Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c9.23

c9.23

In the first place while the grandfather is called the ruler of Yava-bhūmi, the grandson is introduced as king of Suvarṇadvīpa. Scholars generally take the first to refer to Java and the second to Sumatra, and are consequently at pains to reconcile the discrepancy involved. Thus Coedés³ thinks that Śrī-Vijaya was conquered by the Śailendras of Java, and Bālaputra was ruling in Sumatra, on behalf of his father, the king of Java. He fortifies this conclusion by taking Bālaputra, not as a proper name. but as meaning a young son. K. A. N. Sastri,⁴ on the other hand, takes Bālaputra as an independent ruler of Sumatra. He rejects the idea that the Śailendras of Java spread their sway over Śrī-Vijaya in Sumatra. He thinks it not unlikely that some of the earlier rulers of Śrī-Vijaya were Śailendras also, but in any case “Śrī-Vijaya and Java were on friendly terms and undertook many enterprises together with a view to aggrandize their power and influence in the rest of the Archipelago and over Indo-China.” He thus seems to distinguish two Śailendra dynasties, one ruling in Java, and the other in Śrī-Vijaya in Sumatra. The Ligor Ins. B was, in his opinion, either engraved by Śailendra from Śrī-Vijaya or the work of a Javanese Śailendra king.