Indian culture in Sri Lanka and South East Asia

Sri Lanka

You might have read the great epic called Ramayana in which Lord Rama, King of Ayodhya goes to Sri Lanka to bring back Sita. It is possible that the Lanka of that time and Sri Lanka might be different places.

King Ashoka made great efforts to propagate Buddhism outside India. He sent his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra to Sri Lanka to spread the message of the Buddha.

A number of other scholars also joined them. It is said that they carried a cutting of the Bodhi tree from Bodhgaya which was planted there. At that time Devanampiya Tissa was the king of Sri Lanka.

The teachings of the Buddha were transmitted orally by the people who had gone from India. For around two hundred years, the people of Sri Lanka preserved the recitation of Buddhist scriptures as transmitted by Mahendra.

The first monasteries built there are Mahavihar and Abhayagiri. Sri Lanka became a stronghold of Buddhism and continues to be so even today. Pali became their literary language. Buddhism played an important role in shaping Sri Lankan culture.

The Dipavansa and Mahavamsa are well known Sri Lankan Buddhist sources. With Buddhism, Indian Art forms also reached Sri Lanka, where the themes, styles and techniques of paintings, dance, folklores and art and architecture were taken from India.

The most renowned paintings of Sri Lanka are found in the cave-shelter monasteries at Sigiriya. King Kashyap is believed to have converted it into a fortified place in the fifth century AD. Figures painted in the cave are in the Amaravati style of India.

Myanmar

People and culture of India began to reach Myanmar in the beginning of the Christian era. Myanmar is situated on the route to China. People coming from the port towns of Amaravati and Tamralipti often settled down in Myanmar after the second century AD.

The people who had migrated included traders, brahmins, artists, craftsmen and others.In Burma, Pagan was a great centre of Buddhist culture from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. It is still famous for its magnificent Pagodas.

King Aniruddha was a great builder who built Shwezegon Pagoda and about a thousand other temples. They also developed their own Pali language and translated both Buddhist and Hindu scriptures in their version of Pali.

Indian traditions were quite strong at the Burmese court. Up to the recent times the court astrologers, soothsayers and professors were known to be brahmins called ponnas.

Most of them were believed to be from Manipur. Pundits were said to be very active. They were also known for their knowledge of science, medicine, and astrology.

Thailand

Till the year 1939, Thailand was called Siam, its original name. Indian cultural influences began to reach there in the first century AD. It was first carried by Indian traders, followed by teachers and missionaries.

The Thai kingdoms were given Sanskrit names such as Dwaravati, Shrivijay, Sukhodaya and Ayutthiya. The names of their cities also indicate a strong cultural interflow.

For example, Kanchanaburi is from Kanchanapuri, Rajburi is from Rajpuri, Lobpuri is Lavapuri, and names of the cities like Prachinaburi, Singhaburi are all derived from Sanskrit.

Even the names of the streets like Rajaram, Rajajrani, Mahajaya and Cakravamsha remind us of the popularity of the Ramayana. Brahminical images and Buddhist temples began to be constructed in third and fourth century AD.

The earliest images found from Thailand are those of Lord Vishnu. At different points of time, the Thai kingdom was shifted from one place to another. At every place a number of temples were built.

Ayutthiya (Ayodhya) is one such place where large number of temples still stand though today most of the temples there are in ruins. There are four hundred temples in Bangkok, the present capital of Thailand.

Cambodia

The famous kingdoms of Champa (Annam) and Kamhuja (Cambodia) were ruled by the kings of Indian origins. The history of deep-rooted cultural relationship between India and Cambodia goes back to the first and second centuries AD.

In Kambuja, Kaundinya dynasty of Indian origin ruled from the first century A.D. We can reconstruct their history from numerous Sanskrit inscriptions and from literary works. We can also see their splendour from the magnificent temples.

Cambodians constructed huge monuments and embellished them with sculptural representations of Shiva, Vishnu. Buddha and other divinities from Indian Epics and the Puranas.

The episodes from these texts were chosen by the kings to symbolise great historical events. Sanskrit remained their language for administration till the fourteenth century.

Their kings bore Sanskrit names. Brahmins assumed the highest position. The government was run according to the Hindu polity and Brahminical jurisprudence.

Ashrams were maintained in temple vicinities as seats of learning. A large number of localities were given Indian names like Tamrapura, Dhruvapura and Vikramapura. The name of months in their language are known as chet, bisak, jes, asadh and so on.

In fact, thousands of such words are still in use with a slight variation in pronunciation. Angkor Vat is supposed to be the abode of Vishnu, that is, Vaikunthadhama. Its five towers are said to be the five peaks of the Sumeru mountain.

The king Suryavarman is portrayed there as an incarnation of Vishnu who had attained a place in heaven because of his meritorious deeds.

The temple represents a square mile of construction with a broad moat running around adding to its spectacular charm. Scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata are engraved on the walls of this temple.

The largest among all of them is the scène of Samudra manthan that is churning of the ocean. Another grand temple constructed at Yashodharapura in the eleventh century, known as Baphuon, is embellished by scenes from the epics such as the battle between Rama and Ravana, Shiva on mount Kailasha with Parvati and the destruction of Kamadeva.

Vietnam (Champa)

Indian culture was carried to the distant land of Vietnam by a number of enterprising traders and princes who migrated and established themselves as pioneers in the field of politics and economics.

They named the cities there as Indrapura, Amaravati, Vijaya, Kauthara and Panduranga. The people of Champa are called Cham. They built a large number of Hindu and Buddhist temples.

The Cham people worshipped Shiva, Ganesha, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Parvati, Buddha and Lokeswara. Images of these deities and Shivalingas were housed in the temples. Most of the temples are in ruin now.

Malaysia

Malaysia was known to us since ancient times. There are references in the Ramayana, the Jataka stories, Malindapanha, Shilapadikaram, Raghuvamsha and many other works.

Evidence of Shaivism has been discovered in Kedah and in the province of Wellesly. Female figurines with trident have been unearthed.The Head of a Nandi made of granite stone, a relief of Durga image, Ganesha and Shivlingas belonging to the seventh and eighth centuries have been discovered from various sites.

Brahmi, in its late form, was the script of ancient Malaysia. Tablets of Buddhist texts written in a script that resembles old Tamil have been found at Kedah.

Sanskrit was one of the source languages for them. Till today a fairly large number of Sanskrit words can be seen in their language, for example, svarga, rasa, guna, dahda, mantri, dhïpati, and laksha. Hanuman and Garuda were known in Malaysia for their superhuman qualities.

Sanskrit inscriptions are the earliest records of our cultural relations with Malaysia. They are written in Indian script of fourth and fifth centuries AD. The most important inscription is from Ligor. Over fifty temples were found around this place.

Indonesia

In the field of religious architecture, the largest Shiva temple in Indonesia is situated in the island of Java. It is called Prambanan. It was built in the ninth century. It has a Shiva temple flanked by Vishnu and Brahma temples.

Opposite these three temples are temples constructed for their vahanas. They are Nandi (Bull) for Shiva, Garuda for Vishnu and Goose for Brahma.

In between the two rows are the temples dedicated to Durga and Ganesh, numbering eight in all, surrounded by 240 small temples. It is an example of wonderful architecture.

The stories of Ramayana and Krishna, carved on the walls of the temple, are the oldest representations in the world. Sanskrit hymns are recited at the time of puja.

Over five hundred hymns, stotras dedicated to Shiva, Brahma, Durga, Ganesha, Buddha, and many other deities have been discovered from Bali. In fact Bali is the only country where Hindu culture flourished and survived.

Today, while the entire Archipelago has accepted Islam, Bali still follows Hindu culture and religion. A large number of scriptural works have been found from Java. They are mostly written on palm leaves in their ancient script called Kawi.

Kawi script was devised on the basis of Brahmi. Some of them contain Sanskrit verses (shlokas) followed by commentary in Kawi language. Among the texts on Shaiva religion and philosophy, Bhuvanakosha is the earliest and the longest text.

This has five hundred and twenty five shlokas in Sanskrit. A commentary is written to explain the meaning. Perhaps no other region in the world has felt the impact of India’s culture and religion as South East Asia.

The most important source of study of the remains of this cultural intercourse and impact are the Sanskrit inscriptions written in Indian script.

They have been found all over this region and a study of these inscriptions and other literature shows that the language, literature, religious, political and social institutions were greatly influenced by India.

The Varna system and the division of society into the four castes i.e. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras was known to them. But the system was not as rigid as in India.

It was more like in the Rig Vedic age where the society was divided on the basis of profession and not on the basis of birth especially in Bali. Even some of their marriage customs are similar.

The most popular form of amusement was the shadow play called Wayung (like the Indian puppet shows) where the themes are derived mainly from the epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata, still very popular in South East Asia.