Miksic: The Buddhist-Hindu Divide NSC Working Paper No.

The Buddhist-Hindu Divide in Premodern Southeast Asia

John N. Miksic

Buddhism was founded in India as a reaction against certain aspects of pre-existing

religions. Buddhism and other Indian beliefs grouped under the general term
Hinduism arrived in Southeast Asia more or less simultaneously around the fourth
century of the Common Era (CE). Some scholars believed that Hinduism arrived first,
but recent archaeological discoveries in south Vietnam and Blandongan (West Java)
have yielded radiocarbon dates for Buddhist statues and shrines which are as early as
any dates attested for evidence of Hindu worship (Ferdinandus 2002).

Early Buddhists in Southeast Asia devoted considerable attention to their competition

with Hinduism for devotees and resources. In China, Hinduism never made an impact,
but in Southeast Asia the two religions competed on more or less equal terms for
adherents for about a thousand years. This was true in India too, but whereas in India
the struggle was eventually decided in favor of Hinduism, in Southeast Asia the
outcome was the opposite.

[1] [2]

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[3] [4]

Java and Cambodia produced stupendous monuments dedicated to both Hinduism

and Buddhism: Borobudur[1] and Loro Jonggrang (Prambanan)[2] in Java, Angkor
Wat[3] and the Bayon in Cambodia[4].

Some observers believe that Southeast Asian Buddhism absorbed Hindu influences,
based on the use of similar artistic motifs and the depictions of Hindu deities in
Buddhist art. My exploration of early Southeast Asian religion indicates that the
relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism was a variable one: a spectrum of
relationships between the two religions existed at difference times and places. The
importance attached to doctrinal purity also varied between different social and
occupational classes.

Scholars who have studied the interaction of Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast
Asia have formulated two contending theories. One emphasizes the notion of
syncretism between the two religions. The other argues that Buddhism was strongly
influenced by Hinduism, thus explaining several characteristics of the forms of
Mahayana found in most Buddhist societies of Southeast Asia before the the 13th and
14th centuries when Mahayanism and Hinduism were replaced by Theravada
Buddhism on the mainland, and Islam in the island realm. Jordaan and Wessing are
inclined to question the validity of some current designations [such] as Hinduism
and Buddhism and to wonder whether these terms do full justice to the ideas of the
Javanese of the timesBoth early Hinduism and Buddhism were flexible enough to
accommodate and utilize each others icons (Jordaan and Wessing 1996: 65). Siva
and Buddha were syncretically united in the religion of East Java, especially during
the Majapahit era. The Nagarakrtagama and Pararaton state that the kings of

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Singasari and Majapahit were commemorated in two or more temples after their
deaths. Krtarajasa was said to have been didharmakan (precise meaning of the word
uncertain; it implies that devotion was paid to him, but does not explain the rationale
for doing so) in both a temple at Simping which was dedicated to Siva, and in another
at Antahpura which was founded on the worship of Buddha. Devotion was paid to the
dead King Jayanagara in the palace associated with Visnu at Sila Ptak, at Bubat in
conjuction with Vishnu, and at Sukhalila which was meant for the reverence of
Buddha (Hariani Santiko 1995).

Lokesh Chandra speculated that the 224 subsidiary chapels of the ninth century
Buddhist complex Candi Sewu might represent the 224 universes of Saiva Siddhanta
according to Bhuwanakosha (Jordaan and Wessing 1996: 44). Jordaan and Wessing
believe that both Candi Sewu and its equally massive neighbour Loro Jonggrang, a
ninth century complex dedicated to the Hindu trinity with Siva in the main temple
was conceived in Indian monasteries" (Ibid.: 92).

Hariani Santiko gave the most convincing argument for accepting the argument first
proposed by Pigeaud (Pigeaud 1962: IV, 3-4) for the use of the term parallelism to
describe the Hindu-Buddhist relationship in Java. The Desawarnana (otherwise
known as Nagarakrtagama) can legitimately claim to be the most important Javanese
literary work of the Majapahit period, since it was written as a narrative description of
aspects of court life by a Buddhist. Other important texts of the same period are
kakawin, poetic works meant as offerings to both the Buddha and (no doubt more
significantly) to the king and his high nobles including Arjunawijaya, Sutasoma, and
Kunjarakarna. Although rulers might give their patronage to more than one religious
institution, the Desawarnana makes it clear that there were three religious
bureaucracies which jealously guarded their separate identities: the Saivas, the
Sogatas (Buddhists) and the Risi, who were probably also Siva devotees distinguished
by their preference for residence in remote forest and mountain sanctuaries. Rulers
also paid respect to Vishnu, but there does not seem to have been a separate
Vaisnavite clergy; perhaps his cult was not popular with the common people. The
three religious congregations (or four if one counts the Vaishnavites) did however
share a common conception of the objective of life and of religious behaviour: to
achieve a comprehension of Absolute Reality, usually considered to centre on the

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relationship between humans and the divine. Understanding the true nature of this
relationship was usually believed to confer supernatural powers.

Buddhist art in Java incorporates deities and motifs derived from Hindu mythology.
These include Garuda and Angsa, divine mounts of Vishnu and Brahma; the ancient
Vedic god Indra (often called Sakra or Sakka); demi-gods such as Kala, lord of time
who stole the elixir of immortality, nagas or serpent deities, ganas (the lord of whom,
known as Ganesha, lord of the ganas, became a significant Hindu deity); mythical
beings such as the half-bird, half-human musicians kinnara and kinnari, apsaras
(female spirits created during the churning of the elixir of immortality), and makaras,
the mythical beasts comprising five different animals. The symbolism of mountains as
the residences of the gods, and the wish-fulfilling tree as a feature of heaven, can be
found in pre-Buddhist belief in India.

What is the significance of this artistic convergence? It has to be borne in mind that
Buddhism and devotional Hinduism (as distinct from Vedic religion) evolved
simultaneously. Both shared such values as respect for all living beings, whereas
Vedic Hinduism lauded animal sacrifice. The production of anthropomorphic images
of gods emerged in tandem. Both Hinduism and Buddhism initially derived some
inspiration from the Hellenistic scupture of the region from Gandhara to Afghanistan.
Art historians (e.g. Chihara 1996: 45) have noted that during the formative period of
new religious iconography around 2,000 years ago, Hindu and Buddhist art
continually exchanged ideas. Both drew on pre-existing ideas about the appearance of
supernatural beings and their abodes.

The examples of East Javanese rulers being commemorated in different temples

indicates that it was not considered appropriate to place statues of Hinduism and
Buddhism in the same temple. The only place where there is evidence that this
occurred was Candi Jajawa (thought to be the temple today known as Candi Jawi),
where according to an inscription a Siva image was supposed to have been installed in
a cella on the lower level, while an image of Aksobhya was placed in an upper space,
honouring the ruler Krtanagara, who was assassinated in 1292. Candi Jawi itself has
no emblems which can be identified as either clearly Hindu or Buddhist. Although
there are several other temples in east Java which do not display either stupas (an

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exclusively Buddhist architectural element) or linggas (exclusively symbols of Siva),

there are no ancient religious structures which combine the architectural motifs which
are exclusively associated with one or the other religion. In other words, architectural
motifs exist which belong unambiguously to one religion or the other.

[1]

[2] [3]

Artistic convergence : Indra [1], Siva[2], and Garuda[3] on Borobudur.

In India, too, there is evidence that on one hand there was a deep antagonism between
the two religions (although there is more to say about that later), but on the other hand
adherents of both religions used the same substratum of artistic vocabulary to convey
their philosophies.

There is thus much support in ancient documents and archaeological remains to

conclude that Buddhism and Hinduism in Southeast Asia always remained quite
distinct. It is quite likely that individual laymen paid homage to both Siva or Vishnu
and Buddha, but this does not mean that they couldnt tell the difference between
them. On the contrary, there were several religious bureaucracies, each devoted to a
specific faith, which would have taken any steps they could to strengthen their

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position in order to obtain royal patronage. The priests and monks would have
maximized all opportunities to demonstrate the superiority of their way of visualizing
Absolute Reality. Nothing less than inter-religious competition would explain the
incredible achievements of the societies of Southeast Asia in the spheres of
architecture and sculpture. There was a great incentive to accentuate the ability of the
specific religious bureaucracy to create propitious spaces for attaining enlightenment.

The competing religions could not ignore each other; they found it necessary to refer
frequently to each other, if only to demonstrate their own superiority by comparison.
This rivalry is never expressed directly in the texts we possess, but one can detect
clear indications of it. This rivalry seems to have been kept within strict boundaries.
We do not hear of any religious wars in premodern Southeast Asia. The royalty of all
the major kingdoms in this region seem to have found it advantageous to show even-
handedness in their support for Hinduism and Buddhism. The Buddhists used the
metaphor of Vajrapani killing Siva in order to bring him back to life, but there is not a
single piece of evidence that such acts ever occurred in reality. We may think of a
healthy competition which continued for a thousand years, which was mainly pursued
in the realms of art and literature. Certainly there were many wars, but these were
often fought between adherents of the same religion rather than between Buddhist and
Hindu pretenders to thrones.

This peaceful competition was unique to Southeast Asia. In India the relationship was
more tense; in China, Buddhisms serious rival was Confucianism. When we explore
Southeast Asian Buddhism, we can perhaps detect a particular flavour which set it
apart from all other geographical areas where local styles of Buddhism existed.

The propagation of Buddhist canonical texts was considered sufficiently important in

China during the Tang Dynasty that a significant number of heroic monks were sent
by the emperors on the arduous journey to Taxila and Nalanda to acquire copies of the
sutras to take back to Changan for translation. The most famous of these were
Xuanzang and Yijing, but we know that by the late 7th century there had already been
numerous others.

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Smaller Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian, where Yijing worked after returning from
Nalanda and Srivijaya to China.

The production of texts as a general rule leads to standardization of belief and dogma.
In Buddhism, this tendency was combined with a tolerance, even an enthusiasm, for
disputation and constant interpretation of ontological theories. In China there were
teams of scholars, both indigenous and foreign, who translated Sanskrit texts into
Chinese; they evolved a highly standardized vocabulary. This is quite valuable to us,
since many of the Sanskrit originals have been lost, but the reliability of Chinese
versions makes it possible to reconstruct the originals with a fair degree of confidence.
This consistency does unot equal unquestioned repetition of the same ideas. Instead,
the Buddhist realm, stretching from Afghanistan to Japan, and from Mongolia to
Sulawesi, fostered numerous centres where new texts were constantly produced.

The production of texts as a general rule leads to standardization of belief and dogma.
In Buddhism, this tendency was combined with a tolerance, even an enthusiasm, for
disputation and constant interpretation of ontological theories. In China there were

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teams of scholars, both indigenous and foreign, who translated Sanskrit texts into
Chinese. Through this there evolved a highly standardized vocabulary. This is quite
valuable to us, since many of the Sanskrit originals have been lost, but the reliability
of Chinese versions makes it possible to reconstruct the originals with a fair degree of
confidence. This consistency does not equal unquestioned repetition of the same ideas.
Instead, the Buddhist realm, stretching from Afghanistan to Japan, and from Mongolia
to Sulawesi, fostered numerous centres where new texts were constantly produced.

The major collections of ancient Mahayana Buddhist texts come from the far north:
China and Japan. Kumarajiva (344-413), born in Central Asia to an Indian father and
a mother from Kucha was one of the earliest; he translated 74 scriptures in 384
fascicles including the highly-influential Saddharmapundarika or Lotus Sutra in eight
fascicles. The famous Xuanzang, hero of the mythical Journey to the West, translated
75 scriptures in 1335 fascicles, including the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra consisting of
600 fascicles in 660-663. This pattern of preservation does not however precisely
equal the intensity of intellectual activity. The surviving texts give us a window into
the wider intellectual currents of the period from the 7th to 11th centuries during which
the many centres of Buddhist study and literary production in Asia were connected by
frequent travellers, both monks and laymen. This constant circulation of ideas was
paralleled by a universal respect for prominent teachers.

Although many texts have been lost, especially those composed in Southeast Asia, the
names and some of the doctrines of the teachers from this region have survived in
documents found elsewhere. We can therefore reconstruct an ancient Southeast Asian
Buddhist culture which was seen as a pillar of the worldwide edifice of the religion.
Parochialism was not one of the characteristics of this ecumene.

The earliest evidence of Indic religion in this realm consists of Buddhist texts dated
palaeographically to the fifth century in Kedah and Province Wellesley (Christie
1990). These, the oldest known Buddhist texts carved in Southeast Asia, bear phrases
from the Buddhist law of cause and effect. One also contains a prayer for safety by a
Buddhist ship captain about to set off on a voyage, probably across the Bay of Bengal.
They are written in Sanskrit language and Pallava script. The Chinese monk Yijing
visited Kedah twice in the seventh century, on his journeys to and from Bengal.

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Most Malays believe, incorrectly, that their ancestors were Hindus. This may result
from the fact that history textbooks of the colonial period often termed all the
inhabitants of insular Southeast Asia indiscriminately as Malays, and sometimes
failed to differentiate between Hinduism and Buddhism. When the Malay kingdom of
Srivijaya fell in 1025 to a Chola invasion from south India, a century-long period of
Tamil influence ensued, during which several large Hindu sanctuaries were built in
Kedah, on the Malay Peninsula.

Candi Bukit Batu Pahat, Kedah: a Siva sanctuary from the eleventh century.

Historical and archaeological evidence demonstrates conclusively that this was an

anomaly, and that Buddhism was far more influential than Hinduism in the Malay
cultural realm from the beginning of the historical period until the coming of Islam.

Roughly 90% of the artifacts of Indic religious character in the Malay realm such as
statuary and temples are Buddhist, but as in much of Southeast Asia, in Malay culture,
Buddhists coexisted with devotees of Siva, Vishnu, Ganesha, and Durga. There is no
reliable procedure for correlating the remains with the degree of devotion which the
average Malay felt for that religion. It is possible that Buddhism was more popular
with the nobility than with the commoners, just as Vishnu seems to have been more
popular with the Javanese and Balinese royalty than with their subjects.

The earliest written sources in Sumatra, from the late seventh century, are thoroughly
Buddhist. They are connected with the foundation of the kingdom of Srivijjaya. The

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remains in Kedah indicate that Buddhism was well-integrated into the culture of the
Straits of Melaka centuries before Srivijaya was founded. No doubt Buddhism took
root in many centres where Malayu culture blended with that of other ethnic identities.

The monk Yijing left China in 671 bound for Sumatra on a ship belonging to the ruler
of Srivijaya. He stayed there for six months studying Sanskrit. From Srivijaya the
king sent him to another kingdom called Malayu, where he spent two more months.
Next he went to Kedah, where he remained until the wind became favorable for a
voyage to India. He spent the next 17 years in Nalanda, then took all the texts he had
collected, which he stated contained 500,000 slokas, and returned to Srivijaya. He
strongly advised future Chinese pilgrims to spend one or two years in Srivijaya to
practise the proper rules before going to India. He himself spent at least four more
years in Srivijaya before he returned to China for good. In Sumatra, several other
Chinese monks joined him, some spending several years with him.

Statue of the bodhisattva

Avalokitesvara, found on Bukit
Seguntang. The statue dates from the
late seventh century, around the time
of Yijings visit. He may have stayed in
a monastery on this hill.
Yijing listed the five most distinguished teachers of his day. One of them lived in
Nalanda, and another was Sakyakirti who had travelled all through the five countries

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of India in order to learn, and is at present in Srivijaya. Sakyakirtis origin is not

clear, but a Buddhist teacher from Bengal, Kumaraghosa was then living in Java.

Srivijayan inscriptions on stone were written for political rather than religious motives,
and contain little information on Buddhism. We can however infer that Srivijayans
were obsessed with the quest for siddhayatra. The word is inscribed on more than 40
stones palaeographically dated to the seventh century, found at various
neighbourhoods in Palembang. The term is Sanskritic, but not specifically Buddhist.
Coedes defined it as "a voyage or a pilgrimage in order to obtain supernatural
powers."

Inscription from around 680, found at

Telagabatu, Palembang. The stone
contains a long oath of loyalty to the
ruler, combined with curses which will
kill anyone who dares to commit
treachery. The inscription was found
on an artificial island in a pool,
probably in or near a royal complex.

Sabukingking, where the inscription

was found.

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An inscription from Talang Tuo, Palembang, dated to 684, contains a detailed account
of the rulers wish that everything in the garden, including coconuts, areca, sugar
palms, sago palms, fruit trees, bamboos, ponds, dams, etc. contribute to the welfare of
all beings. This inscription contains the most information on religious beliefs of any
Srivijayan inscription: the wish that the thought of Bodhi will be born in all,
references to the three jewels and the diamond body of the mahasattvas, and ends
with the wish that all will attain enlightenment. These concepts can be connected with
Vajrayana or Tantrayana which arose at Nalanda from the Yogacara school not long
before this date (Coedes 1930).

The Bukit Seguntang inscription was found during road construction. Unfortunately
we only have parts of it. One fragment has only the initial portions of 21 lines.
Another fragment purchased later bears the word shiksaprajna. Shiksa refers to
mundane knowledge (including the rules of discipline) which is acquired from others;
prajna refers to the highest intuitive wisdom, which in Mahayana is inseparable from
the true vision of the Shunyata. The inscription may have begun with an invocation
of a perfect Buddha, Manjusri, or Avalokitesvara (de Casparis 1956: 11).

In addition to Buddhist statuary, Nalanda in India has also yielded numerous images
of such Hindu deities as Siva, sometimes with Parvati seated on his thigh, Ganesha,
Vishnu, and Surya. It is not clear how they were integrated into the monastic life of
Nalanda, but by analogy we can infer that the Hindu images found at Palembang are
not necessarily indicative of Hindu temples there either.

The repertoire of images found in Indonesia overlaps but does not duplicate those of
Nalanda. The eight major scenes from Buddhas life were popular in India but not in
Indonesia. Indonesians concentrated on Vairocana, found in Nalanda but not
predominant. The beak-like nose of the Buddha of Nalanda and Pala sites is rare in
Indonesia (though it appears on an image from west Sumatra). The Pala style was
much more closely followed by Tibetans and Burmese.

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Pala-style head of Buddha from West Sumatra

Map of Sumatran historical sites

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The National Museum of Indonesia possesses a set of eleven gold plates of two sizes:
eight large and three small (de Casparis 1956: 48-78). Unfortunately the origin of the
plates, and the manner in which they arrived in the Museum, is unknown. They were
first recorded in an inventory of 1946. The script contains both Pallava and Old Jav-
anese letters. J.G. de Casparis believed that the scribes copied this from a manuscript
several centuries older. The plates can be dated to the period between 650 and 800.
Circumstantial evidence suggests that the plates were found at Muara Takus, Sumatra,
where F.M. Schnitger (Schnitger 1938) was working just before World War II broke
out, and that the information on their provenance was lost in the confusion of that
period.

Mahligai Stupa at Muara Takus

The text is written in Sanskrit, but was probably composed in Indonesia, as suggested
by certain peculiarities of grammar. The first ten plates bear a text on Dependent
Origin; the last plate displays diagrams consisting of terrace-like shapes, two shapes
possibly representing srivatsa on one side, the other is engraved with a lotus beneath a
cakra or a sun, a moon, an ankusha, and a trisula.

Two of the smaller inscribed plates both begin with a formula which is unique to
sources in western Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. It states that lack of knowledge
produces Karma, thus rebirth. If knowledge replaces ignorance, there will be no

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Karma and no rebirth. This doctrine is found in various Indian systems of thought,
including Buddhism, Vedanta, and Shangkhya. In this text, it constitutes a Buddhist
discussion of Dependent Origin.

One strophe which occurs in the Mahavastu, and in the Pali Dhammapada, was
probably borrowed from the Sanskrit Dharmapada, although it is not found in the few
fragments of this work which survive. The plates also contain the term upasampada,
which can indicate the arrival of the bodhisattva on different bhumis of the path to
enlightenment.

The text on the large plates begins with the Pratityasamutpadasutra (combined
origination of perishable things, due to a complex of causes") which is well-known
from Buddhist Pali, Prakrit, and Sanskrit literature in India, Burmese gold plates in
Pali, and China. The text provides a commentary on the Vibhangga ("division,
analysis into sets of categories") which has also been found on two bricks at Nalanda.
The Chinese pilgrim and translator Xuanzang wrote a version of the Vibhangga dated
661 which is similar to this Indonesian and the Nalanda texts. A second variant in
Sanskrit is found in Central Asia; an early fifth-century Chinese Samyukta Pali
version is also known.

The Indonesian text has some unique features. These include its discussion of prakrti
(de Casparis 1956: 62) and an unusual list of the three Thirsts (trsna). This plate
represents the oldest known stage of speculation on this subject. It varies in this
respect from the Nalanda version, which conforms to a Mahayana system. The
Indonesian version by contrast follows the system associated with the Sarvastivadin
school. Some other minor points also suggest an association of this Indonesian text
with the Sarvastivadins, a Hinayana school which wrote in Sanskrit, and whose
doctrine spread beyond India (de Casparis 1956: 68-69). Yijing reported that the
Sarvastivada School was influential in the South Seas. The scribes who wrote this
text may have worked from a version which reached Indonesia as early as the fifth
century, when Gunavarman (367-431), son of a king of Kashmir, visited Java.

The Pratityasamutpadasutra at Nalanda was almost always found in votive stupas,

analogous to a relic in Theravada sites. As at Nalanda, the Indonesian plates may also

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have been inserted relic-like into a sanctuary, but the text differs from those at
Nalanda in some respects, suggesting independent Indonesian (perhaps Srivijayan or
Sumatran) religious speculation (de Casparis 1956: 63).

There is also evidence for a Mahayana Buddhist school in the Straits: the
Madhyamika. A clay tablet found in Kedah was inscribed with three slokas from a
text called Sagaramatipariprccha. The script resembles that used in more archaic
portions of these gold plates, and the script used in late seventh-century Srivijaya;
they may also have been copied from an earlier manuscript (de Casparis 1956: 104).

Another Srivijayan inscription in south Thailand [Ligor B] refers to worship of

Buddha, Padmapani, and Vajrapani.

Wat Boromothat, south Thailand. Local tradition, which may be accurate, attributes
this temples construction to Srivijaya.

According to a sixteenth-century Tibetan history of Buddhism, a monk named

Dharmapala served as chief abbot of Nalanda in the early seventh century, and retired
just before Xuanzang arrived. He then departed for Suvarnadvipa where he undertook
further study, remaining there until he died (Schoterman 1986: 6). Other senior Indian
monks from Nalanda who went to Suvarnadvipa include Dipangkara Srijnana, who
went to Suvarnadipa to learn tantra (Bimalendra Kumar 2008: 103; B.B. Kumar 2008:
185). The most famous of the Indian monks associated with Srivijaya, Atisha (986-
1054), is described further below.

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A Sanskrit inscription engraved on a large copper plate found in Nalanda in 1921

records that the king of the Pala Dynasty, Devapaladeva, allocated five villages to
support a monastery established there by Maharaja Balaputradeva, lord of
Suvarnadvipa (Sumatra) (H. Sastri 1942: 95). The inscription emphasizes such
religious tenets as bodhisattvas well-versed in tantras and the copying of Buddhist
texts. These were no doubt the concerns of the Sumatran Buddhists as well. The
inscription employs the term mandala in a sense in which it was common in India: a
territorial subdivision. This is contrary to Srivijaya, which referred to the whole
kingdom as Srivijayamandala. 1

The inscription provides important details about the ancestry of Srivijayas ruler at the
time. It records his claim that his maternal grandfather was King Dharmasetu, his
mother was named Tara. His fame is compared to that of the five Pandawa brothers of
the Mahabharata. The inscription goes on to refer to families of Hindu deities
including Siva and Parvati, Indra and Paulomi, Vishnu and Lakshmi, as well as
Buddha, son of Queen Maya as analogous to the parents of Balaputra (Sastri, H. 1942:
102).

We can speculate through analogy with Java that Sumatrans combined Mahayana
Buddhism with regard for ancestors. An important Javanese source, the
Karangtengah inscription of the late eighth century, found near the Buddhist
monumental complexes of Bubrah, Lumbung, Sewu, and Plaosan, and the Hindu
complex of Prambanan, mentions the Sugatas, who with their sons form an unbroken

1
Excerpts from the text include the following:

There was a king of Yavabhumi who was the ornament of the Sailendra dynasty, whose lotus-feet
bloomed by the lustre of the jewels in the row of trembling diadems on the heads of all the princes, and
whose name was conformable to the illustrious crusher of brave foes.

He had a son, who possessed prudence, prowess, and good conduct, whose two feet fondled too much
with hundreds of diadems of mighty kings. He was the foremost warrior in battle-fields and his fame
was equal to that earned by Yudhishthira, Parasara, Bhisena, and Arjuna.

Tara was the queen consort of that king, the illustrious Balaputra, who was expert in crushing the
pride of all the rulers of the world, and before whose foot-stool the groups of princes bowed.

With the mind attracted by the manifold excellences of Nalanda and through devotion to the son of
Suddhodana (i.e. the Buddha) and having realised that riches are fickle like the waves of a mountain
stream, he built there a monastery which was the abode of the assembly of monks of various good
qualities and was white with the series of stuccoed and lofty dwellings.

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line. The idea of a genealogical connection of the Sugatas is a conception which in

Fore-Indian Mahayana would be extremely foreign (de Casparis 1950: 138). De
Casparis concludes that Sailendra Buddhism was Mahayana, interpreted in the spirit
of royal ancestor worship, burial and worship of holy mountains (de Casparis 1950:
139).

It has been suggested that Southeast Asians made at least two original contributions to
the development of esoteric Buddhist thought. One concerns a verse inscribed on a
small memorial stone stupa at Nalanda, dating from about the ninth century. This
verse forms part of the Bhadracari, dealing with Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. This
text was depicted in the uppermost series of reliefs on the Buddhist monument of
Borobudur, central Java, which was built in the late eighth and early ninth century
(Schopen 1989; Woodward 2004: 346).

[1]

[2]

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Buddha in one of his incarnations

before attaining enlightenment, this
time as a deer who teaches a
hunter to respect life; [4] Manjusri;
[5] Sudhanas first visit to a good
friend, in this case Megasri.

[3]

[4]

Bas-relief from Borobodur: [1] Depiction

of stupas; [2] Stupas in a lotus pond; [3]

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[5]

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Another important source of data on tenth-century Buddhism in Southeast Asia is a

shipwreck, known as the Intan, found off southeast Sumatra and dated to the first half
of the tenth century; in other words, it sank during the heyday of Srivijaya.

Vajras from the Intan

[Image courtesy of Dr. Michael Flecker]

Stupika mold from the Intan

[Image courtesy of Dr. Michael Flecker]

This ship was on its way to Java with a cargo which included many artifacts from
China and some from West Asia. The ship also carried a range of bronze items of
Buddhist character, in commercial quantities. These include Buddhist statuary, many
vajras, and architectural fittings probably meant for temples such as ornaments in the
shape of kala heads (Flecker 2002). This raises the intriguing possibility that at least
some of the bronze Buddhist artifacts found in Java and Nalanda and previously

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thought to reflect the Buddhism of those areas could have been produced in Sumatra.
Sumatra possesses the raw materials necessary for making bronze, and bronze statues
were already being made there in the pre-Buddhist period.

The island of Karimun, 40 kilometers west of Singapore, lies within the narrow
southern entrance to the Straits of Melaka.

[1]

[2]

[1] Natural indentations in a cliff on Karimun next to the Srivijaya-period inscription;

[2] The Srivijaya-period inscription

An inscription was carved here in the ninth or tenth century, in Sanskrit language and
using the Nagari script known mainly from Mahayana Buddhist inscriptions of ninth-
century Java. The enigmatic text (Mahayanika Golayantritasri Gautama Sripada)
proclaims that a man named Gautama was a Mahayana Buddhist, and that he

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possessed a round instrument. The likeliest surmise is that Gautama was the chief of
the island; he served as an official of Srivijaya, perhaps to oversee shipping passing
through the Straits; he may have received a tantramala or symbolic gift from
Srivijayas raja in the form of a rare object, perhaps an armillary sphere. The
importance of this inscription is that it establishes the presence of Srivijayas religious
influence in the region of Singapore.

A Nepalese manuscript of the late tenth or early eleventh century mentions an

important Buddhist statue at Srivijayapura (N. Sastri 1949: 77-78). In 1015 another
text, the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, was copied and the text was adorned with
depictions of famous statues and sanctuaries. Three images from the Malay realm are
mentioned: a Dipangkara from Java, a Lokanatha on Valavati Mountain in Kedah, and
another Lokanatha at Srivijayapura (Schoterman 1986: 12).

At around the same time, in 1012, a learned Buddhist from northeast India went to
live in Srivijaya. He was born Candragharba, renamed Dipangkara Srijnana when he
entered the monkhood, and after initiation into an esoteric Buddhist order he received
the title Atisha by which he is best-known today. He remained in Srivijaya for 12
years.

At this time Sumatra was known far and wide as a great centre of Buddhist practice.
The Golden Island, almost certainly denoting Sumatra is mentioned in Tibetan
sources of this period such as the Hevajra Tantra and the Yogaratnamala
(Schoterman 1986: 13). Northeast India was threatened by the Muslim invader
Mahmud of Ghazni. Thus it is not surprising that in these circumstances the young
Atisha, at the age of 29, went to study in Srivijaya, where there lived a famous teacher
named Dharmakirti. He returned to Bengal in 1025 and became head of a monastery
there. In 1040 he accepted an invitation to move to Tibet, and he subsequently died in
a monastery at Netang, 16 kilometers from Lhasa (Schoterman 1985: 14-15).

A Tibetan source says Atishas Srivijayan teacher Dharmakirti was the son of a king
who found a Buddha image in the ground, whereupon the people reaped a rich harvest,
and converted to Buddhism. The Sumatran prince travelled to India to search for the
Law, remained seven years, and visited Bodhgaya. A Tibetan source also mentions

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that several students went to Srivijaya to study with Dharmakirti after his return to
Sumatra. There is therefore reason to believe that when Atisha went to Tibet, in order
to purify Buddhism there (according to Tibetan sources), he replicated much of
what he was taught in Sumatra.

Atisha is credited with the authorship of over 200 works, including a commentary on
Kalacakra Tantra. His teachings were based on the Yogacara school and the
Madhyamika system, which comprised the four tantras (Kriyayoga, Caryayoga,
Yogatantra, and Anuttarayoga; Banerjee 1984: 30, 50, 61, 74). He was considered to
be an incarnation of the Bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjusri (Banerjee 1984: 51). The
central Tibetan monastery of Reting is believed to contain relics of three people:
Atisha himself, his principal Tibetan student Brom ston, and his teacher, the Guru
from the Golden Island, whose epithet is almost certainly a reference to Sumatra
(Schoterman 1986: 28-29).

A commentary on a text expounding the doctrine of the Perfection of Wisdom, a

popular subject for Mahayana speculation, has been preserved in the form of a
translation into Tibetan. This work was composed by Atishas teacher Dharmakirti,
and the text states that it was composed in the city Srivijaya of Suvarnadvipa. Other
scholars have debated the possiblity that concepts regarding mandalas which Atisha
espoused while in Tibet were first formulated in Sumatra. Remains of a monastery at
Tabo Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, contain murals which are closely parallel to those at
Borobudur. Atisha visited Tabo in 1042, and may have been present at its founding.
This too may be evidence for transmission of Buddhist ideas from Indonesia to India
(Wayman 1981: 140-142; Nihom 1994: 72 note 192.)

An inscription from Tanjore dated 1030-31 records the conquest of Srivijaya in 1025
by a Chola armada and the capture the king of Srivijaya who was taken to India, after
which he disappears from history. For the next century a Chola viceroy governed the
Straits of Melaka from a base in Kedah; Srivijaya no longer existed (Miksic 1995).
After 1025, the centre of Sumatran Buddhism shifted from Palembang to the central
and northern parts of the island. A copy of the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita
produced in 1071 mentions Java among important Buddhist centres, but Srivijaya and

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Kedah are no longer included. Buddhism had long existed in the northern tip of
Sumatra, as indicated by a famous sculpture of a bodhisattva found in Aceh.

Bodhisattva head found in Aceh

In the eleventh century, esoteric Buddhist sites sprouted in several Sumatran sites, but
the largest concentration of Buddhist remains are found at Muara Jambi, probably the
ancient capital of Malayu, where 61 brick ruins are found along a 7.5-kilometer
stretch of the Batanghari River. This may be the site recorded in the Tanjor inscription
of 1030-31as Malaiyur. The structures here were Buddhist shines, including stupas.

Candi Gudang Garam, Muara Jambi

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Stupa, Candi Gumpung, Muara Jambi.

Letters incised on bricks found in a brick foundation, probably deposited there as part
of a ritual, can be dated to the ninth century. Gold foil sheets found in ritual deposit
boxes in this ruin bear the names of the five Tathagata, the 16 Vajrabodhisattvas, and
the 16 Vajrataras, all deities of the esoteric Buddhist Vajradhatu mandala. Another
gold foil piece bears the word vajra (Boechari 1985; Bambang Budi Utomo and Nik
Hassan Shuhaimi 2008: 64-67). Statuary found in Muara Jambi includes a
Prajnaparamita in a style similar to that of 13th-century East Java.

Statue of Prajnaparamita, Muara Jambi

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Other Buddhist statuary found here and in other nearby includes ten Buddha images
and seven Avalokitesvaras. Six makara have been found in the lower Batanghari, one
of which bears the date 1064 CE and the word dharmavira. A few Hindu sculptures
have been found in the same region, but both numerically and aesthetically they are
negligible compared to the Buddhist imagery.

The site of Kota Cina in northeast Sumatra was an important trading port from the late
11th to late 13th centuries. Consistent with the sites probable cosmopolitan population,
statues of Buddha, Vishnu, and a Siva linga have been found there. The Buddha
images resemble those from Sri Lanka and southern India, and suggest a possible
Theravada presence in the port.

A creek at Kota Cina

Buddha from Kota Cina.

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Kota Cinas Buddhist may have been mainly immigrants. Theravada Buddhism does
not seem to have had an major impact on Sumatra. In contrast, the Vajrayana school
continued to evolve in Sumatra through the next few centuries. During this period,
except for Kota Cina, all known major monasteries and temple complexes were built
in the Sumatran highlands. Their remains give many indications of local evolution,
though south Indian connections are indicated by Tamil inscriptions.

One region of major importance for the study of late Sumatran Buddhism is Padang
Lawas. A Lokanatha bronze from here bears an inscription with Malay affinities
giving the name of its maker (Suryya) and the date 1024. Statuary from here includes
unusual esoteric deities such as Heruka. Inscriptions refer to such rites as meditation
on cremation grounds. The frequent appearance of such motifs as vajras and reliefs of
masked dancers display many similarities with Nepal and Tibet.

Candi Si Joreng Belangah, Padang Lawas

Statue base with vajras, Si Joreng Belangah, Padang Lawas

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Demonic dancing figures, Bahal I, Padang Lawas

The last important Buddhist remains in Sumatra are found in two neighbouring
regions. The first is the upper Batanghari River where a statue of Amoghapasa dated
1286 was discovered.

Amoghapasha from Padang Roco, dated 1286

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14th-century Bhairawa image from the upper Batanghari

Temple remains, Padang Roco

This statue bears an inscription stating that it was sent from Java. The historical
context suggests that it was a sign that the East Javanese kingdom of Singasari was
asserting its suzerainty over this area, then apparently an important political centre.
Archaeological research in this region since the early 1990s has uncovered numerous
brick foundations of religious sanctuaries. Some probably date from the fourteenth
century; a ruler named Adityawarman set himself up here around 1347 before moving

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further north to the Tanah Datar region. His last inscription Suruaso I, dated 1375,
records that Adityawarman was consecrated (ditahbiskan) as ksetrajna.

Fourteenth-century artifacts at Batusangkar, Tanah Datar

Fourteenth-century inscription, Batu Basurat, Tanah Datar

One of the last Buddhist Malay kingdoms was located in Singapore. As noted earlier,
the first ruler of the Malays according to the Malay Annals was named Sri Tri Buana,
Sanskrit for Lord of the Three Worlds, an allusion to the belief that the universe
was divided into a heaven of gods, a world of humans, and a hell for demons. Some
Southeast Asian kings used this phrase as their title.

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The doctrine of the Lord of the Three Worlds was explicated in a Thai Buddhist text
written around 1345, which ranks all living things on the basis of merit, thus
justifying social stratification (Phraya Lithai 1982). The philosophy of the Three
Worlds was influential when Singapore was becoming a significant commercial site
in the 14th century. The Malay Annals states that Sri Tri Buana was the first ruler of
the Malays, who appeared magically on Seguntang Hill in Palembang. He was
originally known as Sang Utama, but a herald appeared from the mouth of a white
cow who proclaimed him to be his Highness, the Sri Maharaja, ruler of the whole of
Suvarna-bhumi (strongly implying a tradition handed down from Srivijaya) and gave
him the title of Sri Tri Buana (Brown 1970: 15).

Singapore Stone, an inscribed stone formerly located

at the mouth of the Singapore River

Buddhism was the dominant religion in the Straits of Melaka for almost 1,000 years.
The Malay people participated actively in the religious and economic networks which
linked adherents of this faith who were spread over a huge portion of Asia. Concrete
evidence of the detailed religious beliefs of this area is scarce, but enough data is
available to discern the place occupied by the most important kingdoms of the island,
including Srivijaya and Malayu, in the development of Buddhist belief and art.

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