The greatest of the states was the Sailendra Empire, or the empire of Shri Vijaya, which became the dominant power both on sea and land in the whole of Malaysia by the eighth century. The empire was also a sea Power based on trade. Hence you find that it had ports wherever it could get the smallest footing. Indeed a remarkable feature of the settlements of the Sumatrian State was their strategic value - that is to say, they were carefully located at places where they could command the surrounding seas. Often they were in pairs to help each other in maintaining this command. Thus, Singapore, which is a great city now, was originally a settlement of the Sumatran colonists. The name, as you will notice, is a typical Indian name: Singhpur. The Sumatran people had another settlement just opposite the Straits, facing Singhpur. Sometimes they would stretch an iron chain right across the Strait and so stop all ships from passing till they paid heavy tolls.
(source: Glimpses of World History - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 135).
The language and culture of Malaysia is still Sanskrit and Hindu. Take the name of Kuala Lumpur. The suffix 'Pur' is a Sanskrit termination used to signify a township. the original Sanskrit name was Cholanampuram. i.e. the city of the Cholas. A city in mountainous north Malaysia is called Sungei Pattani. Its ancient Sanskrit name was Shringa Pattan meaning ' a mountain city.' Another town Seramban is 'Shree Ram Van' i.e. the bower of Lord Rama.
In Malaysia, the commander-in-chief is still called Lakshmana -- a remnant of the role played by Rama's brother in the battle of Lanka.
Of Shailendra, the mighty man of war and conquest and other achievements, Dr. H. G. Quaritch Wales has written:
"This great conqueror, whose achievements can only be compared with those of the greatest soldiers known to western history, and whose fame in his time sounded from Persia to China, in a decade or two built up a vast maritime empire which endured for five centuries, and made possible the marvelous flowering of Indian art and culture in Java and Cambodia. Yet in our encyclopedias and histories...one will search in vain for a reference to this far-flung, empire or to its noble founder...The very fact of such an empire ever existed is scarcely known, except by a handful of Oriental scholars."
(source: In 'Towards Angkor' Harrap, 1937).
Indian literature also mentions kingdoms, Kalaspura, Kamalanka (Karmaranga), which were probably in the Malay Peninsula, Kala (Kedah), and Pahang. In the Puranas, mention is often made to Katahadvipa (Kataha), which was included amongst the nine divisions of the world across the seas, and to which regular voyeages were undertaken from Tamaralipti. Various other references to katahadvipa are found in Sanskrit dramas and stories. The Tamil epic, Silappadkiaram, of the second century contains description of tall, roomy ships entering a city in South India laden with a variety of goods and spices from a Malayan port called Tondi. Malaysia peninsula derives its name from the Sanskrit word Malaya. Its other name was Vanga from its abundance of 'tin' because in Sanskrit 'Vanga' means tin.
Kedah is by far the most important of Malayan sites. The Pallavas founded settlements in Kedah, on the Bujang River, whose temple ruins have yielded an image of Ganesha and other objects of Saiva faiths.
The Kedah Annals record how on conversion to Islam the Malays destroyed all the idols they were accustomed to worship, together with the idols handed down from their ancestors. Concepts of state and kingship in Malaya, royal titles such as Seri Paduka, ceremonies connected with coronation, and royal prerogatives are clearly of Indian inscription. Malaya's literature and folklore are deeply influenced by the Hindu epics, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. Her language has many Sanskrit loan words, and until the introduction of Arabic and, later Roman script, Indian scripts were used in Malaya and the Archipelago.
The Ramayana has captivated the inhabitants of South East
Asia for centuries and has been written, recited, sculpted and performed from Cambodia to Bali.
In Malay culture, the Ramayana tradition has been kept alive by only three of
these media, for sculptures and reliefs have not survived the passage of
time.
Nothing comparable to the poetry of Yogisvara’s Old
Javanese Ramayana Kakawin survives in Malay. The Rama Saga is, however,
well-known in Malay and exists in both literary and oral forms, the latter
still enjoying considerable popularity in the north and west Malaysia, where
they form the basic repertoire of the Malay shadow-play. The literary
Malay version, the Hikayat Seri Rama, is interrelated with a group of popular
Javanese versions.
(source: The Ramayana Tradition in Asia -
Edited by V Raghavan. chapter - The Malayan Ramayana – By Amin Sweeney p
122 – 151).Ramayana Casts Its Ancient Spell In Singapore
With numerous heroes and villains and its powerful
feel-good message of good triumphing over evil, the Ramayana has been one of the great epic poems of Indian culture for
centuries. Originally attributed to the Hindu Sanskrit poet Valmiki, the
story has been retold and adapted over time by poets, scholars and everyday
storytellers.
It has also captured the imagination of many
other cultures beyond its origins in India . In Southeast Asia, scenes
from the Ramayana can be found in places ranging from Prambanan, a 9th-century
Hindu temple compound in Yogyakarta in central Java, Indonesia, to the
magnificent 12th-century Angkor Wat in Cambodia. “Ramayana Revisited: A Tale of Love & Adventure,” an exhibition that is running at the Peranakan Museum, Singapore until Aug. 22, underlines the cross-cultural power of the popular epic.
As it spread across Southeast Asia, the Hindu tale was adapted, with localized versions emerging like the Ramakien in Thailand or the Reamker in Cambodia . Through the display of shadow puppets, papier-mâché masks, sculptures and paintings on paper and cloth sourced from the permanent collection of the Asian Civilisations Museum , this exhibition narrates the Ramayana story according to a 17th-century version from north India . The narrators of this version are Lava and Kusha, the two sons of Rama, and it tells the classic tale of their father’s epic quest to rescue their mother, Sita, from the demon king Ravana with the help of Rama’s devoted friend Hanuman and his army of monkeys.
While some of the artifacts that are shown are ancient and quite rare, like a 12th-century bronze Hanuman from the late Chola period in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, or a 12th-to-13th century bas-relief from the state of Madhya Pradesh of a reclining image of Vishnu on cosmic snake, others — especially shadow puppets and masks — are more recent. Some have been commissioned by the museum over the past 15 years.
(source: Ramayana Casts Its Ancient Spell In Singapore - Hinduism today.com).
Cambodia boasts the largest temple complex in the world, named Ankor, from the Sanskrit meaning "the capital city".
It was the water which brought the richness and cultural evolution to this country. According to an ancient Sanskrit inscription, Cambodia was born from the water. Being the oldest Indianised state in Southeast Asia, its religion was Hinduism.
It was built in the ninth century C. E. in honor of the Hindu god Lord Vishnu. The complex extends over an area more than twice the size of Manhattan and took thirty-seven years to complete. Its physical and spiritual grandeur is found elsewhere only in ancient Greece, Egypt and among the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Cambodia's principle river is today called Me Kong, which scholars say is derived from India's Ma Ganga (Mother Ganges). Kaundinya founded the prosperous kingdom of Khamboja in the first century A.D. We are told that some of the essential elements of Indian culture spread to Kamboja, eg, Sanskrit, Saivism, Vaishnavism, and Buddhism.
James Ferguson, author of History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, wrote in 1876,
"To the historian of art the wonder is to find temples with such a singular combination of styles in such a locality - Indian temples constructed with pillars almost purely classical in design, and ornamented with bas-relief so strangely Egyptian in character."
(source: Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire p. 43).
Professor and archaeologist Bernard Philippe Groslier, author of Angkor, Art and Civilization wrote: "The expansion of India towards the countries of the East, at the very moment when by a striking coincidence China seemed to be moving southwards to encounter it, constitutes one of the turning-points of history, paralleled by the expansion of Greece and Rome."
(source: Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World - National Geographic Society. p. 190).
S. Sarin, has written: "The Cambodian country, with its own language, knows Sanskrit as well since the dawn of history and some learned scholars speak of Indo-Khmer culture, as the aspects of question are interconnected to one another. So viewed, the deep cause of the noble sense of gratefulness in Cambodian behavior is firstly due to the Ramayana, which had been well-known, for example through the bas-relief of Angkor Temples." In Cambodian language, Tin Gun meaning "knowing, acknowledging what has been done, grateful." In Cambodian way of speaking, people have Tin, and Gun (guna), "quality."
(source: Indian Epic Values: Ramayana and Its Impact - By G. Pollet p.222-228).
Around the second century AD, Indians arrived in Funan (South Cambodia-Vietnam), and a Brahmin named Kaundinya married the daughter of the local Naga king and introduced Hindu religion and culture and Sanskrit to the region. The power center shifted to Angkor from the ninth to fifteenth centuries A.D. The founder of the first Angkor at Rolous (ancient Hariharalaya) and the Devaraja or god-king cult was Jayavarman II. His descendant Indravarman I built the first temple-mountain or Mount Meru at Bakong and a temple tank or Indratataka, both of which were to define Angkorean temples of the future. Three other Angkorean sites were Phnom Bakheng on a natural hill, Yashodharapura where the king Suryavarman II built the great Angkor Wat, and the mysterious Angkor Thom.
Cambodia achieved what the Indian subcontinent never could: the confluence of Hindu cults and regional cultures. The culture is frozen in time, limited to concepts from the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, unlike temples in India that are Puranic. Every temple recreates the ancient concept of jambudvipa with Mount Meru at the center, as a tall multi-tiered pyramid. The garbagriha at the top of Meru is a literal recreation of the womb of the universe, and the deity within is the source of creation, something we forget when we enter crowded sanctum sanctorums in India. The outside walls are decorated with the gods, dvarapalas and beautiful apsaras with whom the local women identify. The main object of veneration may be Shiva or Vishnu or Buddha, but the walls would contain stories of Rama, Krishna and the ascetic Shiva on a hill. The most popular motif is the samudra manthana, the churning of the ocean by the devas and asuras for the divine nectar, where the tortoise is the base on which Mount Meru is placed and churned, unlike later Indian literature where Vishnu is identified with the tortoise. There are several Sanskrit inscriptions written in Pallava Grantha.
Angkor Wat is truly a wonder. It occupies about 500 acres bounded on all four sides by a wall and an enclosed tank.
The causeways, flanked by enormous nagas and lions, represent rainbows. The temple is 65 metres high, made up of three platforms, progressively smaller, with covered galleries defining the borders, and is a replica of the cosmos.
The first level contains 1200 square metres of carved sandstone galleries illustrating scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
(source: The temples of Angkor - By Nanditha Krishna - newindpress.com).
George Coedes, who in 1906, at the age of 20, published a long Sanskrit inscription from Cambodia and who over the next 60 years translated hundreds of complex Sanskrit and Khmer texts with wide-ranging significance and bearing.
"According to the Sanskrit epigraphy, iconography, and Chinese dynastic histories, Hinduism and Buddhism existed side by side in Cambodia during the fifth and sixth centuries. The main religion seems to have been Sivaism, one of the two major branches of Hinduism, but the other branch, Visnuism, also had adherents in the royal family.'' "The grammatical work of Panini, the greatest grammarian of antuiquity, was highly prized in Cambodia, particularly among Sivaites. An Indian tradition held that it was Siva himself who had revealed the secrets of grammar to Panini.''
(source: The religions of ancient Cambodia, Bhattacharya.)
For some time, Kambuja became a dependency of Java. However, it became independent once again under Jaya-varman who ruled from 802A.D. to 825 A.D. He invited Hiranyadama, a Brahmin from India. He changed his capital many times and finally fixed it in the Ankor region where the famous city of Ankor Thom grew up. Jayavarman III laid the foundations of the great Kambuja empire. Yasovarma became king in 889 A.D. He was the founder of the Kambuja empire and the Ankor civilization. There was the spread of Sanskrit language in the country. The king himself has been compared with Panini and he is stated to have written a commentary on the Mahabhasya of Patanjali. The Khmer took everything from India, from irrigation to astronomy and religion.
The art of Kambuja is of Indian origin. The most famous example of the Kamboja art is the Angkor Vat which was built by King Suryavarman II. It is a massive structure surrounded by a canal tow and half miles long and 650 feet broad. Three concentric squares form decreasing terraces, elevated one above another with long galleries of of repeated columns crowned by the final towers, which soar up in the sky in one splendid sweep of graceful symmetry.
The choice of Angkor as the site of the Khmer capital stemmed from several factors. First, it was near the geographical center of the kingdom. Second, the Tonle Sap, the great lake with its outlet to the riverine network of the Mekong, provided excellent communications with the outside world. Finally, there was the great lake itself. "The grand lake, is a very rare geographical phenomenon." In the summer, when you have the melting of snow in Tibet and the beginning of the monsoon rains, the Mekong carries so much water that some of it backs up into the Tonle Sap, which expands to ten times its normal area. By November or December, the Mekong slows down and the water again flows out of the lake. Every year this brings fresh deposits of fertile soil to the lands along the shore. It is the best possible land for growing rice.
The capital became famous in Asia and was known as 'Angkor the Magnificent,' a city of a million inhabitants, larger and more splendid than the Rome of the Ceasers. Near the city stood the vast temple of Angkor Vat. The empire of Khamboja flourished till the end of the 13th century and accounts of a Chinese envoy who visited it in 1297 describes the wealth and splendor of its capital.
Amaury de Riencourt has written:
Art flourished in Kamboja as never before, centered around a capital city known to all Asia as Angkor, the Magnificent, a city of more than a million inhabitants - which when it was extricated from the jungle in modern times, contained not a single human being. Chinese and Indian envoys could hardly believe their eyes when they gazed at the splendid temple of Angkor Vat, a sublime work of art that was inspired by India but shaped by the genius of Khmer people."
(source: The Soul of India - By Amaury de Riencourt p. 160-161).
Round the great temple of Angkor Vat is a vast area of mighty ruins with artificial lakes and pools, and canals and bridges over them, and a great gate dominated by ' a vast sculptured head, a lovely, smiling but enigmatic Cambodian face, though one raised to the power and beauty of a god.' The face with its strangely fascinating and disturbing smile - the 'Angkor smile' is repeated again and again.
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru. p.208-209).
"Its splendid plan, the balance of its proportions, the elegance of its pillared cloisters and the beauty of its decoration make it one of the masterpieces of world architecture."
(source: The Oriental World - By Jeannine Auboyer Landmarks of World's Art quoted from Appendix page).
Helen Ibbitson Jessup author of Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory captures to near perfection the overwhelming sensation of awe and mystery that Angkor – among the greatest, and the most ambitious, of architectural monuments in the world – produces in the heart of even the most hardened, or casual, visitor. For the site, with its sprawling, seemingly endless, expanse and decay does not sum up the past of Cambodia alone, but, in some ways, of mankind itself.
The majestic site: miles of ‘gallery and tower’, ancient temples soaring heavenwards and crumbling at the same time, monuments to man’s faith and energy, stone and root and dust.
(source: Angkor: The curling roots of time - tribuneindia.com).
Sacred River Discovered in Cambodia
Source: Sunday Times, London
Cambodia, Vietnam: In the jungle of Cambodia, at the site of Phnom Kulen, 20 miles from the temple complex at Angkor Wat, a priceless devotional work of art, the "River of a Thousand Lingas," has been discovered. Carved in the rock of a riverbed, the Siva Lingas blessed the water flowing over them from the mountain as it irrigated the rice paddy fields or provided a water source to the ancient city of Angkor on the plains. Similar river carvings exist in India. Dating as far back as 802 ce, when the Hindu Khmer Empire ruled most of Southeast Asia, the Phnom Kulen plateau has multiple temples with sculptures of elephants and lions six meters high. However, the Vietnamese war has left its mark on this holy site. The area is infested with landmines and the Cambodian government, lacking in funds to nurture the temples, has tendered its development out to a company headed by Seang Nam, the MP for Siem Reap. A road has been cleared to the Phnom Kulen temples where there are plans for a hotel. Looters are stealing precious carvings from the site to sell in Bangkok.
Ganesha Displayed in Cambodia's National Museum
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2001/5/9.html#3
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 9, 2001: Phnom Penh's National Museum of Art, forgotten for many years, is once again showing the world its true colors. The extraordinary collection of bronze and stone statues on display here is unmatched elsewhere in the world. Tragically, looting and war have removed most of the decorative statues and reliefs from Angkor's temples, making the museum's collection all the more important as evidence of the artistic achievements of this ancient culture. The first temporary exhibition in the museum's history took place last year, with a display of statues of Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god. Other gems include the 7th-century statue of the horse-headed Vaijmukha and a delightful tiny 11th-12th century bronze figure of a dancing woman on a lotus flower. Beauty is only part of it. For these are sacred objects, and the museum has taken care to position them much as they would have been placed in temples. Indeed, many of the Cambodians who come to the museum are not simply admiring art works -- they are paying homage to holy icons and small shrines have been set up where offerings of flowers can be made.
Cambodia's national flag, which features the imposing facade of Angkor Wat, the 12th century Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, is only one of the symbols of how deeply internalized India is in the collective consciousness of the Cambodian people.
(source: Cambodia embraces India's pride - By Shobori Ganguli - dailypioneer.com 4//11/02).
It is a pity India has forgotten the Angkors. A visit to Siem Reap is essential to understand Hinduism and to appreciate Indian art. There is a visible happiness in the deities that is rare in the more withdrawn imagery of India. The temples are mysterious and haunting as they brood over the dark jungle, guarding secrets of an ancient people lost in time.
(source: The temples of Angkor - By Nanditha Krishna - newindpress.com). Refer to India once ruled the Americas! – By Gene D Matlock
Philippines aka Panyupayana
Philippines was for a time part of the Sri Vijaya Empire, which has been described by Filippino historians, as Hinduistic in culture.
Dr Pardo de Tavera has observed:
“It is impossible to believe that the Hindus, if they came
only as merchants, however great their number, would have impressed themselves
in such a way as to give to these islanders, the Philippines, the number and
the kind of words, which they did give. These names of dignitaries, of
caciques, of high functionaries of the court, of noble ladies, indicate that
these high positions, with names of Sanskrit origin, were occupied at one time
by men, who spoke that language. The words of similar origin, for objects of
war, fortresses and battle songs, for designating objects of religious beliefs,
for superstitions, emotions, feelings, industrial and farming activities, show
us clearly that the warfare, religion, literature, industry and agriculture
were at once time in the hands of the Hindus and that this race was effectively
dominant in the Philippines.”
(source: El
Sanscrito en la langua Tagalag - T H Pardo de Tavera Paris 1887; The Philippines and India - Dhirendra Nath
Roy Manila 1929 and India and
The World - By Buddha Prakash p. 119-120).
According to Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876-1960), American
anthropologist, and a major figure in the founding of modern anthropology, as
well as author of Peoples of the
Philippines (1919):"Most of the folklore of the Philippines is of Hindu origin."
"There is no tribe in the Philippines no matter how primitive and remote, in whose culture today elements of Indian origin cannot be traced." Pre-Spanish Philippine society with its nobility, code of laws, and political procedure, was largely of Indian cast. Some years ago when a legislative building was put in Manila, the capital, four figures were carved on its facade illustrating the source of the Philippine culture, one of which is Manu, the ancient Indian lawgiver. Beyer, the first to conduct systematic archaeological investigation in the Philippines, finds formidable evidence to strengthen the view that there was pre-Christian contact between India and Southeast Asia.
The Hindu element in the ancient Philippine religious beliefs, and in the names of old Philippine gods, and of legendary heroes is quite apparent. Several religious objects have been unearthed in the island of Mactan, including two images of Hindu deities.
Two Filipino scholars, Tavera and Paterno, have concluded that about 25 % of the Philippine vocabularies can be traced to Indian influence.
For instance: bahagi (part, portion), in Tagalog is bhag in Hindi,
katha (story, fiction) - katha;
diwata (god or goddess) is devata
dukha (poor, destitute) is duhkha
guru (teacher) is guru
mukha (face) is mukha
yaya (nurse) is aya and so on..
Philippine literature, stories, and folklore are traceable to India. The Maranawa epic -
An adaptation of "The Ramayana," the 4th century Indian epic, as preserved by the Maranao people of the South Philippines. A story of the battle between good and evil, with love, deceit, heroism and triumph
http://www.tabacofamily.com/jtabaco/india.asp
"Rajah Mangandiri" or "the Ramayana of the Philippines. Certain parts of southeast Asia, including the southern Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, were dominated by the Hindu culture of the Sri Vidyayah Empire from the 4th to the 10th centuries, said a press release. Some aspects of Hindu culture, for instance the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, have thrived in those regions to the present day.
http://www.indiaabroadonline.com/PublicAccess/ia-12082000/Arts/Philippine.html
The history of Malacca is largely the story of the city for which it is named, and the story of the city of Malacca begins with the fascinating and partly legendary tale of the Hindu prince Parameswara.
An eminent historian of the Philippines suggests ethnic affinity between Indians and Filipinos, because of which certain racial qualities of the Filipinos - their dignity of bearing, their stoical outlook on life, and their indifference to pain and misfortune - were inherited from the Hindus.
(source: Philippine Political and Cultural History - By G. F. Zaide p. 45).
When the Philippines drafted its Constitution, it placed the statue of Manu in the Assembly Hall with this inscription on its base: "The first, the greatest and the wisest law-giver of mankind." Researches into the racial and cultural origins of the Philippines increasingly prove that it was colonized by some people in South India. In fact, the script of the Filipinos has some obvious similarities with that of South India. "Our dialects belong to the Dravidian family." says Justice Romualdez. "The names of some places on the shores of Manila Bay and the coast of Luzon show their Sanskrit origin."
Indian influence is most patent in handicrafts and the old names of coins used there. Many social customs current there show a likeness to the Indian ones. Saleeby says, "The head-gods of the Indian Triad and the earliest Vedic gods had the foremost place in the minds and devotion of the hill-tribes of Luzon and Mindanao. A Ganesha statue too was found there.
Indeed as Beyer says, "India has most profoundly affected the Philippine civilization."
Even the national flower of Philippines is the Indian champaka. The Indian influence on Philippines is explicable by the fact that it was that it was for 150 years a colony of a Java-based Hindu Empire of Sri Vijaya.
(source: The Soul of India - By Satyavrata R Patel p. 30).
"India is culturally, Mother of Japan. For centuries it has, in her own characteristic way, been exercising her influence on the thought and culture of Japan."
"The study of Japanese thought is the study of Indian thought." - Eminent Zen Scholar, Dr. D. Suzuki.
(source: India: Mother Of Us All - By Chaman Lal p. 25).
Sir Charles Elliot (1862-1931) British diplomat and colonial administrator, in his book, Hinduism and Buddhism, vol. I, p 405 wrote:
"Zen is the Japanese equivalent of Sanskrit Dhyana (meditation) or Ch'an and is the name given to the sect founded in China by Bodhidharma.
Hinduism and Buddhism went from India to China and Korea to Japan. Those Indian ideas which found their way to Japan were transmitted through China or Central Asia, although there had been some direct contact between India and Japan by sea. According to a scholar of ethnology, there is evidence of the presence of an Indian community in the Shima district in Mie prefecture. These Indians were called Tenjiku Ronin, meaning the "masterless Indian samurai."
Images of Ganesha and Vishnu have been found throughout Japan. Numerous Buddhist deities were introduced into Japan and many of these are still very popular.
According to D. P. Singhal, "some Hindu gods, who had been incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon, were amongst them. For example, Indra, originally, the god of thunder but now also the king of gods, is popular in Japan as Taishaku (literally the great King Sakra).
(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal Part II p. 80-98).
Ganesha is worshipped as Sho-ten or Shoden (literally, holy god) in many Buddhist temples, and is believed to confer happiness upon his devotees. There are some rare Ganesha bronzes as Vinayaka in Japan. A sea-serpent worshipped by sailors is called Ryujin, a Chinese equivalent of the Indian naga. Hariti and Dakini are also worshipped, the former as Kishimo-jin, and the latter by her original name. Bishamon is a Japanese equivalent of the Indian Vaisravana (Kubera), the god of wealth. Sakira s an old name of Indra by which he is chiefly known in Japan.
Even Shinto adopted Indian gods, despite its desperate efforts after the Meiji Revolution to disengage itself from Buddhism. The Indian sea god Varuna, is worshipped in Tokyo as Sui-ten (water-god); the Indian goddess of learning, Saraswati, has become Benten (literally, goddess of speech), with many shrines dedicated to her along sea coasts and beside lakes and ponds.
Shiva is well known to the Japanese as Daikoku (literally, god of darkness), which is a Chinese and Japanese equivalent of the Indian Mahakala, another name of Shiva. Daikoku is a popular god in Japan. At the Kotohira shrine on the island of Shikoku, sailors worship a god called Kompera, which is a corruption of the Sanskrit word for crocodile, Kumbhira. The divine architect mentioned in the Rig Veda, Vishvakarma, who designed and constructed the world, was regarded in ancient Japan as the god of carpenters, Bishukatsuma.
The Indian Yama, the god of death, is the most dreaded god of Japan, under the name of Emma-o, the king of hell. There is some Indian influence on Japanese art. A similarity between Shinto rituals and Hindu rituals - for example ringing the bell as one enters the temple.
The climbers wearing traditional white dress, who scale the sacred Mount Ontake as a religious observance, sometimes have inscribed on their robe Sanskrit Siddham characters of an ancient type. Sometimes they put on white Japanese scarfs (tenugui) which carry the Sanskrit character OM, the sacred syllable of the Hindus.
According to author, Terence Dukes,
"The Gagaku dances of Japan contain many movements derived from the Indian Nata and the Chinese Chuan Fa."
(source: The Boddhisattva Warriors: The Origin, Inner Philosophy, History and Symbolism of the Buddhist Martial Art Within India and China p.206).
The cultivation of cotton in Japan is traced to an Indian who had drifted to the shore of Aichi Prefecture in 799. To commemorate the event, the Japanese named the village where the shipwrecked Indian had landed Tenjiku; Tenjiku was the Japanese name for India, and means Heaven.
The popular Japanese game of sunoroku or sugoroku (backgammon played at the royal of the Nara rulers and still popular in Japan is of Indian origin. In Japan the game is played as nard. Nard is generally regarded as an Iranian game, but the ninth century Arab scholar, Al Yaqubi, considered nard an Indian invention used to illustrate man's dependence on chance and destiny. According to Wei-Shu, sugoroku was brought to China in ancient times from Hu country, which at that time meant a country somewhere in the vicinity of India. Again, as Karl Himly has pointed out, the Hun Tsun, Sii, written during the Sung period (960-1279), states that t'shu-pu, another Chinese name for sugoruku, was invented in western India, that it was known in its original form as chatushpada, and that it reached China during the Wei period (220-265).
Indian legends also found their way into Japanese literature. An example of this is the legend of Rishyasringa in which a rishi who had never seen a woman was seduced by Shanta, the daughter of King Lomapada. This is a very famous story in the Mahabharata. In the Japanese version the saint is named Ikkaku Sennin, that is Ekasrnga (Unicorn). The Kakuki drama, Narukami, was derived from this legend. Many such Indian stories were incorporated into Buddhist literature and conveyed to Japan.
Kukai started the study of Sanskrit letters, known as Shittan, a Japanese equivalent of the Sanskrit word Siddham, with which ancient Indian inscriptions and works often begin. Before this, during the Nara period, the Vinaya; the Abhidharmakosa by Vasubandhu; the Satyasiddhi by Harivarman; the works of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva; the Vijnaptimatrata, Buddhist idealism, and the Gandhavyuha sutra had been studied.
In some Japanese temples, very ancient manuscripts in Sanskrit are preserved intact. It is significant that many of those manuscripts found in Japan are much older than those preserved in India.
(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal Part II p.20-27).
According to author Donald A. Mackenzie: "The Indian form of myth of the Churning of the Milky Ocean reached Japan. In a Japanese illustration of it the mountain rests on a tortoise, and the supreme god sits on the summit, grasping in one of his hands a water vase. The Japanese Shinto myth of creation, as related in the Ko-ji-ki and Nihon-gi, is likewise a churning myth. Twin deities, Izanagi, the god, and Izanami, the goddess, sand on "the floating bridge of heaven" and thrust into the ocean beneath the "Jewel Spear of Heaven". With this pestle they churn the primeval waters until they curdle and form land."
(source: Myths of Pre-Columbian America - By Donald A. Mackenzie p.190-191).
Japan 's Hindu linkages
still alive
One can also see the
influence of the Indian epic Ramayana
in the traditional Japanese dance forms of 'Bugaku' and 'Gigaku'
Apart from the widely known fact that Buddhism in Japan has its
origin in India , not many probably know that so many Hindu deities surround
the life of a Japanese. Speaking at a lecture titled 'Hindu Gods and Goddesses
rooted to Japan ' here Friday, Lokesh
Chandra, the director of International Academy of Indian Culture,
highlighted how deeply Indian religion and culture has influenced Japanese
culture and tradition over the past centuries.
He said that many temples across Japan are full of Hindu deities.
He said that many temples across Japan are full of Hindu deities.
Chandra said Japanese couples who desire to have a beautiful daughter pray to goddess 'Saraswati' even to this day.
Saraswati is also believed as the patroness of writers and painters. 'In
ancient times, Japanese generals prayed to Saraswati to be victorious in war,'
Chandra told the gathering which was also attended by the Japanese Ambassador to India Yasukuni Enoki and his wife. Year 2007 is being celebrated as Japan-India Friendship Year
to commemorate the 50th year of the cultural agreement between the two
countries.
According to Chandra, who has travelled to Japan many times to
study the country's culture and tradition, Saraswati is also worshipped as the
'goddesses of kitchen'. Many traditional Japanese plays are dedicated to the
Indian deity. Sharing a trivia he said how in 1934, a Japanese woman had a
vision that she was the incarnation of goddess Saraswati and stared writing in
Sanskrit, a language she never heard off.
There is a suburban district in Tokyo
named Kichijo, which traces its roots to 'Lakshmi', the Hindu goddess of
wealth. Lakshmi was propagated to China along with Buddhism in the ancient
time, to be known as Kichijo in its Chinese form and then reached Japan as a
Buddhist goddess.
Chandra also spoke extensively about how Sanskrit language has influenced traditional Japanese calligraphy.
The Indian text was introduced into Japanese society many centuries ago. Japanese monks had to study Sanskrit in order to master Buddhism from original Indian scriptures and textbooks. Lord Ganesha in Japan symbolises the joy of life that arises from the power rooted in the virtues of wisdom and compassion. Young Japanese worship Ganesha to win in love whereas the old worship the deity to get success in business. There are roughly 100 temples dedicated to Ganesha in Japan .
The Indian text was introduced into Japanese society many centuries ago. Japanese monks had to study Sanskrit in order to master Buddhism from original Indian scriptures and textbooks. Lord Ganesha in Japan symbolises the joy of life that arises from the power rooted in the virtues of wisdom and compassion. Young Japanese worship Ganesha to win in love whereas the old worship the deity to get success in business. There are roughly 100 temples dedicated to Ganesha in Japan .
An 11th century Ganesha temple is the
oldest among them.
Together with Hindu gods and goddess, ancient Japanese society was also introduced to Indian dance forms and musical instruments. A typical example is the ' Biwa ',which actually had its origin from the Indian 'Veena'. One of Japan 's largest lake is also known as Lake Biwa . One can also see the influence of the Indian epic Ramayana in the traditional Japanese dance forms of 'Bugaku' and 'Gigaku'. The yearlong cultural celebration was kicked off here last week that was attended by former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori among others.
Together with Hindu gods and goddess, ancient Japanese society was also introduced to Indian dance forms and musical instruments. A typical example is the ' Biwa ',which actually had its origin from the Indian 'Veena'. One of Japan 's largest lake is also known as Lake Biwa . One can also see the influence of the Indian epic Ramayana in the traditional Japanese dance forms of 'Bugaku' and 'Gigaku'. The yearlong cultural celebration was kicked off here last week that was attended by former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori among others.
(source: Japan 's Hindu linkages still alive - rxpgnews.com). For more refer to chapter on Glimpses XVII.
A considerable portion of the cosmogonical and mythological literature of Japan bears traces of Indian influence. Hajime Nakamura observed ‘ Some stories of ancient India were very influential in shaping Japanese stories by providing them with materials. In the process of shaping, however, Indian materials were greatly modified and adapted in such a way as would appeal to the mentality of common people of Japan in general’ quoted from Lokesh Chandra and others – India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture.
Post Wheeler also said ‘Many fragments of the Japanese myth-mass were unmistakably Indian. The original homeland of the first man and women of Japanese mythology is said to have been in the Earth-Residence-Pillar i.e. Mount Meru of Indian mythology. There is another story of Buro-no-Kami whose identity has been established with the deity called Brave-Swift-Impetuous-male. This Kami may be none other than the Indian deity Gavagriva, the Ox-head deity. The story recounts in the style of the jatakas how the deity punished the heartless rich brother and rewarded the king hearted poor brother. In India one of the names of the moon is Sasanka (lit. having a rabbit in the lap) and there is an ancient Indian legend why it is so called. The belief prevalent in ancient Japan that there lived a rabbit in the moon was probably an outcome of the Indian influence.
The story of the monkey and the crocodile mentioned in the Jataka appears in a slightly modified form in Sasekishu, a medieval Japanese collection of popular stories. The story is referred to in a work by Nichiren 1222-82 a.d. and also in Konjaku-monogatari. Another Puranic story of the sage Rsyarnga is likely to have reach Japan in the trail of Buddhist legends. A famous medieval Japanese drama Narukami has been based on this story.
These instances clearly illustrate the nature and extent of Indian influences on Japanese stories.
Japanese literature is also replete with instances of the influence of the Indian Theory of Karma and the transmigration of the soul. Although Buddhist deities like Buddha, Maitreya, Amitabha and Vairocana predominate Japanese literature; Hindu gods are also quite well known.
|
God
|
Indian Name
|
Japanese Name
|
|
1. Seagod |
Varuna |
Suiten |
|
2. King of Gods |
Indira |
Taishakuten |
|
3. God of Success |
Ganesha |
Shoten |
|
4. God of Wealth |
Kuvera |
Bishamon |
|
5. Goddess of Learning |
Sarasvati |
Benten |
|
6. Goddess of Fortune |
Laksmi |
Kichijoten |
|
7. Mahesh |
Shiva |
Daikoku |
|
8. Divine Architect |
Visvakarman |
Bishukatsuma |
In the annals of the Todaji temple, it has been stated that the worship of Sarasvati and Laksmi was first introduced in 722 A.D. and continued down the centuries. In Bessom Zakki (Description of Gods) written in the 12th century written in the Siddham script, a corrupt Sanskrit mantra reads: ‘Sarasvatai svaha namo sarasvatyai mahadevyai svaha, namo bhagavati mahadevi sarasvati sidhyatu mantrapadami svaha’. A description of Sarasvati occurs in the voluminous text Asabasho by Shocho 1205-82 and the rituals connected with her worship have been recorded by Ryoson 1279 to 1349 in Chapter CXLIX of his Byaku-hokku-sho (The White Jewel of Indian Tradition). The adoption of these Hindu deities into the Buddhist and Shintonist pantheons of Japan indicate the influence of India on Japanese religions as well as the syncretic character of the religious systems of Japan.
The Japanese language like Sanskrit is inflectional. Its rules governing syntax, morphology, phonology and semantic structure follow a pattern of its own. The forty-seven letters of the Japanese alphabet are said to have been devised by the Japanese Buddhist saint Kobo Daishi 774-835, after the Sanskrit alphabet. The arrangement of the Japanese syllabary based on the Sanskrit system is also attributed to the influence of Bodshisena in Japan, which, according to Riri Nakayama, ‘will continue as long as the Japanese language continues to exist’. It has been pointed out that the old Japanese song ‘Iroha-uta’ which contains all the 47 Japanese letters, is a liberal translation of a Sanskrit Buddhist hymn in the Mahaparinirvana-Sutra. The Indian script known as Siddham, called His-t’an in Chinese and Shittan in Japanese gained currency in Japan for writing Sanskrit from the 8th century. It was introduced by Kobo who was responsible for bringing Mantrayana Buddhism from China to Japan.
The survey made above reveals the immense contribution of India to the theology of Japanese Buddhism as well as to Japanese literature. The present indications are that the texts utilized were all written in Sanskrit, probably in the Siddham script, and there was no intrusion of Pali, unlike in the Buddhist countries of South-East Asia.
Shinto is a polytheistic religion, venerating a vast pantheon of kami (gods or spirits) which range from the local deities of mountains or streams to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Shintoism (literally, “the way of the gods”) has been designated by some scholars as the Japanese version of Hinduism - says author Chaman Lal.
(source: Japan - esamskriti.com).
Korea
Hindu Princess Went to Korea
Korean historians believe that Queen Huh was a princess of an ancient kingdom in Ayodhya.
She went to Korea some two-thousand years ago and started the Karak dynasty by marrying a local king, Suro. Today, the historians say, Queen Huh's descendants number more than six-million, including the South Korean president - Kim Dae Jung.
A 16-year-old princess from Ayuta (Ayodhya) went to Korea in 48 ce. A 13th-century Korean text recounts Princess Heo Hwang-ok explaining that her parents: "dreamt a God came who said, 'I have sent down Suro to be king of Kaya. Suro is a holy man and is not yet married. So send your daughter to be his Queen." She sailed from India, taking a stone pagoda (left) to what is now Kimhae city.
South Korea's 72nd generation descendents of King Suro believe they are related to India's present day Raja Bimlendra Mohan Prasad Mishra, whose ancestors ruled Ayodhya. (Both families have two fishes as their insignia.) They sent delegations to India to built a monument in Ayodhya to commemorate the relationship. Though Mishra is unable to trace his ancestry back more than 300 years, he is happy to accept the Koreans' belief and their initiative to invest $2 billion to make Ayodhya a sister city of Kimhae. "It will lead to the progress of Ayodhya and I am happy, " he said. "The fact that it is associated with my family makes it special."
(source: Korean memorial to Indian princess - BBC.com).
South Koreans may have Indian genes
A genetic discovery in
South Korea has claimed that Koreans could have an Indian ancestor 2000 years
ago.
As was reported by leading South Korean newspaper Joong Ang Daily
on Friday, researchers in an archaeological survey at ancient royal tomb of
Gimhae in South Gyeongsang province, found some evidence to support claims that
Koreans have DNA traceable to South or South East Asian ethnic groups like
Indian, Malaysian or Thai.
Dr Seo Jeong-sun of Seoul National University and Kim Jong-il of Hallym University conducted the research and decoded the entire genetic code of ancient Korean remains. They have recently presented their findings at a meeting of the Korea Genome Organisation in Chuncheon, Gangwong province. The findings have gained interests in the backdrop of the popular romantic legend of an Indian princess married to a Korean king of the Great Gaya dynasty. According to the legend, the Korean king from Southeast Korea, Kim Su-ro, married an Indian princess, Heo Hwang-ok, from the ancient Indian kingdom of Ayodhya.
The stories say that Heo travelled by ship to Korea. The Great Gaya dynasty ruled Southeast Korea till 562 AD. In fact, Heo is still a common family name in Korea. The researchers now say that the myth could turn out to be true, according to the daily. More studies are in the offing. The genetic study at Gimhae tomb focused on the mitochondrial DNA in the human remains.
(source: South Koreans may have Indian genes -economictimes.com).Dr Seo Jeong-sun of Seoul National University and Kim Jong-il of Hallym University conducted the research and decoded the entire genetic code of ancient Korean remains. They have recently presented their findings at a meeting of the Korea Genome Organisation in Chuncheon, Gangwong province. The findings have gained interests in the backdrop of the popular romantic legend of an Indian princess married to a Korean king of the Great Gaya dynasty. According to the legend, the Korean king from Southeast Korea, Kim Su-ro, married an Indian princess, Heo Hwang-ok, from the ancient Indian kingdom of Ayodhya.
The stories say that Heo travelled by ship to Korea. The Great Gaya dynasty ruled Southeast Korea till 562 AD. In fact, Heo is still a common family name in Korea. The researchers now say that the myth could turn out to be true, according to the daily. More studies are in the offing. The genetic study at Gimhae tomb focused on the mitochondrial DNA in the human remains.
Nepal
India's immediate neighbors Nepal and Tibet, owe much of their cultural inheritance to contact with India. Originally the word Nepal implied the Valley, which, surrounded by the peaks of the Himalayas. The holy scriptures of the Hindu religion like the Vedas, Brahmangranthas and Upanishads are the common heritage of the Nepalese and Indians.
The Pashupatinath Temple
Skanda Puran the ancient holy text of the Hindu religion, describes the fame of Nepal as -"in the Himalayas there is a most auspicious blessed place, where Shanker (the giver of joy) in the form of Pashupatinath resides."
All ancient Hindu religious text has described Himalayas as the abode and activity of Lord Shiva in which Nepal remained the nucleus. To the west coast of river Bagmati, which arises from a sprout in the Himalayas, is the revered seat of Lord Pashupatinath.
It is said that a holy bath in the Bagmati river at this spot, praying with hymns of 'Rudri Mantra', followed by worshipping Pashupatinath Lingum with Panchamrita - curd, ghee (purified butter) sugar, honey and milk, will render the person free from the cycle of births. So is the magnanimity of Lord Pashupatinath in the minds of Hindus the world over.
The rulers of Nepal, over centuries made contributions in enriching and beautifying this holy temple. According to Gopalraj Vamsavali, the oldest ever chronicle in Nepal, this temple was built by Supus Padeva, a Linchchhavi King who according to the stone inscription erected by Jayadeva 11 in the courtyard of Pashupatinath in 753 AD happened to be the ruler 39 generation before Manadeva (464-505 AD). Yet, there is another chronicle which states that this temple was in the form of Linga shaped Devalaya before Supus Padeva constructed a five storey temple of Pashupatinath in this place. As the time passed, the need for reparing and renovating this temple arose. It is learnt that this temple was reconsturcted by a mediaeval King named Shivadeva (1099-1126 AD). It was renovated by Ananta Malla adding a roof to it.
(source: http://www.shripashupatinath.org/thelegend.asp).
Lord Gautam Buddha, the light of Asia, who was born in Lumbini in Nepal, trekked down to the plains in India in search of Enlightenment.
It is a proven fact that Valmiki, the composer of renowned epic the Ramayana, saw the light of the world within Nepal at Balmikinagar in Bhisalotoan.
Nepal has never known religious conflict and persecutions, and even today Hinduism and Buddhism live together in complete harmony. Nepalese sculpture and painting is in a style derived from the Pala art of Bihar and Bengal. Many of the laws of Nepal and its social organizations naturally reflect Hindu models, and the Nepalese language is very close to Sanskrit. But the Hindu civilization in Nepal has evolved a distinct character of its own, effected through a blending of its own traditions with those of Tibet.
Tibet
It cannot be denied that Tibet has borrowed its culture and civilization from India. Tibet, whose art is close to that of Nepal was, in fact, adopted the Pala tradition of India, through Nepal and Kashmir.
Over the centuries, as Buddhism took hold throughout Tibet, the artistic traditions of India influenced Tibetan art. India brought the tradition of painting figures to Tibetan art, while China taught Tibetan artists to visualize nature.
The art of Tibetan Lamaism retains strong elements drawn from Hinduism and Buddhism in India. In architecture, the chorten, or Tibetan stupa was derived from Indian prototypes. Except for Buddhism in the 7th century, Tibet scarcely allowed any other foreign cultural influence within her national frontiers. In fact, Tibet was the last country to embrace Buddhism, which by the 7th century was thriving in many other lands. According to the Tibetan chronicles, the talented king Songtsan-Gampo married the daughter of Amsuvarman, daughter of Nepal's King, and in deference to the new queen's belief which he himself favored, built a great temple known as Jokhang to house her image of Buddha. He also compelled the Emperor of China to give him Princess Wen Ch'eng in marriage. She too was Buddhist and brought to Tibet the famous Buddha image now enshrined in Jokhang. Once the practice of visiting India had begun, many Tibetan students went to India to study Buddhism, and Sanskrit texts began to pour into Tibet. Indian and Chinese scholars visited Tibet and helped to translate and interpret. It was during this period that the celebrated sandalwood image of Avalokitesvara, the compassionate Buddha, now worshipped in the palace of the Dalai Lama, was supposedly brought to Tibet by Indian scholars.
Other Indian influences also found their way to Tibet. For instance the Tibetan medical system owes to origin to the Ayurvedic system of India. Tibetan Tantric forms are almost indistinguishable from Hindu Tantras, and certain Tantric images like Halahal-avalokitesvara and Nilkant-avalokitesvara are derived from Lord Shiva.
Ancient Vishnu idol
found in Russian town
Moscow: An ancient statue of Lord Vishnu has been found during excavation in an old village in
Russia 's Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the
origin of ancient Russia.
Russia
Ancient Vishnu idol
found in Russian town
Moscow: An ancient statue of Lord Vishnu has been found during excavation in an old village in
Russia 's Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the
origin of ancient Russia.
Kozhevin, who has been conducting excavation
in Staraya Maina for last seven years, said that every single square metre of
the surroundings of the ancient town situated on the banks of Samara, a
tributary of Volga , is studded with antiques. Prior to unearthing of the Vishnu idol, Dr Kozhevin has already found ancient coins, pendants, rings and fragments of weapons. He believes that today's Staraya Maina, a town of eight thousand, was ten times more populated in the ancient times. It is from here that people started moving to the Don and Dneiper rivers around the time ancient Russy built the city of Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine.
An international conference is being organised later this year to study the legacy of the ancient village, which can radically change the history of ancient Russia.
Lake Baikal, which is in Siberia, was known to Hindus as lake Vaikhanas; there was a group of rishis known as vaikhanas, who meditated on the shores of the lake. Vaikhanas means deep and powerful thought.
"The pre-Buddhist cult of the Siberian Buryats was Shamanism where elements of nature and topographic edifications were freely fused with Shaman songs extolling Indra, Agni and other Indian deities. These fascinating songs were prevalent only half a century ago. Now they ar e known from Prof. Zmacarano's collections done in the early part of this century."
"By the end of the 17th century, Buddhism was firmly entrenched among the Siberian Buryats."
"In the 1740's Jinba the son of Aghaldai finished his education at the Ton Khor Manjushri monastery, returned to his country and there be built a monastery. Asking for permission to spread the Dharma, he got the command, 'You enter the temple of the Lord and a pothi or holy book and a painted scroll.' He did as he was ordered. When the holy book was examined, it turned out to be sabs-rgyas-mchaghum, and when the painting was examined, it turned out to be Sridevi (Okin tngri)."
"Special sanctity is attached to the Monastery of the Pandita Khampo Lama or the Buddhist Patriarch of Siberia. In 1870, a gigantic statue of Maitreya, measuring 44 cubits was installed at his monastery."
"In 1816 was founded the Aginsky monastery which became the foremost seat of learning in Siberia. It has surved to this day. The major monasteries were 33 in number and they had 50000 xylographic blocks for printing 1696 Buddhist texts and woodcut illustrations."
"The Siberian monastic Universities had four faculties: 1. Philosophy, ii. Tantra, iii. Jyotisha (or Kalachakra), iv. Ayurveda. The texts which were studied there had been translated from or inspired by Sanskrit. To this day, some of these books are preserved in the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR."
"The monasteries still welcome you with yoghurt mixed
with honey and milk, that is Indian madhuparka.
The ashtamangala emblems embellish the walls of temples. In the library the
rare Yisunerdeni-yin Ganjur in 101 tomes is a collection of Nava-ratna
manuscripts written in nine inks prepared from silver, mumin, coral, turquoise,
gold, copper, peals, iron and conch. It is a pearl of their literature,
comprising over a 1000 texts translated from Sanskrit. Every text opens with
Engdkeg-un kele-ber 'in the language of India, i.e., in Sanskrit.' The writer
has brought 14 texts on Ganapati.
One of them is Arya-ganapati-stuti, written by the great Siddha Kanhapada.
Another small manuscript on the Mahavinayaka-rupa-upadesa which deals with the
contemplative form of Vinayaka."
"The Ramayana is also known from Siberian folklore. The Research Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. has the manuscripts of Prof. Golstunsky's work on a short version of the Ramayana in the Kalmuk language."
(source: India and Siberia - By Lokesh Chandra; in Vishveshwaranand Indological Journal, vol. X11.1-2 March -September 1974; pg. 192-197).
"The Ramayana is also known from Siberian folklore. The Research Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. has the manuscripts of Prof. Golstunsky's work on a short version of the Ramayana in the Kalmuk language."
(source: India and Siberia - By Lokesh Chandra; in Vishveshwaranand Indological Journal, vol. X11.1-2 March -September 1974; pg. 192-197).
Cultural Relations of India and Siberia - By Dr. Lokesh Chandra
"The Siberian Patriarch reveres the Holy Water of Ganga Our journey to Siberia was a mission of friendship, a mission to renew our common ancient traditions, and to instill a new significance into them, and above all to carry the Holy Water of the Ganga. For the last few centuries the Siberian Buryats have not seen the Holy Water. They have substituted the water of Ganga by the water of Lake Baikal. They say that the water of Lake Baikal can last up to ten years if kept along with its pebbles and without them for five years. I have myself brought the water of this `Siberian Ganga' as we may call it. The Buryats wanted to be blessed again by the Holy Water of Ganga and that too auspiciously by the sons and daughters of India. One evening we offered the Holy Ganga Water to the Patriarch with due ceremony. It was already fast approaching night, it was the hour of non-substantiality. With the Buryats Dharma is not a ritual but an evocation. It is the finesse of life. The vessel containing Ganga os, or Ganga-jala, must be commensurate with the profundity of the object, which it carries. Before receiving the water the patriarch recited Sanskrit mantras, visibly moved. It was a historic moment in his life. The Patriarch went on reciting Sanskrit mantras while Ganga-jala was being poured form the Indian to the Buryat vessel. When some drops fell into the tray I was wondering as to what would he do with them. He paid due homage to the fallen drops and poured and them into his vessel. Such is the reverence for the water of Ganga in those remote parts of the inhabited world. There is hardly a country in Asia which does not revere Ganga. If the Holy Water is not available, then the water of indigenous rivers is converted into Ganga Water by special sadhanas. It is a special genre of worship in Asian countries. Likewise the Siberian Buryats convert their water of Baikal into Ganga water by specific offerings and Mantras."
Meghaduta in Siberia
"I met a gentlemen who was interested in the history of Buryat literature. He told me that the first lyric in his language is the `Meghaduta', which was translated from Sanskrit. They have folk poetry, which is earlier, but the `Meghaduta' forms their earliest written kavya. They have also a translation of the Kavyadarsha. They have not only this translation, but also commentaries on it citing instances from their own language, because the translation of the kavyadarsha illustrates only from Sanskrit, whose assonances, alliteration and the like are lost in translation. So how can they sense the flow and subtle nuances of poetry in its translated form? The alternative left is to cite example from their own literature. That is what they have done in their autochthonous commentaries. Now they are trying to understand the kavyadarsha. I have sent them many Sanskrit editions with English translations."
Siberians eager to study Sanskrit
According to official reports there are half a million people who adhere to their age-long faith, which is a mixture of Buddhism,
Tantrism and Shaivism and other `ways' (yana) that has traveled there from this country. It is a syncretic faith, wherein India is the Holy Land, Sanskrit the divine language, mantras are recited in Sanskrit, and every child has a certain `samskara'. These half-a-million people look towards India for academic and cultural relations. They are keen to start Sanskrit studies in their colleges. Some even want to study technical texts like the Ashtanga-hridaya of Vagbhata in Ayurveda, which was translated in their language centuries ago.
Ayurveda in Siberia
Ayurveda is a living element of Buryat life. They term it `national medicine'. From Siberia this national medicine (Ayurveda) travelled to European Russia. During the early part of the century, at Leningrad there was a famour Siberian doctor, Badmayef by name. His
name is Sanskrit Padma with the Russian suffix-yef. He had also been summoned to treat Stalin. During the purges he was liquidated and Ayurveda went into oblivion. For the last few years researches on Siberian Ayurveda have been going on. I have brought two xylographs from Siberia about their medicinal system. They illustrate every herb, mineral and animal mentioned in Vagbhata's Ashtanga-hridaya. It is the first time in the history of Ayurveda that complete materia medica has been illustrated. Its tradition goes back to the seventh century. The illustration of anatomical details and surgical instruments referred to by Sushruta are unique.
To Siberia, India is the embodied Divine
Freezing Siberia is a land where monasteries had the academic traditions of Nalanda, where Sanskrit names are still prevalent, where the Holy Water of Ganga is deeply revered, where mantras ring forth in the immensities of space and silence, where you may witness the madhuparka offered with wooden spoons in the true traditions of the shruti, where purnima and amavasya are holy days with `white food', where Mahakala pervades the primaeval vastnesses, where stotras to Goddess Tara are hummed amidst the clanging and sonorous instruments, where Panini is the model for their linguistic development, where Meghaduta is their first lyric, where Ayurveda is revealed in the fullness of its tradition, where an entire literature inspired by India is preserved, where blessings are given on the triple planes of kaya, vak and citta, where the saffron is the color of sanctity, where mantras are still written in the ornamental Indian script termed Ranjana, where pure gold illumines large scroll paintings, where people wonder at the size of India's lotuses on which their Gods and Goddesses sit or stand, and so on.
(source: Cultural Relations of India and Siberia - Dr. Lokesh Chandra - Dialogue October - December, 2001 , Volume 3 No. 2).
***
Historic
ties
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/10/11/stories/05111305.htm
Sir, - It augurs well for strengthening the
bond between India and Russia when so many political leaders have openly
acknowledged the importance of the age-old relationship between India and
Russia, during the recent visit of the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin
(The Hindu, Oct. 5). While Mr. Vajpayee has drawn our attention to the correspondence between Mahatma Gandhi and the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), I would like to go back much earlier even to the Puranic age when India had established cultural contacts with that part of the globe which is at present called Russia.
It appears that a few years ago a Russian orientalist by name Prof. Ribakov from Moscow went to Kanchi to have the darshan and receive the blessings of the late Kanchi Paramacharya. The Paramacharya asked the Russian professor: ``Does not the northernmost part of Russia have more Sanskrit content in the language?'' The professor was stunned. This scholar, who came to ask questions, shed tears of joy at the very sight of the Paramacharya and was dumbfounded at the depth of his scholarship. The Paramacharya further explained to the Russian that Russia was called `Rishi Varsha' in ancient Indian geography, because it was the land where our Rishis like sage Yagnavalkya had their conference on the Vedas. This could further be corroborated by the fact that some women in the northernmost point of Russia have names like Lopamudrova, which is stunningly close to Lopamudra, wife of sage Agastya.
It may be recalled that during the Sankalpa (a solemn vow to perform an observance) at the time of Pooja, we frequently use the term Jambu Dweepa. This term actually means the entire region covering Asia and Europe, as is evidenced from descriptions in Puranic geography. Even today I understand that in the USSR while writing the postal address, the name of the country is written first and then followed by such specifications as the city, town, area, street number, etc., in that sequence. This is an ancient Hindu tradition which we follow even today during our daily Sankalpa in Pujas.
B. M. N. Murthy, Bangalore
Latvia - In 1862 itself, Latvian intellectuals, litterateurs and academics had arrived at the conclusion, based on the findings of German linguists, that the ancient Sanskrit language was, in all respects, nearer to Latvian and Lithuanian than to any other foreign language. Besides this, Latvian researchers identified similarities between pre-Christian Latvian mythology, religious traditions, folklore and Indian mythology and the Hindu pantheon of gods.
(source: Prof. Ivbulis: Ardent Indologist & Tagore Scholar Tour India February 2001)
Conclusion
According to D. P. Singhal, " Whatever be the precise nature of the process of Indian cultural alliance and influence, its extent was deep and extensive, and it effects were felt in all aspects of culture from religious thought to the technical skills in agriculture and handicrafts. First, the Indian alphabetic system, which is still used in Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Laos, was introduced, followed by the introduction of Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature," playing just the same part as Latin in Mediaeval Europe. India also taught her political system centered on the king, and her main religious beliefs. Her sacred texts, and her great epics, were so well learnt throughout this India beyond the seas that they became naturalized in each of these lands. Finally, India unfolded the secrets of her mathematics and astronomy, making possible calendar calculations of much greater accuracy than in the past, and all her technical skill in husbandry and handicrafts."
(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal).
George Coedes (1886 -1969) author of Ancient Hinduized states of the Far East, has pointed out the enduring value of Hindu culture in Outer or Greater India:
"One is struck by the fundamental difference in the results achieved in the countries of the Far East, by the civilizing action of China and that of India. The reason of it lies in the radical difference in the methods of colonization, employed by the Chinese and by the Hindus. The Chinese proceeded with conquest and by annexation: the armies occupied the lands and the officials spread the Chinese civilization. The Hindu penetration and infiltration seem to have almost always been peaceful and unaccompanied by those destructions, which disgrace the Mongol cavalcade or the Spanish conquest of America. Far from being destroyed by the conquerors, the indigenous people have found in the Hindu society, transplanted and made supple, a frame, in which their own societies have been able to integrate and develop themselves." "The exchange of ambassadors between the two shores of the Bay of Bengal was done on a footing of equality, whereas China always required of the " barbarians of the south" the recognition of her suzerainty, which was expressed by the regular payment of tribute."
"The lands, militarily conquered by China, had to adopt or imitate her institutions, customs, religions, language and script. On the contrary, those, whom India peacefully conquered, by the prestige of her culture, have preserved the essence of their individual characters and have developed them, each according to its own genius."
(source: Les états Hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie - By George Coedes p. 64-66).
Thus at a time, when Europe was still uncivilized, Indian culture, was highly civilized and had made its mark from Siberia to Cambodia, Java and Vietnam and beyond.
Swami B. V. Tripurari Americna born, has eloquently stated:
"The subtlety of Indian society, marks its superiority to Europe. It was a subtlety of spiritual outlook that Europeans failed to appreciate. The theory that India, Mother India, is the earthly source of spirituality can be to some extent supported by the fact that India is still today the most religious country in the world, with a theology that dates back to antiquity. The idea that she is the source of civilization as well, although supporting evidence is available, will ultimately require that modern man reevaluate what constitutes civilization before it gains wider acceptance."
(source: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Ignorance - Swami B. V. Tripurari p. 37).
(Note: It
is the norm to debunk the Calcutta scholars, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Kalidas Nag and
others, who launched the Greater India Society in the Twenties. They did so
with Rabindranath Tagore’s blessings,
but the inspiration came from the writings of the famous orientalist, Sylvain Levi.
Then George Coedes,
director of L’Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient, wrote his classic work, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia .
Yet, such are the distortions of politics that the Greater India Society
pioneers are dismissed as bombastic nationalists impelled only by the urge to
flaunt in the face of their British rulers the boast that enslaved though they
might be, their ancestors were also proud imperialists with their own quota of
Charlemagnes, Bismarcks and Machiavellis.
Southeast Asia ’s Islamic revival is largely responsible
for denying its Indian past, though Islam was taken there by Indian mariners,
merchants and maulvis. European
colonists are equally to blame.
When a French company lost a restoration contract for Angkor Wat, for
instance, it spread the canard that Indian cleansing methods were damaging the
temple. “Can Hindus who gave us our
gods ever destroy them?” asked an incredulous Cambodian when told of the
rumour. Given such malign forces, the disconnect between India and its cultural
umbra is not surprising. Nor the fact, as a Singaporean author remarked
recently, that the Indian Ocean is Indian only in name.
Sardar Kavalam
Madhava Panikkar (1896-1963) Indian
scholar, journalist, historian from Kerala, administrator, diplomat, Minister
in Patiala Bikaner and Ambassador to China, Egypt and France. Author of several
books, including Asia and Western Dominance, India Through the ages and India and the Indian Ocean.
As Panikkar wrote in India and the Indian Ocean: An Essay on the Influence of Sea Power on
Indian History, India and Southeast Asia constitute a single entity
“connected integrally in their political, social and economic life”. Since it
had been proved that “the power which
controls India can at all times control the East Indies”, Panikkar stressed the importance of India
playing a leading role in the ocean that bears her name.
(source: Ancient Indian Logic - By Sunanda Dattaray - telegraphindia.com).
For interesting article refer to:
Great
Expectations: Hindu Revival Movements in Java, Indonesia
by Thomas Reuter - http://www.swaveda.com/articles.php?action=show&id=49
by Thomas Reuter - http://www.swaveda.com/articles.php?action=show&id=49
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
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