neighbouring
characters. The artist has carved each character applying the same pressure,
allowing the gouges to be of the same depth.
The five stones (numbered I–V), although different in geological composition,
shape, size and artistic style, all display various forms of Pallava/Sanskrit script.
The script-forms on each stone can be tied to various linguistic elements that
originate from southern India. Each of the five stones has been found at different
locations from within western Java, where the language spoken is Sundanese (see
Figure 16.4). Each stone also has a political component incorporated into the text;
some of the stones may have been used to exercise legal taxation, as well as acting
as boundary markers for local nobility.
Stone I once stood near Kampong Gradak, west of Bogor, western Java (Figure
16.5). The two forms of Pallava script, each located around the right and toe-ends
of the feet, are radically different in style. As well as possessing two subtly
different forms of Pallava-Grantha script, the main text, consisting of four lines of
metrical Sanskrit, is written in Anustubh metre. This main script, known as the Ci-
Aruton inscription, according to Chhabra (1965, p. 93), is similar to fifth-century
AD Pallava-Grantha script from southern India and reads ‘This pair of footprints,
like that of Vishnu, belongs to the illustrious King Purnavarman, the lord of
Tarumanagara’.2
The stone also has at least two representative images carved on the top section.
These figures include two footprints which ‘stand’ together; one right, one left –
similar to those found on Scandinavian Bronze Age rock-art panels (Figure 16.6).
On each foot are five toes that have been carved inside the foot pattern. Two lines
have been carved either side of each set of toes which may suggest the artist was
also portraying some type of footwear. The toes and heel on both feet are the most
prominent features.
Located close to the toes, but outside the foot carvings, are two small spider
images – what Chhabra (1965, p. 95) refers to as sun patterns. Each image consists
of a circular body with a series of ten small lines extending from the circle (Figure
16.7). The left spider image has a single curvilinear line running from the upper
part of the body and around the outer line of the foot. It is possible that the spider
images represent stability in that, if the feet stand firm over time then (the) spiders
will spin their webs (spider webs cannot be spun on objects that move). A single
set of curvilinear lines can also be found close to the foot and spider images. These
lines appear to merge with, if not form part of, a single line of local script which
has never been fully translated.
Despite the date of this stone, around the eighth century AD, and the presence
of a comprehensible text, the meaning of the foot and spider images is unclear.
S.E. Soejono has suggested that the presence of carved human figures and body
parts in burial rites may ward off evil spirits (Soejono, 1962, 1981). Stone I
therefore might be associated with burial and/or ritual, but is more probably a
boundary maker. According to Ulrich Kratz from the School of Oriental and
African Studies (London), the upper shell script, one of the various forms of
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 243

Distribution of rock art sites in Indonesia

Figure 16.4
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244 Aesthetics and Rock Art

Figure 16.5 Stone I, showing carved feet and ornate Pallava script
(Bandung Museum, western Java)

Pallava, represents the name of a local Sundanese king and the footprints may act
as his signature. The accompanying text located on the central and upper sections
of the boulder appears to be chronologically phased. Each section of text is
ornately inscribed and located in such a way as to portray symmetry. The later text,
of course, breaks the symmetrical relationship between the first set of text and its
position on the boulder. The central section of textual imagery is inscribed around
most of the circumference of the boulder suggesting that there was visual access
around the boulder when it was originally sited.
Stone II, slightly smaller than Stone I, consists of a Pallava text that is arranged
in Tamil style and dates possibly from the eighth century AD to the Purnavarman
period (Figure 16.8). Unlike Stone I, this stone has been cut horizontally at the
base. Script is carved around the upper section of the stone and is similar in form
to that on Stone I. A number of characters have been carved using a series of
double lines – this carving technique appears to visually highlight certain sentence
structuring. No other stone within the museum collection employs this technique.3
Unlike other stones within the museum collection, the carved script on Stone
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 245

Figure 16.6 Stone I: detail showing feet and spiders (Bandung Museum,
western Java)

III follows a more formal horizontal linear structure (Figure 16.9). The text is, yet
again, very different in style from that on other stones. The artist has, in between
each line of text, carved a single straight line in order to exaggerate the text’s
linearity. Further text is also present along the (possible) base of the stone. I say
‘possible’ because this section of text would have been hidden if the stone were
standing upright. According to de Casparis, the text can be palaeographically dated
to the late fourteenth century and is a [Old] Sundanese kawi script (de Casparis,
1975). The inscription mentions a holy place called Kawali (near Ciamis, western
Java), a royal palace, a ruler and a religious individual.
Stone IV, made from sandstone, stands approximately 0.78m high (Figure
16.10). The script on this stone shows no formal linear sentence construction; each
character appears to be haphazardly carved. All carved text is located on one face.
Some characters are repeated. These, along with other characters, appear to form
individual lines of script. The horizontal lines are positioned around the lower
section of the stone, whilst diagonal and vertical lines form the upper section. At
the base of this stone is a single carved horizontal line which probably delineates
the base of the stone. The text, relating to a legal transaction over land ownership,
is regarded as a later style, undoubtedly pre-1400 AD, perhaps tenth- to twelfth-
century.
The final stone within the museum display, Stone V, is the smallest and least
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246 Aesthetics and Rock Art

Figure 16.7 Stone I: detail of lower text (Bandung Museum, western Java)

impressive (Figure 16.11). The area of script carving is confined to the upper
section of the stone. One must assume that this stone, when in use, stood upright,
with the pointed end being embedded firmly into the ground (and positioned
slightly askew). The text, arranged in three lines, is different in style from the other
four inscribed stones. However, there are slight stylistic affinities with the larger
script on Stone I. The text probably relates to land ownership, and the stone may
therefore be a boundary marker.

Conclusion: Looking to Stones

This small assemblage at the Bandung Museum, displayed in an enclosed

courtyard, fulfils a number of functions. Approaching the courtyard from the main
museum hall, the onlooker encounters an aesthetically pleasing and powerful
display. The stones, with their various inscriptions, are subtly illuminated within
the enclosed courtyard space. Each stone is set into a series of cobbled floors, the
scene resembling, say, a pseudo-Japanese formal garden. The inscribed stones, the
enclosed space, the raised cobblestone floors and the minimalist setting place the
archaeology into a modern framework. Each inscription draws the reader visually
towards particular surface areas of the stone: the more intricate the inscription, the
greater the visuality.
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 247

Figure 16.8 Stone II: a religious taxation tablet dating to the eighth
century AD (Bandung Museum, western Java)
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248 Aesthetics and Rock Art

Figure 16.9 Stone III: taxation tablet (Bandung Museum, western Java)

The museum courtyard arguably provides an appropriate environment to

convey the inscriptions. Similarly, within their historical setting, the stones would
have been erected in order to inform. In both sorts of location, the textual and non-
textual images on each of the stones transmit information from stone to reader. In
order to powerfully transmit messages the text has to fulfil two conditions. First,
it has to be readable. Readability provides the text with rhetoric – in particular, the
power of grammar. Second, in accordance with the importance of the messages
conveyed, it has to be aesthetically visual. This second function is further
enhanced by the idiosyncratic way in which the text is displayed. As noted, the text
inscribed on all of the stones has been carefully placed and carved in order to
express symmetry. In addition to the symmetrical text, footprints and spiders have
been added to convey the power of the message.
The carved scripts on each of Stones II–V can be considered the results of
single carving events. Only Stone I shows any possible sign of chronological/
stylistic phasing. The iconography on this stone possibly represents at least three
carving episodes: phase (1) feet and spiders; phase (2) upper script; and phase (3)
lower script. The representative figures are arguably the first images, owing to the
fact that they occupy the upper part and the most prominent position on the stone.
The single line of script, with its flamboyant circular and semi-circular characters,
has been positioned so as not to encroach on to the feet and spiders. The
iconography shown – that is, the feet and spiders – probably signifies that the artist
needed more than just textual imagery in order to express what he or she wanted
to say.
It is reasonable to assume that the footprints (and spiders) on Stone I reflect
some form of [personal] feudal notation. One can also suggest that the footprints
and associated spiders can be considered older than the lower Pallava script. In
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 249

Figure 16.10 Stone IV: pre-fifteenth-century legal transaction over land

ownership (Bandung Museum, western Java)

comparing the carving technique used to gouge each footprint with the Pallava
script and the position of each group, it would appear that the feet and spiders pre-
date the text.
In summary, reading the five stones of the Bandung Museum as presenting the
observer with rock art and not only with aesthetically neutral text helps us to gain
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250 Aesthetics and Rock Art

Figure 16.11 Stone V: probable boundary marker, found in western Java

(Bandung Museum, western Java)
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The Aesthetic Value of Textual Images 251

further insight into what once was an extensive cultural system within western
Java. The iconography and palaeography of these marks on rock does give an
insight into the high degree of social and political, as well as religious,
organization of this society, especially during a period when Java was undergoing
substantial religious and cultural change. This case study furthermore argues that
other textual marks on rock, formerly not considered as rock art, should be
reassessed in the future.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the following people for their help, especially with translation of
the stones. First, I would like to thank Dr Ulrich Kratz of the School of Oriental
and African Studies, London, and Professor Jan Christie, University of Hull for
translation and additional referencing. Finally, sincere thanks to George Children
for his comments. I would also like to thank John Clegg and Thomas Heyd for
persuading me to complete this essay. Finally, special thanks to museum staff at
Bandung Museum for their help and permission to photograph the stones. All
mistakes concerning this essay are, of course, my responsibility.

Notes

1 There may be other marks on rock, whose aesthetic significance may also have been
overlooked until now. For example, on the walls of the Reichstag building in Berlin,
Germany officers and men of the Red Army scratched a series of provocative
statements in 1945. Baker (2002, pp. 20–38) has taken this little-known assemblage
and, quite rightly, called it rock art. These images, regarded by many as graffiti, create
a palimpsest that Baker refers to as the landscape of the Reichstag.
2 According to Professor Jan Christie, (personal communication) this inscription is one
of five from western Java that were carved during the reign of King Purnavarman.
3 Chhabra (1965, pp. 96–97) has translated the text as:

The Candrabhaga [canal] formally dug by the great king of kings, Pinabahu, passing
along the famous city, flowed into the sea. The beautiful Gomati [canal] with clear
water, dug within 21 days – beginning from the 18th day of the dark fortnight of the
month of Phalguna to the 13th day of the dark fortnight of the month of Caitra – in the
22nd year of the prosperous reign of the illustrious Purnavarman, glorious, virtuous
and powerful as also most excellent among kings, measuring in length 6122 dhanus
(i.e. bows), cutting across the cantonment of the grandfather, the saintly king, and
having caused a great gift of 1000 cows to the Brahmanas, is [now] flowing forth.

Chhabra considers that this stone represents a political as well as a religious tablet
which exonerates Pinabahu (king of kings). Yet again, the base text originates from
southern India (Chhabra, 1965, p. 96). An inscription using a similar text-style is on
the Tugu stone, found in a village of the same name, near what is known as Greater
Jakarta, western Java.
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