Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c9.20

c9.20

As already stated, the Inscription B at Ligor proves that some time after A.D., 775, the date of the main Ins. A., the Śailendras had established their authority in Malay Peninsula. About the same time we find them ruling in Java. This is proved by two inscriptions found in Java itself. One records the building of a Buddhist temple, dedicated to the goddess Tārā, at Kalasan, by the Śailendra king Mahārāja Paṇaṁkaraṇa in A.D. 778. Another, found at Kelurak, records the installation of an image of Mañjuśrī in A.D. 782 by Kumāraghoṣa, an inhabitant of Gauḍa (Bengal) and preceptor of king Dharaṇīndra of the Śailendra dynasty. These two inscriptions, found in Central Java, and the incomplete inscription at Ligor testify to the Śailendra rule in Java and Malay Peninsula in the last quarter of the eighth century A.D. The extension of their political authority to other islands of the Archipelago is proved by a copper-plate found at Nālandā and dated in the year 39 (or 35) of king Devapāla of the Pāla Dynasty of Bengal which would roughly correspond to A.D. 850. It records the grant of five villages by Devapāla at the request of Bālaputradeva, king of Suvarṇadvīpa, for the maintenance of a monastery built by the latter at Nālandā.