Candi Prambanan, Yogyakarta
During my 5 day cycling trip, 30th June till 3rd July, that went through Borobudur temple, Gunung Merapi Volcano, Prambanan and Yogyakarta old city, the one destination that amazed me tremendously was Prambanan Temple.
I was trying to capture all the detailed crafted sculpture photos and counting the number of gods but I failed finally because there were just too many.
Sitting at one of the corners while waiting for other riders, I started pondering following;
How many gods are there in Hindu religion?
Who started this temple project and why?
Why was this temple destroyed?
Answers to 1 ;
Hinduism 's deities has evolved from 33 to >100. The major deities were Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva, Parvati, Brahma and Saraswati. The 33 Kotis devatas ( gods) and Devis ( Goddesses) does means 33 Crores, i.e. 330 million gods. 😳
Answers to 2;
This temple was started by Rakai Pikatan in 850 CE and continued by King Lokapala because it took two centuries to build these 250 temples . Looking at those extremely refined sculptures of each devatas and devis, I tend to agree with the needs of two centuries. I also think that the Prambanan Temple is a lot tougher to be built as compared to Borobudur temple. The numbers of different gods wrt all the refined sculpture at each wall were simply stunning.
I can agree to his comments.
Answers to 3;
Temples collapsed in the 11th century, due to earthquakes, Volcano eruptions, and political power shift .
It was rediscovered in the 17th century.
However, on 27th May 2006, 5.55am, a major earthquake 5.9 Richter scale struck that caused major damage in Prambanan Temple. About 6000 people were killed in Yogyakarta, that particular time.
A brief summary from
TayKC
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