Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c8: Lecture II: The First Phase of Hindu Colonization
Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c8
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Lecture II: The First Phase of Hindu Colonization
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In the preceding lecture we have traced the beginnings of Hindu Colonization in South-east Asia, and given a brief account of the country and the peoples with whom it came into contact. As we have seen, these peoples had not yet emerged from the neolithic culture, and there is no evidence that they had developed the idea of state beyond the stage of primitive tribal organization. All these were changed by the Hindu colonists. The essential elements of Hindu culture were absorbed by the peoples, and kingdoms, both big and small, were established throughout the region. It is beyond the scope of the present lecture to deal separately with the history of these kingdoms, and I propose to confine myself to a general review of the first five hundred years of Hindu Colonization.
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The oldest Hindu colonial kingdom in this region, of which we possess any definite evidence, was established in the delta and lower valley of the Mekong river. The Chinese texts call it the kingdom of Fu-nan. This is the modern pronunciation of two Chinese Syllabic characters which were pronounced in the old days of the T'ang dynasty as biu-nām. This is a Chinese transcription of the old Khmer word *bnam*, modern *phnom*, meaning mountain. The rulers of this country called themselves 'king of the mountain', *parvatabhūpāla* or or *śaila-rāja* in Sanskrit,¹ and *Kurun bnam* in Khmer, from which the Chinese derived the name of the country.
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¹ According to L. Finot (*J. A.* CCX, 486; *Melange S. Levi*, 203) Fu-nan corresponds to Kurun bnam *i.e.* king of mountain, a title which he identifies with the expression *parvata-bhūpāla* referred to in the Han Chei Temple Inscription (No. 12, v. 10). As Coedés has drawn important conclusions from this by way of associating Śailendras with Fu-nan (*JGIS*, I. 67) it is necessary to point out that the expression *parvata-bhūpālān* means kings of mountains *i.e.* hilly regions and may be taken in a general sense without reference to any particular king, far less that of Fu-nan. The same thing may be said of the expression *Śaila-rāja* in the unpublished inscription of Kuk Prah Kot, referred to by Coedés.
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The old capital of Fu-nan was probably Vyādhapura, 'the city of hunter', mentioned in a later inscription. The Chinese call it T'o-mu which is perhaps a transcription of the Khmer word *dmak* or *dalmak* which has the same meaning as Vyādhapura. The location of this city is not definitely known. Pelliot identified it with Angkor Borei, but Coedés places it further to the north-east, on the other side of the Mekong, at the foot of the hillock called Ba Phnom, near the village of Banam, and thinks that these two place-names have reserved the memory of the ancient name of the kingdom. According to the *History of the* *Liang Dynasty* the capital city was about 100 miles² from the sea. This is approximately the distance between Ba Phnom and Oc-eo whose archaeological remains described in the preceding lecture, seem to indicate that it was an emporium of the foreign traders, if not the actual port itself.
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² 500 *li*. according to the Chinese account. The *li* is equivalent to about 1/6 of a mile (Watters—*On Yuan Chwang*). Coedés takes a *li* to be equivalent to 576 metre *i.e.* one-third of a mile (*Etats*, p. 71, f.n. 3).
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Reference has already been made to the tradition according to which this kingdom was founded by a Brāhmaṇa named Kauṇḍinya who defeated and married the Nāga princess Somā. This tradition was first recorded by the Chinese ambassador K'ang T'ai who visited Fu-nan between A.D. 245 and 250, and wrote a short account of the kingdom. We learn from this that Kauṇḍinya was succeeded by his son and grandson, and one of his successors, called by the Chinese Huen P'an huang, died at the advanced age of ninety. His son and successor left the cares of government to his general Fan-che-man who was elected king by the people after the death of his master.
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A great deal of importance attaches to this king. As his successor sent an embassy to China in A.D. 243, Fan-che-man must have reigned about the first quarter of the third century A.D. This is the first fixed point in the chronology, not only of Fu-nan, but also of the Hindu colonization in South-east Asia. For, from the details noted above regarding the history of Fu-nan since its foundation by Kauṇḍinya, his reign cannot be placed later than the first century A.D. As the Hindu colonists reached almost the furthest point in Indo-China and established a kingdom there in the first century A.D., we must push back the beginnings of intercourse between India and South-east Asia considerably before this period to the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era.
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Fan-che-man was a powerful ruler and a great conqueror. He built up a powerful navy and attacked the neighbouring kingdoms. Ten of these states, lying within a distance of about a thousand miles,³ became vassals of Fu-nan. Fan-che-man assumed the title "Great king of Fu-nan" which he fully deserved, and he may be regarded as the founder of the first Hindu colonial empire in South-east Asia.
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³ Five or six thousand *li* (see preceding note).
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The vassal states of Fu-nan are named in the Chinese text, but they cannot all be identified with any degree of certainty. One of these, K'iu-tu, has been taken to correspond to Kattigara of Ptolemy and located in Cochin-China. Another, Tien-Suen, mentioned in the preceding lecture, must have been in the Malay Peninsula. On the whole, considering the Chinese statement about the extent of Fan-che-man's conquests, his empire may be said to have comprised nearly the whole of Siam and Cambodia and parts of Laos and Malay Peninsula.
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The history of Fan-che-man proves the existence of quite a large number of states in South-east Asia about this time. From other sources also we know the names of Hindu colonial kingdoms dating back to this early period. It is not unlikely that most of the vassal states of Fu-nan, if not all of them, were Hindu Colonies.
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But before we refer to them, we may continue the history of Fu-nan. After the death of Fan-che-man the throne was usurped by his nephew and general Fan-chan. He sent an embassy to India, and the ruler of India also sent an embassy in return. Fan-chan also sent an embassy to China in A.D. 243. Fu-nan thus entered into political relations with the two powerful kingdoms of his time.
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Fan-chan was assassinated by Fan-Chang, who in his turn was also murdered by his general Fan Siun. During his reign two Chinese ambassadors K'ang T'ai and Chu Ying visited Fu-nan and they met there Chen-song, one of the envoys sent by the king of India. Both the Chinese ambassadors wrote books on Fu-nan, and K'ang also recorded a brief account of India as reported by Chen-song.
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Fan Siun sent no less than four embassies to China between A.D. 268 and 287. Nevertheless, in alliance with the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom of Champā, he led incursions into the Chinese province of Tonkin.
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For nearly three quarters of a century, we do not hear anything further of Fu-nan from the Chinese texts. The next reference is to an embassy from Fu-nan sent by Tien-chu-tan. As Tien-chu is the Chinese name for India, the royal name has been interpreted as Hindu (*i.e.*, India ) Chandana. According to S. Levi, the name and designation of the king indicate that he came from India and belonged to the Kuṣāṇa family. He thinks that after the Kuṣāṇas were outed by Samudra-gupta, some members of the royal family might have migrated to the over-sea colonies to try their fortune. But all this seems to be too speculative for purposes of sober history.
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Not long after the usurpation of Chandana we hear of the arrival of a Brāhmaṇa from India named Kauṇḍinya. Directed by a supernatural voice to go and rule in Fu-nan, he reached this kingdom through P'an-p'an, a locality in the Malay Peninsula. The people of Fu-nan elected him king, and he introduced Indian laws, manners and customs.
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This tradition is of more than passing interest. In the first place nobody can mistake its resemblance to the older legend of the first Kauṇḍinya. We are told that this second Kauṇḍinya came directly from India, and we may presume that the same was true of the first Kauṇḍinya, though this is nowhere clearly stated.
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Put in a proper historical setting this second Kauṇḍinya has every claim to be regarded as an historical personality. His story undoubtedly proves that there was a fresh wave of Indian Colonization which was probably much stronger than the first and exercised greater influence upon the culture of the people. It is said of the first Kauṇḍinya that he found his wife, the Nāga princess Somā, in a nude state, and made her wear clothes. But it was long before the people gave up the old habit. The Chinese ambassador K’ang T’ai, who visited Fu-nan about the middle of the third century A.D., observed that the men went about naked but king Fan Siun stopped this indecent habit. It would thus appear that in spite of the efforts of the first Kauṇḍinya, Indian culture did not make any deep impression upon the people for nearly three or four centuries till a fresh wave of Indian colonists attained greater success about the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century A.D. As will be noted later, a strong wave of Indian culture swept over nearly the whole of South-east Asia about this period.
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It may be noted that all the kings of Fu-nan beginning from Fan-che-man, who succeeded the last descendant of the first Kauṇḍinya up to the accession, of Hindu Chandana, had Fan as part of their names. It is generally supposed that this was the Chinese transcription of ‘Varman’, the usual name-ending of a Kṣatriya in India. Recently a scholar⁴ has suggested that it was an ethnic title, denoting an indigenous person as opposed to a Hindu immigrant. According to this theory the Hindu colonization spent its force and there was a revival of indigenous influence at the beginning of the third century A.D. This continued for two centuries till a fresh wave of colonization, under Kauṇḍinya II, planted the Hindu culture once again.
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⁴ R. Stein in *Bull. Centre Sinol, Pekin*, cf. Coedés *Etats*, p. 71, f.n. 1.
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Whatever we may think of the theory as a whole, specially the new interpretation of Fan, there seems to be no doubt that there was a set-back to Hindu culture and revival of some obnoxious indigenous habits and practices during the third and fourth centuries A.D. But the Hinduism introduced by Kauṇḍinya II took deep root in the soil, and continued in unabated strength, till it transformed the indigenous culture almost beyond recognition.
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Henceforth the rulers of Fu-nan had clear Sanskritic names. The name of king Ch’e-li-t’o-pa-mo who sent embassies to China in A.D. 434, 435 and 438, is obviously a Chinese transliteration of an Indian name like Śrī-Indra-varman or Śreṣṭha-varman. The next king, mentioned in Chinese sources, is called Cho-ye-pa-mo, whose family name was Kauṇḍinya. The Chinese form evidently stands for Jaya-varman, who was a descendant of Kauṇḍinya II.
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This Jaya-varman is the earliest king of Fu-nan whose name occurs in Sanskrit inscriptions to which reference will be made later. His reign, extending at least from A.D. 484 to 514, marks the beginning of what may be called the truly historical period of Fu-nan, as we know a great many details about him and can trace the continuous history of the country up to modern times.
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Before doing so, however, we must take note of other Hindu kingdoms that flourished during the period under review.
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The Hindu kingdom nearest to Fu-nan and most closely associated with it was Kambuia. It was originally a small kingdom, occupying the territory round Vat Phu hill near Bassac in Laos, in the north-eastern corner of Cambodia. According to local tradition it was founded by Kambu Svāyambhuva, a king of Āryadeśa, *i.e.*, India. Grieved at the death of his wife Merā, whom the great God Śiva himself gave to him, he betook himself to the wild desert of Cambodia in order to put an end to his life, but met there a Nāga king equally devoted to Śiva. He married the daughter of the Nāga king who by his magic power, turned, the arid land into a beautiful country like Āryadeśa.
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It would appear that unlike the Hindu colonists of Fu-nan those of Kambuja probably came by an overland route through Siam and Laos. The earliest historical kings of Kambuja were Śruta-varman and his son Śreṣṭha-varman who founded a royal family. The rulers of this family are said to have delivered their country from bondage. This obviously means that Kambuja was originally subordinate to another power, and one or more descendants of Śreṣṭha-varman succeeded in throwing off the yoke. It is generally believed that Fu-nan was the suzerain power. But it is now known that a king named Devānīka, probably a ruler of Champā, was in possession of the region found Bassac before the end of the fifth century A.D., and he might have been the suzerain of Kambuja. But we do not know either the date of the foundation of Kambuja or its conquest by Fu-nan or Champā and liberation from her yoke. It had probably freed itself before the middle of the sixth century A.D. when king Bhava-varman acquired it and founded a new royal family.
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To the east of Fu-nan and Kambuja lay the Hindu kingdom of Champā in the central and southern part of what is now called Annam. We have no direct or definite evidence of the foundation of Hindu Colonies in this region, such as we possess about Fu-nan in the Chinese accounts. But there are very important considerations in favour of the view that the Hindu colonies were established in the province of Quang Nam about the first century A.D. The territory immediately to its north, comprising Tonkin, formed a part of the Chinese empire and was ruled by one or more Governors. We learn from the Chinese sources that in A.D. 137 the southern part of this region was attacked by a band of barbarians called Kiu-lien and the Governor had great difficulty in inducing them to retreat. In A.D. 192, an indigenous official of Siang-lin, named Kiu-lien, in the southern part of the Chinese territory, revolted and founded a kingdom called by the Chinese Lin-yi. This may be a geographical or ethnic name, but it was by this name that the Chinese historians henceforth designated the Hindu kingdom of Champā. The common name Kiu-lien, though written in different characters, seems to connect the inroad of A.D. 137 with the successful rebellion of A.D. 192.
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It is evident that the local people, who are called Chams after the name of the kingdom, Champā, were infused with a fresh vigour and new life in the first century A.D., and there is hardly any doubt that it was due to the settlement of Hindu colonists among them. This is proved by the discovery in this region of a fine bronze image of Buddha of the Amarāvatī school datable in the second or third century A.D. The scholars are unanimous in their view that the kingdom of Siang-lin, founded by Kiu-lien in A.D. 192, was the nucleus of the Hindu kingdom of Champā. It is interesting to note that in A.D. 280 the Chinese governor reported that the kingdom of Lin-yi touched the frontiers of Fu-nan in the south, that the peoples of the countries were allied, and far from submitting to China, they made incursions against the Chinese territory. This seems to indicate that the two neighbouring Hindu colonies of Fu-nan and Champā maintained a close political association and acted in concert against their common enemy China.
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It is not easy to form a clear idea of the common boundary between Fu-nan and Champā in the third century A.D. The most important evidence in this respect is an inscription engraved on two faces of a block of granite, found close to the village of Vo-Chanh, near Nha-trang in the province of Khanh-Hoa, in southern Annam.⁵ The inscription is composed in Sanskrit and written in an Indian script of the second or third century A.D
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We should remember in this connection that the kingdom of Champā was sufficiently strong and enjoyed a great deal of prestige in Chinese eyes even during the first half of the third century A.D. Some time between 220 and 230 A.D. the king of Champā sent an ambassador to the Chinese governor of Tonkin on the invitation of the latter. In A.D. 248 the Cham navy attacked Tonkin, ravaged several towns, including even the provincial capital, and defeated the fleet that was sent against it. At last a treaty was concluded by which a portion of the Chinese domain corresponding to modern Thua Thien was ceded to Champā. Similar Cham aggressions were carried on from A.D. 270 to 280, this time in alliance with Fu-nan, and the Chinese were reduced to great straits.
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Champā was a long narrow strip of territory, whose breadth nowhere exceeded sixty or seventy miles. Bereft of its southern part it would be reduced to too small a size and its natural resources would be very poor. It is to be seriously considered whether such a petty kingdom, confined to the central part of Annam, could carry on a protracted struggle against the Chinese, as mentioned above, and maintain diplomatic relations on a basis of equality with both China and Fu-nan.
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It is also to be remembered that the region round Vo-Chanh, under the name Kuṭhāra, formed an integral part of Champā down to the latest days of her history, and Kambuja laid no claim to it even in the heyday of its glory. Until therefore very convincing argument is brought forward we should regard Śrī Māra as a ruler of Champā. No such evidence is, however, forthcoming. The theory propounded by Finot was put forward merely as a possibility,⁷ and he admitted later, that his theory was as likely as the current view that Śrī-Mara was a Hindu king of Champā.⁸ The identification of Fan-che-man and Sri-Māra was proposed by Coedés simply on the ground that the former is known to have made extensive conquests. This is, however, a very weak ground, and Coedés himself admits that ‘man’ is not, correctly speaking, a regular transcription of ‘Māra’, though this does not seem to be impossible.⁹
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⁷ *JA*, CCX. 486.
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⁸ *BEFEO*, XXVIII. 287.
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⁹ *IHQ*, XVI. 486.
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We may, therefore, recognise Śrī-Māra as the first Hindu king of Champā, and as he is definitely said in the Vo-Chanh inscription to have been the founder of a royal family, he may be identified with Kiu-lien, mentioned in the Chinese account as having founded an independent kingdom in A.D. 192.¹⁰ It would then follow that almost from the very beginning the Hindu kingdom of Champā comprised the central, and a part, if not the whole, of southern Annam.
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¹⁰ M. S. Sugimoto explains that two variants of Kiu-lien (founder of the kingdom of Champā), given in two Chinese texts, are translations of the name Māra or the ‘Evil One’ (*Ibid.*).
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The Chinese history has preserved the names of several kings of Champā. They steadily pursued the aggressive policy of expansion towards the north at the cost of the Chinese province, and by the middle of the fourth century A.D., the northern boundary of Champā was carried to the Hoan Sonh mountains, the furthest limit it ever reached. But the Emperor of China was not likely to suffer, in silence, these aggressions from a small state like Champā, and protracted fights between the two marked the subsquent history of Champā. In A.D. 446, the Chinese led a successful invasion up to the heart of the kingdom and captured the capital city named Champā-pura. After pillaging the city and country the victorious Chinese army returned with a rich booty of very precious objects.
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The names of the early kings of Champā are mostly known only in their Chinese form. Each of these begins with Fan, and this has been held to correspond to Sanskrit title 'Varman' which was the epithet of almost every Cham king in later times. Recently a scholar has opposed this view, as noted above, and he takes Fan to be the designation of an indigenous clan. But some of the kings, whose names ending in 'varman' are known from Sanskrit inscriptions, must have flourished during the same period, and this supports the equation of Fan with Varman.
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The first king, after Śrī-Māra, whose name occurs in Sanskrit inscription is Śrī Bhadra-varman. The characters of his inscriptions may be referred to c. 400 A.D., and he has been identified with Fan-hu-ta of the Chinese Chronicles who was a great general and increased the power and prestige of his kingdom.¹¹
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¹¹ Vogel assigns these inscriptions to a somewhat earlier date (*BKI*, Vol. 74, p. 232), and in that case Bhadra-varman may be identified with Fan-hu-ta's father Fan-Fo, whose name may be regarded as a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit name.
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Whatever we might think of this identification, Bhadra-varman must be regarded as a very important king. His full name was Dharma-mahārāja Śrī Bhadra-varman. He built a temple of Śiva at Myson and called the God, after his own name, Bhadreśvarasvāmi. This practice, well-known in India, was almost universally adopted in Champā in later times, and the temple of Bhadreśvara-svāmi became the national sanctuary of Champā for nearly a thousand years. The king was a scholar and was versed in the four Vedas.
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According to the Chinese Chronicles Fan-hu-ta was succeeded in A.D. 413 by his son Ti-chen who abdicated the throne and went to India. This king has been identified with king Gaṅgārāja who is mentioned in a Sanskrit inscription as having abdicated the throne in order to spend his last days on the Gaṅgā.
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This inscription refers to a royal family who traced their claim to the throne through Gaṅgārāja. It refers to several kings *viz.* Manoratha-varman, Rudra-varman, Śambhu-varman, Kandarpa-dharma and Prabhāsa-dharma. Śambhuvarman stopped the payment of customary tribute to China, and though he renewed it in A.D. 595, the Chinese army invaded Champā ten years later. The capital city was pillaged and the Chinese took about 10,000 prisoners and cut off their ears. The victorious Chinese general took the golden tablets of eighteen kings who had ruled over Champā before Śambhu-varman, and 1350 Buddhist works. He also carried away as prisoners some musicians from Fu-nan who carried to the Imperial Court the musical arts of India.
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Śambhu-varman made peace with China by payment of customary tribute. His grandson Prabhāsa-dharma was killed with all members of his family in A.D. 645 and a period of anarchy and civil war followed. Evidently the king of Kambuja had a share in all these intrigues. In any case the throne of Champā was occupied, some time before A.D. 653, by Prakāśadharma-Vikrānta-varman whose mother Śarvāṇī was a daughter of king Iśāna-varman of Kambuja, and father, Jagaddharma, was member of the royal family of Champā, who had fled to Kambuja.
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In addition to Fu-nan, Kambuja and Champā, there were several other Hindu colonies in Indo-China, whose existence the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Siam, thus controlling the shorter trade-route to the east,¹² to which reference has been made above. According to local traditions preserved in the Chinese accounts of the sixth century A.D., the kingdom was founded four hundred years ago *i.e.*, about the second century A.D. The king of this country extolled the emperor of China by saying, among other things, that the precious Sanskrit was generally known in his land. This indicates it to be a Hindu colony. Further evidence is furnished by the detailed account preserved in the *History of the Liang Dynasty*. We are told that the king grew jealous or suspicious of a member of the royal family on account of his great popularity and drove him out. The latter took refuge in India and was married to the eldest daughter of the king. On the death of the king of Lang-ya-su the great officers of the State recalled the exile and offered him the throne. He died after a reign of more than 20 years and was succeeded by his son, Bhagadatta. He sent an ambassador named Āditya to China in A.D. 515 and repeated the embassies in A.D. 523 and 531. A further embassy was sent in A.D. 568.
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Another Hindu Colony in this region is named by the Chinese P'an-p'an. The second Kauṇḍinya passed through this place on his way to Fu-nan. We learn from a passage preserved in Ma Twan-lin's encyclopaedic work that many Brāhmaṇas came to this country from India in order to profit by the munificence of the king who held them in high favour. It sent an embassy to China, during the period 424-453 A.D.
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Another Hindu State in Malay Peninsula of which we get some account in the Chinese annals centre and four in the northern part of Province Wellesley. Five of them were found in Ligor, two in Chaiya and one each in Keddah and Takua Pa. Two of these inscriptions distinctly refer to a Buddhist creed.
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Remains of Brahmanical and Buddhist shrines and images of gods, some of which are of the Gupta style, have been found in Keddah, Perak and other places. Special mention may be made of a Cornelian seal found at Kaula Selinsing in Perak engraved with the name of a Hindu prince Śrī Viṣṇu-varman, in characters of the fifth century A.D. Slightly later in date is an inscription found near Keddah containing three verses, from a Sūtra of the Mādhyamika School.¹³
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It may be safely concluded from the According to tradition current among the people of Pegu in Lower Burma, Indian colonists from the lower courses of the rivers Krishna and Godavari had at a remote time crossed the sea and formed settlements in the delta of the Irawadi and on the adjoining coast. A semi-mythical legend traces the foundation of the kingdom of Thaton or Sudhammavatī to two sons of king Tissa. A list of fifty-nine kings who reigned there is given in the chronicles. It is further recorded that two sons of the king of Thaton, named Thamala ( Śyāmala ) and Vimala, being excluded from succession to the throne, founded a new city called Bogo or Pegu, known also as Haṁsāvatī. It is incidentally mentioned that Hindu strangers came in ships and invaded Pegu but were repulsed. There were altogether 17 kings in this dynasty, the last of whom, Tissa, ascended the throne in 761 A.D.
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According to traditions current among the Burmese, Abhirāja, a prince of the Śākya clan of Kapilavastu, marched with an army to Upper Burma, founded the city of Sankissa ( Tagaung ) on the Upper Irawadi, and set himself up as the king of the surrounding region. After thirty-one generations had ruled, a second band of Kṣatriyas from the Gangetic valley occupied the kingdom. After sixteen generations of the new dynasty had ruled, the kingdom was over-run by the barbarians, but the elder son of the king founded a new kingdom with his capital near modern Prome. His son founded the great city of Śrī-kṣetra nearby and made it his capital. After eighteen kings had ruled there, a civil war broke out among the three constituent tribes, *viz.* Pyu, Kanran and Mramma. The Pyus having gained the contest the Kanrans went to Arakan. But the Pyus themselves were defeated by the Mons or Talaings and the supre-macy passed to the Mramma, from which is derived the modern name Burma. The capital was removed to the city of Pagan.
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These traditional accounts cannot, of course, be regarded as historical. But they contain a nucleus of historical facts such as the settlement of Indian colonists among the Pyus, Mrammas and Karens, who belonged to the same race, and the Mons belonging to a different race; the foundation of the Hindu kingdoms of Tagaung, Arakan, Śrīkṣetra, Thaton and Pegu; and finally, the destruction of the Hinduized Pyu kingdom of Śrīkṣetra by the Mons of Pegu leading to the foundation of Pagan where the Hinduized Mrammas or Burmas came to occupy the supreme place.
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No reliance can be placed on the chronology of these traditions according to which the first Hindu kingdom at Tagaung was founded many centuries before Buddha. There is, however, hardly any doubt that Burma, which was the nearest region to India, must have been colonized long before the first century A.D. when the Hindu colonists spread all over South-east Asia and advanced as far as Cambodia. Unfortunately, we do not possess any evidence for this early colonization of Burma. But the settlement of Indians in Burma before the second century A.D. is proved by Sanskrit place-names mentioned by Ptolemy which have been located with a tolerable degree of certainty in Burma. This is supported by the discovery of isolated Brāhmī alphabets of India on stones in Burma.
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We know from the Chinese chronicles a great deal of the tribe called Pyu in the Burmese tradition. The earliest Chinese notices of Burma, going back to the third century A.D., refer to the people as P'iao which undoubtedly stands for Pyu. Hiuen Tsang refers to the kingdom of Śrīkṣetra as the first great Hindu kingdom beyond the frontier of East India. Round about this ancient site (modern Prome) have been found inscribed plaques containing canonical texts in Pāli which have been referred to about A.D. 500. We have also Sanskrit inscriptions of the Pyus dating probably from the seventh century A.D. But our knowledge of a connected history of Burma goes back only to the tenth century A.D.
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After this general survey of the Hindu colonies in the mainland we may now pass on to the islands of the Malay Archipelago. Among these Java seems to have been known to the Indians from a very early period. The Sanskrit form of its name is referred to in the *Rāmāyaṇa* and mentioned by Ptolemy. Reference has already been made to the possible foundation of a Hindu kingdom in Java towards the end of the first or the beginning of the second century A.D. The account of Fa-hien, who visited the island in A.D. 414-5, leaves no doubt that the Hindus were settled there for a very long time. But the first positive evidence of a Hindu kingdom in Java is furnished by four rock inscriptions found within the boundaries of the Residency of Batavia *i.e.*, in the western part of the island. These inscriptions refer to a king Pūrṇa-varman whose capital was the city of Tārumā. His grandfather is called *rājarṣi* (royal sage) and another ancestor, probably his father, is given the epithet *rājādhirāja*. The latter is said to have dug Chandrabhāgā, evidently a canal, which reached the ocean after passing by the capital city. In the twenty-second year of his reign, Pūrṇa-varman himself dug another canal called the Gomatī river. On palaeographic considerations Pūrṇa-varman may be placed in the fifth or sixth century A.D.
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Nothing is known about the extent of Pūrṇa-varman's kingdom beyond the area covered by his inscriptions, or of its history after him. But it appears from the Chinese chronicles that quite a large number of petty kingdoms flourished in the island in the sixth century or earlier still. The annals of the T'ang period (A.D. 618-906) mention Ho-ling as the name of the kingdom of Java. Ho-ling is generally regarded as a Chinese transcription of Kaliṅga, the name of a well-known region in the eastern coast of India.
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The advance of the Hindu colonists to Central Java is proved by a Sanskrit inscription engraved on a large boulder near the famous spring called Tuk Mas, to the north-east of Magelang. This inscription is perhaps slightly later in date than the records of Pūrṇa-varman. A Buddha image of Amarāvatī style found at Jember in Eastern Java proves the further penetration of the Hindus by the second or third century A.D.
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In the neighbouring island of Sumatra flourished the kingdom of Śrī-Vijaya. Some scholars find a reference to it in the Chinese translation of a Buddhist *sūtra*. As this translation was made in A.D. 392, this view, if accepted, would vouch for the existence of Śrī-Vijaya in the fourth century A.D. But it is not till seventh century A.D. that Śrī-Vijaya came into prominence and its history will be treated later. There were probably other Hindu kingdoms in Sumatra before this period but we do not know anything definite about them. A Buddha image of the Amarāvatī style has been found on the rock called Seguntang at Palembang. There was also a Hindu kingdom in the island of Bali to the east of Java.¹⁴ The *History of the Liang Dynasty* (A.D. 502-556) says that the king's family name is Kauṇḍinya and it was claimed that the wife of Śuddhodana was a daughter of a king of this country. According to the *History of the Sui Dynasty* (A.D. 581-617), the king's family name is Ch'a-ri-ya-ka, the first two characters of which are a common Chinese transcription of the word Kṣatriya. Evidently, the kings of Bali claimed to belong to the Kṣatriya caste. The kingdom sent embassies to China in A.D. 518, 523, 616 and 630.
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¹⁴ This account is based on the presumption that P'o-li, mentioned in the Chinese texts, refers to the island of Bali. For different view on this point cf. *Suvarṇadvīpa*, I. 133.
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Hindu colonies were also established in the large island of Borneo. This is proved by seven inscriptions¹⁵ found in the district of Kutei, at Muara Kamam, on the Mahakam river. The remains of a Chinese jonk, found in the locality, mark it to be an important sea-port in old days, and this perhaps facilitated the Hindu settlement in this region.
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¹⁵ Four of these inscriptions are referred to in *Suvarṇadvīpa* I. 126. For the remaining three inscriptions *Cf. JGIS*, XII. 14.
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The inscriptions were engraved on *yūpas* or sacrificial pillars set up by the Brāhmaṇas who acted as priests in the sacrifices performed by king Mūla-varman son of Aśva-varman, and grandson of king Kuṇḍuṅga. Aśva-varman is said to have been the originator of the family.
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Hindu antiquities have been found in other places in East Borneo, the most notable finds, including images of a large number of gods, being those in a cave at Kombeng which is situated considerably to the north of Muara Kaman. Archaeological remains of the Hindu colonies have also been found in Western Borneo at various places on or near the banks of the Kapuas river. These include more than ten inscriptions on stone and a large number of inscribed golden plates. The standing Buddhas of Gupta style have been found at Sambas. It has been suggested that Barhiṇadvīpa mentioned in the *Vāyu Purāṇa* refers to Borneo.¹⁶
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¹⁶ Sastri—*Śrī Vijaya*, p. 23.
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We have no positive evidence of the establishment of Hindu kingdoms in any other island during this early period. But the discovery of a Buddha image of Amarāvatī style at Sempaga in the island of Celebes shows that the Hindus had settled there by the second or third century A.D.
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Hindu antiquities have been found in other islands, too. But their dates are unknown.
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We have now broadly reviewed the state of Hindu colonies in South-east Asia. We may sum up the result by saying that Hindu colonists turned their attention to this region as early as the beginning of the Christian era, if not earlier still. Long before that, adventurous spirits had boldly plied the ocean to explore these unknown lands, undeterred by the risks of voyage in uncharted sea, the bands of pirates that infested the maritime route, and the cruel savage tribes that sometimes inhabited the regular ports or forced landing places. When we read of these in the accounts of actual voyages in later times, and find a graphic description of the ship-wrecked passengers or those hovering between life and death for days together in small wooden vessels in high tempestuous seas, we can realise how the Hindus of that by-gone Period, unlike their modern representatives and uninfluenced by the Śāstric injunctions to the contrary, braved the perils of the sea and showed a spirit of adventure and exploration that might differ degree, but not in kind, from that which lay at the root of European explorations of the modern age culminating in polar expeditions.
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As in later days, the perilous voyages of pioneers paid rich dividends to their successors, more and more traders were attracted by the lure of the gold, silver and spices for which the region was famous, and physical obstacles proved as unavailing to them as to gold-seekers of a later age. That the greed of traders was the chief incentive to these early voyages is abundantly proved by the Sanskrit geographical names in this region such as Suvarṇa-bhūmi, Suvarṇa-dvīpa, Yava-dvīpa, Karpūra-dvīpa, Nārikela-dvīpa.
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As soon as the Hindu traders made these lands familiar in their own country, others followed in their wake, including Brāhmaṇas and Buddhists, fired by the missionary spirit, impoverished Kṣatriyas hopping by their prowess and military knowledge to restore their fortunes, and artisans and craftsmen trying to improve their social status and material welfare by the exercise of superior skill. These motley crowds went in hundreds and thousands and settled in different regions among the primitive inhabitants.
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Such settlements must have been widely spread all over the region by the beginning of the Christian era, and we have already described the process by which they grew into small kingdoms. Although details are lacking in many cases, it follows from what has been stated above that within two to three hundred years nearly the whole of Indo-China and Indonesia, comprising Burma, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Cambodia and Annam in the mainland and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo, Celebes and perhaps many others were dotted over with such kingdoms and settlements of a less organised character. Some of these kingdoms like those of Fu-nan and Champā grew very powerful and carried diplomatic relations with China—a fortunate circumstance which has preserved to a large extent their history from oblivion. The fall of Fu-nan, early in the 7th century A.D., marks the close of the first epoch of Hindu Colonization. The second epoch witnessed the rise and fall of mighty Hindu empires in this far off region outside India, which will be described in the next lecture.
Linked texts (2)
- Vāyupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit