Part 1.1 - History of the Bhutas

[Full title: History of the Bhutas—Historical evidences and connections India and Indonesia]

Indigenous animism, dynamism and beliefs common to the Austronesian people have been commonly practiced by the Indonesian archipelago. They have venerated and revered the ancestral spirits, believing that some spirits may have inhabited certain places such as tall trees, stones, forests, mountains or any other scared place. "Hyang" is the name given to this invisible spiritual entity that possesses such supernatural powers, by the ancient Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese tribes. The name means divine or ancestral in ancient terms; its modern equivalent translates into something associated with God, mainly in the modern Indonesian dialect.^[1]

It should be noted that Hindu influences have had their claws in the Indonesian archipelago since the first century. The legends of Java refer to the Sake era, which dates back to 78AD. This is cited by the stories of the Mahabharata who came back to the islands of Indonesia in the first century; however, reproduce the same versions found in the southeastern region of Peninsular India (now Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh). Javanese prose works as "Tantu Pagelaran" of the 14th century is a collection of ancient tales, arts and crafts of Indonesia, which makes extensive use of Sanskrit words, the names of Indian deities and religious concepts. On a similar note, the ancient chandi (temples) excavated in Java and the western islands of Indonesia, as well as inscriptions and the inscription "Canggal" discovered in Indonesia, in the eighth century, confirm the widespread adoption of the iconography of Shiva Lingam, his companion goddess Parvati, Ganesha, Vishnu, Brahma, Arjuna and other Hindu deities in the mid to late first millennium AD. There are ancient Chinese documents on the return of Fa Hien from Ceylon to China in 414 AD. This was mentioned in two of the schools of Hinduism in Java, meanwhile, the eighth century Chinese documents refer to Hinduism. Reign of King Sanajaya "Holing", calling him "extremely rich" and referring to him as a peaceful coexistence between peoples and the Buddhist sovereign Sailendra in the Kedu plains of the island of Java.^[2]

There are theories that foment the arrival of Hinduism in Indonesia, who are South Indian sea traders where Hinduism brought the Indonesian royal family that houses religions and Indian culture and are the first to to adopt spiritual ideas followed for the masses. The islands of Indonesia adopted both Hindu and Buddhist ideas, merging them with the preexisting indigenous people's religion and animist beliefs. The first Hindu established in the regions of Indonesia include the Kingdom of "Kutai" in East Kalimantan, West Java Tarumanagara and "Holing" (Kalingga) in Central Java in the fourth century. The ancient Hindu kingdoms of Java have built and resurrected many square temples, called rivers in their islands such as "Gomati" and "Ganges", as well as large irrigation projects and infrastructure.^[3]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ooi, Keat Gin (editor) (2004). "Southeast Asia: A historical encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor (3 volume set)". ABC-CLIO. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.

[2]:

Jan Gonda, The Indian Religions in Pre-Islamic Indonesia and their survival in Bali, in Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 3 Southeast Asia, Religions, p. 1, at Google Books, pp. 1-54

[3]:

Kenneth Hall (2011), A History of Early Southeast Asia, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0742567610, Chapter 4 and 5