# Relief label from Borobudur’s hidden base, no. 21 (8th c. CE)

Arlo Griffiths and Hedwi Prihatmoko

Authors of digital edition: Arlo Griffiths, Hedwi Prihatmoko

Identifier: DHARMA_INSIDENKBorobudurHB021

Repository: Nusantara Epigraphy (tfc-nusantara-epigraphy)

File path: xml/DHARMA_INSIDENKBorobudurHB021.xml

Language: Sanskrit [Kawi]

Commit: 2026-11-09 08:51 (6580fa0), last modified 2026-09-09 14:27
(72454d8)

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## Edition

### A. Frame

⟨1⟩ ∥virūpa∥

### B. Background

⟨1⟩ ∥virūpa|

## Apparatus

### A. Frame

⟨1⟩ virūpa 1917 1927 ⬦ vindupa 1896.

### B. Background

⟨1⟩ virūpa 1955 • The repetition of this word on a different zone of the
relief was not observed by scholars before Bernet Kempers.

## Translation

the ugly one

## Bibliography

First published by Kern (1896); republished by the same author (1917)
and subsequently by Krom (1927); this digital edition based on the 1927
publication, complemented with the subsequent observation by Bernet
Kempers (1955) of a repetition of the text elsewhere on the same relief.

### Primary

[1896] Kern, Johan Hendrik Caspar. 1896. “Over de bijschriften op het
beeldhouwwerk van Boro-Boedoer.” VMKAW-L 3e reeks, 12, pp. 119–128. Page
127.

[1917] Kern, Johan Hendrik Caspar. 1917. “Over de bijschriften op het
beeldhouwwerk van Boro-Budur (± 850 A. D.)” In: Verspreide geschriften,
zevende deel: inscripties van den Indischen archipel, slot; de
Nāgarakṛtāgama, eerste gedeelte. ’s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, pp. 145–156.
Page 154.

[1927] Krom, Nicolaas Johannes. 1927. Barabudur: Archaeological
description, vol. I. The Hague: Nijhoff. Page 51.

[1955] Bernet Kempers, August Johan. 1955. “Borobuḍur’s verborgen voet.”
BKI 111 (3), pp. 225–235. DOI: 10.1163/22134379-90002343. [URL]. Pages
234–235, figure 4.

### Secondary

Lévi, Sylvain. 1932. Mahā-karmavibhaṅga (La Grande classification des
actes) et Karmavibhaṅgopadeśa (Discussion sur le MahāKarmavibhaṅga):
textes sanscrits rapportés du Népal, édités et traduits avec les textes
parallèles en sanscrit, en pali, en tibétain, en chinois et en
koutchéen. Paris: E. Leroux. [URL]. Pages 14–15, item Kv.S. V and VI.

Krom, Nicolaas Johannes. 1933. “Het Karmawibhangga op Barabuḍur.” MKAW
76, serie B, no. 8, pp. 215–283. Page 223.

de Casparis, Johannes Gijsbertus. 1975. Indonesian palaeography: A
history of writing in Indonesia from the beginnings to c. A.D. 1500.
Handbuch der Orientalistik 3.4.1. Leiden: Brill. Page 32.

Fontein, Jan. 1989. The law of cause and effect in ancient Java.
Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeling
Letterkunde nieuwe reeks, deel 140. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Page 22.

Reichle, Natasha. 2009. “Unfinished Business: Clues about artistic
praxis from the Hidden Foot of Borobudur.” Artibus Asiae 69 (2), pp.
335–356. [URL]. Pages 352–354, Table I, item O-21.