2a. The Spread of Buddhism

[Full title: The spread of Buddhist art in Vietnam and South East Asia (a): The Spread of Buddhism]

In the early spread of Buddhism to Vietnam and South East Asia, the evidence for Buddhism comes from three sources: Chinese histories, Pali and Sanskrit texts, local inscriptions, and art. The Chinese histories that mention early south-east Asian politics have been very thoroughly explored by scholars. The Chinese sources present the Indian impact starting in the first century B.C., and at times references to Buddhism can be discerned from this early period. By around the fifth century, there are reports from Chinese monks who traveled by ship to and from India, and who thus passed through South East Asia.^[1] There are various theories as to the introduction of Theravada, Mahayana Buddhism into the Southeast Asia some groups of Buddhist missions sent by emperor Ashoka are said to have been dispatched from India to neighboring countries of the east.^[2] At that time, sea routes were very popular for all businessmen. It resulted that there were many Indian traders living in South East Asia. It is believed that most of them were Buddhist laymen. Realizing the advantage, Asoka was successful in preaching the Buddha’s dharma. We cannot confirm whether or not Indians living in there countries were devout laymen, but it is surmised that they supported the Buddhist monks’s activities. This we find very acceptable because traders always believe in the blessing of god, of Buddha, and of course merit as was mentioned in the Buddha’s teachings.

According to Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa, regular sea routes were in operation from the western and eastern seaboards of India across the ocean to the far eastern countries, about the third century B.C. the Mauryan emperor Asoka sent a Buddhist mission to Suvannabhumi as their own country. “Suvarnabhumi” (gold-land) and “Suvarnadvipa” (gold-island), names of oversea countries, were familiar to the Indians from a very early period. They occur in the old popular stories such as have been preserved in the Jatakas, as well as in more serious literary works, mainly Buddhist. Both the names, Suvarnabhumi and Suvarnadvipa, were geographical designations which are applicable to Burma, Malay Peninsula and Indonesia.^[3] Indonesia claimed that their country was a spot of spice production which attracted many Indian traders who came there by sea route. There were found many figures of Buddha, Hindu gods, Sanskrit texts there from the 3, 5, and 6th centuries A.D. it shows the direct influence of the Indian on South East Asian. In the Jataka stories also giving us the journey of the traders from ports on the Ganga sailed to the eastern lands. The Sankha Jataka describes the journey of the Brahmana Sankha from Varanasi to Suvannabhumi.^[4] The Silanisamsa Jataka refers to a sea-faring nymph as bringing ship-wrecked people to Varanasi from the far off sea.^[5]

References are made to voyages from Videha to Suvannabhumi. King Mahajanaka is said to have traveled in a ship with 700 caravans and reached there.^[6] Champa to Suvannabhumi voyage was quite common.^[7]

Based on the Mahaniddesa Guiseppe Tucci assumed that:

“India’s trade to the east existed with Kalamukha, Suvannabhumi, Vessunga, Verapatha, Takkola, tamale, Tambapanni and Java. First two of these places can be identified with Arakan coast and lower Burma. Next three correspond to ptolemy’s Besyngeitai, Borbai, and Takkaka. Tamale has been identified by Sylvain Levi with Tamralinga in the Malaya peninsula. The Apadana states that traders from Malaya and China visited India.”^[8]

Also based on the legend of the nine Ashoka’s missions, one of these missions is Sona and Uttara are claimed to have been the pioneers of Buddhism in the countries as the traditional field of their mission was Suvannabhumi and based on the Burmese chronicle of Thaton^[9] that Burma and Saim point to certain definite localities within their regional borders as representing the Suvarnabhumi of ancient tradition. One of Burmese legends, reported by almost all the chronicles, represents the Buddha as having come in person to Burma and visited a village in its west named Lekaing.^[10] Two local merchants are said to have started building a monastery of sandal-wood in the village, and till its completion the Buddha himself along with his disciples used to come periodically to the village, as the legend has it, to supervise the construction. He stayed for some time in this sandalwood-monastery of Lekaing, converted local people to his religion and is said to have uttered the prophecy that Burma in the ripeness of time would become a Buddhist country. Buddhism in Burma, according to this legend, began at the village of Lekaing in humble surroundings, among local folk, and from this centre spread all over the country. Siam is the original name of Thailand and the Mons were the original people of Siam. They had settled in ancient times in the valley of the Menam and along the lower reaches of its tributaries. This anciently Mon-occupied region is called central Siam which comprises also the trunk of elephant, extending along two-thirds of the Malay Peninsula. The centre of Mon life and culture in this region was Lovo or Lopbury.^[11] To its south existed another Mon kingdom in the 7^th century with its capital at Dvaravati. Sukumar Dutt^[12] has been reasoning that Dvaravati was a variant name of the holy city of Dwaraka in the Kathiwad peninsula of India, and the second capital of Siam was named Dvaravati-Ayodhia and in the Ramakien of king Rama I, it is said to have been the capital of Rama, hero of the Indian epic, (Ramayana). These Indian names of Mon localities indicate that a source of Indian contact was open during the 5^th-6^th centuries to the Mon central of Siam. It was attained through its south-pointing peninsular extension. Buddhism seems to have been more popular and more wide-spread among the Mons. In the main accessory activities of Buddhism, temple-building and image-making, the Mons developed an art of their own, so distinctive that it is recognized as the preKhmer art of Siam. In the reign of king Suryavarman of Angkor (1002-1050 A.D.), central Siam came under Cambodian domination; and Siamese art during the Khmer period shows, both in the style of temple-building and in the fashioning of Buddha-images, a remarkable deflection from its older norms and standards. A century later the Thai people appeared on the scene and central Siam passed from the hands of Angkor kings into those of the Thai. Over the 11^th and the 12^th centuries^[13], the Thais spread themselves over the northern and northeastern parts and were occupying also the central plains. Gradually consolidating their power, they overran the whole country, overflowing eastwards into Laos. When Burma and Siam came under Thai rule, Buddhism both as faith and culture existed in these countries. The Thai rulers took it from the conquered people; they raised Buddhism to the position of a state religion, erecting temples, pagodas and convents to perpetuate the ministrations of the religion. But in Cambodia, the situation was different. What the religious beliefs and social customs among the Mon-Khmers of Cambodia had been before their conversion to Hinduism are not exactly known. Yet it is almost certain that Hinduism was to them an imposition from outside a power that gained control and authority over the people, not because the people welcome it, but through the dominating influence of kings, priests and men of high rank in society. The state and society in Cambodia adopted the Hindu pattern, though Mahayana Buddhism had also a place in the pattern.^[14]

Among the royalty and the aristocracy there were persons who preferred Mahayanist Buddhism as then understood and practiced in India. The civilization of ancient Cambodia evolved under these conditions but was discarded by the Cambodians outright when Theravada Buddhism appeared in the country as an independent religion, not like Mahayanism, a faith that subsisted under the franchise of Hinduism and these were demonstration by an inscription dated Saka 944=AD 1022-25 found at Lopburi^[15] the inscription show that Mahayana Buddhism flourished in Cambodia under royal patronage. And an inscription also found at Lopburi dated saka: 944=1022 indicates the existence of Theravada Buddhism there.

Actually, Buddhism made its influence felt in Cambodia as early as the fifth century AD., for king Jaya-varman of Funan, who ruled towards the close of that century, sent an embassy to China in 503 A.D., with presents including an image of Buddha.

“According to Pelliot, the annals of the liang dynasty of China (AD502-556) record that Kaundinya Jayavarman in A.D., 503 sent a mission with a coral image of the Buddha to the Chinese ruler Wu-ti, who was a patron of Buddhism.”^[16]

That is the evidence for presence Buddhism in Funan or Cambodia because Cambodia at that time under Funan ruler. They occupied the Mekong and Menam deltas as well as southern Burma. The kingdom or group of kingdoms including Cambodia and southern Siam is spoken of as Funan. There is a local legend that, an Indian Brahman named Kaundinya who probably in the first century A.D., Landed in Funan from a merchant vessel, married a princess who’s name is Soma the leader of the country, and they became as king and queen of the country.

The Funan is by meaning ‘mountain’, this is the word which is translated into Sanskrit in the dynastic title ‘king of mountain’.^[17] Under the reigns of Kaundinya Jayavarman (AD 478-514) and Rudravarman (AD 514-539) Buddhism was important develop for based on the Chinese sources Kanai Lal Hazra admited that:

“Two learned Buddhist monks of Funan, Seng-Kia-P’o or Sanghapala or Sanghavarman and Man-t’o-LoSien or Mandrasena came to the Chinese court in the early years of the sixth century AD to translate the Buddhist scriptures …. Both monks worked in china several years for translating Buddhist documents. This indicates the existence of Buddhist monasteries at Funan in Cambodia at this time, where Buddhist texts were studied.”^[18]

In 539 at least, this being the date of the last embassy sent to china, and Rudravarman Jayavarman is the last known king of Funan. In the second half of the sixth century the country was attacked from the north by a kingdom to which the Chinese gave name of Chenla (Cambodia), and then Funan was under the ruler of Angkor dynasties.

Funan dominated the Indochinese peninsula for five centuries, and its prestige lived on long after its fall.^[19] The pre-Angkor kings of Cambodia adopted its dynastic legends, and those who reigned at Angkor traced their ancestry to the supreme rulers of Vyadhapara. Funan certainly played an important role in the spread of Indian cultural influence in Indochina.

Scholar Dietrich Seckel had also agrees that:

“In the southern most part of Indochina there was a kingdom which the Chinese called Funan. It was founded during the 1^st century A.D. by colonists and missionaries from India. It maintained trading links with Rome and Persia (evidenced by finds made at Oc-eo which date from the 2^nd century) as well as china and also played a vital role as an intermediary between Indian and Chinese culture, between western and eastern Asia.”^[20]

On the east side of peninsula of Indochina, Champa was also played an important role in influence of Indian cultural. In Chinese source the country as known as Lin-I by name and which later Sanskrit sources call Champa, And now, the both of these countries are belong to South Vietnam. Vietnam forms the easternmost limit of the land-block comprising the countries of Southeast Asia. It is a slender coastal strip of plains and small deltas, variegated by hilly regions in the north to south, touching china on the north and the gulf of Siam on the south. It resembles in shape a capital ‘s’ with the lower are in a slight bulge. The country was populated by migrations of people from the north into the south over nearly 800 years of Vietnam early history. There is no legend or history to pinpoint the first introduction of Buddhism into country. Amongst the pioneers of Buddhism from china, we know the names of two Indian monks, Mahajivaka and Kalyanaruchi, one Tibetan monk Kang-Seng-Houce and one Chinese monk, Meou Po. They all came from China by sea to what was then known as ‘Giaochi’ (northern Vietnam) then regarded by the Chinese as an outlying district of China. Later became the famous Indian monk Vinitaruchi, illustrious in the history of Vietnamese Buddhism. Not much is known about his personal life. He is said to have come to Changan from India in 593, stayed for six years at Konnang Teheon where he engaged himself in translating a number of Buddhist works into Chinese and then proceeded to ‘Giaochi’ where he was nominated the chief monk of the Phapvan temple in Luylau and spent fifteen years in the country before passing away. He belonged to the Chinese Cha’-an school of Buddhism founded in China by Bodhidharma, and Vinitaruchi’s Vietnamese disciple Phap Hien is regarded as its first patriarch in Vietnam. The school is prevalent to this day mostly in North Vietnam. While South Vietnam by Funan (including Cambodia), and Champa with Theravada school. In Champa, Buddhism was of ancient standing, but Cambodia was converted to Theravada Buddhism. The Vietnamese and Champa were always at enmity and the state of Champa, steadily whittled down by the Vietnamese, was wiped out in the fifteenth century. The Cambodia was friendly and they form a large minority group now in the population of South Vietnam. They adhere to the Theravada school, and Theravadin Buddhists have a large number of establishments in south Vietnam, the chief of which is the Jetavana Vihara at Saigon city, a comparatively modern establishment built by the venerable Nagathera and Vamsarakkhita of Vietnam.^[21]

That so why Dr Bachchan Kumar assumes that:

“Therefore, a survey of political history of Vietnam would certainly offer us a deeper insight into the process of artistic creation in different regions. Art history in Vietnam has both spatial and temporal dimensions.”^[22]

There are also some sources remain that some Indian monks, on their voyage from India to China during the periods of Tang and Sung in China, broke their long and arduous journey at some Vietnamese port before proceeding to their destination and their teachings spread among the common people of the locality. They were, as we may presume, exponents not of Chinese, but of Indian Buddhism, Mahayanist or Sarvastivada. The spread of Buddhism in Vietnam came from north by China and south by India through Funan and Champa or directed to Vietnam that was the cause of variety of Vietnamese Buddhist, and is suggested by the dichotomy in relation to Buddhism current in Vietnam-the religion of the north (Bac Tong) Mahayana and the religion of the south (Nam Tong) Theravada, and they side by side developing through all of the country.^[23] Beside the mainland of South East Asia, the Malay Peninsula also an important of Buddhist learning centre and art in South East Asia.

According to P.V. Bapat:

“Buddhism had very little hold on the people of the island of java in the 5th century a.d. Fa-hien, who visited this island (c. 414. A.D.) observes that while other forms of religion, particularly Brahmanism, flourished on this island, “Buddhism in it is not worth mentioning,” but thanks to the missionary zeal of Gunavarman (an indian monk), Buddhism was not only introduced but obtained a stronghold on the island in less than a quarter of a century after fa-hien’s visit.”^[24]

Gunavarman belonged to a royal family of India, and taking to the religious life of a Buddhist monk, he visited the island of Java. First the queen mother was converted to Buddhism and gradually, the king and the people adopted the religion. It is said that on one occasion Java was attacked by a hostile king and the king asked Gunavarman whether it would be against Buddhist law if he offered battle. Gunavarman told the king that it was his duty to fight the enemy. The king now wished to take to the life of a monk, but was dissuaded by his ministers. Fa-Hien, the first of three Chinese pilgrims, has recorded his owns travels.^[25] He practically walked all the way from central china across the Gobi desert, over Hindu Kush and right across northern India to the seaport of Tamralipti in Bengal. There he embarked for Ceylon and returned to China by sea after an adventurous voyage marked by several hairbreadth escapes. He brought back with him what he had gone to seek in India–sacred books of Buddhism and images of Buddhist deities.

Also appears in Chinese texts, I-Ching, who visited Sumatra about 671-690 AD, state that Malayu had then become subject to Srivijaya; he studied Sanskrit grammar as well as the old Malay language, Buddhist texts and commentaries.

“He took the sea route to India both ways. His itineraries lack the variety and scientific interest of those of Yuan Chwang, but they are full of human interest. On his outward voyage (671 AD.) he spent eight months in Sumatra, six at Srivijaya, a rising maritime state (now Palembang), and two in Malaya in the neighbourhood…… and thence went to Magadha, the holy land par excellence and worshipped at Bodhgaya and other sacred sports. He spent ten years at Nalanda…… when he left India…. He spent four years in Srivijaya with its Sanskrit background in order to translate the sacred works; in 689 AD. He went to china to fetch collaborators for his work and after another five years at Srivijaya he finally returned to China in 695 AD.”^[26]

All evidences above were the result that the Buddhist religion spread throughout the kingdom of Srivijaya. And more clearly for evidence of the contacts of Buddhist from India to South East Asia that were actively encouraged with merchant-adventurers venturing to insular South East Asia in search of the region’s natural wealth-gold, resins, aromatics and spices. This region according to Buddhist Jataka stories where it was identified as a source of gold, being titled Suvarnadvipa (island of gold) and Suvarnabhumi (land of gold).^[27] Evidence of gold working activity in Sumatra and the Malaya peninsula confirm that south Indian was active in this process.^[28] A goldsmith’s touchstone found at one of the earliest identified entrepots of peninsular Thailand, Wat Khlong Thom, at Krabi, bears a newly deciphered inscription in Tamil Brahmi script of the firstthird century AD, identifying it as the property of Perumpatan. The important discovery at Takuapa on the west coast of the Malaya peninsula, of a ninth-century Tamil inscription and the three large-scale stone Vaisnavite sculptures in the Pallava style which is further for the showing of the link between the Indian merchants, gold trade and a religious presence. Investigations revealed traces of processed gold in the soil, evidence that this location had served as a gold working centre. The Takuapa inscription giving us the information that the project was the work of three Indian merchant guilds, two of whose names have been giving as: the Manigriramattar and the Senamugattar. Indian merchants were also attracted to South East Asia for transit before went to china and on the contrary. On this road, Buddhist monks also has been present in some documents as Chinese monk who mane is Yijing (635-713 A.D.) stopped in the capital of Srivijaya Nagar in 671 A.D., on his way to India in order to study sanskrit. Yijing returned to Palembang after ten years in India to live again in Srivijaya Nagar from 685 to 695, and it is there that he translated Indian texts into Chinese and wrote his memoirs. Srivijaya also remained a centre for Buddhism studies for hundreds of years. The famous Indian monk Atisha (982-1054) went to Sumatra to study with the Buddhist teacher Dharmakirti. Atisha later traveled to Tibet in 1042 and founded the Kadam lineage, which later on became its basis the Dge Lugs (Geluk) school of Tibetan Budhism.^[29] So that the migration of peoples and ideas from India, which is the major influence upon South East Asian culture.

South East Asia comprises two large areas: part of the Asian mainland, and the nearby Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. In the first millennium, the mainland region came to be dominated by three ethnic groups: the Cham peoples along the south east coast, where the northern area became Vietnam; the Cambodians in the central Mekong valley, an area known earlier by the Chinese names of Funan and Zhenla; and the Mon peoples to the west, who largely controlled the Menam and Irrawaddy valleys, an area ultimately to become Thailand and Burma.

The second category of evidence for Buddhism in Vietnam and South East Asia are inscriptions. The earliest inscriptions, mostly written on stone, date from around the fifth to eighth centuries BC. They are written in Indian-related scripts in Sanskrit, or similar in Buddhist texts.^[30] The dating of these inscriptions, scattered at various sites, is generally based on paleography, which gives rise to varying opinions by scholars. Most of these inscriptions hold little historical information, but they tell us that Buddhism was practiced by some of the population and sometimes the school of Buddhism can be broadly identified.

A large number of inscriptions discovered in different parts of the island of Indonesia are written in Sanskrit and in the Indian alphabets of the fourth and fifth century A.D. at least three of there definitely refer to the Buddhist creed and thus prove the spread of Buddhism in that region. But the most important of all the remains are found at Ligor (Nakhon Sri Tammarat)^[31] the place that under the rules of Sailendra kings and from these regions Sailendra kings had been attacked the island of Java and established a Buddhist kingdom at Java Island. It was an essentially Buddhist colony that constructed the great stupa which is still to be found there such as Borobudur, Chandi Mendut. The inscriptions of King Mulavarman, dated to A.D. 400^[32], the inscriptions of Purnavarman from west Java in fifth century.^[33]

These inscriptions according to Lokesh Chandra:

“They reveal the use of the Pallava script of south India.”^[34]

They suggest the development of metallurgy and cultural techniques and implements for sculpting divine images, and sophisticated architectural complexes temples in Indonesia. The inscription is dated in 700 of the Saka era^[35], the inscription of the Kalasan^[36] A.D. 778 in central Java suggests that at this time Prambanam may have been the virtual capital of Srivijaya or the inscription of Vien Srah^[37] in the Malay peninsular, 778, speaks again of Srivijaya and records the erection of two fair brick buildings due to Vajrapani, Padmapani and the Buddha. In 1030 an inscription of Rajendracola and Rajakesarivarma also these inscriptions have been give us some information Sailendras dynasty rulers of Srivijaya in Java Island. They were zealous Buddhist and founded sanctuaries not only in their own dominions but even at Nalanda, the famous Buddhist university in Bihar …

Kanai Lal Hazra also refer these inscriptions suggest as:

“These Sailendra rulers who had their headquarters at Palembang made valuable contributions to the progress of Mahayanism in Indonesia from the 8^th century of the Christian era. They had close connections with the Pala rulers of Bengal. The Sailendra rulers not only built beautiful temples but also erected images of Bodhisattva Manjusri or Manjughosa, Tara etc. for the spread of mahayanism.”^[38]

In the mainland also a number of inscriptions were found:

“A number of inscriptions appear in the mainland from the fifth century, the earliest being the Devanika inscription at Champasak, southern Laos, and the Vo Canh stele in Champa, central Vietnam. The Vo Canh stele signals the importance of the early trading states that were emerging along the India-China sea route.”^[39]

According to Lokesh Chandra the Vo Canh rock inscription dated to the second or third century and on the basis of that inscriptions and Chinese annals Champa was a renowned centre of Sanskrit and Buddhist learning^[40] L. Finot also assume that Vo Canh inscription is a great historical importance: “it owes its origin to a king who claims to be a descendant of Sri Mararaja.

The wear and the tear of the stone does not permit of any precise conclusion as to the religion which the author of that work professed, but some expression such as:

“Prajanan Karuna…, “compassion for creatures”
“Lokasyasya Gatagati” “coming and going of this world”
[praja] nam priyahite sarvam visrstam maya, “all is given up by me for the satisfaction and good of creatures”,

Might give out a Buddhistic inspiration.^[41]

The inscription of Indravarman, dated 875^[42] has been found at Dong Duong of Vietnam remarked that Indian cultural were represented since earlier. Because Ananda K. Coomaras wamy explains clearly that the inscription praising the virtues of the SambhuBhadresvara lingam “filled with the essence of fire and hereditary royalty”, proving the existence of the Devaraja cult, as related in the Indian Devadaru Mahatmaya, which may be the ultimate source of the cult of the king-god. And the same king, who was an usurper and apparently a Buddhist, founded the great Buddhist shrine at Dong-Duong, in honour of Lokesvara, about 900; this is the only Buddhist site in Champa, but it is scarcely inferior to My-Son in richness and aesthetic importance because a bronze standing Buddha was found in My-Son is in style of Amaravati and Anuradhapura; this figure, indeed, is very probably of Indian or Simhalese origin and may date from the third or fourth century. The epigraphy of Champa it is in the 9^th century only that Buddhism makes its appearance there. In the second quarter of that century, a Buddhist of Panduranga, Samanta by name, dedicates two monasteries and two temples to the Jina and Siva that is the close association of Buddhism with Saivism which will remain up to the end is one of the salient features of religion in Champa.^[43] About 920 AD, the growing a Buddhist monastery by name Laksmindra Lokesvara^[44], a pious work of king Indravarman II who had assumed before his coronation the name of Laksmindra Bhumisvara Gramasvami and after his death that of Paramabuddhaloka. This monastery is situated near the Dong Duong village in the province of Quang Nam. The discovery has been found not only a single image of this Bodhisattva but also some big statues of the Buddha represented as sitting in the European fashion with hands resting on his knees. Also according to cultural interface of India with Asia religion, art and architecture. Among the earliest Buddhist inscriptions are two steles found in the Lembah Bujang valley area of Kedah, on the west coast of the Malaya peninsula. Both steles follow the same form: an engraving of a stupa with Buddhist creeds in Sanskrit around the border, epigraphically, the south Indian Grantha script is datable to around 400 AD.

There are several Burmese inscriptions which afford us information regarding Burmese’s Buddhism and cultrural. The most important of these is the Kalyani inscription it references to Buddhism contact between Ceylon and Burma.^[45] In the Kalyani inscriptions it mentioned that Suvannabhumi is lover Burma, the land of gold as an important centre of commerce was very familiar to Indian people from a very early period. Several Buddhist Jataka stories of the late centuries B.C., old Sanskrit works like the Kathakosa and the Brhatkatha, mention many sea-voyages between Indian ports and Suvannabhumi. These sources give us an idea about the established trade between India and Suvannabhumi. The Polonnaruva slab inscription of the velaikkaras.^[46] The Polonnaruva inscription of Vijayabahu I^[47], refer to Ceylon’s connections with Burma in the eleventh century A.D. Two inscriptions of the reign of Nissamkamalla found at Polonnaruva mention that there were friendly relations between Ceylon and Burma during this time. These inscriptions trace the history of Buddhism in Burma from a much earlier period and give us a fairly comprehensive picture of Burma’s religious and cultural ties with Ceylon up to the fifteenth century AD. Beside that some Siamese inscriptions were found in Thailand such as Nagara Jum inscription,^[48] the Sumanakutaparvata inscription, the Wat Mahadhatu inscription of Sukhodaya, the khau kap inscription, the Buddhapada inscription of the Wat Pavaranivesa and two inscriptions found at the monastery of the mango garden west of Sukhodaya. These inscriptions are the most important and trustworthy source of development of Buddhism and Buddhist art in Thailand. They relate to Siam’s cultural ties with Ceylon date from the middle of the thirteenth century A.D., onwards. According to K.T.S. SARAO, there is a Mon inscription found at Lavo, Lopburi dated to the sixth-seventh centuries A.D., appears to be closely related palaeographically to the Pallava script of south India.

Based on this inscription K.T.S. Sarao assumed that:

“Clearly point to the fact that from the sixth century onwards Theravada Buddhism flourished in the lower Menam valley and it continued to be the dominant religion there. Later when the lower Menam valley came under the control of the Khmer rulers, who were ardent patrons of Brahmanism and Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada still continued to flourish there.”^[49]

On eleventh century of Khmer rule over several regions of the Menam valley. An inscription dated Saka 944-1022 A.D., found at Lavo or Lopburi in southern Siam refers to king Suryavarman I (A.D. 1002-50) of Cambodia.^[50] Another inscription has been found at Sal Cau or San Chao in Lopburi.^[51] According to Halliday, R. and C.M.O. Blagden, the orthography of these inscriptions is identical with that of the Mon inscriptions of Burma between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. These inscriptions indicate that close cultural links already established, continued between northern Siam and Burma, although at that time Menam valley under Khmer rulers.

K.T.S. Sarao emphasize that:

“According to Coedes, although various religions were practiced at Lopburi under Khmer rule, the predominance of the Buddha images and Buddhist monuments prove the importance of Buddhism at Lopburi during this period. Towards the beginning of the thirteenth century A.D., the Haripunjaya kingdom had become a great centre of Mon culture and it was a centre of Theravada Buddhism.”^[52]

So that with a large number of inscriptions were found around South East Asia countries had been show us much more the information of spread of Buddhism in this region.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

P. V. Bapat, 2500 Years of Buddhism, Delhi: 1997, p. 225-243.

[2]:

Ibid, p. 53

[3]:

Cultural Interface of India with Asia, ed, A Pande & Parul Pandya Dhar, Delhi: 2004, p. 156.

[4]:

Jataka. IV, 15, 17.

[5]:

Jataka. ii–112.

[6]:

Jataka. No. 539.

[7]:

Jataka. vi. 34.

[8]:

S. R. Bhatt, Buddha and the spread of Buddhism in India and abroad, Delhi 2002, p.186. _nd

[9]:

The Glass Palace Chronicle, trs, by Maung Tin and Luce, Burma research Society 2 printing, 1960, p. 49.

[10]:

Ibid. 6,7.

[11]:

M. K. Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 28.

[12]:

Sukumar Dutt, Buddhism in East Asia, Delhi, reprinted 2004.

[13]:

Steve V. Beek & L. I. Tettoni, The Arts of Thailand, Periplus, 1999, p. 103.

[14]:

M. Kumar Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p.226.

[15]:

The Asiatic society monograph series. Viii, p. 133.

[16]:

Kanai Lal Hazra, History of Theravada Buddhism in South East Asia, Delhi: 2002, p. 73.

[17]:

Mahesh K Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 23.

[18]:

Kanai Lal Hazra, History of Theravada Buddhism in South East Asia, Delhi: 2002, p. 73.

[19]:

Mahesh K Sharan, Studies in Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ancient Cambodia, Delhi: 1974, p. 25,26.

[20]:

Dietrich Seckel, The Art of Buddhism, trans by Ann E. Keep, London: 1964, p. 52.

[21]:

P. V. Bapat, 2500 years of Buddhism, Delhi: reprinted 1997, p. 439.

[22]:

Bachchan Kumar, The Buddhist Art: Vietnamese Perspectives, Delhi: 2007, p. 13.

[23]:

Dietrich Seckel, The art of Buddhism. trans by Ann. E. Keep, London: p. 52.

[24]:

P. V. Bapat, 2500 Years of Buddhism, Delhi: 1997, p. 83.

[25]:

R. C. Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa Hindu Colonies of the Far East, Delhi: 2004, p. 23.

[26]:

P. V. Bapat, 2500 Years of Buddhism, Delhi: 1997, p. 242.

[27]:

R.C.Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa Hindu Colonies of the Far East, Delhi; 2004, p. 24.² Ibid. 28.

[28]:

Jataka. IV, 15, 17.

[29]:

P. V. Bapat, 2500 Years of Buddhism, Delhi: 1997, 84.

[30]:

R. C. Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa Hindu Colonies of The Far East, Delhi: 2004, p. 64.

[31]:

B. R. Chatterji, History of Indonesia, Delhi: 1967, p. 10.

[32]:

Cultural Interface of India with Asia, ed by A. Pande & Parul Pandya Dhar, Delhi: 2004, p. 21.

[33]:

Ibid.

[34]:

Ibid, 20.

[35]:

J. Ph Vogel, Buddhist Art in India, Ceylon & Java, trans by A. J. Branouw, Delhi 1977, p. 90.

[36]:

Ibid, 91.

[37]:

A. K. C., History of India and Indonesia art, Delhi: 1972, p.199.

[38]:

Kanai Lal Hazra, The Buddhist Annals and Chronicles of South East Asia, Delhi: 2002, p.72.²₃ Cultural Interface of India with Asia, ed by A. Pande & P Pandya Dhar, Delhi: 2004, p. 158. Ibid, p. 21.

[39]:

Cultural Interface of India with Asia, ed by A. Pande & P Pandya Dhar, Delhi: 2004, p. 158.

[40]:

Ibid, p. 21.

[41]:

Prof. S. R. Bhatt, Buddha and the spread of Buddhism in India and Abroad, Vol 2, Delhi: 2002, p.322.

[42]:

A. K. C, History of Indian and Indonesian art, Delhi: 1972, p. 197.

[43]:

Heidi Tan, Vietnam from Myth to Modernity, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2008, p. 16.

[44]:

Dietrich Seckel, The Art of Buddhism, trans by Ann E. Keep, London: 1964, p. 55.

[45]:

The Inscriptions of The Kalyani Sima, Pegu, Epigraphia Birmanica, III, Blagden, C. O. part II, Rangoon: 1928.

[46]:

Ibid, p. 252.

[47]:

Ibid, p. 331.

[48]:

Ibid, p. 256.

[49]:

A text book of the history of Theravada Buddhism, edi by K.T.S. Sarao, Delhi University: 1995, p. 200.

[50]:

Halliday, R. and Blagden, C.O, Les inscriptions Mon du Siam. Inscriptions de Lopburi, BEFEO, XXX, Hanoi: 1930.

[51]:

Briggs Lawrence Palmer, The Ancient Khmer Empire, Philadelphia: 1951, p. 160.

[52]:

A text book of the history of Theravada Buddhism, edi by K.T.S. Sarao, Delhi: 1995, p. 200.