Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c10.43

c10.43

There are many other interesting features in the religious life of Kambuja, but it is not possible even to touch upon them in course of this lecture. We may now pass on to the neighbouring kingdom of Champā. As regards this kingdom, the oldest inscription, *viz.* that at Vo-Chanh, does not, as we have said above, refer to any religion in the extant portion. The next six inscriptions refer to Śaivism. As noted above, king Bhadra-varman, who flourished about A.D. 400, and had the epithet Dharma-mahārāja, erected a temple of Śiva, under the name Bhadreśvara-svāmin. The inscriptions of his reign, and good many inscriptions in later ages, refer to this temple which became the national sanctuary of the Chams. This temple was destroyed by an incendiary and then king Śambhu-varman (6th-7th century A.D.) re-installed the god under the name Śambhu-Bhadreśvara. One of the inscriptions refers to a sacrifice, probably of a human being, before the god, and three inscriptions describe the boundairies of the dominions endowed to the temple. It should be noted however that one of the inscriptions of Bhadra-varman begins as follows: