h o m e

s u v a r n a b h u m i :    g r e a t e r    i n d i a

c o n t e n t s

Only Since World War II has the term Southeast Asia been used to describe the area to the east of India and to the south of China, which includes the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines, roughly forming a circle from Burma through Indonesia to Vietnam. Before the term Southeast Asia became common usage, the region was often described as Further or Greater India, and it was common to describe the Indonesian region or Malay Archipelago as the East Indies. The reason may be found in the fact that, prior to Western dominance, Southeast Asia was closely allied to India culturally and commercially. The history of Indian expansion covers a period of more than fifteen hundred years.

This region was broadly referred to by ancient Indians as Suvarnabhumi (the Land of Gold) or Suvarnadvipa (the Island of Gold), although scholars dispute its exact definition. Sometimes the term is interpreted to mean only Indonesia or Sumatra. Arab writers such as Al Biruni testify that Indians called the whole Southeast region Suwarndib (Suvarnadvipa). Hellenistic geographers knew the area as the Golden Ghersonese. The Chinese called it Kin-Lin; Kin means gold. During the last two thousand years, this region has come under the influence of practically all the major civilizations of the world: Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and Western. Of these, Indian culture appears to have blended best with the indigenous culture. 

The name Java comes from the Sanskrit Jawadwip, which means a (dvip) island (yawa) shaped like a barley corn. The Vedic Indians must have charted Java, Yawadvip, thousands of years ago because Yawadvip is mentioned in India's earliest epic, the Ramayana. The Ramayana reveals some knowledge of the eastern regions beyond seas; for instance Sugriva dispatched his men to Yavadvipa, the island of Java, in search of Sita. It speaks of Burma as the land of silver mines. The Agni Purana, along with many other Puranas, calls India proper as Jambudvipa as distinguished from Dvipantara or India of the islands or overseas India.  Towards the end of the fifth century, Aryabhatta, the Indian astronomer, wrote that when the sun rose in Ceylon it was midday in Yavakoti (Java) and midnight in the Roman land. In the Surya Siddhanta reference is also made to the Nagari Yavakoti with golden walls and gates.

Seldom has the world seen such a protracted and pervasive cultural diffusion. It stands a monument to the vitality and magnetism of Indian civilization.

Suvarnabhumi: Asianization of Indian Culture 

India has always given a great deal more than she has received. Civilization as we know today would not exist without India. 

Indianization of Asia was entirely peaceful, never resorting to physical force or coercion to subvert local cultures or identities, or to engage in economic or political exploitation of the host cultures and societies. Its worldviews were based on compassion and mutual exchange, and not on the principle of conquest and domination.

"The unique feature of India's contacts and relationship with other countries and peoples of the world is that the cultural expansion was never confused with colonial domination and commercial dynamism far less economic exploitation. That culture can advance without political motives, that trade can proceed without imperialist designs, settlements can take place without colonial excesses and that literature, religion and language can be transported without xenophobia, jingoism and race complexes are amply evidenced from the history of India's contact with her neighbors...Thus although a considerable part of central and south-eastern Asia became flourishing centers of Indian culture, they were seldom subjects to the regime of any Indian king or conquerors and hardly witnessed the horrors and havocs of any Indian military campaign. They were perfectly free, politically and economically and their people representing an integration of Indian and indigenous elements had no links with any Indian state and looked upon India as a holy land rather than a motherland – a land of pilgrimage and not an area of jurisdiction."

(source: Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee - Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Private Limited, 1981, New Delhi  p. 2 - 3 and Indian Culture over the World - By S V Shevade p. 91 and The Soul of India - By Satyavrata R Patel p. 30 and Geopolitics and Sanskrit phobia - By Rajiv Malhotra - sulekha.com).

Sir Charles Norton Edgcumbe Eliot (1862-1931) British diplomat and colonial administrator, in his book, Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. I, p.12. says:

"In Eastern Asia the influence of India has been notable in extent, strength, and duration."

"Scant justice is done to India's position in the world by those European histories which recount the exploits of her invaders and leave the impression that her own people were a feeble dreamy folk, surrendered from the rest of mankind by their seas and mountain frontiers. Such a picture takes no account of the intellectual conquests of the Hindus."

Even their political conquests were not contemptible, and are remarkable for the distance, if not the extent, of the territories occupied...But such military or commercial invasions are insignificant compared with the spread of Indian thought." The south-eastern region of Asia both mainland and Archipelago - owed its civilization almost entirely to India. In Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Champa, and Java, religion, art, the alphabet, literature, as well as whatever science and political organization existed, were the direct gift of Hindus, whether Brahmin or Buddhists, and much the same may be said of Tibet, whence the wilder Mongols took as much Indian civilization as they could stomach."

(source: Eminent Orientalists: Indian European American - Asian Educational Services. p. 369).

French scholar, Sylvain Levi (1863-1935) Orientalist who wrote on Eastern religion, literature, and history. Levi was appointed a lecturer at the school of higher studies in Paris (1886), he taught Sanskrit at the Sorbonne (1889-94) and wrote his doctoral dissertation, Le Théâtre indien ("The Indian Theatre"). In L'Inde et le monde ("India and the World"), he discussed India's role among nations. He writes:

"From Persia to the Chinese Sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to the islands of Java and Borneo, from Oceania to Socotra, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales and her civilization. She has left indelible imprints on one-fourth of the human race in the course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to reclaim in universal history the rank that ignorance has refused her for a long time and to hold her place amongst the great nations summarizing and symbolizing the spirit of Humanity."

(source: Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru. p. 200 -210). Refer to India once ruled the Americas! – By Gene D Matlock

Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767-1835) German Indologist, Prussian minister of education, a brilliant linguist and the founder of the science of general linguistics. 

He wrote:

"The Relation between India and Java"; in it the author discusses the cultural influence India extended on countries further east. Humboldt showed that the Kawi language is Javanese and contains a number of Sanskrit loan words which prove the literary and political superiority of the Hindus.  

The historical background is the emigration of Brahmins, who brought the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and other works of Sanskrit literature. He showed that no Prakrit words are found in Old Javanese and he deduced from this that the Indian immigrants must have come to Java at a time when the more recent Indian languages had not yet separated from Sanskrit."

(source: German Indologists: Biographies of Scholars in Indian Studies writing in German - By Valentine Stache-Rosen. p 5 - 6).

(source: A Survey of Indian History - By Sardar Kavalam Madhava Panikkar  p. 68 - 69).

Suharto Sukarno (1901- 1970) Indonesian nationalist leader and the first President of Indonesia. He helped the country win its independence from the Netherlands. He echoed the same sentiments. 

In a special article in The Hindu on 4 January 1946, Sukarno wrote:  

"In the veins of every one of my people flows the blood of Indian ancestors and the culture that we possess is steeped through and through with Indian influences. Two thousand years ago people from your country came to Jawadvipa and Suvarnadvipa in the spirit of brotherly love. 

"They gave the initiative to found powerful kingdoms such as those of Sri Vijaya, Mataram and Majapahit. We then learnt to worship the very Gods that you now worship still and we fashioned a culture that even today is largely identical with your own. Later, we turned to Islam: but that religion too was brought by people coming from both sides of India."

(source: Prospects for a Bay of Bengal community - By V. Suryanarayan). 

For more refer to chapter on Glimpses XV and Sacred Angkor.

Norodom Sihanouk, Head  of the State of the Royal Government of Cambodia (1954-1970 and, again, since 1993) had on the occasion of the inauguration of the Jawaharlal Nehru Boulevard  in Phnom Penh, on 10 May 1955, traced the cultural evolution in Southeast Asia to the pervasive Indian cultural influence:   

“When we refer to thousand year old ties which unite us with India, it is not at all a hyperbole. "

"In fact, it was about 2000 years ago that the first navigators, Indian merchants and Brahmins brought to our ancestors their gods, their techniques, their organization. Briefly India was for us what Greece was to Latin Orient."

(source: The Fossilized Indian Culture of Southeast Asia - By Y Yagama Reddy).

Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) a Hungarian and author of several books including Ra`jatarangini: a chronicle of the kings of Kashmir and Innermost Asia : detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su, and Eastern Iran carried out and described under the orders of H.M. Indian Government, whose valuable researches have added greatly to our knowledge of Greater India. 

He remarks:

"The vast extent of Indian cultural influences, from Central Asia in the North to tropical Indonesia in the South, and from the Borderlands of Persia to China and Japan, has shown that ancient India was a radiating center of a civilization, which by its religious thought, its art and literature, was destined to leave its deep mark on the races wholly diverse and scattered over the greater part of Asia."

(source: The Vision of India - By Sisir Kumar Mitra p. 178 and Main Currents of Indian Culture - By S. Natarajan  p. 50).

Will Durant (1885-1981) American historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things. 

He has observed:

"Indian art had accompanied Indian religion across straits and frontiers into Sri Lanka, Java, Cambodia, Siam, Burma, Tibet, Khotan, Turkestan, Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan; 

“in Asia all roads lead from India.”   

(source: Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage - By Will Durant MJF Books. 1935. p. 605).

For more refer to chapter on Sacred Angkor, Glimpses XII to Glimpses XV.

Reginald Le May ( ? ) author of The culture of South-East Asia;: The heritage of India, observed: 

“Indian art and culture seem naturally to have exercised an extraordinary art fascination over the indigenous peoples of all these territories, no doubt, owing to the attractions offered by Buddhism and Hinduism, while Chinese art, not bearing any particular religious message, apparently made but little impression inspite of the fact that they Chinese, too sailed the southern seas in search of trade from very early time.”  

He wrote: 

“The beginnings of Indian colonization overseas eastward go back a very long way in time and it is almost certain that the results seen today were, in the main, not achieved by military expeditions, but by peaceful trading and religious teaching – and thereby all the more permanent.”  

(source: Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee - Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Private Limited, 1981, New Delhi  p. 1 - 20).

Introduction
Countries 
Vietnam, Indonesia Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Bali, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaya, Philippines, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Tibet, and Russia. For China - refer to chapter India and China.
Conclusion
Articles

Introduction:

India is a country of temples without equal but there is a certain irony in that one of the largest and most dramatic monuments to Hinduism rests not in India but thousands of miles away from the subcontinent amid the ruins of a metropolis hidden in the jungles of Cambodia (formerly known as Kamboja). One of the largest cities of the ancient world, Angkor was built by King Suryavarnam II to honor Lord Vishnu, it is even larger than the Vatican. To know and understand India one has to travel far in time and space, to forget for a while her present condition, and to have glimpses of what she was and what she did. 

(source: Eastern Wisdom: The Philosophies and Rituals of the East - By M. Jordan p. 52). 

Henri Mouhot (1826 -1861) a French naturalist and explorer, who had gone to South-east Asia in the late 1850's and succumbed to fever there in 1861. Mesmerized by what he saw at the temple of Angkor Vat, Mouhot in lyrical descriptions said: 

"At the sight of this temple, one feels one's spirit crushed, one's imagination surpassed. One looks, one admires, and, seized with respect, one is silent. For where are the words to praise a work of art that may not have its equal anywhere on the globe? ... What genius this Michalangelo of the East had, that he was capable of concaving such a work.'' 

(source: Le Tour du Monde, 2-1863-299). He said: "See Angkor and Die."

"What strikes the observer with not less admiration than the grandeur, regularity, and beauty of these majestic buildings, is the immense size and prodigious number of the blocks of stone of which they are constructed. In this temple alone are as many as 1532 columns. What means of transport, what a multitude of workmen, must this have required, seeing that the mountain out of which the stone was hewn is thirty miles distant!...."

(source: Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire - By Bruno Dagens  p. 140-141).

"It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome." "To obtain any idea of its splendor on one must imagine the most beautiful creations of architecture transported into depths of the forests in one of the more remote countries in the world."

Mahout recorded excitedly in his diary for January 1860 after gazing on the 200-ft temple of Angkor Vat. 

(source: The World's Last Mysteries - Readers Digest  ASIN 089577044X p. 243).

At Ongcor, there are ...ruins of such grandeur... that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration, and cannot but ask what has become of this powerful race, so civilized, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works? 

(source: In Mouhot's Footsteps ).

According to historian A. L. Basham, "The whole of South-East Asia received most of its culture from India. Early in the 5th B.C. century colonists from Western India settled in Lanka. The Indian 'colonies' were peaceful ones, and the Indianized chieftains who had learnt what India had to teach them." 

(source: The Wonder That Was India - By A L Basham  p. 485).

Henri Mahout could hardly believe his eyes in 1860. 

He wrote of

"ruins of such grandeur, remains of structures that must have been raised at such an immense cost of labor, that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration....One of these temples - a rival to that of Soloman, and erected by some ancient Michael Angleo - might take an honorable place besides our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece and Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation in now plunged." 

To Mahout, those "prodigious works" were nothing short of astounding. 

(source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society. p. 186).

Philip S. Rawson writes in his book The Art of South East Asia: 

"The culture of India has been one of the world's most powerful civilizing forces. Countries of the Far East, including China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and Mongolia owe much of what is best in their own cultures to the inspiration of ideas imported from India. The West, too, has its own debts." But the members of that circle of civilizations beyond Burma scattered around the Gulf of Siam and the Java Sea, virtually owe their very existence to the creative influence of Indian ideas... No conquest or invasion, no forced conversion imposed them. They were adopted because people saw that they were good and that they could use them..."

"To know Indian art in India alone,' says Sir John Marshall, 'is to know but half its story. To apprehend it to the full, we must follow it to central Asia, China and Japan; we must watch it assuming new forms and breaking into new beauties as it spreads over Tibet and Burma and Siam; we must gaze in awe at the unexpected grandeur of its creations in Cambodia and Java." 

(source: Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru. p. 200 -210). For more refer to chapter on Glimpses XII to Glimpses XV.

Will Durant (1885-1981) American historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things. 

He has observed:

“Angkor wat is a masterpiece equal to the finest architectural achievements of the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the cathedral builders of Europe. An enormous moat, twelve miles in length, surrounds the temple; over the moat runs a paved bridge guarded by dissuasive Nagas in stone; then an ornate enclosing wall; then spacious galleries, whose reliefs tell again the tales of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; then the stately edifice itself, rising upon a broad base, by level after level of a terraced pyramid, to the sanctuary of the God, two hundred feet high."

"Here magnitude does not detract from beauty, but helps it to an imposing magnificence that startles the Western mind into some weak realization of the ancient grandeur once possessed by Oriental civilization."   

(source: Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage - By Will Durant MJF Books. 1935. p. 605).

Hindu Trinity or Trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva

"India left the indelible impress of her high culture, not only upon religion, but also upon art, and literature, in a word, all the higher things of spirit."

For more refer to chapters on Sacred Angkor and Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX.

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M. Rene Grousset, (1885-1952) French art historian, says: "In the high plateau of eastern Iran, in the oases of Serindia, in the arid wastes of Tibet, Mongolia, and Manchuria, in the ancient civilized lands of China and Japan, in the lands of the primitive Mons and Khmers and other tribes of Indo-China, in the countries of the Malaya-Polynesians, in Indonesia and Malay, India left the indelible impress of her high culture, not only upon religion, but also upon art, and literature, in a word, all the higher things of spirit."

"There is an obstinate prejudice thanks to which India is constantly represented as having lived, as it were, hermetically sealed up in its age-old civilization, apart from the rest of Asia. Nothing could be more exaggerated. During the first eight centuries of our era, so far as religion and art are concerned, central Asia was a sort of Indian colony. It is often forgotten that in the early Middle Ages there existed a "Greater India," a vast Indian empire. A man coming from the Ganges or the Deccan to Southeast Asia felt as much at home there as in his own native land. In those days the Indian Ocean really deserved its name."

(source: Civilizations of the East - By Rene Grousset Vol. II, Chapter - Farther India and the Malay Archipelago p. 275 -343).

"Indian art in Java," adds Dr. Ernest Binfield Havell, "has a character of its own which distinguishes it from that of the continent from whence it came. There runs through both the same strain of deep serenity, but in the divine ideal of Java we lose the austere feeling which characterizes the Hindu sculpture of Elephanta and Mamallapuram." 

(source: The Ideals of Indian Art - By Dr. Ernest Binfield Havell  p.169 
Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru. p. 214).

Rabindranath Tagore has said: "To know my country one has to travel to that age, when she realized her soul and thus transcended her physical boundaries when she revealed her being in a radiant magnanimity which illumined the eastern horizon, making her recognized as their own by those in alien shores who were awakened into a surprise of life." 

Jawaharlal Nehru has written: "For it was India that functioned here and exhibited her vitality and genius in a variety of ways. We see her bubbling over with energy and spreading out far and wide, carrying not only her thought but her other ideals, her art, her trade, her language and literature and her methods of government. She was not stagnant, or standing aloof, or isolated and cut off by mountain and sea. Her people crossed those high mountains and and perilous seas and built up, as (French art historian) Rene Grousset says, ' a Greater India politically as little organized as Greater Greece, but morally equally harmonious." 

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p.207).

Jawaharlal Nehru has lamented: "How few of us know of these great achievements of our past, how few realize that if India was great in thought and philosophy, she was equally great in action. Most westerners still imagine ancient history is largely concerned with the Mediterranean countries, and medieval and modern history is dominated by the quarrelsome little continent of Europe."

According to Indian historian, Dr. K. P. Jayaswal, "Further India was recognized as part of India in the Bharasiva-Vakataka period. In the Matsya Purana, for the first time we find that recognition. Between the Himavat and the Sea Bharatvarsha stands, but it covers a larger area on account of Indians living in eight more islands (Dvipas). All these Dvipas were to the east. The Malaya Peninsula was well-known to Indians at the time, a fact evidenced by an inscription of the 4th century A.D. on a pillar in the present district of Wellesley. Burma was known as Indradvipa. Ceylon was known as Lanka-Dvipa or Tamraparni. Similarly, Cambodia, Nicobar, Sumatra, Java and Borneo were also known."

The Agni Purana, along with many other Puranas, calls India proper as Jambudvipa as distinguished from Dvipantara or India of the islands or overseas India. Ancient Indians who explored the globe in times immemorial had a three-fold motto expressed in the terms  "Charaiveti" (Let us move on and on), 'Krunvanto Viswam Aryan' (Let us make all people civilized, well-behaved, dutiful, god-fearing, noble, educated etc.) and 'Wasudhaiva-Kutumbakam (the whole world is one entity, one family).

A Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary compiled in Central Asia in the seventh and eighth centuries calls the countries situated in the Southern Seas as Jipattala which Sylvain Levi interprets as the Indian archipelago and the neighboring islands. These two Indias were called by the name of Bharatavarsha which included the nine islands of Dvipantara-Bharata, each separated from the other by sea. The names of those islands were Indra-dvipa, Kaseru, Tamravarna, Gabhastiman, Nagadvipa, Saumya, Gandharva and Varuna. 

Masudi, born in Baghdad, the Arab geographer, historian and philosopher, states in his work called Muruj adh-Dhahab  or 'Meadows of Gold' written in 942 A.D. that India in those days "extended over sea and land and bordered on the country called Zabag (Sumatra or Greater Java) ruled by the king of these islands." 

Professor Sylvain Levi has shown from references in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Mahaniddesa, and Brihat-Katha that the products of Burma and Malaya Peninsula were known to Indian merchants and sailors, and also some of its ports such as Suvarnakudya, Suvarnabhumi, Takkolam, Tamlin and Javam from at least first century A.D. 

The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea written by a Greek sailor of Egypt in the first century A.D. mentions many ports of India then existing on its Western and Eastern coasts. Ptolemy in his Geography written in the second century A.D. refers to the ports of Malaya Peninsula, Java, and Sumatra and the Indian port of Palura from which voyages were directly made to Malaya Peninsula. Ptolemy's reference in the second century to Iabadiou certainly represents the Prakrit from of the Sanskrit Yavadvipa. 

Indian culture flourished, reaching islands as far as Borneo and Bali. Some of it survives even today, evident from the quaint proto-Sanskritic names that still prevail in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia. Borneo's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan is a colloquialisation of Sri Bhagwan, Bali's headquarters, Jeyapora, is nothing but Jaipur, localised, just as Aranya Prathet in Thailand is simply the jungle province or Aranya Pradesh. Fortunately, much of the structure of the gigantic temple city of Angkor Vat has survived the ravages of the Khmer Rouge, while Borobudur in Java still shines in resplendent glory.

"A Tamil inscription found in Thailand, at the site of Takua Pa, testifies to southeast Asia commerce with the Pallava region. A poem written by the 8th century Vaishnava saint, Tirumangai, speaks of ports where "ships rode at anchor, bent to the point of breaking, laden as they were with wealth, with big-trunked elephants, and with mountains of gems of nine varieties." 

(source: Indian Art - By Vidya Dehejia  p. 186).

Names like Indo-China. Further India, Insulindia, Indonesia, etc., which are applied to various parts of South East Asia and the Far East are as significant as 'Ser-Inida.' This region is geographically an extension of India and Ptolemy rightly calls it 'Trans-Gangetic India.'

(source: Cultural Heritage of Ancient India - By Sachindra Kumar Maity p.121). For a virtual tour of extensive art from Southeast Asia, visit Museum Guimet).

The names that were given to these settlements were old Indian names. Thus Cambodia, as it is known now, was called Kambhoja, which was a well-known town in ancient India, as was Gandhara in (present day Afghanistan). (Please refer to Glimpses II for information on Afghanistan)

What led to these extraordinary expeditions across perilous seas and what was the tremendous urge behind them?  

According to historian, Dr. R. C. Majumdar (1888 - 1980), has pointed out that: 

"If literature can be regarded as a fair reflex of the popular mind, trade and commerce must have been a supreme passion in India in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Christian era." 

All this indicates an expanding economy and a constant search for distant markets. "The military conquest of these early Indians colonists are important as throwing light on certain aspects of the Indian character and genius which have hitherto not been appreciated. But far more important is the rich civilization they built up in their colonies and settlements and which endured for over a thousand years. It is not known precisely when contact began between India and Southeast Asia. There is enough references in Indian books, accounts of Arab travelers, Chinese historical accounts, old inscriptions, as well as the magnificent ruins of ancient monuments, like Angkor and Borobudur. The old stories in Sanskrit contain many accounts of perilous sea voyages and of shipwrecks. Both Greek and Arab accounts show that there was regular maritime intercourse between India and the Far East at least as early as the first century B.C.  

(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru  p.200 -202).

India's Moonlight Civilization

Amaury de Riencourt (1918 - ) was born in Orleans, France. He received his B.A. from the Sorbonne and his M.A. from the University of Algiers. He is author of several books including The American empire and The Soul of India, wrote: 

"The brightest sun shining over Southeast Asia in the first centuries A.D. was Indian Civilization. Waves of Indian colonists, traders, soldiers, Brahmins and Buddhist beat upon one Southeast shore after another. Great military power based on superior technical knowledge, flourishing trade fostered by the remarkable increase in maritime exchanges between India and these areas, the vast cultural superiority of the Indians, everything conspired to heighten the impact of the Indian Civilization on the Southeast Asian. Passenger ships plied regularly between the Ganges, Ceylon and Malaya in the middle of the first millennium A.D. Indian settlers from Gujarat and Kalinga colonized Java, for instance, while others set out for Burma or Cambodia. Old Indian books – the Kathasagara, the Jatakas and others – refer to these wondorous regions that set the imagination of civilized Indians on fire, to Suvarnabhumi, the fabulous “Land of Gold.” On the whole, the Indianization of Southeast Asia proceeded peacefully. Local chiefs and petty chieftains were admitted into the caste structure as Ksatriyas through a ritual known as vratyastoma, performed by an Indian Brahmin.  All over Southeast Asia tremendous ruins are strewn, testifying to the immense influence of Indian Civilization. "

Indian Civilization prevailed over an immense area stretching from Afghanistan to the Pacific, including most of what is known today as Southeast Asia. Passenger ships plied regularly between the Ganges, Sri Lanka and Malaya in the middle of the first millennium A.D. Indian settlers from Gujarat and Kalinga (Orissa) colonized Java, for instance, while others set out for Burma or Cambodia. Old Indian books - the Kathasaritsagara, the Jatakas and others -refer to these wondrous regions that set the imaginations of civilized Indians on fire, to Suvarnabhumi, the fabulous "Land of Gold" as Southeast Asia was then known. And all over Southeast Asia tremendous ruins are strewn, testifying to the immense influence of Indian Civilization. Side by side, the life history of Gautama Buddha carved delicately in stone continues the bas-reliefs depicting the legendary tales of Krishna, Vishnu and Rama. Moonlight Civilization glittered in all their magnificence, reflecting Indian Civilization at a time when it had been dealt a crippling blow at home, in India, after the Mohammedans arrived. 

Everywhere, Indian influence prevailed over the Chinese, and for evident reasons: an undoubted cultural superiority owing to much greater philosophic and religious insight. Indian Civilization respected the political autonomy of its colonies and the cultural freedom of all its units, and, on the whole, worked through peaceful penetration. The Chinese, on the other hand, proceeded by conquest, assimilation and absorption into all encompassing Chinese Civilization. 

(source: The Soul of India - By Amaury de Riencourt ISBN 0907855032 p. 157-162).

G E Geraini commenting on Researches on Ptolemy’s Geography rightly observes: 

“From the Brahmaputra and Manipur to the Tonkin Gulf we can trace a continuous string of petty states ruled by those scions of the Kshatriya race, using the Sanskrit or the Pali language in official documents and inscriptions, building temples and other monuments of the Hindu style and employing Brahmin priest at the propitiatory ceremonies connected with the court and the state.”

Prof. Reginald Le May wrote: “The beginnings of Indian colonization overseas eastward go back a very long way in time and it is almost certain that the results seen today were, in the main, not achieved by military expeditions, but by peaceful trading and religious teaching – and thereby all the more permanent.”

(source: Greater India - By Arun Bhattacharjee - Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Private Limited, 1981, New Delhi  p. 1 - 20).

Modern historical research on Southeast Asia is in its formative stages and the attention given to its ancient past has been much less than that given to later periods. Western scholars are mainly stimulated by their colonial involvement in the area and generally concentrate attention on their own activities. An idea of the extent of knowledge about Southeast Asia may be gained from an European scholar who wrote in 1861, that except for Burma, "the Indian countries situated beyond the Ganges hardly deserve the attention of historians." 

(source: Cited in George Coedes, Journal of South East Asian History, September, 1964, p. 4).  

"A people with no long cultural history of their own (like the British) could not be expected to be attracted by the ancient cultural past of the people they dominated. Equally strange is the attitude of Indian historians towards the cultural past of Southeast Asia. Most of them have remained indifferent, largely because of inheriting a set system of academic training. The eastward expansion of Hindu civilization has not yet been fully traced. On the other hand, some non-Indian scholars, especially modern writers of secondary works, tend to play down India's importance in the evolution of southeast Asian civilization."  

(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal p. 80-98).

The advent of Indians in Southeast Asia has hardly a parallel in history. It cannot be equated with the arrival of Europeans in America, because the Indians did not go to Southeast Asia as strangers. In view of the ethnic affinities between the prehistoric Austro-Asiatic races of India and those of Suvarnabhumi, contact between the two regions may well go back to the remotest antiquity. Whatever the relationship between the two regions may be the transplantation of Indian culture into Southeast Asia began in prehistoric times with trade contacts. 

His chariot drawn by prancing horse, Surya, the sun god rides the sky to a chorus of worshippers.

For more refer to chapters on Sacred Angkor and Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX.

***

"This was the time of the great Indian expansion, when seafaring merchants fanned out across the Indian Ocean and brought to Southeast Asia a seething ferment of new ideas. From Burma to Indonesia, they established a chain of settlements along the coasts from which they traded for gold, precious stones, perfumes, and spices. The merchants brought with them their religion, Hinduism and Buddhism, their literary language, Sanskrit, their art and technology; and their science and mathematics."

(source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society. p.186-190).

Indian culture, secular and religious, had found a permanent home in Southeast Asia. This was a peaceful process; unlike the Western newcomers in modern times, no forced colonization occurred. 

"Seldom has the world seen such a protracted and pervasive cultural diffusion. It stands a monument to the vitality and magnetism of Indian civilization."

(source: A History of World Societies - By Mackay Hill Buckler  p.318-319).

Indian culture penetrated the countries of South-East Asia entirely by peaceful means. This was the result of a series of enterprises by traders, adventurers, scholars and priests. Operating from Indian settlements that had been founded in the 1st century, these men brought the highly refined culture of India to peoples whose way of life was perfectly suited to Brahmanic and Buddhist teachings. Throughout this area Indianization took the form of the adoption of Sanskrit as the official and sacred language, the introduction of the Indian religions of Brahmanism and Buddhism, with their myths, philosophical systems and traditions and the establishment of a political structure very close to that of ancient India. 

(source: The Oriental World - By Jeannine Auboyer Landmarks of World's Art quoted from Appendix page). 

The Ramayana reveals some knowledge of the eastern regions beyond the seas; for instance Sugriva dispatched his men to Yavadvipa, the island of Java or Sumatra, in search of Sita. It speaks of Burma as the land of silver mines. Tamil literature contains references to tall roomy ships laden with goods returning from eastern ports. Puranic cosmology and geographical divisions into varshas and dvipas point to Indian knowledge of this area, although the knowledge of the Puranic compilers was somewhat vague. Lord Ganesha  is found in Thai art especially around Sukhothai in central Thailand and Khmer art of Cambodia. There are also spectacular images coming from Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam - with both Buddhism and Hinduism intertwined and Ganesha appearing predominantly as a protector and guardian. Nowhere in South-East Asia is Ganesha as popular as in Indonesia: with most of Java and Bali islands carrying forward continued worship of Ganesha. There are some rare Ganesha bronzes as Vinayaka in Japan and some in China.

Ganesha has been a major deity, since the seventh and eighth centuries, in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It was Ganesha in his role as remover of obstacles that was primarily accepted in mainland Southest Asia. Even today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as god of success. It is from Vinayaka that the old Myanmar name for Ganesha, Mahapinary purha, was derived. Other names with a similar meaning occur frequently in Cambodian inscriptions, such as Vighnesha and Vignesvara, both of which mean "Lord of removing obstacles". Ganesha was extremely popular in the art of Indonesian islands, especially of Sumatra and Java and compare favorably with the eighth-century Ellora caves, in images, style and iconography. At Candi Sukuh in central Java, a remarkable fifteenth century relief shows three figures, with a dancing Ganesha in the centre. There are paintings and stone sculptures of the deity found in China, apart from the textual references to Ganesha in the Chinese Buddhist canon. In Japan, there is the Shingon ritual practice that centres on Ganesha, with texts tracing back to China. Nearer India, the assimilation of the deity with the Buddhist images is almost complete in Tibet and Nepal. In the Tibetan Buddhism, the practice associated with Ganesha, as Buddhist Tantric deity, survives up to this day. In Jainism Ganesha occasionally found a place alongside Mahabir. The Tibetan Ganesha appears, besides bronzes, in the resplendent Thangka paintings alongside the Buddha. In a single Kathmandu valley of Nepal, there are four principal manifestations of "Binayak" in a protective role: Ashok, Surya, Chandra and Bighna. In that valley, Ganapati guards the Buddhist viharas where bhajans are sung in his praise. 

Ganesha is a vibrant presence whose benediction is sought by traders, travelers, artists and statesmen. As lord of business and diplomacy, he sits comfortably on a high pedestal outside Bangkok's World Trade Centre, where people offer flowers, incense and a reverential sawasdee. A gilt Ganesha presides over the bustling charivari of lucrative tourism in the lobby of the Rama Hotel. Another commands the Isetan department store. Even Muslim Indonesia reveres him and European scholars call him the 'Indonesian god of wisdom'. Bandung boasts a Jalan Ganesa, and his image adorns 20,000 rupiah notes.

Lord Ganesha supported by figures of gana. Ganesha literally means "Lord of the Gana".  

(source: Ganesha: Dominating Oriental Psyche - By Utpal K. Banerjee Tour India May 2001 and straitstimes.com).

***

The Niddesa enumerates a series of Sanskrit or Sanskritized toponyms whose identification with localities in Southeast Asia has been proposed by French scholar, Sylvain Levi.  References are found in the Buddhist  Jataka and the third Buddhist Sangiti council held at Pataliputra in 247 B.C. during the reign of Asoka. Accounts of sea voyages, some of which ended in disaster, are also recounted in other ancient texts, such as the Kathakosa, and the Jain Jnatadharmakatha. The Kathakosa tells the story of Nagadutta who went to Suvarnabhumi with five hundred ships to conduct a profitable trade. There also numerous references in the Arthasashtra to those lands and places in eastern and Southeast Asia, which were worthy of note from the economic, commercial, or political viewpoint. For instance, it refers to a kind of sandalwood, called Tailaparnika, which was produced in Suvarnabhumi. 

(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal p. 80-98).

India's contact by sea with China would also imply Indian contact with Southeast Asia. All the Indian colonies were situated between two great countries and two great civilizations - India and China. Some of them, on the Asiatic mainland, others were on the direct trade route between India and China.  Thus they were influenced by both, religion and art came from India, and philosophy of life came from China. 

Sir John Malcolm wrote :

"Indian vessels "are so admirably adapted to the purpose for which they are required that, not withstanding their superior science, Europeans were unable, during an intercourse with India for two centuries, to suggest or at least to bring into successful practice one improvement. "

It was also known that in the third century a transport of horses, which would require  large ships, reached Malaya and Southeast Asia.

In 1949,  two scholars, Gordon Ekholm and Chaman Lal, systematically compared the Mayan, Aztec, Incan and North American Indian civilizations with the Hindu-oriented countries. According to them, the emigrant cultures of India took with them India's system of time measurement, local gods, and customs. (For more details, please refer to the chapter India on Pacific Waves ) Gene Matlock, author of India Once Ruled the Americas! states: The people of India have long known that their ancestors once sailed to and settled in the Americas. They called America 'Patala,' The Underworld,' not because they believed it to be underground, but because the other side of the globe appeared to be straight down."

Even in Cambodia and in the mighty remains of Angkor the only artistic influence that can be detected is from India. But Indian art was flexible and adaptable and in each country it flowered afresh in many new ways, always retaining that basic impress which it derived from India. 

Sir John Marshall, discoverer of the Indus Valley, has referred to "the amazingly vital and flexible character of Indian art." Indian art derives its basic character from certain ideals associated with the religion and philosophic outlook of India. Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy, late curator at the Boston Museum, has said: " A more conscious of sophisticated art could scarcely be imagined. Despite its invariably religious subject matter, it is an art of "great courts charming the mind by their noble matter, this is an art of "great courts charming the mind by their noble routine." 

(source: India Discovered - By John Keay p. 162). 

That Indian traders and settlers repeatedly undertook journeys to Southeast Asia, despite the hazards and perils involved, speaks well for their physical prowess, courage, and determination, even if allowance for the pull of profit is made. Not only were the Indian traders vehicles of culture in this part of the world, but everywhere trade has been a major factor in dissemination of culture. Arthur Waley, author of the book, The Way and its Power, has declared that merchants were undoubtedly the main carriers of information about the outside world, and disputes the assertion which is derived from false analogy between the East and West that merchants are not likely to have been interested in philosophy. Indian or Chinese merchants, in contrast to European traders, were "reputedly capable of discussing metaphysical questions" and there is ample testimony in Buddhist legend of such merchants.

"Each blade of grass here breathes of Indian culture"- said Jawaharlal Nehru, during his visit to Cambodia in1954 to commemorate the 2500th birth anniversary of Buddha.

India, as Jawaharlal Nehru observed way back in 1954, continues to breathe in these parts. Lao religion is guided by both Hindu and Buddhist influences; the prevalent language here has Sanskrit and Pali roots; Laos has evolved Ramayana Ballet like an institution; ancient shivalingams were discovered in the south of Laos in 1999; Laotians greet their elders with a nop similar to the Indian namaste; they take their shoes off outside their homes; temples in the ancient Laotian Capital of Luang Prabang bear distinct Indian influences. All this and much more remain literally miles away from the collective Indian consciousness. Similarly, the ancient complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, rediscovered in the 1940s, is an incredible testimony to the reach of Hindu religion and culture way back in the 12th century. The massive temple complex dedicated to Vishnu and bearing frescoes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and detailed scenes of Samudramanthan tells the story of a time when despite transport handicaps Indians traveled to distant shores and placed their indelible signature on a civilization that breathes to this day. That these great civilizations of the Mekong River (Mekong is said to be a derivative for Ma Ganga) have kept alive a great Indian heritage is a little-acknowledged fact in India, except of course their lifeless documentation in Government records and academic research.

(source: South East Asia, truly India - By D. Ganguly - dailypioneer.com).

Ancient Indian ocean-going ship arriving at Java, from a frieze of the Borobodur stupa.

For more refer to chapters on Sacred Angkor and Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX.

***

The discovery of monsoon made sea journeys between India and the Western world safe and punctual, and the Roman demand for the luxury goods of the East had reached fantastic proportions - far beyond what India alone could supply. Consequently, the Indians went in increasing numbers to Southeast Asia looking for those things that could be sold to the Romans at such good prices that Pliny the Elder was to bewail this loss of blood inflicted to the Roman economy. 

(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal p. 80-98).

In the beginning of the Christian era, India lost Siberia as her most important source of gold, because political upheavals and large-scale movements of the people of Central Asia in the last two centuries B.C. cut off the trade route.  

In Indonesia, Hinduism arrived first, but it was made no conscious attempt to convert local peoples to their faith or culture. They certainly did not impose it by force. Proselytism was precluded by the very nature of the Hindu faith, which explains the general unconcern of Indians with the Indianization of Southeast Asia. However, later Buddhist missionaries worked for the spread of their faith. In some countries, like Indonesia, Hinduism was intermingled with Buddhism, that Shiva and the Buddha were described as brothers! Indeed, in Balinese temples where the religion is Balinese Hinduism, Saiva and Buddhist priest sit side by side, although dressed differently, as they bless the laity.

Even the remarkable Hellenization of the Mediterranean world does not compare with the Indianization of Southeast Asia. 

India was far from Southeast Asia. There were far fewer Indians in Southeast Asia than Greeks in the Hellenistic world, and those Indians had to contend with an equally powerful Chinese civilization in an area mainly frequented by Chinese. On the other hand, Greek civilization did not confront such a contrast of cultural and ethnic types. 

There is nothing in the Hellenistic world to compare with the Angkor Wat or Borubudur. In addition, India contributed not only philosophy and thought, but also a religion that still survives in most areas of Southeast Asia. Greek religion is a thing of the past. 

(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal p. 80-98).

The Hindu kingdoms that rose in South-East Asia had no political connection with the mother country. Their inscriptions are in Sanskrit hardly differing from those of any Indian States. The Hindu epics and puranas still contribute to the themes for the theatre, dances, and shadow plays and the marionette shows of Malaya and Java. The influence of the Dharmasastras and the Arthasastra on the polity of these lands is clearly traceable. Their languages have been enriched by contact with Sanskrit. The scripts of all their languages are adaptations of Indian writing. The kings performed vedic sacrifices; they used the Saka era and the lunar-solar calendar. Tangible results of ancient Indian contact may be seen in their monuments and temples. Till very recently at Phnom Penh in Cambodia and at Bangkok in Siam brahmins of a very mixed descent followed Buddhism and wore the sikha and upavita, and worshipped an assortment of Hindu and Buddhist images. 

Kambuja (Cambodia) according to tradition was established by Kambu Svayambhuva after whom the country was named Kambuja. Some of its famous rulers bore names ending in Varman as in South Indian; examples are Jayavarman, Yasovarman, and Suryavarman. The law books of Siam (Thailand) were framed on the basis of the Hindu dharmasastras and the temples of its capital, Bangkok, were adorned with sculptures depicting scenes from the Ramayana. 

The peaceful and sympathetic methods of Hindu colonists were in striking contrast to the Chinese policy of conquest and annexation and to the severity and exploitation inherent in modern western colonization.

(source:  Advanced History of India - By Nilakanta Sastri and G. Srinivasachari p.231-233).

Reginald S. Le May (1885 -  ) author of The culture of South-East Asia; the heritage of India has observed:

"India, indeed, began to exercise a profound cultural influence on her neighbors to the eastward - Burma, Siam, Malaya, Cambodia, Java and Sri Lanka all falling beneath her sway. And this, as far as one can may judge, almost entirely as a result of trading and peaceful penetration by missionaries, merchants and others, and not by force of arms." "The beginnings of Indian colonization overseas eastward go back a very long way in time and it is almost certain that the results seen today were, in the main, not achieved by military expedition, but by peaceful trading and religious teaching - and thereby all the more permanent." 

Contrasting the Indian method with the Chinese he remarked:

"Indian religious art and culture seem naturally to have exercised an extraordinary fascination over the indigenous peoples of all these territories, no doubt, owing to the attractions offered by Hinduism and Buddhism, while Chinese art, not bearing any particular religious message, apparently made little impression, in spite of the fact that the Chinese, too, sailed to southern seas..."

(source: India and The World - By Buddha Prakash p. 7-8 Institute of Indic Studies Kurukshetra University 1964). 

For more refer to chapter on Glimpses XII to Glimpses XV.

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Countries:

Champa/Angadvipa on the coast of Annam - Vietnam

Champa is the remotest colony in the East and was less known than Kamboja and Java. According to Sir Charles Eliot, the Hindu dynasty of Champa was founded between 150 and 200 A.D. The conquerors were known as the Chams and hence the country came to be known as Champa. Vietnam, figures prominently as a stepping stone in the story of India's cultural expansion to the Americas. 

According to historian Dr. K. P. Jayaswal, "The State of Champa, according the Chinese authorities was founded in 137 A. D. 

Champa seems to have been mentioned under the name Angadvipa by the Vayu Purana. 

Again, Champa was probably the earliest colony, it being a key to the Chinese trade and the point from the islands of Java and Borneo are easily accessible." It maintained close relations with Funan, a fact which must have been largely responsible for the penetration of Indian influence there. 

A Hindu dynasty was founded by Sri Mara in the second century A.D. A successor to Sri Mara was the famous king called Bhadravarma. He ruled over the Northern and Central portions of the kingdom comprising the provinces of Amravati and Vijaya and possibly also the Southern province of Panduranga. His greatest contribution was to Hindu culture was the building of the temple of Bhadresvarasvamin (Shiva) at Myson which became the national shrine of the Chams. 

It is said that Bhadravarman abdicated his throne to spend his last days on the banks of the river Ganges. This was followed by two dynasties - the Panduranga dynasty (757-860) and later by the Bhrigu dynasty (860-985). 

Champa passed through various dynasties and war with China continued in the 3rd and 4th century. This was a period of political unrest in China, and which gave Champa the opportunity to expand into Chinese territory. Shiva and Vishnu were  worshipped by various names. Goddess Laxmi was known as Padma or Sri. 

As regards to literature, Sanskrit was the language of the learned. It was also the official language of the country. Many kings of Champa were Sanskrit scholars. Brahmi script was used in inscriptions. 

The books were in use were the Vedas, Sastras, the Epics, Buddhist philosophy, Saivism, Vaisnavism, Panini's grammar along with its commentary, Dharmasastras of Manu and Narada, the Puranas and classical Sanskrit literature including prose and Kavya literature.

Vietnam's Siva Lingams 

VIietnam, June 23, 2001: A Siva Lingam monument, a relic from the lost Champa Kingdom, stands proudly at the My Son site in Vietnam. Statues depicting Lingam and Yoni can be found in Hindu-influenced cultures across the entire Asian region. But the Cham religion in Vietnam has taken these images and fashioned them into a distinctive and different form. 

Lingam and Yoni in the Cham religion differ from their Indian progenitors and their presence in Vietnam is evidence of the profound influence of Indian culture and religion in the country. 

It is also proof of the strong sense of identity of the Cham people, who borrowed from Hinduism and created statues and temples with a style all of their own.  

Cham Linga sculptures generally have a flat top, with only a few featuring spherical shapes. they are generally found in three different styles: square; another in two parts, one cylindrical and one square; and another has a cylindrical upper, the middle is octagonal and the bottom is square. Linga and Yoni are usually constructed as one structure. Traditionally only one Linga is attached to the Yoni, but in some Cham sculptures many Linga can be found on a single Yoni platform. The differences between Cham sculptures and those found else where in the Hindu world demonstrate subtle changes from their origins.

(source: Giving new image and likeness to old beliefs - by Nguyen Van Ngoc 
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2001-06/23/Stories/29.htm).

For more information on Vietnam refer to chapter on Glimpses XIV

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Indonesia

Java or Yavadvipa 

Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) the British Governor of Java, in his book, History of Java, II, p. 87, wrote: 

“In the year 525 Saka era – 603 A.D., it being foretold to a king of Gujarat that his country would decay and go to ruin, he resolved to send his son to Java. He embarked with about 5000 followers in 6 large and about 100 small vessels, and after a voyage of four months reached an island they supposed to be Java; but finding themselves mistaken, re-embarked, and finally settled at Matarem, in the center of the island they were seeking….The prince then found that men alone were wanting to make a great and flourishing state. He accordingly applied to Gujarat for assistance, when his father, delighted at his success, sent him reinforcement of 2000 people…From this period Java was known and celebrated as a kingdom; an extensive commerce was carried on with Gujarat and other countries, and the bay of Matarem was filled with adventurers from all parts.”

(source: Periplus of the Erythrean Sea - W.H. Schoff p. 245).

There is an Indian tradition at that "those who go to Java do not come back." There are many views regarding the beginnings of Hindu colonization of Java. One view connects the original colonies under their leader called Ajisaka with the heroes of the Mahabharata and Astina or Hastinapura. Another view traces the colonization to Gujarat. The third view traces it to Kalinga (Orissa) from where "twenty thousand families were sent to Java by the prince of Kalinga." The Javanese era started by Ajisaka starts from 78 A.D. which is also the beginning of the Saka era of India. According to historian, R. C. Majumdar, "The Indian settlement in Java dates from the 2nd century A.D. if not earlier, and the Hindu culture flourished there till the end of 15th century.

Fa-hien, the Chinese traveler, visited Java on his way to China in about 418 A.D. He tells that there was no Buddhism only Hinduism in Java. The name Java is taken from the Sanskrit word Yava. The kings of Java had their names which ended with Varman.  There were several kingdoms in Java. Four Sanskrit inscriptions have been found me in Western Java mention a king named Purna-varmarn. One of them calls his grandfather Rajarishi and another ancestor his father Rajadhiraja. The latter is said to have dug the Chandrabhaga which reached the sea after passing by the capital city. Purna-varman himself dug a similar canal called the Gomati river. Purna-varman ruled in the sixth century A.D. and his capital was known as Taruma.

Shiva Maheshvara - Java.

For more refer to chapters on Sacred Angkor and Glimpses XII to Glimpses XIX.

***

Both Hinduism and Buddhism flourished here. We find worship of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma in the temples. Grants of land were made to the priests. Images of Mahadevi and Durga have been also found. Literature was mainly theological. We have the Arjuna-vivaha, poetic rendering of the Bharat-yuddha from the Mahabharata, Kavi Ramayana, Vritta Sanchaya. 

The temple of Java are a standing monuments of the influence exercised by Indian thought and art in moulding the development of the entire art of Java. The monumental history begins in Central Java, with the Chandi (temple) Punta Deva, Bhima, Sri Khanda, Pawon and Arjuna. Shiva temple of Chandi Bayon near Borobudur. Superb images of Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Ganesh, and Agastya Siva-guru have been found from there. The best temples at Prambanam are known as Chandi Loro Jauggrang. These are considered the greatest Hindu monuments of Java. 

Indic Influence is South east Asia: Chandi Sukuh Hindu Temple dedicated to Bhima of Mahabharata in Indonesia strikes a disquieting alien chord with its flat topped step pyramid and its Mayan calendar carvings. 

In general layout, the temple conforms to the plan of most other Hindu temples. There are three precincts, consisting of three concentric terraces. However, where most temples would have a large square shrine, Chandi Sukuh has a pyramid reminiscent of Mayan structures from Central America .

The religious structures in Java are commonly called Chandis, a term which originally meant a commemorative building.

For more refer to chapter on India on Pacific Waves and Seafaring in Ancient India.

***

The worship of Rishi Agastya, the sage responsible for the diffusion of Hindu culture in Java, the frequent occurrence of Ganesha images, the organization of rural economy and village administration, the shadow and puppet plays and Vedic hymns and rituals of Bali, all point to the extension of Indian religious and cultural influences of these islands. A statue of Agastya is found at Candi Banon - early 9th century Batavia)

(source: The Indians And The Amerindians - By Dr. B. Chakravarti. Self-Employment Bureau Publication Calcutta p. 32)

Prambanan - slender and ethereal Hindu temples

Built in the 10th century, this is the largest Shiva compound in Indonesia. Rising above the center of the last of these concentric squares are three temples decorated in relief illustrating the epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities (Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu) and three temples dedicated to the animals who serve them. The Prambanan temple, which was dedicated to Lord Shiva, was started in 856 AD and completed in 900 AD by King Daksa. Earlier Shiva temples were built in 675 AD on the Dieng mountain range, southwest of Medang Kamolan, the capital of the Mataram Kingdom.

Dr. Ananda Coomarswamy, late curator at the Boston Museum, was of the opinion that 

"the Prambanam reliefs are, if anything, superior to those of Borobudur and certainly more dramatically conceived. "

Of the sculptures in Prambanum, Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) the British Governor of Java and author of History of Java says:

"In the whole course of my life I have never met with such stupendous and finished specimens of human labor, and of the science and taste of ages long since forgot, crowded together in small a compass as in this little spot."

(source: History of Java. volume II p. 15).

The Indonesian Ramayana

The archaeological evidence of the Rama story in Indonesia dates back to the ninth century AD, the period of the