Beyond Ganga the influence of Indian civilization in Southeast Asia - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Beyond Ganga the influence of Indian civilization in Southeast Asia - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nov 25, 2022 96 likes •934 views

Beyond Ganga the influence of Indian civilization in Southeast Asia the case of Cambodia the history of the great cultural efflorescence from India that spread throughout South and Southeast Asia link us to the greater India, in cultural

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Beyond Ganga

the influence of Indian civilization in Southeast Asia the case of Cambodia

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‘the history of the great cultural efflorescence from India that spread throughout South and Southeast Asia’ ‘link us to the greater India, in cultural terms that lies far beyond our shores’

Karan Singh (annual meeting of the Indian History Congress, December 2001)

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Hinduization / Indianization

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Outer or Greater India Indianization of Southeast Asia

An overall influence India exerted on peninsular and insular Southeast Asia A process that took place between the 1st – 2nd and the 15th century AD New trade developments seem to have been among the main reasons of that Indian move eastward

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Commerce and gold

  • Suvarnabhumi, Survarnadvipa, golden Chersonese…
  • India used to buy gold from Siberia, and it was transported through Bactria
  • From the 2nd century BC,

due to population movements in that part of Central Asia, that gold road was cut

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  • India then imported huge quantities of gold coins from the Roman Empire

(Javana) till the emperor Vespasian (69 – 79 AD) forbade their export

  • Development of Indian and Chinese merchant fleets
  • Development of Buddhism
  • The golden Chersonese
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A new concept of state Religious practices Script and language The Mountain Temple

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A new concept of the state

From the village to larger administrative / political units The birth of the first Southeast Asian states

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New religious practices

Local religion(s) / Hinduism and Buddhism

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Hinduism

Shiva (1st – 11th century)

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Hinduism

Vishnu (11th – 13th century)

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Mahayana Buddhism

(13th century)

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Hinayana Buddhism

(14th century…)

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Buddhism in early Khmer history

Mahāyāna Hīnayāna (Theravāda)

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Hinayana (Theravada) and Mahayana Buddhism

Hinayana

  • The Pali Tripitaka (Tipitaka) from the

first council 3 months after the death

  • f the Buddha (480 BC)
  • The individual can only count upon

himself and the acquisition of merits

  • Only the historical Buddha is

acknowledged Mahayana

  • Various other sources of which the
  • rigin is not always clear: various

sutras

  • Many other ways such as mantras,

music and above all meditation

  • A number of other Buddha and

Bodhisattvas are also worshipped

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Important differences with India

Relationships between Hinduism and Buddhism

  • Hindu religion: official religion

till the early 13th century

  • No caste system (varna) in

Cambodia

  • Hindu religion visible only at the

top level of the power

  • Buddhism was ruling people’s

everyday lives

The local religion

  • Local gods pre‐existed

hinduization / indianization

  • Very important part at all levels
  • f society
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Local gods: Tevoda and Lok Ta

Overall importance of that kind of cult in Cambodia Former Chtonian deities Protection of village and land Link between rice field and forest A psychological geography of the land

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Between the known and the unknown

  • Inside the village
  • The rice‐field – sraɛ ‐ ែ្លស
  • miːr
  • Outside the village
  • The forest – prɛj ‐ ៃ្លព
  • Briː
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Three Lok Ta with their attributes guarding the entrance of a Pre‐Angkorian 7th century temple

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The altar of Lok Ta Kry in the Cardamom Mountains

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The altar of Yiey Mao built by the Khmer Rouge in the central part of the Cardamom Mountains

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The local deities:

the core of a popular religion

but

also a symbolic protection for the kingdom

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The Lok Ta with the precious stones stick guarding King Ang Chan’s (1529 – 1566) stupa in Oudong

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Lok Ta with the iron stick

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The stupas of Kings Sisowath (1927), Ang Duong (1860) and Soriyopoar (1619) in Oudong guarded by the Lok Ta with the iron stick

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Script and language

From Sanskrit to Old Khmer inscriptions

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  • About 140 Austro-Asiatic languages
  • Originally Mon-Khmer language group

(Mason 1854)

  • Austro-Asiatic = Mon-Khmer + Munda
  • Austric = Austro-Asiatic + Austronesian

(Schmidt 1905)

  • Nowadays: Austro-Asiatic
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The Vo Canh inscription

(3rd century AD)

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The Angkor Borei inscription (611 AD)

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Problems pertaining to scripts in Indianized SEA

  • Where exactly are they from?
  • Before the name Pallava script was used in reference to the Pallava

Dynasty (275 AD ‐ 897 AD) BUT SEA Sanskrit scripts and inscriptions were much more developed than the Pallava script inscriptions in India.

  • Now it seems more accurate to talk about Pallava ‐ Chalukya script.

(Chalukya dynasty: 6th – 12th century in south –central – west India)

  • Although the SEA scripts comes mainly from the south of India, there

are only very few words and inscriptions from south Indian(Dravidian) languages found in the inscriptions.

  • As a rule scripts come from southern India, BUT there is still an

exception…

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The digraphic inscriptions of Yaçovarman I

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The abode of the gods

From temple mountains to mountain temples

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The mountain temple

A step pyramid crowned by a tower that shelters the representation of a god (generally Shiva)

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Ak Yom

7th century

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Bakong

End 9th century

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Bakheng

Early 10th century

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Koh Ker

10th century

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Pre Rup

10th century

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Ta Keo

End 10th – beginning 11th

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Baphuon

11th century

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Angkor Vat

12th century

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Bayon

13th century

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A paradoxical situation

  • Mountain temple = the translation of an ancient Khmer (and Southeast Asian) relationship

between the king and the mountain INTO an Indian structure

  • “Devaraja” is the name of the local god (assimilated to the dead king) to which the temple is

dedicated = Indian expression (that doesn’t exist in India) BUT to denote a local reality.

  • The mountain temple exists in Hindu ideology BUT no mountain temples were ever built in

India.

  • The Khmer temple is in no way a copy of the Indian temple BUT a local implementation of

Hindu sacred architecture.

  • It follows that the Khmer temple is actually more Hindu than the Indian temples.
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In the Kampot region the troglodyte temples

Three remaining “temples” inside caves

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Phnum Chhngok cave temple

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Phnum Totung cave temple

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Entrance to the cave walled off with bricks: the temple begins at the entrance to the cave

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The view from the entrance: the sacred ponds can still be seen on the axis of the entrance to the cave

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The entrance to the cella and the entrance to the cave are on the opposite axis

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Temple = Mountain

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K 44

  • Saka year: 596 (674 AD)
  • The Sanscrit part praises Iça

and the king Jayavarman I

  • The Khmer part praises Çri

Utpanneçvara

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The Phnum Khyâng cave temple

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The paradox of Indianization

  • The Indianized Khmer (or SEA) space is not a local copy of India
  • No pre-existing Indian centers that could have played the part of

Athens and /or Rome as sources of civilization

  • Hinduism/Indianism is a theoretical model and as such may

influence a new land with general principles that may be adapted to an already structured civilization

  • If gods, temples, art, scripts, state structures are Indian…their

local (Khmer, Southeast Asian) realization has no real material equivalent in India