Singh, Upinder and Parul Pandya Dhar, 2014. "Introduction". In Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. xiii-xxiv.

Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories, Edited by Upinder Singh and Parul Pandya Dhar, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014. ot fo rC irc the Department of History of the University of Delhi, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and the Archaeological Survey of India. It involved the participation of scholars from many parts of the world and saw the coming together of many disciplines including history, art history, archaeology, aesthetics, and epigraphy. The themes addressed ranged over aspects of politics, trade, archaeology, epigraphy, literature, visual arts and aesthetics, music, and museums. The aim was to generate a momentum for sustained, collaborative, and inter-disciplinary investigations of Asian interactions. This book emerged from that conference and is part of that momentum. Investigating the long-standing history of Asian interactions raises many questions: What were the historical contexts in which these interactions evolved? What were the avenues and agents of cultural transmission? How did trade, religion, politics, intellectual, and artistic exchange intersect with each other? How did certain specific ideas and forms in religion, art, and literature get selected, assimilated, and transformed in different cultural contexts? To what extent does new data force us to re-examine old hypotheses about inter-regional contacts and exchange? Are there new ways of interrogating the evidence from various kinds of historical R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N The historical importance of cultural interactions across the Asian regions is finally receiving the recognition it deserves. This is not to say that earlier studies had altogether neglected the subject.While many historians were content to confine their vision to regional, sub-continental, or national frames, there were always areas where these frames had to be transcended—trade and empire breached many a boundary and transregional exchanges were impossible to ignore in histories of art and religion. Over the past few decades, the older conceptual frameworks have been critiqued and new data has come to the fore. Nevertheless, scholarship in the field of cross-cultural Asian interactions at times still tends to be in a reactive mode, responding to the limitations and biases of old methodologies and conceptual frameworks. Further, there is an urgent need to consolidate the perspectives and results of specific inquiries rooted in different disciplines and sub-disciplines in order to arrive at new, more comprehensive understandings of Asian interactions. These were the concerns that motivated an international conference on ‘Asian Encounters: Networks of Cultural Interaction’ held in Delhi during October–November, 2011. The conference was a collaborative effort between four major institutions—the IIC-Asia Project, ul at io n. Introduction Introduction fo rC irc ul at io n. analogous historical processes. In ‘The Concept of Cultural Convergence Revisited: Reflections on India’s Early Influence in Southeast Asia’, Kulke gives a panoramic overview of the historiography of South–Southeast Asia relations, touching on the ideas of Hindu colonization and Indianization in the writings of R. C. Majumdar (1940) and Georges Cœdès (1968), and the thought-provoking critiques and alternative perspectives suggested by scholars such as J. C. van Leur (1967), J. G. de Casparis (1983), Paul Wheatley (1982), and Ian C. Glover (2007). The contribution of O. W. Wolters (1982) also forms an important part of the enterprise of rethinking Southeast Asian history. Against this background, Kulke looks afresh at his own hypothesis of cultural convergence in the specific context of the emergence of early kingdoms in India and Southeast Asia in the midfirst millennium. The chronology of the political and cultural developments in the two areas and the precise geographical contexts of these developments are important for his hypothesis. Kulke comments on the near contemporaneity of the monumental temples of the Pallavas in south India and those on the Dieng Plateau in Java. He notes that both in South and Southeast Asia, the spread of Hindu temples was connected with the emergence of early regional kingdoms. He emphasizes that it was not the Gupta imperium but the post-Gupta regional kingdoms of South Asia that provided the model for the emerging regional kingdoms of Southeast Asia. Further, it was not social distance (that is, difference), but social nearness (similar social and political processes) that was the crucial factor in promoting the selection and adaptation of certain Indian cultural elements in Southeast Asia. The final part of Kulke’s essay responds to Sheldon Pollock’s influential hypothesis of the R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N sources—textual, archaeological, and artistic—to answer these and other questions? One of the driving concerns behind this book is the conviction that there is an urgent need for Indian scholars to re-engage with Southeast Asia. 1 However, a re-engagement with this region2 has to be combined with a broader Asian, even a global, perspective. Therefore, while several essays deal with relations between South and Southeast Asia, others talk about the equally important connections between South and East Asia, and South and Central Asia. The essays focus broadly on political interactions, trade, art, and religion, mostly in the pre-modern context.3 Although they differ in their specific spatial and temporal span as well as in the particular themes addressed, there are several threads that bind them. Not least among these is a special interest in exploring the connections between historical processes and the representations of these processes in different kinds of sources, each of which raise their own distinct varieties of interpretative issues. While historiographical issues have been raised in several essays in this book, the first section, ‘Changing Perspectives’, addresses them directly—first, in the South–Southeast Asian context and next, from the perspective of Chinese interactions with other parts of Asia—reflecting on and responding to the historiographical approaches to these transregional interactions. The starting point is an essay by Hermann Kulke, a scholar who has over the decades been an important contributor to the study of political and religious processes in both South and Southeast Asia. One of the hallmarks of Kulke’s approach is his ability to connect these two areas, not only in terms of their actual interactions, but also by placing them in the same frame by locating and comparing ot xiv Introduction ot fo rC irc ul at io n. adversary were used against another. As for the voyages of Zheng He, Wade describes them as a part of the attempts of the Ming emperors to extend their control over ports and waterways in order to further political and economic interests. The fact that military action was routinely used against those who did not submit underlines the element of violence in these voyages. In the second part of his essay, Wade compares representations of these two sets of events in ancient (Ming) and modern Chinese historiography. In Ming texts, the interactions with Yunnan and Ðại Viê. t are part of a larger political discourse in which the emperor enjoyed the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ and ruled his people with paternalistic benevolence. Wars are presented as necessary acts, expressions of the emperor’s concerns for maintaining order and peace. Wade points out that the modern historiographical representations of these episodes are surprisingly similar in certain respects to those of Ming times. The elements of violence, aggression, and designs of aggrandizement are erased, and these events are presented either as natural reactions to the provocations of others, or, in the case of Zheng He’s voyages, as benign missions of peace and friendship. Wade’s larger argument is that Ming involvement in these parts of Asia was, in certain important ways, similar to the strategies of the later European colonial regimes and constitutes a sort of proto-colonialism. Of course, a great deal hinges on how we define colonialism. But what is not in doubt is the fact that war was an important part of Asian interactions in the pre-modern era, an aspect that is often missed, surprisingly so, because it glares unambiguously at us in the political narrative. The essays in the second section of the book, ‘Political Connectivities and Conflicts’, explore interactions between South, Southeast, East, and R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N Sanskrit cosmopolis and his critique of legitimation theory (Pollock 2006). Critiquing this critique, Kulke examines certain recent writings (Manguin et al. 2011) which apply Pollock’s ideas to South–Southeast Asia connections. This discussion takes us back to the fact that although there is a great deal of evidence of the results of cultural interaction between South and Southeast Asia, direct evidence regarding the agents and actual processes of cultural transmission remains rather meagre. While the critique of the legitimation framework no doubt stems from an exasperation with its overuse by many historians and their indifference towards the world of ideas, perhaps it is time for a truce between the proponents and critics of the legitimation hypothesis, and for the acceptance of the possibility of a political history that respects both the integrity and importance of political ideas as well as the need to anchor political discourse in the actual political processes of its time. With Geoff Wade’s ‘Ming China’s Violence against Neighbouring Polities and Its Representation in Chinese Historiography’, the focus shifts to East Asia and to violence and war. The first part of Wade’s essay examines certain episodes of Ming expansion between the late 14th and 15th centuries—the regime’s interactions with Yun-nan and Ðại Viê. t; and the maritime voyages of Zheng He and other eunuchs. In the case of Yun-nan and Ðại Viê. t, Wade demonstrates how military aggression was accompanied by various strategies of control including economic exploitation, the creation of new bureaucratic and military structures, and steps to establish cultural hegemony, all of which were backed by the actual or potential use of force. War and diplomacy went hand in hand, punitive measures were accompanied by the lure of honours and rewards, and the troops of one xv Introduction fo rC irc ul at io n. and religious contexts in South and Southeast Asia—a pluralism in the religious landscape and royal religious policy and a belief in the transfer of merit. Singh goes on to look at the notions of empire expressed in ancient Indian inscriptions with a special focus on the place of the ocean in ancient Indian ideas of sovereignty. She points out that oceanic references in ancient Indian royal inscriptions tend to be vague and general, with some notable and not surprising exceptions, such as those of the Cō�as, who provide a rare example of maritime military expeditions launched by Indian kings. Tansen Sen’s article, ‘Changing Regimes: Two Episodes of Chinese Military Interventions in Medieval South Asia’, engages with several issues raised in the earlier essays. Like Wade, Sen draws attention to the neglect of the role of conflict and war in pre-modern Asian histories, a neglect which is partly a fallout of modern political considerations, and partly the result of an uncritical acceptance of information provided by ancient Chinese sources. Sen discusses two specific episodes recounted in Chinese official discourse, situating their representations in Tang and Ming texts within the larger political discourse of their times. The first episode is connected with the Chinese envoy Wang Xuance’s role in events in Kanauj after the death of Har�a in the 7th century, a case of a peaceful embassy that seems to have metamorphosed into a military encounter. The second is the military involvement of Zheng He in Sri Lanka in the early 15th century, mentioned in both Chinese and Sri Lankan sources. Sen points out that the representations of these episodes in Chinese sources as justified actions against unwarranted insults or aggression by barbaric people camouflage attempts to effect regime changes in order to further Chinese strategic interests in these R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N Central Asia and show how these interactions were mediated in different ways by political expansionism, empire, and religion.Upinder Singh’s essay, ‘Gifts from Other Lands: Southeast Asian Religious Endowments in India’, looks at one specific aspect of South–Southeast Asia interactions—a series of religious endowments made by Southeast Asian kings and recorded in inscriptions at Nālandā, Bodh Gayā, and Nāgapa��inam. Singh suggests that there is much more to these gifts than viewing them (as is usually done) as instances of ‘religious diplomacy’ and that their phraseology and idiom demand careful reading both along and between the lines. The Nālandā copper plate inscription, which records a Śailendra grant for the Nālandā monastery, indicates, among other things, the renown that this monastic centre enjoyed in 9th century Southeast Asia. The Burmese endowments at Bodh Gayā demand special attention, extending as they do from the 11th to the 18th centuries, and clearly indicate the importance of Bodh Gayā in the Burmese political and religious imagination over a very long period of time. The Śrīvijayan endowments at Nāgapa��inam, on the other hand, are part of a complex relationship between the Cō�as and the kingdom of Śrīvijaya, where interactions through trade and religious endowments were punctuated on at least one occasion by war.4 These epigraphic records impel us to reflect on other issues as well—on the conceptualization of inter-state relations among contemporary dynasts located in different power circles or ma��alas, and on the long-term trans-regional histories of Asian pilgrimage networks. They also invite us to inquire into the religious and cultural contexts in which trans-regional religious endowments were possible and to note certain similar aspects of the political ot xvi Introduction ot fo rC irc ul at io n. dealt with the social and ethnic origins of the Turkish military slaves who formed the elite of the early Delhi Sultanate, and examines the nature of their relationship with the inhabitants of the frontier and with the Mongols. He goes on to describe how the Persian writers dealt with the Central Asian heritage of the Khalajis and early Tughluqs. At one level, we are looking at the crafting of discourses of power. But Kumar takes care to embed these discourses in the variegated and intense trans-regional interactions between the peoples of South and Central Asia—political, military, diplomatic, and commercial—showing how the changing political discourse in Persian sources grappled with changing political realities. Kumar demonstrates how the awareness of the tribe and clan specificity of the early Delhi Sultans jostled with the use of the umbrella term ‘Turk,’ which erased such distinctions in order to create a homogenous elite identity. Considerable ingenuity and skill was required to transform the story of slave antecedents into awe-inspiring accounts of men charged with a divine mission to save the followers of Islam. Similarly, the chroniclers grappled with the Central Asian origins and traditions of the Khalajis and Tughluqs by employing the strategies of re-classification, evasion, and erasure. Nevertheless, Kumar demonstrates how glimmers of the ‘inconvenient’ Central Asian heritage of the Delhi Sultanate elites did creep into the Persian chronicles. Among other things, he draws attention to the increased Mongol migration across the frontier and the implications of the changes in the nature of elite households—from the fragmented households of the frontier migrants in the time of the slave commanders to the larger and more cohesive household structures of the later period. Kumar’s essay offers much for reflection, moving decisively beyond R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N areas. Clearly, Asian interactions cannot be seen through an idealized lens of peace and harmony. While diplomacy, war, and trade intersected in Chinese involvements with other lands, there are other significant aspects to these episodes, connected with religion and healing. Sen directs attention to the Buddhist activities of the envoy Wang Xuance and the Tang rulers’ keen interest in accessing Indian doctors and longevity drugs. He also emphasizes the important role of Buddhist relics, especially celebrated ones like the Sri Lankan tooth relic. Apart from their religious significance, relics were long believed in China to have enormous healing powers and also served the purpose of legitimizing political power. It is, therefore, not surprising that they were often represented as reasons for waging wars. While the importance of Buddhism as an element in Asian interactions has been long recognized, the detailing of the movement of relics across the Asian regions in different periods is an issue that demands further historical investigation. Sen’s essay demonstrates that it is, in fact, difficult to disentangle strategic, diplomatic, commercial, political, and religious elements in understanding trans-regional interactions across Asia. Sunil Kumar’s essay, ‘An Inconvenient Heritage: The Central Asian Background of the Delhi Sultans’, urges us to re-examine the relationship between the Delhi Sultans and Central Asia. Kumar carefully analyses the Persian litterateurs’ tantalizingly fleeting allusions to the Sultanate elites’ Central Asian connections, as well as their telling elisions. He identifies the different narrative strategies that these writers used in order to distinguish and distance their elite patrons from the people of their homeland, especially the Mongols, whom they consistently portrayed as menacing marauders. Kumar first looks at how 13th century Persian chroniclers xvii Introduction fo rC irc ul at io n. the Ðà Nẵ ng Museum of Cham Sculpture in Central Vietnam and the Musée Guimet in Paris) and by a close examination of early 20th century records in the photo-archives of the École française d'Extrême-Orient and the Guimet Museum in Paris. Dhar investigates the iconography of Asian cultural interactions at Ðồng Dương through a close reading of its art remains, architectural organization, and inscriptions. Her paper compels us to look at several of the complex processes of cultural interaction as these manifest at a specific site: First, the manner in which Buddhism as the state religion at Ðồng Dương related to Śaivism, local religious practices, and the aspirations of the patron. Beyond establishing the importance of local factors, the processes in evidence at Ðồng Dương also urge us to question the prevalent tendency in academia of creating a forced Hindu–Buddhist divide when studying the histories of religion. Second, the art remains from Ðồng Dương are replete with enigmatic icons that pose iconographic riddles for the researcher. Possible signs which could help in understanding intended meanings inherent in the iconographic programme require going beyond established formulae and codes. Dhar looks for iconographic clues and the plausible textual basis as much in art as in the inscriptions found at the site, while linking these to the iconography of the architectural complex as a whole. Third, the Ðồng Dương material clearly reveals affinities to both India and China, and beyond this, also shows evidence of contact with other South and Southeast regions, all of these creating complex networks of influence. Finally, as Dhar’s paper reveals, the Ðồng Dương remains help us in understanding the active role played by art, monument, and ritual in shaping cultural practices in accordance R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N the conventional framework of legitimation strategy in its meticulous reconstruction of the processes and changing historical contexts of the crafting and re-crafting of the language of political ideology. It also leads us to interrogate the significance of homelands and frontiers in an age of political expansion and migration, taking us far away from the simplistic understanding of this period in terms of an encounter between Hinduism and Islam. The third section of this volume, ‘Religion, Rituals, and Monuments’, focuses on specific monumental complexes as sites of cultural interface during ancient times. While the overarching processes of Asian cross-cultural exchange are gradually beginning to emerge with greater clarity, their precise nature at specific sites is not always easy to ascertain and often remains elusive. This part focuses on two such mainland Southeast Asian sites with substantial monumental remains—Ðồng Dương in Central Vietnam, which was a part of Campā during ancient times; and Banteay Srei in Cambodia, perhaps the most elegant of all ancient Khmer monuments. Parul Pandya Dhar’s paper, ‘Buddhism, Art, and Ritual Practice: Ðồng Dương at the Intersection of Asian Cultures’, engages with the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters as these unfolded at a grand Buddhist temple and monastery complex in Ðồng Dương in the Quaˀng Nam Province of present-day Central Vietnam. Ðồng Dương was the religious and political hub of an important Campā polity which participated in a vibrant international cultural traffic during the late 9th and early 10th centuries. The monumental complex can now only be imagined by an informed re-assembling of its fragmented remains scattered across Vietnamese and European museums (notably ot xviii Introduction ot fo rC irc ul at io n. paucity of evidence from contemporaneous sources poses some challenges, James’ contribution is important in the way evidence from seemingly disparate sources has been garnered in interpreting pre-modern Khmer art and society. It also foregrounds a relatively fresh approach in understanding the dynamics of cross-cultural interactions by including gender and performance in visual arts interpretation. The fourth and final part of this book, ‘Trade, Icons, and Artefacts’, discusses the role played by trade in the dissemination of ideas and the circulation of icons and artefacts. The arrival of traders, mariners, and others at important ports along the sea routes between Rome and China was one of the most crucial factors that shaped cultural exchange across Asia. Osmund Bopearachchi and Suchandra Ghosh engage with the close relationship between Buddhism and trade,7 while Yumiko Kamada discusses issues relating to the circulation of carpets from the Deccan in southern India to different parts of Europe and Asia between the 17th and 19th centuries. Since ancient times, sea ports on the western and eastern coasts of India and Sri Lanka had played a significant role in the processes of exchange and assimilation in the Indian Ocean zone. Osmund Bopearachchi’s paper, ‘Sri Lanka and Maritime Trade: Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara as the Protector of Mariners’, highlights the importance of maritime trade networks and Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the dissemination of Buddhist ideas and imagery to Southeast Asia. His research also directs us to the plausible reasons for the popularity of Avalokiteśvara worship in the region. Avalokiteśvara’s appeal as the compassionate healer of the sick and his role as the protector of mariners from shipwreck had already gained popularity in R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N with the local belief patterns and aspirations of its patrons. Soumya James’ essay, ‘Durgā and Śiva at Banteay Srei: Blurring Boundaries between Monument, Image, and Practice’, draws attention to two relatively neglected areas in the historiography of pre-modern South and Southeast Asian art—gender studies and performance traditions. Her paper points to the need for recognizing the inter-relatedness of monument, image, and performance traditions. A second significant focus of her essay is the dynamic equilibrium between the male and female principles in ancient Cambodian culture. These two aspects are integrated in her fresh interpretations of the well-known pediments portraying Durgā Mahi�āsuramardinī and dancing Śiva over entryways at the 10th century Banteay Srei temple complex in Cambodia. James draws our attention to the kinetic quality or performative aspects conveyed by these two sculptures frozen in stone, independently and in their relationship with each other. Drawing from recent research on gender and female power in pre-modern Southeast Asia5 and specifically on the significance of dance as a magico-ritualistic activity in Khmer culture.6 James foregrounds the localization of Durgā as a potent female power associated with fertility and temporal power in ancient Cambodia. In her analysis of the Durgā and Śiva pediments at Banteay Srei, the positioning of these dynamic images above the doorways of the temple creates an interactive performative relationship between the devotees, deities, and the monument, which in turn is linked to the fertility and prosperity of the kingdom. Śiva and Durgā connect as a pair in ‘creative tension’, complementing and balancing each other in a dynamic equilibrium that registers no hierarchies. Although the xix Introduction fo rC irc ul at io n. across convincingly in Bopearachchi’s paper, the persistent presence of this bodhisattva all along the ancient Asian overland trade routes is just as difficult to ignore. The reasons, in this case too, seem to rest on the widespread faith in bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara as the saviour of all sentient beings and as the ultimate embodiment of karu�ā or compassion. Suchandra Ghosh’s essay, ‘Viewing Our Shared Past through Buddhist Votive Tablets across Eastern India, Bangladesh, and Peninsular Thailand’, discusses the circulation of ‘votive tablets’ or ‘sealings’ across eastern India, Bangladesh, and peninsular Thailand. Buddhist in content, such tablets have been found from several parts of Asia and have played a significant role in the exchange of ideas and forms across the regions on account of a variety of factors. Not least among these is their small size, which encouraged portability and circulation. As they were made from moulds, their mass production led to a multiplication of imagery, iconographic formulae, and other details depicted on them. This multiplication in turn greatly enhanced the proliferation of similar ideas and forms to diverse regions. The act of replicating images of the Buddha and stūpas has been considered meritorious in the Buddhist tradition, perhaps because replication or repeated production of Buddhist imagery was perceived as being akin to spreading the message of the Buddha. The presence of the ye dhamma Buddhist verse on several of these tablets further affirms such a view. Ghosh reiterates at the beginning of her essay that such multiplicity was not limited merely to a replication of imagery on account of mass production, but was carried further also by a multiplicity of uses and associated meanings attached to the tablets. They were used as meditational devices, for the purpose R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N India from about the 5th century CE.This is also reflected in the iconography of Avalokiteśvara, especially in the A��amahābhaya Avalokiteśvara compositions seen in the caves of the western Deccan. Bopearachchi’s research establishes the presence of Mahāyāna images, especially those of Avalokiteśvara, along navigable rivers and near bays on the Sri Lankan sea coast. While Sri Lanka is assumed to have been largely oriented towards Theravāda Buddhism, the literary, archaeological, art historical, and epigraphic evidence invoked in his paper clearly reveals that as early as the 6th century, Mahāyāna Buddhism had already established its stronghold on the island. The distribution patterns of Avalokiteśvara icons in Sri Lanka between the 7th and 9th centuries, and their iconographic and stylistic traits, become important markers in understanding the dynamics of maritime trade and the spread of Mahāyāna Buddhism along the coasts of India, Sri Lanka, and the Southeast Asian regions. Bopearachchi also brings into discussion the recent exciting discovery of a shipwreck at the ancient Sri Lankan port site of Gothapabbata (modern Godavaya). This has now been securely dated to the 2nd century BCE, making it the earliest known shipwreck in the Indian Ocean and one which promises to significantly add to our understandings of cross-cultural connections and maritime trade routes across the Indian Ocean. Given the close links established between maritime trade and the Avalokiteśvara cult in this essay, the discovery of several Avalokiteśvara icons along the banks of the Walwe Ganga River, which connects the ancient port of Godavaya with inland Mahāyāna sites, should come as no surprise. While the popularity of Avalokiteśvara as a protector of mariners comes ot xx Introduction ot fo rC irc ul at io n. presence of Deccani carpets and their typical motifs seen in 17th century Dutch paintings, for example, point to their circulation in the Netherlands through the trade initiatives of the Dutch East India Company. Indian and Persian carpets began circulating in different parts of Europe and Asia when the English and Dutch East India Companies traded in them along with spices, silks, cotton textiles, porcelain, tea, and other goods during the 17th and 18th centuries. With rising costs and other difficulties in procuring Persian and Mughal carpets, their Deccani counterparts produced at centres such as Masulipatnam, Ellore, and Warangal were adapted to varied contexts and were coveted as trade goods to the East and the West. Even though the interests of the Dutch East India Company shifted to Bengal by the last decades of the 17th century, Deccani carpets continued to be valued as trade items and their circulation appears to have continued right up to the early 19th century. During the period of the Japanese national seclusion policy (1639–1854), Deccani carpets appear to have entered Japan in the 18th century through the ports of Bengal by way of private trade between the Japanese and the Dutch East India Company employees. Kamada’s discussion on the use of Deccani carpets as float covers in Japanese religious festivals is of particular interest in this context. Primarily encouraged as a trade commodity that symbolized social stature, luxury, and exotica, the different functions served by Deccani carpets as coveted artefacts across Europe and Asia seem to blur the boundaries between the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular’ in intercultural exchange. The essays in this volume highlight aspects of the connected histories that bind the various regions of Asia and also those which link Asia R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N of gaining religious merit, and perhaps also occasionally acted as pilgrims’ souvenirs. The term ‘votive’ to qualify these tablets, however, has been questioned by some scholars as they evidently were not made to commemorate the fulfilment of a vow. As products of a ‘ritual ideology of mass production’, the tablets were, of course, manufactured locally and replicated in the various regions. Ghosh draws our attention to the close links between Buddhism and trade, a recurrent theme also in Bopearachchi’s contribution to this volume. She views these tablets as ‘voyaging objects’ which were carried overseas and overland by pilgrims and traders as mementos. Given that Avalokiteśvara was a popular subject depicted on these artefacts, she also suggests their plausible role as protective amulets. Ghosh’s paper tells us that the distribution and typology of such tablets recovered from different sites along the Bay of Bengal and the coasts of peninsular Thailand can yield vital information about the coastal trade networks in the region. Yumiko Kamada’s paper, ‘Early Modern Indian Carpets as Media for Cross-cultural Interaction’, carries forward the theme of the circulation of artefacts to the early modern period. Although trade in Indian cotton textiles has been well-researched by art historians and historians, scholarly attention to the production and circulation of Indian carpets has centred largely on those produced in north India during the period of Mughal rule. It is only during the past three decades that the subject of carpet trade from the Deccan has ignited the curiosity of scholars. Kamada takes a close look at Deccani carpets dispersed across museums and private collections in Europe, Asia, and the United States, and also examines their representations in other artistic media. The xxi Introduction fo rC irc ul at io n. is needed before the dynamics of localization and all that it entails can be fully understood. Cosmopolitanism, globalization, hybridization, and syncretism are some of the other important concepts that have attracted attention in recent years.8 In view of the complex issues and the wide range of sources involved, understanding and theorizing pre-modern Asian interactions clearly requires collaboration among scholars from different disciplines including historians, art historians, archaeologists, philologists, and epigraphists.The time is ripe to re-assess existing conceptual frameworks and consider fresh possibilities, while at the same time advancing our knowledge about the connected histories of Asian cultures. Upinder Singh and Parul Pandya Dhar Department of History, University of Delhi R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N to other parts of the world. A key problem is to arrive at methodologies that enable us to better understand the complex processes of cultural interactions, transmission, and transformation. The issues involved are clearly not just about origins, genealogies, analogies, and unidirectional flows. It is important to remember that we are looking at dynamic cultures in contact with each other at multiple levels, at different points in time, and with changing equations. While cultural similarity has for long been established as a significant factor in identifying and discussing inter-cultural exchange, the importance of cultural difference is now being increasingly recognized. Understanding connected histories requires an appreciation of the co-existence of affinity and difference; the tangible and intangible; continuity and change; ‘foreign’ and ‘local’; and conflict and convergence. Although the power equations involved cannot be ignored or minimized, any satisfactory conceptual framework for understanding trans-cultural interactions cannot only concern itself with the politically or culturally dominant; it must acknowledge the importance of the local; and it must recognize the fact that cultural interactions often led to the birth of new cultural forms, with distinct identities that were not necessarily present in ‘dominant’ cultures. Beyond reconstructing the details of the many aspects of pre-modern Asian interactions, the challenge ahead includes the search for satisfactory conceptual frameworks to understand the range of cultural interactions that have linked regions and people in different parts of Asia (and beyond) over centuries. ‘Indianization’ and ‘Sinicization’ are no longer seen as the overarching determinants in Asian cultural encounters, and the importance of localization has long been recognized. Yet, far greater clarity ot xxii NOTES 1. For a discussion of how this neglect and its redressal have to be situated in a broader historiographical perspective, see Singh (2011, 21, 25–6). 2. In the post-1970s decades, Indian scholars who have contributed significantly to revisionist readings of Asian interactions in art and religion include Kapila Vatsyayan, Lokesh Chandra, Sachchidanand Sahai, and Pratapaditya Pal. See, for example, Sahai (1978), Pal (2003–4), and Chandra (1999–2005). See also the Foreword to this book for the contributions by Kapila Vatsyayan. Among more recent research by Indian scholars on cross-cultural interactions in South and Southeast Asian art and architecture, see Dhar (2010). 3. While most of the essays in this book deal with what can be loosely referred to as the pre-modern period, Yumiko Kamada’s contribution moves into the early modern. 4. For a detailed discussion of the Cō�a naval expedition’s, see Kulke et al. (2009). Introduction fo rC irc ul at io n. Flood, Finbarr. Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval ‘Hindu–Muslim’ Encounter. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2009. Glover, Ian C. ‘Early States and Cities in Southeast Asia—Transition from Prehistory to History’. Revised paper contributed to the conference on ‘State Formation and the Early State in South and Southeast Asia Reconsidered’, Asia Research Institute, University of Singapore, March 2007. Jacobsen, Trudy. ‘Autonomous Queenship in Cambodia, 1st–9th Centuries AD’. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 13, no. 3 (2003): 357–75. Kulke, Hermann, K. Kesavapany, and Vijay Sakhuja, eds. Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Expeditions to Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009. Mabbett, Ian. ‘Buddhism in Campā.’ In David G. Marr and A.C. Milner, eds, Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries, 289–314. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1986. Majumdar, R.C. Greater India (Sain Dass Memorial Lectures 1940). Sholapur: 1940 [s.n.]. Manguin, P.-Y., A. Mani, and G. Wade, eds. Early Interactions between South and Southeast Asia: Reflections on Cross-Cultural Exchange. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and New Delhi: Manohar, 2011. Pal, Pratapaditya. Asian Art in the Norton Simon Museum (3 vols). Yale University Press, 2003–4. Phim, Toni Shapiro and Ashley Thompson. Dance in Cambodia. Malaysia and New York: Selangor Darul Ehsan and Oxford University Press, 1999. Pollock, Sheldon. The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Ray, Himanshu P. The Winds of Change: Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. Sahai, Sachchidanand. The Ramayana in Laos: A Study in the Gvay Dvorabhi. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1978. ot 5. Barbara W. Andaya (2006) and Trudy Jacobsen (2003) have discussed gender and power in pre-modern Southeast Asian societies. 6. Paul Cravath (2007) and Toni Shapiro Phim and Ashley Thompson (1999) have discussed the importance of dance as a magico-religious activity in Khmer culture. 7. For a perspective emphasizing the relationship between Buddhism and maritime trade in early South and Southeast Asia, see Ray (1994). For a useful discussion of the relationship between Buddhism, trade and diplomacy in China, see Sen (2003). 8. Ian Mabbett (1986) offers some useful conceptual categories in his analysis of cross-cultural encounters in religion. Some recent publications have also drawn attention to conceptual issues arising in the study of artistic exchange across different pre-modern cultures. See, for example, Flood (2009) and Canepa (2010). .N BIBLIOGRAPHY R ig ht s R es tri ct ed Andaya, Barbara W. The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006. Canepa, Matthew P., ed. Theorizing Cross-Cultural Interaction among the Ancient and Early Medieval Mediterranean, Near East and Asia. Ars Orientalis 38 (2010). Chandra, Lokesh. Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography (15 vols). New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1999–2005. Cœdès, G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1968. Cravath, Paul. Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama. Holmes Beach: Dat Asia, 2007. de Casparis, J.G. India and Maritime South East Asia: A Lasting Relationship. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya, 1983. Dhar, Parul Pandya. The Tora�a in Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2010. xxiii Introduction Wheatley, Paul. ‘Presidential Address: India beyond the Ganges—Desultory Reflections on the Origins of Civilization in Southeast Asia’. Journal of Asian Studies 42, no. 1 (1982): 13–28. Wolters, O. W. History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1982. R ig ht s R es tri ct ed .N ot fo rC irc Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. University of Hawaii Press, 2003. Singh, Upinder, ed. Rethinking Early Medieval India: A Reader. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011. van Leur, J.C. Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History. The Hague, Bandung: Van Hoeve, 1976. ul at io n. xxiv