Book Title: Jaina Archaeology Outside India
Author(s): Jineshwardas Jain
Publisher: Bharat Varshiya Digambar Jain Mahasabha

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 9
________________ well as the threatening of the Mon state of Haripunjaya by a Thai prince Mengrai were such important events. Arab muslims comprising seamen and traders had begun to settle down in coastal towns of both Java and Sumatra both. To gain favour of this rich class, high officials and ruling chiefs embraced Islam voluntarily [7]. Thus the Muslim community had become very influential and started putting pressure on Majapahita soverign to adopt Islam which he flatly refused. In all respects it equaled the vastness of the Shailendra Empire. Majapahitas maintained cordial relations with Siam, Kambuja, Champa, Tonkin, or Annam, Dharma Nagari, Martaban, and other neighbouring countries. Dharma Nagari or Nagara Shri Dhramaraja was the last outpost of Shailendras. Ceodes mentions that King U-Thong of Ayuthhya might have been of Mon or khmer origin but married to Thai princess. Emerald Buddha was taken from the town of Chiangmai into Laos in the middle of 16th century and was brought back by the Thai in 1778. The relations between Java and Bali were such that all their customs were similar. Of course, this trend had already started when Airlingga, borne in Bali became king of Janggala in East Java. Since Islam took over this role of Hinduism in Java in the 16th century Bali still remained Hindu dominated and that too till today. The Muslims influx in Java was from Islamic parts of India and thus the Hindu -Javanese culture came to an end. Rock inscriptions of Java: The inscriptions were for most of the part deals of land grants or record of economic transactions and dealt with local affairs. These inscriptions were called 'Prasastis' The inscriptions also mentioned some deeds of legal judgements named Jayapatras or Jayasong i.e documents of victory. Looking at these instructions one can conclude that Javanese were exact in recording events and they could be considered as the most authentic documents for historians. Four inscriptions found in the neighbourhood of Jakarta and Bogor have a mention of the king Purnaverman and his kingdom Taruma Nagara. They are written in Sanskrit verses and in Pallava script. These inscriptions bear ample testimony to the existence in the west Java of a very high degree of civilization marked by Indo-Aryan in the west, influenced from main land India during 5th century. These inscriptions have several features e.g. language, script in common with those of Mulaverman in East Borneo. Mulaverman, the lord of kings, his father Ashvaverman- the founder of noble race, and his grand father,

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 ... 105