The figures displayed before us on the reliefs of Barabudur belong to all classes of society, from the cakravartin, the king who is ruler of the world, to the most simple dweller of the desk. No wonder then, if we begin with the dress, that we find it in all possible variety.
The most primitive sort of costume used by the lower class particularly in country districts, appears specially in the reliefs on the buried base which represent mostly scenes of humble life. This dress is nothing more than a loin-cloth. We might think such to be the costume of the original inhabitants, that is the Indonesian people of the island before the Hindu's appeared there and who we might suppose paid little attention to dress and would be content with a loin-cloth. Such a conclusion would be rash, for in the present day many villagers in India can be seen going about in this apparently primitive garment and maybe it was imported into Java and supplanted some still more scanty attire.
The cloth, actually a loin-cloth, that only more or less covers the legs but never reaches further than the knee, is folded round the body so that a corner of it always hangs down in front. In some cases it can be seen that this corner is pulled through a belt which keeps the garment in place, in others the cloth is only folded in a way something like an infants napkin and there is apparently no belt.
It is impossible to say whether the latter fashion is really another sort or only that the belt is not visible but must be considered as present. Sometimes when one of these folk is sitting with his back to the spectator, do we see a corner sticking out behind. This short cloth is worn by the women as well; but with the females it is often replaced by a longer garment reaching to just above the ankles, that evidently resembles the sarong.
The hairdressing of these people is also very plain. The hair is brushed back smoothly and then sometimes hangs down loose, but generally it is twisted into a knot at the back of the head. It is possible there are people with bald heads among them, though more likely not, because those figures whose back hair is plainly to be seen, often have the front part of their head smooth-shaven just like the monks. There can be no doubt about those whose back hair is visible, but those who do not shew the back of their heads might be taken for people with shorn crowns, though the resemblance to the others that are quite visible makes it less probable. Sometimes the line where the hair begins is cut so that it looks as if the figure was wearing a smooth cap. This I think is due only to indistinct work, because many of the persons with such "caps" still wear the ordinary style of hair on the middle of their head. It is quite another thing of course where some of the more elaborate head- and hairdressing fits round the head with a flat edge, which is of course intended for a cap-shaped frame. Those people who have no further sort of headdress and are to be recognised by the loin-cloth as of the lowest class, we can consider to be wearing their own hair brushed back. Very occasionally we find a turban worn, folded narrow and knotted round the head so that one corner sticks up at the top and another hangs down; see 0 2 and 118.
The first sign of a better class is a polished necklace and a pair of earrings with a plain flower-ornement. The hair too is dressed differently with a thick band, probably a wreath, round it and the back hair if not hanging loose, is twisted up into a small knot that hangs in the neck under the wreath. But we must not imagine these variations are enough to distinguish one class of persons from another; on the contrary as far as we can judge they represent the same kind of desa-people, only sometimes better dressed than usual. When anything of their work is to be seen, they appear to be labourers, street-vendors, handicraftsmen, musicians, fishermen, in short ordinary village folk.
Very gradually we rise from these people of the lowest class, those without caste and ,cudra's, by a little more ornament, and more costly outfit, till at last we reach the kings and their attendants. There is no very distinct separation between the one group and another, we see the desa-folk talking with men a little more well-to-do, their burgermasters (as we know from the records) and their landlords who again appear in higher company in various gradations, and so on. Possibly the difficulty of setting strict limits is not only the result of the actual conditions of their community but may be owing a good deal to the above-mentioned efforts the sculptors made to bring variety into their work even in depicting the very same person. However it may be, the changes of the various classes in appearance are very gradual on these reliefs.
Still worn with the short loin-cloth, the necklaces begin to be handsomer; they are made of beads or shew a widening on the breast evidently of gold or silver work. At the same time the headdress gets more elaborate; the hair sometimes combed up on the middle of the head into a tuft which is kept in place by an ornamented band round it, or it may be left smooth and a diadem-shaped headdress worn on it, with a trigular ornament in the centre, above the brow, and often smaller ones on each side. The next step is a diadem, not loose on the hair but forming the border to a cap which covers the hair and that begins to have a rather pointed shape; here we already have a simple kind of tiara, low in form but already showing resemblance to the lofty pointed tiara's of kings and royal persons. Probably as a remainder of the loose-diademstyle with combed-up hair, the higher centrepiece of these plain tiara's often has a spiral twisted-up shape, a kind of headdress we find among the people of the desa but is also seen among the servants and attendants of kings. In the same way we see the supporting band, the loose belt round the waist in which the seated persons like to lean one knee and so ease their position, as much used by the chief men of a village as by the king himself.
After the earrings and necklace, we get rings on the wrists, ankles and upper arm, especially the latter become elaborately ornamented with wide, always triangular plates of metal. The girdle, at the same time as the headdress, is more richly adorned and the caste-cord appears; with the women the so-called woman's girdle, a double band going over both shoulders and under both arms and fastened with a handsome clasp on the breast. These two kinds of belt are of course seen with all sorts of variations, the caste-cord for instance varies from a plain band to a splendid piece of workmanship apparently of gold links. But the headdress is always the most elaborate work of art.
There is no need to enumerate all the varieties of costume especially as their gradual transitions into one another prevents us being able to recognise certain classes of people by acertainstyleofdress;thereare a few exceptions to this rule which I shall point out later on. The royal costume requires separate mention, though it must be concise, because what is found on Barabudur does not actually differ from what other j Middle-Javanese sculpture shews us and is only remarkable for the great | number of monarchs depicted and the astonishing diversity the sculptors have managed to introduce.
The only real garment is still the loin-cloth, only altered by the mate- \ rial being more ample so that it can be folded differently and for in- ~ stance while it hangs on the one side only to the knee, on the other it I is longer, sometimes to the ankles; in other ways too this garment can | be altered but it seems to be always a long narrow cloth. People who are I in a hurry, of course not of the leisured classes, make it easier for them- ~ selves by "girding up their loins" and tying the rest of it into a bunch in I front of their middle. The ornament above-mentioned becomes a magnificent display of precious stones and goldsmith's skill; then we see richer adornment of another kind by a second necklace that hangs rather lower than the first, more of a breast ornament. Then another belt is put on just below the breast and above the hips, generally flat and with a pearl-shaped ornament. The girdle that holds the garment together can always be discerned, it has now become an important piece of the decoration, always fastened in front of the body with a splendid clasp, often with the two ends of the garment hanging down on either side. Under the girdle can be seen, across the thighs, the wide scarf-like band used when seated to support the knee; when standing it is tied in a big bow at the side of the figure; the ends of this garment do not hang in front but down the side of the leg. In the simpler style of this dress (clearly to be seen
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) comes first the girdle and then the sash, one under the other. This can be enriched by a second girdle below the first one and by winding the sash twice round the thighs: then we get four bands one below the other. On many reliefs it is not very easy to distinguish the two girdles and sashes, the girdles with their ends hanging down in front and the sashes with ends at the side of the legs, but fortunately there are examples enough (f.i.
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) where the various pieces can easily be distinguished.
The high pointed tiara to judge by its shape must have originated in the diadem or is at least connected with it; the lowest part of it, the band that goes round the head, is the same thing as that of the diadem, with an ornament in the middle and one on each side above the ears, Inside this rises the conical-shaped headdress in all sorts of styles, often built up of rings gradually smaller and more or less adorned with j ewels and similar ornaments. The ladies prefer a less-pointed shape; above the band there is often a second circle that is decorated with little twists as if in imitation of the natural curls. The whole headgear is often crowned with a flower ornement and hanging ribbons for both sexes, The rest of the women's costume differs very little from that of the men; the caste-cord being replaced by the women's girdle and the dress reaching down to their ankles.
Children are dressed in various ways. Sometimes they wear nothing at all, at least those of the lower classes; they are carried in the slendang which is still in use
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). Infant princes on the other hand often wear minature royal dress; they can often be recognised by the crescentshaped ornament behind the neck that has already been described i), and a double band in the style of the womens' girdle, generally with a large clasp in front on the breast, sometimes without a clasp but then made of links like a chain
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). The chief person on
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, with a plain band and crescent has a wonderful headdress; a broad band with twisting figures rising from it, that may be are snakes. It is quite possible this is some supernatural being; the story is an unidentified one. The crescent and band over the breast evidently represent official costume; the ordinary dress of upper-class children will be that of the small boy on 0 32; rings on wrists and ankles, a necklace and a little cap with ornemented border on the head. The ends of the garment hanging down at the side of the head do not distinctly belong to the child, but may just as likely be part of the father's dress to whom it evidently clings in fright.
I will mention a few reliefs separately. For the most primitive dress of the desafolk 0 34 has very good examples; here we see very distinctly the single loincloth or sarong with a belt.
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shows a bit of headgear not seen anywhere else; that is if the wide round, pointed object one of the. women is holding is really a sun-hat such as is still used for work in 
