Indian Antiquary Vol 42

SR No.: 032534
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 45

FEBRUARY, 1913.) THE PEREGRINATIONS OF INDIAN BUDDHISTS
:) call a halt at Golanagara, they would have to make a long detour towards the north. I therefore, remain an adherent of the view of Sir Emerson Tennent coucerning the situation of Kalah; ply for Point-de-Galle I would substitate the north-west coast of the Island of Ceylon.
We will now leave Burma and the questions connected with it and cast a glance at the Sunda Islands. The date of the first colonisation is here also a matter of doubt, though the place whence the colonists immigrated was in all probability Kalinga, the district to the north of the mouth of the Godavary. The name Kalinga or Kaling, which is the designation bestowed by the Chinese on the Javanese, is no strong proof of this, for, the Chinese so call all the Indians who crossed over the ocean to the Celestial Empire. But it is very likely that they originally came from there, because it was also the provenance of the Singhalese. The Chiuese Pilgrim Fa-Hian, who landed at Java about the year 413 on his return voyage from India to China, and sojourned there for a time, found an Indian civilisation in full growth. Brahmans and the so called heretics, as Fa-Hian calls all Shaivites, were in large numbers, while there were few or no Buddhists at all. This is confirmed by Sanskrit inscriptions in western Java and east Borneo, which to judge by the forma. tion of the alphabet must be at the latest as old as the 5th Century. From these inscriptions, which are of Vaishnavite character, we can conclude that both Java and the east coast of Borneo were
indaised prior to the 5th Century. Moreover, we learn from a Chinese report that in the year 435 there reigned in Java a prince, whose name was the pure Indian Dbaravarman and his title Sripâla. We possess documents belonging to Jaya and composed in its native language, the Kavi from the 9th Century. From this it follows that about that time the country was completely Hinduised and that there were traces of Buddhism in the Mahayana form, Probably, the Buddhists had immigrated to Sumatra and Malacca in the 5th Centary 8001 alter Fa Hian's visit. This is supported by the Sanskrit inscriptions of Kedah and province Wellesley, as well as of the celebrated temple of Boro Bodor, the most extensive Buddhist structure in existence. According to the opinion of Fergusson and Burgess, the temple was completed in the 7th Century and its construction must have taken somewbere about a hundred years so that its building was probably commenced in the 6th Century.
We find Indian influence equally in Sumatra, although not in such a high degree as in Java and Bali. The alphabet which is used in Sumatra can be traced to an Indian origin, and the language has adopted a number of Sanskrit words. There are tolerably numerous names of places of Sanskrit origin. Buddhism must have flourished there from the 10th to the 14th Centuries, as can be inferred from several inscriptions and ancient buildings. Of all the islands of the Archipelago. Java alone seems to have admitted the division into castes according to the Hindu model, and this is an indication of Brahmanical and not Buddhist influence, for the Buddhist strove to do away with caste. The most prominent Brahmanical sect in Java was the Shaivite. Shaivism and Buddhism were the two officially recognised religions in Java, just as they are in Nepal of to-day where the king and the ruling classes are Shaivites, whereas the mass of the people do homage to the Buddha. We even find a kind of syncretism of both the religions in Java, in as much as the Buddha is regarded and adored as younger brother of Siva. At great festivals like that of Panchavalikrama, it so happens that four Shaivite and one Baddhistic priests officiate in co-operation. The Buddhist priest tarns his face towards the south, three of the Shaivites facing the three remaining cardinal points and the fourth sitting in the centre. We see from this that the Buddhists of the Sunda Islands were far from fanatics and allowed the adherents of other faiths to live there undisturbed. The situation was probably similar to that obtaining in Ceylon though in an inverted order, for the Buddhists were the first to occupy Ceylon, Hinduism baving crept into the island only at a subsequent period along with Tamil immigrants. There, too, we meet with, as at Dondra on the southern coast, in one and the same temple images of the Buddha, of Vishnu, of Ganesa, and the holy Bull from Tanjore, all of them being installed there without mutual disturbance or error in the prayers offered by the faithful of these various creeds.
There is much more to be said for Kalabek dah than the author seems to be aware of.-ED.