Indian Epigraphy c14.s2.6

c14.s2.6

The story of the introduction of Indianism in Ceylon is different from that of its spread in Indochina and Indonesia which came under the influence of Indian merchants, adventurers and priests about the beginning of the Christian era. In many of these countries Brahmanical Hinduism not only spread earlier than Buddhism but Śaivism seems to have been the dominating religious faith throughout the early period. This was not the case with Ceylon where Buddhism was always the predominant faith as it is now.