Paper short abstract:

The paper suggests, that two sculptures from the East Javanese period (c. 1450 AD), now kept in different places, once formed a couple.The male and the female statues of Panji and Candrakirana, originally located on Mount Penanggungan, conveyed a specific religious symbolism.

Paper long abstract:

A great number of ancient Javanese remains are scattered in museums in Indonesia, in the Netherlands and in other parts of the world. The original place and exact date of many of these remains are unclear, same as their original functions. Some of the now scattered objects may even once have formed a coherent ensemble which was standing at a single ancient site.

At some point of investigating ancient sculpture, attention was focused on a male and female sculpture, now kept in two different places, which is assumed to have been a coherent ensemble and originally formed a couple.

The male statue depicts Panji, the local hero of the East Javanese period; it derives from the slopes of Mount Penanggungan in East Java and is now kept at the Technical University Bandung (ITB). A female sculpture in the National Museum in Jakarta, labelled as being a statue from the East Javanese period from the district of Mojokerto, seems to be the counterpart of the Panji sculpture. By comparing iconographical features, and by tracing back the paths of the two images throughout history, this paper will try to corroborate the suggestion.

Moreover, the interpretation of the images to represent Panji and his wife Candrakirana will contribute to the understanding of the symbolic meaning of these two statues, of their original place - Candi Selokelir on Mount Penanggungan - and of religious beliefs during the Majapahit period