The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s10.6

v1.c19.s10.6

But we are on surer grounds when we come to missionary activities. It is now admitted on all hands that Bengal exercised great influence on the development of later Buddhism in Java and neighbouring regions during the Pāla period.² An inscription in Java³ definitely mentions that the *guru* (preceptor) of the Śailendra emperors was an inhabitant of Gauḍa (*Gauḍa-dvīpa-guru*). This royal preceptor, named Kumāraghosha, set up an image of Mañjuśrī in the year 782 A.D., and was probably also the *guru* for whose worship the famous temple of Tārā at Kalasan had been built four years earlier. We are told that at the command of the *guru* some officers of the king built a temple, an image of goddess Tārā, and a residence for monks proficient in Vinaya-Mahāyāna. Reference has already been made above (pp. 121-22) to the grant of five villages by Devapāla, at the request of king Bālaputradeva of Suvarṇadvīpa, for maintaining the monastery that the latter had built at Nālandā. The intimate intercourse between the Pāla and the Śailendra kingdoms explains the great influence exercised by the Pāla art upon that of Java.⁴ It has already been noted above (pp. 496-97), that such influence was by no means confined to Java, but also extended to the mainland, and the peculiar architectural style of a group of temples in Burma was probably derived from that of Bengal and neighbouring regions. As a further evidence of the close contact between Java and Bengal, reference may be made to the affinity between the scripts used on certain Javanese sculptures and the proto-Bengali alphabet.⁵ This contact continued till at least the 14th century A.D.⁶