Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 50

46
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(MARCH, 1916
The most interesting fact is that for many centuries (B.C. c. 150-A.D. 470) the Chams were ruled by Hindu dynasties under the name of Kings of Champå. Buddhism came in chiefly from China, and is now of the degraded Tibetan type ; but there are signs that the purer Southern Buddhism was once in the ascendant. Islâm was introduced generally abaut A.D. 1300, and a large number of the Chams are Muhammadans. As in Burma and elsewhere in Indo-China, primitive Animism has never died out. The Annamese Giâos have always been true to their Chinese origin.
History may be said to commence in the last days of the Tsin dynasty of China (B.C. 249-206), when the first universal conqueror, Shi Hwangti, became suzerain of the Giaochi country (Tongking and Annam), which then and for long afterwards had to struggle with its powerful Shan neighbours on the west. In the troubled days of the “Three Kingdoms” of China and their followers (A.D. 222-590), Tongking for a time was part of the Wu kingdom, and was ruled from Nanking, Chinese suzerainty in various forms lasting on till 1801 (after 1428 nominally). By the fifth century it must have been weak owing to continued troubles in China itself, and this gave an opportunity for the now growing Hindu power of Châmpâ in the south to upset the Giâo governors, and we hear of attacks, with counter-attacks. in 399 and 431, from the people of Lamap, as the Chinese then called Châmpa.
In the second century B.c. a Hindu prince, Paramêsvara, appears as the founder of the kingdom of Châmpa, and in the third century A.D., Murârâja (Urôja) has a capital at Panduranga (Panrang in Binh Thuan), and in the fifth century inscriptions tell us that Bhadravarman Dharmamahârâja is embellishing the temple at Po Nagar on the Nha Trang in Khanh Hwa (Hon). So that at the time of their attacks on the Giâos, the Chams were established as a civilized Hindu State. In 602-605 the Chinese of the Suy dynasty (580-617) inflicted heavy defeats on the Chams at their capital of Sri Banvi (Banoeuy), at Dong Hwi (Hozuy) in Kweng Binh, and from this time the struggle of centuries between north and south may be said to have commenced in Annam, a name which as An-Nam (Ngan-Nan) is first heard of in 756. By 803 the Chinese chroniclers had learnt to write the native name Châmpå as Chimba.
Wars between the Chinese viceroys over the Giâos and the Cham kings went on till the Annamese rebelled in 931, and in 968 Dinh Bo Sangh (968-975) founded the first Annamese dynasty under the suzerainty of China. Châmpå fell on evil times at this period, as the Cambodians raided the country in 918, in the days of Indravarman II, and all through the tenth and eleventh centuries the Annamese kings got much the best of it in the fighting ; but its fortunes looked up again in the early days of the Srijaya dynasty (1139-1470), until in 1190 it fell to the Cambodians, who held it as suzerains for thirty-four years.
In 1286 the great conqueror, Kublai Khân, appeared on the scene, but both the Annamese and the Chams put up a good fight, and were only four years (1286-1290) under subjection. Shortly before this attack Marco Polo (1280) was in "Cyamba," and again after it in 1292. In 1306, however, Châmpå became the vassal of Annam, and, as such, was defended in 1313 against Cambodia. But in 1353 there arose a national hero in the person of a Cham prince, now known only by his Annamese name, Che Bong Nga, who by sheer capacity and boldness constantly defeated the Annamese till his death in 1992, on which there ensued a period of anarchy in Châmpå.
Soon after this, in 1412, there arose another national hero, this time Annamese, in La Loi (1412-1434), who conducted a war of liberation (1412-1428) against Yung Lo