The Vanishing Mandala of Srivijaya

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ps://www.academia.edu/98651522/Book_on_Rajmandala

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 INTRODUCTION

The Vanishing Mandala of Srivijaya

Dr UdayDokras

Fast Facts
1. Name: Srivijaya Empire
2. Origin: Unified Indianized kingdoms that established economic
control over the Straits of Malacca
3. Language: Ancient Malay
4. Religion: Buddhism (minor Hinduism)
Era: 7th-13th Centuries CE
Location: Centered on Sumatra, Java, and Peninsular Malaysia.
Capital: Palembang
Decline: Attacks from the Chola dynasty weakened Srivijaya and
they were soon replaced by more powerful Javanese kingdoms.

Glossary
Buddhism
Dharmic religion centered on the belief of karma and release from
the cycle of reincarnation. Based on the teachings of Siddhartha
Gautama.
Cham
Austronesian ethnic group native to Southeast Asia that once
controlled the Hindu Champa civilization in the region of modern
Vietnam. Today, the Cham people are a minority in Vietnam and
largely practice Islam.
Champa
An Indianized Hindu kingdom in ancient Vietnam known for
constructing ThápChàm, their iconic Cham Towers dedicated to
Shiva and other Hindu deities.
Chenla Kingdom
Early period (6th-9th Centuries CE) of independent Khmer states
before being united into the Khmer Empire by Jayavarman II.
Dvaravati
Mon-Burmese ethnic group based in modern NakhonPathom,
Thailand. Responsible for the introduction of Buddhism (Theravada
sect) to Thailand.
Hinduism
Dharmic religion centered on the belief of karma and release from
the cycle of reincarnation. It stems from Vedic teachings and one of
the oldest extant religions in the world.

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 Khmer Empire
Hindu-Buddhist kingdom which ruled much of Southeast Asia from
their capital at Angkor.
Strait of Malacca
Narrow waterway between Sumatra and the Malaysian Peninsula
that has been one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world
throughout history.
Srivijaya Empire
Empire based in Sumatra which controlled or influenced Buch of the
Malay archipelago circa 600-1200 CE.
thalassocracy
A maritime society that uses its navy to project power.
Vajrayana Buddhism
Sect of Buddhism that embraces tantric practices and mysticism.

INTRODUCTION
Press Conference on Unveiling of the WORLD MANDALA MONUMENT

The term "World Mandala Monument" most likely refers to a specific

monument created by Neil Tetkowski, which was unveiled at the United
Nations headquarters in 2002. This monument was created using soil and
clay samples from the 188 UN member states at the time, symbolizing
both individual and global identity. It was also intended to represent
sustainable development and the interconnectedness of humanity.

The Monument's Purpose:

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The World Mandala Monument was designed to be a symbol of unity and
sustainable development, reflecting the interconnectedness of all nations
and generations. The monument is composed of soil and clay gathered
from the 188 UN member states at the turn of the millennium,
highlighting the diversity of the global community. The monument was
unveiled at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, and was
on public display for a period of time. The mandala design itself is a
geometric symbol that originated in India and is used in various spiritual
and ritual contexts. In this context, it represents the interconnectedness
of humanity and the shared responsibility for sustainable
development. The unveiling of the monument coincided with the
preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, further
emphasizing its connection to this global initiativ
World Mandala Monument to be unveiled at United Nations Headquarters
today was a symbol of the United Nations in that, for the first time ever
and symbolically speaking, the boundaries between the 188 Member
States had been dissolved, the artist Neil Tetkowsky told 7 correspondents
this morning at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The Monument sculpted by
Mr. Tetkowsky will be unveiled this afternoon at 4 p.m. as part of an
exhibit being held in conjunction with the two-week meeting of the
Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development. The Monument is composed of soil and clay samples
collected from the 188 States who were United Nations Members at the
turn of the millennium. Mr. Tetkowsky is a New York City artist and the
founding director of the Common Ground World Project, a non-
governmental organization that uses the arts and education to focus
attention on global, environmental and human concerns. His work appears
in 30 museums around the world and he has recently become the
recipient of a Ford Foundation grant. Mr. Tetkowsky said the idea behind
the eight-foot sculpture was to create a symbol of oneness for everyone
on the planet. Just as the United Nations was a symbol, so the sculpture
symbolized the dual aspect of cultural identity today; the need to preserve
and maintain individual identity, while at the same time assuming a global
identity.

A mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”) is an artistic representation of higher

thought and deeper meaning. The details of such thought and meaning
depend on the individual creating or observing the image, but mandalas
in every culture serve, more or less, the same purpose of centering an
individual or community on a given narrative in order to encourage
introspection and, ultimately, an awareness of one’s place and purpose in
the world; this awareness then allows for peace of mind. There is no set
definition for the meaning or even the form of a mandala, nor could there
be, since it appears in the art and architecture – in one form or another –
of various cultures around the world. The image and use of the term first
appear in India via the Hindu text known as the Rig Veda c. 1500 - c. 500

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BCE where it is an image and also the name of the books which comprise
the work. It was, and is, also used as a meditative tool and spiritual
exercise in the belief systems of Jainism, Buddhism, and Shintoism,
appears in Persian art, as the Ishtar Star Symbol (and others) from
Mesopotamia, figures in Mesoamerican architecture and Native American
art, and was used by the Celts of the Iberian peninsula and Northern
Europe, to name only a few cultures. The image is usually defined as a
circle decorated with imagery which directs the mind of the observer (or
creator) inwards from the outer rim toward deeper reflection on the
meaning and purpose of life, the nature of the universe, the substance
and reality of God, the true nature of the self, the underlying form of
reality, cosmological truths, and, actually, any other spiritual,
psychological, or emotional aspect of one’s life.

WHATEVER ELSE THE MANDALA MAY REPRESENT TO AN INDIVIDUAL, IT

ESSENTIALLY REFLECTS ORDER & IS UNDERSTOOD AS AN ALMOST SELF
CREATED IMAGE OF THAT ORDER. 8 Although the circle is the most
common form, a mandala may also be a square enclosing a circle or a
series of circles, a square alone, a circle enclosing an image (such as a
star or flower), and a rectangle enclosing a circle. Mandalas are defined in
many different ways, however, and are not limited to any of these
geometric shapes exclusively. The best example of this is the Celtic Cross
which is considered by some scholars a mandala. In the modern day, the
most extensive, groundbreaking work on the meaning and purpose of the
mandala was pioneered by the iconic Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung
(l. 1875-1961 CE) who devotes considerable time to the subject in a
number of his works. To Jung, the mandala was the key to self-
understanding and self-acceptance; by creating mandalas, one could
come to know one’s self more completely, recognize unhealthy thoughts
and behaviors, and move closer to the center of one’s actual being,
leaving behind the various illusions of the self which clouded and confined
one’s psychological and spiritual vision. Jung’s work opened up the
possibility for the secular uses of the mandala – though he consistently
emphasized its spiritual power and use – and popularized the image in the
West. In the present day, mandalas appear in significant numbers around
the world in both religious and secular contexts and have gained a
significant following among those who use the image to manage stress.
Mandala in Hinduism Whatever else the mandala may represent to an
individual, it essentially reflects order – whether of the cosmos, nation,
community, or self – but is understood as an almost self-created image of
that order.

The person who draws the mandala in paint or chalk or creates it with
colored sand or yarn or any other material, is thought to be generating
the image from some higher source. This source does not necessarily
have to be a supernatural entity of any kind (it could be one’s higher self)
but, in the beginning, it definitely was. Hinduism is known by adherents as
Sanatan Dharma (“Eternal Order”), and the order it references was
established by an all-powerful supernatural entity, too overwhelming for

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the human mind to comprehend, who created, maintained, and also was
the Universe.

At some point in the ancient past, Brahman “spoke” the eternal truths of
existence which were “heard” by sages of India while in a deep,
meditative state. This knowledge came to be regarded as shruti (“what is
heard”) and retained in oral form until it was set down in writing as the
Vedas during the Vedic Period (c. 1500 - c. 500 BCE), with the Rig Veda
thought to have been written first. 9 The Vedas (Rig-veda)-by BernardM
(CC BY-SA) The Rig Veda is comprised of ten books, known as mandalas,
containing 1,028 hymns of 10,600 verses relating to religious
understanding and practice. Since Brahman was understood as beyond
human comprehension, it was thought that the entity appeared to people
as avatars – forms and aspects of itself – through which one could connect
with the source of all life. In time, this ideology developed the concept of a
higher self within each individual known as the Atman which was a divine
spark of Brahman linking one to all other living things and to the Universe
itself. The purpose of life was to attain oneness with the Atman through
adherence to one’s duty (dharma) performed with the right action (karma)
in order to liberate one’s self from the cycle of rebirth and death
(samsara) and achieve liberation (moksha).

The Rig Veda provided guidance toward this liberation through its
mandalas which encouraged an audience to question perceived reality,
reject illusion, and pursue true knowledge and wisdom concerning the self
and the world. Each book of the Rig Veda is, in fact, a mandala as it leads
one from the outer rim of understanding toward the center of meaning.
The images which came to accompany the text – and which are the oldest
mandalas in the world – served as illustrations of the truth of the vision as
received by Brahman. This work established the basic use of the image of
the mandala which has continued up through the present: a kind of self-
teaching tool to elevate the mind from the mundane to the sublime. 10
The Nastika Schools Toward the end of the Vedic Period, c. 600 BCE, there
was a spiritual and cultural shift in India which encouraged various
thinkers to question the Hindu vision. The Vedas were written, and
recited, in Sanskrit by the priests – a language the people could not
understand – and so were also interpreted by the clergy for the people.
Objections to this practice encouraged questions concerning the validity
of the entire belief system and so a number of philosophical schools arose
which either supported the orthodox Hindu view or rejected it. Those
schools who supported it were known as astika (“there exists”), and those
who rejected Hindu thought were known as nastika (“there does not
exist”).

The best known nastika schools were Charvaka, Jainism, and Buddhism,
all three of which came to use the mandala in their own systems.
Charvaka: The Charvaka mandala represents the central belief of the
school that only perceivable reality of the four elements of air, earth, fire,
and water exists. Charvaka was founded by the reformer Brhaspati (l. c.

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600 BCE) who completely rejected any supernatural concepts and insisted
on direct, personal experience as the only means of establishing truth.
The Charvakan mandala reflects this as an image of the four elements
each enclosed in a circle within a broader circle. The mandala, in this
case, would have encouraged one’s belief in materialism and the
materialistic truth of the human condition and prevented the mind from
wandering to speculative thought on higher powers or any other meaning
in life other than pursuing one’s own pleasure and recognizing the
observable world as the only reality. Four Elements-by Mana Lesman -
Vardhamana Mahavira by Jules Jain (CC BY-NC-SA) Jainism: Jainism was
expounded by the sage Vardhamana (better known as Mahavira, l. c. 599
527 BCE). Although often referenced as Jainism’s founder, he is known by
adherents as the 24th tirthankara (“ford builder”), one in a long line of
enlightened souls who recognized the illusory nature of existence and
freed themselves (and then others) through adherence to a strict spiritual
discipline which broke the cycle of samsara and led to liberation. Jains
observe this same discipline in the hope of reaching the same goal.

Jain mandalas illustrate this path and discipline through images of

Mahavira (or an earlier tirthankara) in the center of a circle enclosed by
ever-widening squares in which representations of various divine spirits
(devas) or 11 life-conditions appear. The details of a Jain mandala vary
but, frequently, Mahavira appears in the center and the observer is invited
to travel the image from the outer rim of distraction and illusion toward
the central truth revealed by Mahavira. An observer, in the stillness of
contemplation, is thereby provided with a kind of spiritual map of the Jain
path. Buddhism: Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the
Buddha, l. c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) who recognized that people suffered in life
by insisting on permanent states of being in a world of constant change.
After his enlightenment, he taught a spiritual discipline which encouraged
detachment from craving for permanence and fear of loss as well as
shedding one’s ignorance of the true nature of existence which trapped
the soul in the unending suffering of samsara. His Four Noble Truths and
Eightfold Path, he taught, would lead one to the liberation of nirvana. His
illustration of the cycle of samsara,

The Wheel of Becoming, is a mandala which illustrates how the soul

suffers through ignorance, craving, and fear and his teachings show one
how to escape from the cycle of the wheel. The Buddhist mandalas are as
varied as any other school of thought but provide one with a visual
representation of the Buddhist vision. This vision can take many forms,
from Buddha appearing at the center to a depiction of Buddhist
cosmology, an illustration of one’s progress along the Eightfold Path, or
the story of Buddha’s journey from illusion to enlightenment. Buddhists
sometimes create a mandala from colored sand, carefully crafting the
piece, only to then wipe it away in recognition of the impermanence of all
things. Tibetan Sand Mandala by Lisette Barlow (CC BY-NC-ND) All three of
these schools used the mandala to reinforce their visions of the nature of
life and one’s place in it but, in time - or perhaps even from the very start

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- the mandala developed a life and power of its own through which, it is
said, the act of creating the image directed the person doing so in the
story it told and the truth it revealed. One was not, in other words,
creating an image consciously the way one would draw a picture but was
'receiving' the image from some deeper or higher source.

Jung & the Mandala Carl Jung was the first to explore this aspect of the
mandala in the West and popularized its usage. In his autobiography
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he describes his early experience with the
mandala c. 1918-1919 CE: It was only toward the end of the First World
War that I gradually began to emerge from the darkness…I sketched
every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, a mandala, which
seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time. With the help of
these drawings, I could observe my psychic transformations from day to
day…Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: “Formation,
Transformation, Eternal Mind’s eternal recreation”. And that is the self,
the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious, but
which cannot tolerate self-deceptions. My mandalas were cryptograms
concerning the state of the self which were presented to me anew each
day…When I began drawing the mandalas, I saw that everything, all the
paths I had been following, all the steps I had taken, were leading back to
a single point, namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to
me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the
path to the center, to individuation. (195-196) The concepts Jung
expresses here are, essentially, the same as those presented by the
mandalas of the Rig Veda and those of the later nastika schools. The
mandala, whatever form it takes, encourages the individual to explore the
nature of the self in relation to the self, to others, to circumstances, and to
the wider world of experience. Whether one is focusing on an image of the
Hindu deity Ganesha (remover of obstacles) at the center of a mandala,
an image of the elements, Mahavira, Buddha, or a lotus flower, one is
encouraged to reflect upon one’s path in life, the choices one has made
and their consequences, and what one might do differently or the same. It
is hardly surprising that Jung should express the same concepts as the
ancient belief systems of India, first, because he was well-versed in them
but also because of his belief in what he called the Collective Unconscious,
a broad body of universal knowledge shared, at an unconscious level, by
all members of a species. Jung cited this Collective

Unconscious to explain, for example, why the pyramid shape appears in

so many ancient cultures which had no contact, why certain archetypes
such as the Wise Sage, the Trickster, the Tree of Life, the Great Mother,
the Shadow appear in the art, literature, scripture, and architecture of
ancient cultures, independent of each other, the world over. In the same
way, Jung felt, the mandala was an archetype which the individual
responded to naturally because, at some deep level, the observer already
recognized the image as a potent symbol of transformation and change,
of a recognition of established order and one’s place in it. 13 Tibetan Star
Mandala- by Poke2001 (CC BY-SA) Conclusion No matter how seemingly

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different the varied cultures of the world may be, the mandala appears –
in one form or another – in virtually all of them. Jung defines it as “an
instrument of contemplation” (Archetypes, 356) and notes the universal
spiritual and psychological importance of moving from the outside – the
external world – toward the center – the self – in order to achieve full
individuation, in order to recognize, and become, the self. The externals
depicted on the outside of the mandala are parts of that self, just as all
the others drawing the observer toward the center are, but it is toward
that center that one’s attention is drawn, and toward which one naturally
moves. Jung writes: The energy of the central point is manifested in the
almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as
every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its
nature, no matter what the circumstances. This center is not felt or
thought of as the ego but, if one may so express it, as the self.
(Archetypes, 357) The mandala has appeared on the covers of the Torah
and Tanakh, is regularly seen in depictions of Christian saints with a halo
of light surrounding their heads and in other Christian iconography,
decorates the covers of the Quran and elevates the mind as the colorful
and intricate design of the ceilings of mosques. Native Americans of the
north and south regions used the mandala, whether as direct
representations of a deity or the cosmos or to symbolize a spiritual
journey, state of mind, or to ward off bad spirits as with the circular hoop
design known as a dreamcatcher. Mandalas of the Shinto religion of Japan
follow the same paradigm, and mandalas also appear in Greek works and
designs, notably those featuring the “evil eye”, which deflect bad luck and
curses. The ancient Celts made use of the circle within a circle, decorated
with various designs, which corresponds to the mandala, as did the
ancient Mesopotamians in symbols of their deities. The soapstone seals of
the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, thought to correspond in usage
to the Mesopotamian cylinder seals, can also be understood as a kind of
mandala in that they depict a central image, toward which one’s attention
is drawn, accompanied by symbols enclosed in a circle. The mandala has
been a part of the human experience for thousands of years, but ever
since the popularization of the works of Jung in the 1960s CE and, more
so, after the widespread popularity of the work of the scholar Joseph
Campbell (whose theories are informed by Jung) in the 1970s-1980s CE,
the significance of the image has been recognized far more fully in the
West. Spiritual centers, yoga classes, grief therapy counselors, and many
more institutions and professional occupations utilize the mandala in
helping their clientele.

The Srivijayan mandala was a political and social structure

centered around Srivijaya, a powerful thalassocracy (maritime-
based empire) that controlled vital sea routes in Southeast
Asia. It wasn't a fixed territorial entity, but rather a fluid network
of alliances and dependencies, radiating outwards from the
central court in concentric circles. This mandala thrived by
managing trade, resources, and alliances, rather than through
rigid territorial control.

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Key aspects of the Srivijayan mandala:
 Centralized Power:

The mandala's power emanated from Srivijaya's central

court, which exerted influence through alliances and
control over trade routes.
 Fluid Boundaries:
The mandala's borders were not fixed, and its extent
fluctuated based on the court's ability to maintain alliances
and manage trade.
 Control of Trade:
Srivijaya's strategic location in the Strait of
Malacca allowed it to dominate trade routes and extract
revenue from passing ships.
 Alliances and Dependencies:
The mandala consisted of various polities, some of which
were tributary states, while others maintained their own
commercial interests and resources.
 Examples of Mandalas within Srivijaya:
Kedah in the Malay Peninsula is cited as an example of a
polity integrated into the Srivijayan mandala.
 Shifting Power Dynamics:
The relationship between Srivijaya and other polities could
shift, with some becoming more powerful and even
challenging Srivijaya's dominance at times.

In essence, the Srivijayan mandala was a dynamic and

complex system of interconnected polities, held together by
the central power of Srivijaya and its control over vital
trade and resources

Srivijaya Empire, a maritime power based in Sumatra that controlled

ancient Indonesia and the China-India trade routes. The Straits of
Malacca are often cities as the busiest commercial shipping route on
Earth. Fly into any major airport along the Straits of Malacca today — be
it Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, or Penang — and you will see the narrow
strip of water (2.8 km at its narrowest) filled with dozens to hundreds of
cargo ships. This trend has remained unchanged for over 2000 years,
when these waterways were also used in transit between the cultural
goliaths of China and India, and were ruled over by the Srivijaya

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 Empire.

Who Are the Srivijaya?

The Srivijayaempire was a thalassocracy (a seaborne empire) and a
commercial sea-power that thrived between the 8th and 13th centuries. A
large portion of this empire is what is now known as Indonesia. It was
formed on the island of Sumatra, which had a strong influence on
Southeast Asia.,Srivijaya, also known as Sri Vijaya or Sriwijaya, was a
Buddhist empire in Indonesia. It was a seaborne empire and played an
important role in the expansion of Buddhism between the 8th and 12th
centuries. It was a powerful state at one point in time due to its excellent
maritime resources and trade.This article focuses on the complete history
of the culture and civilization of the Srivijayaempire. To know more about
its historical background, religious practices, and rapid cultural and
economic growth, keep reading!

Origins of the Srivijaya

For well over 2000 years, the sea lanes between India and China have
been maintained as a vital commercial shipping route. Just as massive
amounts of freighters pass trough the straits surrouning Malaysian
peninsula today, ancient traders would likewise make similar voyages
based on he predictable seasonal weather patterns. Along the trade
routes, small pockets of of locals began to adopt Indianized cultures,
societal structures, and belief systems. Along the Mainland Pacific coast,
these included the Funan, Champa, and Tambralinga, while on the Indian
Ocean coast, kingdoms flourished along the Straits of Malacca, including
at LembahBujang in Northern Malaysia, and the Melayu Kingdom of
Sumatra, which would later evolve into Srivijaya.

It is believed that the empire began around the year 500 in Sumatra.
According to the Kedukan Bukit inscription, the empire of Srivijaya was
founded by DapuntaHyang Sri Jayanasa. Under his leadership, a classical
Malay Buddhist kingdom known as the Melayu kingdom became the first
to be integrated with Srivijaya. The empire was the first major Indonesian
kingdom and also its first commercial sea power. It controlled the Strait of
Malacca, and thereby the India-China trade route, gaining power over
much of the trade at sea.
Though there are not many historical records to support this theory,
historians believe that by the 7th century, the kingdom of Srivijaya had
established suzerainty over many areas belonging to Sumatra, Western
Java, and the Malay peninsula.

Srivijaya Name Origins

“Srivijaya” is derived from the Sanskrit word, which translates to
“fortunate,” “prosperous,” “glorious,” and other synonymous words of
triumph and happiness.

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Historians believe that the empire may have been named after a king who
shared the same name, H. Kern, an epigraphist and linguist, believed that
the term “Vijaya” might have referred to a king’s name, with “Sri” being a
title of respect.The other variations in the spelling, such as Sri Vijaya and
Sriwijaya, are based on the Sundanese and Javanese pronunciations.

Culture and Beliefs of the Srivijaya

The Srivijayaempire is known for its Buddhist religious beliefs and

practices. Let’s look at their complex cultural beliefs and how this formed
their way of life and living.The kingdom was one of the most prominent
religious centers in the region. The kings of Srivijaya played a major part
in the expansion and establishment of Buddhism in many places that they
conquered or interacted with, such as Java and the Malayasian
Peninsula. Pilgrims of any religion were encouraged to spend time
interacting with the monks in the capital city of Palembang, before
heading for India. The Srivijayan realm had numerous Buddhist temples. It
is believed that these sites served as monastic Buddhist learning centers,
which students and scholars from all over Asia visited. Historians are
convinced that Palembang alone housed over 1000 monks who had
dedicated their lives to teaching and training traveling scholars in
Buddhism.

One of the most popular forms of Buddhism in the empire was Vajrayana
Buddhism. This was a mystical form of the religion and involved
supernatural powers through yantras. This form of Buddhism originated in
India but was possibly passed on to the empire because of strong trade
connections between the two regions.

The influence and the importance of Buddhism were so dominant at the

time that an inscription gives an account of how a particular king did his
best to claim a role as a religious figure because he believed associating
himself with Buddhism would elevate his image and popularity with the
public.

Srivijaya Architecture
Unlike many of the other Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia, Srivijaya
was not a culture of monumental builders. There are some examples of
refined brick Buddhist architecture, such as the temple complex at the
Muaro Jambi. However, most public and residential buildings, and
settlements in general, were not heavily fortified cities, but rather wooden
homes built either or with easy access to water.
Modern Palembang in Southern Sumatra was home to the ancient capital
of Srivijaya. Surrounding the city are hundreds of artificial canals and
islands which have yodeled many Srivijaya artifacts. Poopulating these
canals today are wooden home that are built on stilts or floating on the
water, mirroring in many ways the way their Srivijaya ancestors once
lived.

Srivijaya Artwork

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Commercial trade flourished in the empire, and with that came the
proliferation of art. Most of the art was influenced by Buddhism in an
attempt to spread the religion through the trade of art. Furthermore, the
art of Srivijaya was greatly influenced by the Indian art of the Gupta and
Pala empires.
There were also numerous Buddhist sculptures that were discovered by
archaeologists in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Additionally, Chinese
artworks were very popular in the kingdom, leading to an escalation in
various art styles in pottery, fabrics, and silks.

History of the Srivijaya Empire

Although the empire was a symbol of greatness and prosperity for many
centuries, it remained almost entirely forgotten after its disappearance in
the 1200s.
Although Srivijaya left few archaeological remains, the discovery of this
ancient and powerful empire by the historian George Cœdès in the 1920s
brought Indonesia’s former glory to light. It was also a frame of reference
for how ancient globalization, maritime trade, and foreign relations had
formed the Indonesian civilization.
In the 20th century, it was referred to by Indonesian nationalist
intellectuals to prove the Indonesian identity within the state before the
establishment of the Dutch colonial state.

Trade and Economic Power

Sumatra was known as the ‘Land of Gold’ due to its richness in natural
resources. It was a source of cloves, camphor, tortoiseshell, pepper,
aloeswood, and sandalwood, all of which contributed to the empire’s
growing business of trade.
Srivijaya was the first Indonesian commercial sea power. It drew most of
its riches and power from its considerable naval fleet and the maritime
trade that fleet enabled. By the second half of the 7th century, Srivijaya
had become an important and wealthy Asian power.
Srivijaya also controlled the Sunda and Malacca straits and remained an
indisputable sea power until the 13th century.

Conquests and Expansion of Srivijaya

Historians believe that the empire conquered most of southern Sumatra
and the neighboring islands as well. According to the inscriptions, the
empire also launched a war against Java in the late 7th century. By the
end of the 8th century, many western Javanese kingdoms were under the
rule of the empire.
In the same century, Srivijaya managed to conquer Langkasuka on the
Malay Peninsula. Within no time, Pan Pan and Tambralinga also came
under Srivijayan influence. All these kingdoms on the peninsula
transported goods across the peninsula’s isthmus.

The Srivijayans’ Exploration

Between the 9th and 12th centuries, explorers from the Srivijayanempire
have gone in search of new lands for trade and commercial development.
Navigators, sailors, and traders engaged in trade with Borneo, Philippines

13
archipelago, Eastern Indonesia, coastal Indochina, and Madagascar. The
migration to Madagascar is believed to have taken place around 830 CE. It
is also speculated that the settlers from Srivijaya may have colonized
Madagascar.
The Srivijayan explorers reached Manila by the 10th century. A 10th-
century Arab account called Ajayeb al-Hind records an invasion in Africa.
The invaders are believed to have been the Malay people of Srivijaya. The
main reason for this invasion was to acquire coveted African commodities
like ivory and tortoiseshell for the Asian market. It is also presumed that
they captured black slaves from Bantu tribes.The territories and cities
controlled by Srivijaya were primed for easy access to the sea. Even in
their homeland of Sumatra, the rulers of Srivijaya paid little attention to
the affairs of the inland cultures. This seafaring nature instead brought
them into contact with exotic. Cultures more often than their inland
neighbors, as well as spreading Sriviujayan influence was far out as
Philippines, and even Madagascar.

Srivijaya in Sumatra and Java

The maritime influence of Srivijaya was focused along the coastlines and
riverways extending inland. Beyond this, the rulers of Srivijaya did not
concern themselves too deeply with the affairs of their inland neighbors.
Because of this, many inland cultures continued to thrive apart from the
Indianized states, such as the Batak culture around Lake Toba or the
megalithic culture of the Pasemah Highlands.
Meanwhile, Srivijaya had a strong relationship with Mataram, an inland
culture based on Java. Mataram had more in common with mainland
contemporaries, such as Dvaravati, in that they based their cultures on
stable settlements and rice cultivations. They were also monumental
builders in a way that the Srivijaya were not.
The dynamic of the relationship between Mataram and Srivijaya is still
debated, however, they appears to be some periods where Mataram was
also the dominant of the two.

Srivijaya in Mainland Southeast Asia

Although their center of power was in the islands of Sumatra and Java,
Srivijaya had contact with, influence over, and even conflicts with the
contemporary cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia. As their power
expanded, many of the small and formerly independent kingdoms were
brought under the control of Srivijaya, including Indianized states such as
Tambralinga, Chaiya, and Kedah in modern-day Thailand and Malaysia.
Evidence also exists of conflicts between Srivijaya and both the Champa
Kingdom of Vietnam and the pre-Angkorian Khmers (Chenla Kingdom) of
Cambodia.

Srivijaya in China
Srivijaya was highly regarded as a both a powerful trade empire and
bastion of Buddhism by the Chinese. Buddhist pilgrims from China seeing
to travel to their religion’s roots in India would often pass through
Srivijaya on their way. It was common practice for these pilgrims to

14
remain in Srivijaya for unto two years studying scriptures and learning the
language.

What Happened to the Srivijaya?

By the 11th century, Srivijaya had been weakened due to continuous
warfare with Java and the Chola dynasty from India. The Cholas
systematically plundered the Srivijayan ports along the Malacca strait,
until they captured the Srivijayan king in Palembang.
These attacks marked the beginning of the end of the empire. The empire
slowly started to lose its unity and began to fragment. Finally, it lost its
remaining power in 1288, when the Singhasariempire from East Java
invaded their empire.
Despite its far-reaching influence, the empire quickly and suddenly
disappeared into obscurity.

Cities of the Srivijaya

1. Palembang
South Sumatra, Indonesia
GPS: -3.01485, 104.73436
2. Muaro Jambi (Jambi)
Jambi, Indonesia
GPS: -1.47763, 103.66707
3. Batujaya
Jakarta, Indonesia
GPS: -6.05634, 107.15491
4. Singapura (Singapore)
Singapore, Singapore
GPS: 1.34789, 103.87427
5. Tambralinga (Nakhon Si Thammarat)
Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand
GPS: 8.41206, 99.96645
6. Chaiya
SuratThani, Thailand
GPS: 9.38461, 99.18544

Monuments of the Srivijaya

1. Borobudur
Central Java, Indonesia
GPS: -7.60721, 110.20334
2. CandiMuaraTakus
Riau, Indonesia
GPS: 0.33456, 100.64098
3. CandiMuaro Jambi
Jambi, Indonesia
GPS: -1.47763, 103.66707
4. CandiBahalPortibi Temples
North Sumatra, Indonesia
GPS: 1.40516, 99.73049

15
 5. Wat Long
SuratThani, Thailand
GPS: 9.38213, 99.19039 --------------------------------------------

II

Thalassocracies and Ancient Maritime Trade of

Bharat(india)

Thalassocracy or thalattocracy or 'sea power' is a state with primarily

maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional
thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories.
Examples of this were the Phoenician states of Tyre, Sidon and Carthage,
and the Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa of
the Mediterranean; the Chola dynasty of India and the Austronesian states
of Srivijaya and Majapahit of Maritime Southeast Asia. Thalassocracies can
thus be distinguished from traditional empires, where a state's territories,
though possibly linked principally or solely by the sea lanes, generally
extend into mainland interiors in a tellurocracy ("land-based hegemony").
The term thalassocracy can also simply refer to naval supremacy, in either
military or commercial senses. The Ancient Greeks first used the word
thalassocracy to describe the government of the Minoan civilization,
whose power depended on its navy. Herodotus distinguishes sea-power
from land-power and spoke of the need to counter the Phoenician
thalassocracy by developing a Greek "empire of the sea".

History and examples of Indo-Pacific

Austronesian proto-historic and historic maritime trade networks in

the Indian Ocean[7]
The Austronesian peoples of Maritime Southeast Asia, who built the first
ocean-going ships,[8] developed the Indian Ocean's first true maritime
trade network.[7] They established trade routes with Southern India and Sri
Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering in an exchange of material culture
(like catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug and sewn-plank boats,
and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas,
and sugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures
of India and China. Indonesians in particular traded in spices
(mainly cinnamon and cassia) with East Africa, using catamaran and
outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian
Ocean. This trade network expanded west to Africa and the Arabian
Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization of Madagascar by the
first half of the first millennium AD. It continued into historic times, later
becoming the Maritime Silk Road.
The first thalassocracies in the Indo-Pacific region began to emerge
around the 2nd century AD, through the rise of emporia exploiting the

16
prosperous trade routes between Funan and India through the Malacca
Strait using advanced Austronesian sailing technologies. Numerous
coastal city-states emerged, centered on trading ports built near or
around river mouths which allowed easy access to goods from inland for
maritime trade. These city-states established commercial networks with
other trading centers in Southeast Asia and beyond. Their rulers also
gradually Indianized by adopting the social structures and religions of
India to consolidate their power.
The thalassocratic empire of Srivijaya emerged by the 7th century through
conquest and subjugation of neighboring thalassocracies. These
included Melayu, Kedah, Tarumanagara, and Medang, among others.
These polities controlled the sea lanes in Southeast Asia and exploited the
spice trade of the Spice Islands, as well as maritime trade-routes
between India and China. Srivijaya was in turn subjugated
by Singhasari around 1275, before finally being absorbed by the successor
thalassocracy of Majapahit (1293–1527).
Europe and the Mediterranean

The Phoenician trade routes in the Mediterranean.

Phoenicia and the Delian League were early examples of Mediterranean

thalassocracies.
The Middle Ages saw multiple thalassocracies, often land-based empires
which controlled areas of the sea, the most important of them in terms of
expansion and legacy was the Crown of Aragon (later becoming the
Spanish Monarchy together with Castile after the dynastic union of both

17
states). Other famous thalassocracies were the Republic of Venice,
the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Pisa.The Venetian republic was
conventionally divided in the fifteenth century into the Dogado of Venice
and the Lagoon, the Stato di Terraferma of Venetian holdings in northern
Italy, and the Stato da Màr of the Venetian outlands bound by the sea.
According to the French historian Fernand Braudel, Venice was a scattered
empire, a trading-post empire forming a long capitalist antenna.
The Early Middle Ages (c. 500 – 1000 AD) saw many of the coastal cities of
the Mezzogiorno develop into minor thalassocracies whose chief powers
lay in their ports and in their ability to sail navies to defend friendly coasts
and to ravage enemy ones. These include the
variously Byzantine and Lombard duchies
of Gaeta, Naples, Salerno and Amalfi.
After 1000, some northern and central Italian city-states developed their
own trade empires, in particular the republic based on Pisa and the
powerful Republic of Genoa, that rivaled Venice. These three, along with
Amalfi, Gaeta, Ancona, the small Republic of Noli and
the Dalmatian Ragusa are known as maritime republics.
With the modern age, the Age of Exploration saw some of the most
formidable thalassocracies emerge. Anchored in their European territories,
several nations established colonial empires held together by naval
supremacy. First among them chronologically was the Portuguese Empire,
followed soon by the Spanish Empire, which was challenged by the Dutch
Empire, itself replaced on the high seas by the British Empire, whose
landed possessions were immense and held together by the greatest navy
of its time. With naval arms-races (especially
between Germany and Britain), the end of colonialism, and the winning of
independence by many colonies, European thalassocracies, which had
controlled the world's oceans for centuries, diminished - though Britain's
power-projection in the Falklands War of 1982 demonstrated continuing
thalassocratic clout.
Transcontinental
The Ottoman Empire expanded from a land-based region to dominate
the Eastern Mediterranean and to expand into the Indian Ocean as a
thalassocracy from the 15th century AD.
List of historical thalassocracies

 Ancient Carthage
 British Empire
 Bruneian Empire
 Butuan
 Champa
 Chola Empire
 Crown of Aragon
 Dál Riata
 Delian League

18
 Denmark-Norway
 Dorian Confederation
 Dutch Empire
 Empire of Japan
 Frisian Kingdom
 Hanseatic League
 Kedah
 Kediri
 Kilwa Sultanate
 Kingdom of the Isles
 Kingdom of Norway (872–1397)
 Liburnia
 Melayu Kingdom
 Majapahit Empire
 Maritime republics
o Duchy of Amalfi
o Duchy of Gaeta
o Republic of Ancona
o Republic of Genoa
o Republic of Noli
o Republic of Pisa
o Republic of Ragusa
o Republic of Venice
 Maynila
 Mataram Kingdom
 Minoan civilization
 Muscat and Oman
 North Sea Empire
 Omani Empire
o Sultanate of Zanzibar
o Sultanate of Muscat and Oman
 Phoenicia
 Portuguese Empire
 Republic of Pirates
 Ryūkyū Kingdom
 Singhasari
 Spanish Empire
 Srivijaya
 Sugbu
 Sultanate of Demak
 Sultanate of Gowa
 Sultanate of Johor
 Sultanate of Maguindanao
 Sultanate of Malacca
 Sultanate of Sulu

19
 Sultanate of Ternate
 Sultanate of Tidore
 Swedish Empire
 Tarumanagara
 Tu'i Tonga Empire

Navigations in the Indian Ocean was well attested in the ancient periplographical and
geographical literature, though fragmentary they provide information and attest to the
existence of cartographic representations. Navigators both Greek and Latin had experienced
what is was to sail in the Indian Ocean at that time, offering a constantly evolving
representation of this area.1 The story of oceanic trade is a reminder of India’s
colonial past. Europeans – the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, the
French, and the British –arrived as sea-faring merchants, and eventually
insinuated themselves in the politics of the subcontinent with the backing
of their governments.The epochs of Indian history round which these
various evidences regarding the shipping and maritime activity of India
will be grouped, may be roughly indicated as follows:

1.The Pre-Mauryan Epoch, extending from the earliest times to about

the year B.C. 321.
For this period we shall discuss the evidences that can be gleaned from
some of the oldest literary records of humanity like the Rig-Vecla, the
Bible, and some of the old Pali and Tamil works, as also from the finds of
Egyptian and Assyrian archaeologists,cregarding the early maritime
intercourse of India with the West. Evidences for this period are alsocto be
derived from the writings of the Greek authors Herodotus and Ctesias, in
the 5th century B.C., containing references to India.

2. The Mauryan Epoch (b.c. 321-184) For this period the available
evidences are those preserved in the works of many Greek and Roman
authors who essayed to the story of Alexander'sIndian campaign and
recorded the observations made on India by the Greek ambassadors to
the courts of the Maurya emperors. These Greek and Roman notices of
India have been mostly made accessible to Indian students by the
translations of Mr. McCrindle. More important and interesting than these
foreign evidences the evidence furnished by a recently published Sanskrit
work, the Arthasdstra of Kautilya, which is a mine of information regarding
the manifold aspects of a highly developed material civilization witnessed
by MauryanIndia. Bearing on this period also is the evidence of tradition
preserved in that monumental work of the Kashmirian poet Kshemendra
called Bodhisattvdvaddna Kalpalatd, which now being published by the
Asiatic Society of Bengal in the Bibliotheca Indica series. The seventy-third
pallava or chapter of this work relates a story which throws some light on
the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of India during the days of the
Emperor Asoka.

3. The Kushan Period in the north and the Andhra Period in the south,

20
extending roughly from the 2nd century B.C. to the 3rd century a.d.( This
was the period when Roman influence on
India was at its height ; in fact, the whole of the southern peninsula under
the Andhra dynasty was in direct communication with Rome, while the
conquests in Northern India tended still further to open up trade with the
Roman Empire, so that Roman gold poured into all parts of India in
payment for her silks, spices, gems, and dye-stuffs. The evidences proving
this are the remarkable finds of Roman coins, more numerous in the south
than in the north, together with the references in the ancient Sanskrit and
Pali works to " Romaka," or the city of Rome, and in ancient Tamil works
to the " Yavanas " or Greeks and Romans, and to the important South
Indian ports like Muchiris and Pukar, of which full descriptions are given in
old Tamil poems. Besides evidences from ancient Indian literature
bearing- on Indian commerce with Rome, there are also definite
evidences from important foreign works. The chief of these are Pliny's
Natural History, the Peripius of the Erythraean Sea, and Ptolemy's
Geography, besides the incidental allusions to Indian commerce and
shipping thrown out by writers like Agatharcides and Strabo.

4. The Period of Hindu Imperialism in Northern India under the Guptas

and Harshavardhana,
extending from the 4th century to the 7 th century a.d.—This was the
period of the expansion
of India and of much colonizing activity towards the farther East from
Bengal, the Kalinga coast, and Coromandel. Parts of Burma and Malacca
were colonized, chiefly from Kalinga and Bengal,
The main evidences for the remarkable maritime activity of this period are
supplied by the accounts of the numerous Chinese pilgrims to India, of
whom Fa-Hien was the first and Hiuen Tsang the most famous. These
accounts are now all accessible through translations. Among foreign works
supplying valuable materials for the history of the period may be
mentioned the Christian Topography.

Some very valuable evidences regarding the early commerce between

India and China are furnished by Chinese annals like the Kwai-Yuen
Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka. Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither
also has recorded many facts relating to the Indian intercourse with China.
For the reign of Harsha the most important source of information is the
Travels of Hiuen Tsang, that " treasure-house of accurate information,
indispensable to every student of Indian antiquity, which has done more
than any archaeological discovery to render possible the remarkable
resuscitation of lost Indian history which has recently been effected."

5. The Period of Hindu Imperialism in Southern India and the rise

of the Cholas, extending from the middle of the 7th century up to the
Mahomedan conquests in Northern India. During this period Indian
maritime intercourse was equally active with both the West and the East.
The colonization of Java was completed, and the great temple of
Borobudur remained a standing monument of the hold which Buddhism

21
had on that /island. The field of Indian maritime enterprise was extended
as far as Japan. Chinese traveller, contains many interesting details
regarding Indian maritime activity in the Eastern waters and intercourse
with China in the latter half of the 7th century. Chinese annals also furnish
evidences regarding the maritime intercourse of the Cholas with China,
e.g. the Sung-shih. The Musalman {pre-Mogul) Period, extending from
the nth century to the 15th.—The sources of evidence for this, and indeed
the whole of the Musalman period, are mostly imbedded in Persian works
which have been made accessible to
scholars by the monumental History of India by Sir H. Elliot, in eight
volumes. For information
regarding maritime enterprise and activity in Sindh our authorities are Al-
Bildduri and Chach-ndma, translated in Elliot, vol. i. The early Musalman
travellers throw much light upon Indian affairs of this period. Al-Biruni is
our authority for the nth century and Al-Idrisi for the 12th. In the 13th
century a very valuable source of information regarding Indian shipping
and commerce is furnished by a foreign traveMer, the Venetian Marco
Polo. Wassaf is our guide in the next century, as well as Tdrikh-i-
Firozshdhi. In the 15th century we have, in the Chinese account of
Mahuan, the most important foreign notice of India after Marco Polo,
which relates the exchange of presents between the kings of Bengal and
the emperors of China.
1n the 6th century, when the .Portuguese first appear as a factor in Indian
politics, details regarding Indian maritime activity are derivable from
Portuguese annals like De Coutto, utilized in some of the standard works
on the history of the Portuguese power in India. About the same time the
foreign traveller Varthema has left a very interesting account of
shipbuilding in Calicut.

7. The Period of Mogul Monarchy, from the 1 6th century to the i8th,
i.e. from the reign of Akbar to that of Aurangzeb.—The evidence for the
reign of Akbar is derived, firstly, from that mine of information, Abul-Fazl's
Ayeen-i-Akbari, which gives a very valuable account of Akbar's Admiralty;
and, secondly, from the abstract of Ausil Toomar yumma given in Grant's
Analysis of the Finances of Bengal in the Fifth Report, in which are
contained many interesting details regarding the organization and
progress of the Imperial Nowwara or shipping stationed at Dacca, the
sources of revenue for its maintenance, the materials for shipbuilding, and
the like. The Chach-ndma in Elliot, vol. i., and Abul-Fazl's Ayeen~i-Akbari
give some details about the shipping and ports of Sindh. Some details
regarding Hindu maritime activity, commerce, and shipping in Bengal are
also derived. The ‘Periplus of the Erythraean Sea’ shows how India has
been part of an interconnected global network for millennia.

22
dhow of the coast of Kenya.

Monsoon as maritime destiny:In a period prior to modern navigation

and ships, the monsoon integrated a world of trade across the Indian
Ocean. The fact that it depended on the vagaries of the weather did not
mean this trade was marginal. India’s location at the centre of this
oceanic geography facilitated its rise as the fulcrum of world trade and
economy. This sophisticated, wide ranging commerce, played a key role in
the subcontinent. India at the time and for centuries later accounted for,
according to some estimates, nearly a fifth of the world’s GDP.

One of the earliest written accounts of this complex network of trade is

the Greek text, Periplus Maris Erythraei or the Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea (read it online here). This remarkable handbook was written
sometime in the middle of the first century CE and was meant for Greek
merchants trading between Egypt, East Africa, southern Arabia and India.

1597 map depicting the locations of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Abraham Ortelius [Public domain]

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea primarily focuses on two trade routes
originating at Egyptian ports: one, on the East African coast as far as
Tanzania, and the other via the Arabian peninsula and Persian Gulf to
western India. The author writes in detail of numerous cities, ports and

23
harbours on these routes but India’s western coast, from Karachi down to
Kanyakumari on the southernmost tip, accounts for nearly half the
narrative.Literally, Erythraean Sea means “red sea” but this is not a
reference to the waterbody we know as the Red Sea today. For ancient
Greek and Roman geographers, the Erythraean Sea incorporated the Red
Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the western Indian Ocean. The text of
the Periplus survives in the form of a 10th-century manuscript preserved
in Heidelberg, a copy of which is also housed at the British Museum.
Written over 1,900 years ago and more than 1,400 years before Vasco da
Gama “discovered” the trade route to India, the Periplus is a window into
the diverse world of the Indian Ocean.

Lionel Casson, scholar of the Periplus and also its most recent translator,
has noted that other periploi, an ancient genre of manuals, from the time
are primarily guides for seamen containing navigational information. In
contrast, according to Casson, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a
guide for merchants emphasising knowledge of trade and products that
could be bought and sold on each port – something akin to a modern
shoppers’ guide. The descriptions of the places on these oceanic routes
are colourful and the reporting style is direct and detailed giving the
impression that the author, an Egyptian Greek who remains anonymous,
was writing from personal experience.

Manoeuvring the monsoons

By the time this merchant drafted his deliberations on traversing the
western Indian Ocean, Mediterranean trade with India had been on the
rise for three centuries. But Indian and Arab mariners had plied the Indian
Ocean years before Greek ships entered these waters. To ensure safe
voyage, these seamen needed to manoeuvre the monsoons, those
seasonal winds that in the western Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, and the
Arabian Sea, blow from the southwest during the summer and from the
northeast during the winter.

Until about a century before the Periplus was written, while goods were
frequently traded between India and the Mediterranean, the Greek
merchants depended primarily on their Indian and Arab counterparts for
access to India. Mastery over monsoon was so integral to this entire
trading world that for every port that the Periplus mentions, it also makes
sure to note the most suitable months in which to make the journey.

Quite apart from the delight of reading a merchant’s advice and opinions
from so far back in time, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, tells us of
three vital but overlooked aspects of the ancient Indian Ocean trade. First,
the ports, harbours, and metropolises located on the Indian Ocean coasts
the Periplus mentions may not be well-known today but were some of the
most vibrant trading centres of the world at the time.

24
The Indian port city of Bharuch, which was also a major manufacturing
centre features pre-eminently in the Greek merchant’s handbook. Muziris,
roughly near present-day Kochi on the Malabar coast, was another hub of
commercial interactions between the Mediterranean, India, Persia, Africa,
China, and Southeast Asia. Northeast of Bharuch, Ujjan was a thriving
entrepot from where products from all over the subcontinent made their
way to the maritime ports. The Periplus mentions nearly 20 Indian ports,
markets, and towns painting a picture of a buzzing world of trade,
production, and social exchange around 50 CE. Over the centuries that
followed, Indian ports, urban, and commercial centres rose to prominence
as some of biggest cities of the medieval world.

Second, the Periplus gives the modern reader a fascinating glimpse into
the “bestsellers” traded across the Indian Ocean two millennia ago. The
most frequently mentioned and perhaps also the most surprising from
today’s vantage point, is tortoise shell procured from India and
Africa. Frankincense and myrrh, aromatic resins used for incense and
perfumes and for the purpose of embalming in Egypt also make it to the
list. Less surprising is that India’s Malabar coast exported ship-fulls of
pepper, as it would continue to do when Vasco da Gama came in search
for this precious “black gold” centuries later.The widest spread of goods
was traded by India: native spices, drugs and aromatics, fine cottons and
Chinese silks, ivory, and pearls. Indian merchants along with their Arab
counterparts controlled the trade in everyday commodities like grain, rice,
sesame oil, ghee, cane sugar, and cotton cloth.

Taste on the Indian coast veered decidedly towards the more expensive
side even when it came to imports from the Mediterranean. Indians
bought Italian and Arab wines, olive oil, silverware and glassware. Indian
kings also demanded deluxe clothing, choice unguents, as well as “slave
musicians” and “beautiful girls for concubinage”. The Mediterranean
demands for expensive goods from India, as the Roman officials often
lamented were draining their coffers, and as the Periplus also notes,
Roman gold and silver coins, valued as bullion, fetched high exchange
rates on the subcontinent; the hordes of Roman coins and shards of
amphorae (which mostly hold wine but also oil) that archaeologists have
unearthed from India’s southwestern coast.

Third, it is clear that even in its earliest form, trade between India and the
Mediterranean across the Indian Ocean was highly evolved. A
sophisticated economic system was needed to support these intricately
linked commercial and social networks. Evidence from the Periplus shows
how merchants had to navigate restrictive rulers and their officials, face
the threat of pirates and negotiate with vendors who drove hard bargains.
Trade was conducted through barter as well as with money. Maritime
ports were linked, particularly in India, to webs of internal riverine routes
and inland trading and production centres. Over time, complex banking

25
and capital generating systems came in to place. Historian Himanshu
Prabha Ray has written, for instance, of the vital role Buddhist
monasteries played in the cultural and commercial landscape of the
northern Deccan and western India during the first century CE. Her
research shows that Buddhist monasteries were able to provide early
forms of banking and act as safe houses for merchants and travellers.
Their location on important trade routes linked to the Arabian sea also
facilitated the rise of production centres and cities in the surrounding
areas; the Periplus in fact mentions the towns of Paithan and Tagara in
this region that supplied onyx and ordinary cloth respectively to the port
of Bharuch.

A dhow carrying slaves in the Indian Ocean in 1893. Colomb, Philip

Howard, 1831-1899

The world that the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes and that
developed, over the centuries, into a network of some of the world’s
richest cities is far removed from our own times. It is important to avoid
the temptation to read into it only the values and ideas we cherish today.
Yet, this was by no means an idyllic world. For example, even from
the Periplus we glean that slaves were not only bought and sold in these
markets, slaves and convicts also provided the labour for the most difficult
tasks of the lucrative luxury trade like pearl diving and the unhealthy work
of collecting frankincense from trees; women find only three passing
mentions in the entire text.

26
However, we do learn one big thing from the Periplus: that as early as the
first century CE, India was part of an interconnected global network. And
as much as it was part of the old it was also a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual,
dynamic world. For centuries before the European trading companies
“discovered” it, the Indian Ocean was place where merchants without
navies ruled the high seas. And trade without colonialism flourished. 3

Kerala Maritime History: The Saga of Kerala Trade History

Both the 6400 km land route taken by caravans as well as the Indian
maritime history of trade route carrying cargo passed through India. The
former crossed North India whereas the latter passed through the coastal
belt of south India. These are well-etched stories in Indian history. Our
focus is on Kerala Maritime history, discussed here is the scenario
prevalent in south India in those times and the impact of trade on this part
of the world.

27
 Kerala Maritime
History: An illustration of ancient-day Calicut port (different location)

Indian Maritime History mentions that Indian ocean trade had a prominent
place in world economic scenario and in linking several people and
cultures. The Indian Ocean borders the African continent and connected
the Mediterranean through the Red Sea, the Middle East via the Persian
Gulf, makes a U shape touching both shores of the Indian subcontinent,
Sri Lanka and across the Bay of Bengal links up with South China seas.
There is no single maritime tradition for the entire Indian Ocean
region.Instead, there are local traditions suited to a particular maritime
environment and set of human needs. There are such cases all through
Indian history, or specifically, in the India Maritime History. The Medieval
Kerala trade history is a case in point! The geographical location of Kerala,
its extensive coastline, and the course of monsoon winds set the rhythm
of sea trade here.

Kerala Maritime History in Boom

Kerala is referred to as ‘Garden of Spices’ according to Sumerian records.

Merchants from Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Arab, Greece and Rome have
visited this part of the land for trade. Kerala maritime history points
towards a rich Kerala trade history. Judaism was one of the first foreign
religions to arrive in India. It is believed that King Solomon had visited
Kerala for trade purposes.In the 6th century BC, the Jews came
to Cranganore (which the Jews referred to as Shingly) to escape from the
Babylonian captivity of Nebuchadnezzar. Later many more Jews landed
here and settled in Kodungalloor (Cranganore), Parur, Palayur and
Kollam.Records say Jews were traders and remained loyal to the native
rulers, in return the Jewish leaders were granted distinctive privileges and
honours by the local rulers and land to make houses and synagogues.
To this day, Kochi has a Jewish Street, a functioning synagogue and a
handful of Jewish descendants. The copper plates granted by the Chera
ruler in 1000 CE bears evidence to the influence the Jews enjoyed in the
domestic and foreign affairs of pre-modern Kerala. When St Thomas came

28
to Kerala, there was a large number of Jews already present here and
initially, they were tried to convert to Christianity.

Pepper vines in Kerala are what attracted the Romans

Hoards of Roman aureus (coins) and pottery were discovered from various
parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, pointing towards Indo-Roman trade (a
significant part of Indian Maritime History) in the early centuries of the
Christian era. This is a great story that connects with Kerala Maritime
History. Contemporaneous to the Roman Empire, south India (comprised
of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and parts of Karnataka, Andhra and Sri Lanka) was
ruled by Chera, Chola and Pandiya dynasties from 6th century BC to 3rd
century CE, known as the Sangam Period. With the decline of the Roman
Empire in the 5th century CE, trading with Rome ended. Though Chera,
Chola and Pandya powers saw a decline with the rise of Kalabhras, it was
short-lived. The three powers revived again during the eighth and ninth
centuries.

The ordainment of Pallava kingdom (A.D 600) witnessed the development

of several trade organizations and economic activities in south India.
Some of the ports in the coastal towns were Sopara, Ozene,
Kalyana, Tyndis, Naura, Muziris, Nelcynda, Masalia, Sopatma, Kolkar etc.
These ports are significant elements of Kerala Maritime History. Spice and
precious herbs were traded from hinterlands and plantations of Kerala.

29
 A
ncient Maritime Trade Routes

The scenario in South India during the Medieval Period

The history of people of South Asia is mainly documented in the literature

written in the Sangam period. People were divided into five different clans
based on their profession: Mallars (farmers), Malavars (traders), Nagars
(border security), Kadambars (forest people), Thiraiyars (seafarers) and
Maravas (warriors). Each clan have their own mark in Indian history.The
clans spread across the land and formed individual settlements. Seafarers
obviously lived in the coastal region and the traders came to live in
Kerala, western Tamil Nadu, eastern Andhra Pradesh, and southern Sri
Lanka.The growth and development of trade and urbanization in medieval
Kerala was a synchronized process. Agricultural production was the
mainstay of the economy of Kerala in the medieval period. The land was
given much importance as it was the main source of production.

The very unique environmental peculiarities of Malabar supported the

growth of several varieties of pepper, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon,
nutmeg and cloves. Pulses and grains were also grown and the forests
produced various species of trees such as teak, veetti, trimbakam, angili,
arani and mahagoni.

The ballads, anthologies, inscribed sources and oral narratives refer to

agricultural prosperity in the rural areas. Growth and development of
agriculture in the hinterlands brought about plentiful availability of
surplus. The excess agricultural crops and grains were bartered for other
necessities in angadis or trading centres, turning the ports to cities.

30
Traders used coins especially in foreign trade to export spices, muslin,
cotton, pearls and precious stones to countries of the west and received
the wine, olive oil, amphora and terracotta pots from there. Egyptian
dinars and Venetian ducats (1284-1797) were in great demand in
medieval Kerala trade history.

Chapter of Arab and Chinese Traders: Kerala Maritime History

The Arabs and the Chinese were important trade partners of medieval
Kerala. Arab trade and navigation attained a new enthusiasm since the
birth and spread of Islam. Four gold coins of Umayyad Caliphs (665-750
CE) found in Kothamangalam (Ernakulam district) testifies the visit of Arab
traders to Kerala in that period.

With the formation of Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE) the Golden Age of
Islam began and trade flourished as the religion was favourably disposed
towards trade. Ninth century onwards the Arab trade to Malabar was
raised to new esteems and saw many outposts of Muslim merchants. This,
later on, became a strong element of Kerala Maritime History.

Mishkal Mosque was built by Yemeni Arab Trader Nakhuda Mishkal in the
15th Century

The Trade with Malabar resulted in the drainage of Chinese gold in

abundance that the Southern Sang Government (1127-1279) prohibited
the use of gold, silver and bronze in foreign trade in 1219 and silk fabrics
and porcelain was ordered to be bartered against foreign goods. Pepper,
coconut, fish, betel nuts, etc were exported from Malabar in exchange for
gold, silver, coloured satin, blue and white porcelain, musk, quicksilver
and camphor from China.
Traffic on sea route increased by the second half of the eighth century CE
as the Chinese and the Arabs had a tough time fighting the regional tribes
on the land route. By the beginning of the 15th century, Kozhikode had
developed into a great emporium of international trade.

Kerala coast used to be studded with settlements of traders. These

settlements were due to commercial and climatic compulsions. Sailing
with south-west monsoon wind, traders from the West would come to the
western ports of India.

Incapable of reaching Malacca and Canton in a single monsoon, they were

forced to stay along Malabar Coast and thus the region became a
stopover for the merchants from the west. Traders had to wait for

31
favourable winds or stay in the port for collecting cargoes. Though pirates
were very active in a number of ports along the western coast, foreign
traders and their merchandise were safe at Kozhikode. The security of her
waters, as well as the efficient facilities for trade, attracted foreign traders
to Kozhikode.

Indian History: The Imperialism

Before 1500 Europe was largely self-sufficient. By late 1500, many sea
explorers took a series of voyages to reach India, in the hope of
establishing direct trade between Europe and Asia in spices. With Vasco
da Gama landing in Kozhikode, he opened the way for an age of global
imperialism and the Portuguese established a colonial empire in Asia.

Portuguese commercialized agriculture. Through this enriched, the

economy, the beneficiaries of this richness were not the common man.
Indian Maritime Trade exposed our rural economy to the international
money market in terms of the price of spices which resulted in the
enhanced use of coined money. The maritime cities of this oceanic trade
system were Venice, Alexandria, Hormuz, Aden, Cambay, Kollam,
Kozhikode, Malacca, and Canton.

By the closing decade of the 15th century the first Portuguese trading
post in India was established at Kochi and the trade there was comparable
with that of Lisbon. Kochi saw powerful merchant families with wide
connections in the inter-Asian trade. One such family was that of
the Mamale Marakkar who had well-established trade connections with
the East Indies. In the beginning’ of the 16th century, this merchant used
to supply pepper to the Portuguese in large quantities in return for copper.

Horse trade had great economic and political significance in those times.
Thousands of fine quality horses were imported to the Malabar port from
the trading centres of the Red Sea, especially Hormuz. Kulamukku
and Kannur were centres of the lucrative horse trade. The ruling powers of
the Deccan especially Vijayanagar obtained horses from Kannur. To
monopolize the horse trade, the Portuguese captured Hormuz and shifted
the arrival of horses to the port to Goa, reducing the significance of
Kozhikode in trade.

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The British initially controlled trade in Malabar from Telicherry

The Dutch annexed Kochi by defeating the Portuguese and ruled from
1661-1795. With the British occupying the Malabar in 1795, the Dutch had
to go back. In the 18th century, the British built up a well-knit commercial
network in the Indian Ocean and took over the entire trade rights.With the
archaeological excavations carried out at Muziris, Kerala Tourism is ready
to implement an ambitious project this year called ‘Spice Route’ to
rediscover the stopovers along the 2000-year-old trade route on the
Indian Ocean. Explore the Kerala Maritime History with this package.

An early 20th century painting captures a dhow sailing along the East
African coast. These traditional boats plied the waters of the Indian Ocean
for millennia, connecting continents. (Credit: Mary Evans Picture Library)

It’s a chapter of history nearly forgotten: Intrepid merchants and explorers

traveled thousands of miles, not along storied caravan routes, but across
the great blue expanse of the Indian Ocean, exchanging goods and ideas,
forming bonds and challenging our notions about the ancient

33
world.“People think that it must have taken a long time to get anywhere,
that it must have been difficult to travel long distances, but that is not
true,” says archaeologist Marilee Wood, whose research focuses on the
network’s glass bead trade. “This [field of study] is about opening that all
up.”In fact, by the time Marco Polo set out to explore East Asia in the 13th
century, communities across Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean had been
exchanging their wares for thousands of years in a vast network driven by
the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean.

As trade flourished along the network’s routes, so did construction, such

as this massive fifth-century basilica in Adulis, a port city in what’s now
Eritrea on the Red Sea coast. (Credit: David Stanley)

Early scholars presumed that the Indian Ocean network had developed to
supply the Roman Empire’s demand for exotic goods. However, new
evidence shows that the network predates the Romans by
generations.The Indian Ocean system developed out of the gradual
integration of earlier regional networks. By 3000 B.C., travelers in small
canoes and rafts moved between towns and trading ports along coastlines
from Arabia to the Indian subcontinent. By 2000 B.C., millet and sorghum
— grains imported from the East African coast — were part of the cuisine
of the Harappan civilization, which stretched across today’s Pakistan and
northern India. Archaeological evidence and genetic studies suggest that
the first major settlement of Madagascar came not from Africa — a short
hop across the Mozambique Channel — but from Indonesia, 4,000 miles
away.

Less famous than the Silk Road — its land-based parallel — the maritime
web of commerce and cultural exchange operated on seasonal monsoon
winds. The network grew out of ancient regional routes and, by 2,000
years ago, connected Western Europe with East Asia. (Credit: Rick
Johnson/Discover) During its peak, the trade network connected places as
far-flung as China, Rome and southern African kingdoms such as Great
Zimbabwe. In terms of the sheer amount of goods moved, the maritime
trading system rivaled its more famous inland relative, the Silk Road.

34
A first-century Greek manuscript, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,
recorded trading depots and ports’ locations, goods and populations with
enough accuracy that researchers today are able to match archaeological
sites with the text’s descriptions. For example, using the text, one team
has determined a site in present-day Eritrea was Adulis, an important city
in the early Christian empire of Aksum. For more than a millennium,
farmers, shepherds and merchants went there from surrounding villages
to exchange raw materials such as ivory, salt and animal skins for Persian
glassware, Arabian spices and other exotic products.

Researchers found Ming Dynasty porcelain from China among artifacts of

Great Zimbabwe, capital city of a massive southern African kingdom.
(Credit: Chirikure 2014 African Archaeological Review)

Many of these goods made their way far inland. Archaeologists today
regularly recover small items like glass beads, spindle whorls or Chinese
porcelain at sites across Africa and the Mediterranean. These foreign-
made objects — particularly those easily transported, such as glass beads
— became a kind of currency in more ways than one.

“It wasn’t like money, though you could say beads the length of your arm
would get you a cow, or a certain number of chickens,” Wood says. “But it
created a form of wealth and power. It built alliances.”

This exquisite gold rhino is one of many grave goods from burials at the
site of Mapungubwe in southern Africa. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the
city was a nexus for local, inland commerce and Indian Ocean gold trade.
(Credit: Stefan Heunis/AFP/Getty Images)

Not only owning, but also giving away such exotic items appears to have
been critical in gaining political power and building trust.

Movers and Shapers

Archaeologists still have many questions about the Indian Ocean

exchange network. Tracing the movement of goods from place to place is

35
relatively easy. With pottery, for example, members of a single
community tend to repeat the same decorative styles over time. Stone,
clay and other raw materials, used to produce objects ranging from
anchors to gold bullion, have unique chemical signatures that vary by
geographic location and can be traced back to their source.

Glass beads, filling a clay cup found in southern India, served as currency
along some maritime and inland routes associated with the Indian Ocean
trade network. (Credit: DEA/G. Dagli Orti/Granger, NYC)

Figuring out how the goods were moved is a little harder. Ships are rare
finds, and inland caravans even rarer. One thing scholars know for certain
is that the very nature of the ocean trade made prolonged periods of
interaction necessary: The currents of the Indian Ocean change
seasonally, and traders had to wait for months until currents shifted in
favor of the return voyage. For many seafarers, these foreign ports
became a second home.

However, outside of the ports mentioned in a handful of ancient texts, it’s

unclear just how merchants, and their goods, traveled inland.

This bust of a “priest king” from the Indus Valley site of Mohenjo-Daro is
about 4,000 years old. Its carver may have eaten millet imported from
Africa via the Indian Ocean trade network. (Credit: EA/A. Dagli Orti/De
Agostini/Getty Images)

Kefilwe Rammutloa, a graduate student at the University of Pretoria, is

building a database to trace the distribution of exotic goods at sites across
southeastern Africa. She’s finding evidence that suggests members of
indigenous communities exchanged these items, often as gifts, rather
than professional merchants establishing trade between towns.

Like Wood, Rammutloa has uncovered a social aspect to the items.

Mapungubwe, for example, the first indigenous kingdom of southern

36
Africa, was rich in ivory and gold — but bodies found in its cemeteries
were interred with glass beads from Persia and porcelain from China.

“People used the materials to create relationships,” says Rammutloa.

“We’re talking about humans here. Someone gives you a gift, they’re
negotiating a role in your life. It creates a network."Indian Ocean trade
never truly disappeared. Beginning in the 15th century, however, with the
expansion of European exploration and China’s withdrawal from
international affairs, the world’s economic focus shifted westward.In the
centuries that followed, few researchers studied this early and extensive
trade network. Says Wood: “It’s the European background of the people
writing the histories, including our own. There’s more work being done
now, but part of the problem is that we depend on written documents, and
there are a lot less [for the Indian Ocean trade network]. It’s also a
question of language. I’m sure there are a wealth of documents on it
hidden away in China, but someone’s got to translate them.”

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a hoard of Chinese coins

found in a river estuary attest to regional commerce routes
combining to create the greater Indian Ocean network. (Credit:
Marilee Wood)

Other forces, from unstable governments to international sanctions, have

also stymied research in the past.“The political past of South Africa has
left a huge gap,” says Rammutloa. “It’s only now, after apartheid, that
we’re able to get involved in international projects.”

Over the past decade, dozens of regional research programs have

developed in coastal Africa, and connected with peers in Europe and Asia,
in a way re-creating the trade routes they study. Only now they’re
exchanging information rather than goods. 4

These trading enterprises began on the coasts – Malabar, Goa, Gujarat,

Bengal – but as is known to every school child, the East India Company
eventually took over direct and indirect control. By the 19th century, with
the advent of the steamship, the British truly became the monopolistic
masters of the Indian Ocean moving goods and people in large numbers.
Sea trade then is associated with the tragedy that brought in the
trepidations of colonial exploitation. This past prevents us from looking at
the dazzling world of Indian Ocean trade that came before.

37
Indian Ocean Trade (whose trade routes are sometimes collectively called
the Monsoon Marketplace) has been a key factor in East–West exchanges
throughout history. Long distance trade in dhows and proas made it a
dynamic zone of interaction between peoples, cultures, and civilizations
stretching from Java in the East to Zanzibar and Mombasa in the West.
Cities and states on the Indian Ocean rim focused on both the sea and the
land.
There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between
the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the middle
Harappan Phase (2600-1900 BCE), with much commerce being handled by
"middlemen merchants from Dilmun"
(modern Bahrain and Failaka located in the Persian Gulf).[4] Such long-
distance sea trade became feasible with the development of plank-built
watercraft, equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven
rushes or cloth.
Several coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (astride Dasht River, north
of Jiwani), Sokhta Koh (astride Shadi River, north of Pasni), and Balakot
(near Sonmiani) in Pakistan along with Lothal in western India, testify to
their role as Harappan trading outposts. Shallow harbours located at the
estuaries of rivers opening into the sea allowed brisk maritime trade with
Mesopotamian cities.

Austronesian proto-historic and historic maritime trade network in

the Indian Ocean
The first true maritime trade network in the Indian Ocean was by
the Austronesian peoples of Island Southeast Asia, who built the first

38
ocean-going ships. They established trade routes with Southern
India and Sri Lanka as early as 1500 BC, ushering an exchange of material
culture (like catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug and sewn-plank
boats, and paan) and cultigens (like coconuts, sandalwood, bananas,
and sugarcane); as well as connecting the material cultures of India and
China. Indonesians, in particular were trading in spices
(mainly cinnamon and cassia) with East Africa using catamaran and
outrigger boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian
Ocean. This trade network expanded to reach as far as Africa and
the Arabian Peninsula, resulting in the Austronesian colonization
of Madagascar by the first half of the first millennium AD. It continued up
to historic times, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road.

Ancient Greece–Ancient India relations

Prior to Roman expansion, the various peoples of the subcontinent had
established strong maritime trade with other countries. The dramatic
increase in South Asian ports, however, did not occur until the opening of
the Red Sea by the Greeks and the Romans and the attainment of
geographical knowledge concerning the region's seasonal monsoons. In
fact, the first two centuries of the Common Era indicate this increase in
trade between present-day western India and Rome. This expansion of
trade was due to the comparative peace established by the Roman
Empire during the time of Augustus (9 September 61 BC – 19 August AD
14), which allowed for new explorations.
Indo-Roman trade relations (see also the spice trade and incense road)
was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman
Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade through the overland
caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Middle East, though at a relative
trickle compared to later times, antedated the southern trade route via
the Red Sea and monsoons which started around the beginning of
the Common Era (CE) following the reign of Augustus and his
conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE.
The southern route so helped enhance trade between the ancient Roman
Empire and the Indian subcontinent, that Roman politicians and historians
are on record decrying the loss of silver and gold to buy silk to pamper
Roman wives, and the southern route grew to eclipse and then totally
supplant the overland trade route.
Roman and Greek traders frequented the ancient Tamil country, present
day Southern India and Sri Lanka, securing trade with the
seafaring Tamil states of the Pandyan, Chola and Chera dynasties
and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with the Indian
subcontinent by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic
dynasty a few decades before the start of the Common Era and remained
long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. As recorded
by Strabo, Emperor Augustus of Rome received at Antioch an ambassador
from a South Indian king called Pandyan of Dramira. The country of the
Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as Pandyan Mediterranea in

39
the Periplus and Modura Regia Pandyan by Ptolemy. They also
outlasted Byzantium's loss of the ports of Egypt and the Red Sea (c. 639–
645 CE) under the pressure of the Muslim conquests. Sometime after the
sundering of communications between the Christian Kingdom of
Axum and the Eastern Roman Empire in the 7th century, the Kingdom of
Axum fell into a slow decline, fading into obscurity in western sources. It
survived, despite pressure from Islamic forces, until the 11th century,
when it was reconfigured in a dynastic squabble. Communications were
reinstated after the Muslim forces retreated.

Indian ship on lead coin of Vasisthiputra Sri Pulamavi.Relief panel

of a ship at Borobudur, 8th–9th century. Roman trade with India

40
according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei, 1st century CE.

The replacement of Greece by the Roman empire as the administrator of

the Mediterranean basin led to the strengthening of direct maritime trade
with the east and the elimination of the taxes extracted previously by the
middlemen of various land-based trading routes. [11] Strabo's mention of
the vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt
indicates that monsoon was known and manipulated for trade in his time.
The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing, and
according to Strabo (II.5.12.), writing some 150 years later:
At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and
ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of
Aksum (Ethiopia), and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty
vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to the subcontinent, whereas
formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the
voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise.

— Strabo
By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year
from Myos Hormos to India. So much gold was used for this trade, and
apparently recycled by the Kushan Empire (Kushans) for their own
coinage, that Pliny the Elder (NH VI.101) complained about the drain of
specie to India:
Roman ports
The three main Roman ports involved with eastern trade
were Arsinoe, Berenice and Myos Hormos. Arsinoe was one of the early
trading centers but was soon overshadowed by the more easily accessible
Myos Hormos and Berenice.
Arsinoe

Roman piece of pottery from Arezzo, Latium, found at

Virampatnam, Arikamedu (1st century CE). Musee Guimet.

41
Sites of Egyptian Red Sea ports, including Alexandria and
Berenice./
The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited the strategic position of Alexandria to
secure trade with the subcontinent. The course of trade with the east then
seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe, the present
day Suez. The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the
three main Roman ports, Arsinoe, Berenice or Myos Hormos. The Romans
repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to harbor center
of Arsinoe on the Red Sea. This was one of the many efforts the Roman
administration had to undertake to divert as much of the trade to the
maritime routes as possible.
Arsinoe was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos
Hormos. The navigation to the northern ports, such as Arsinoe-Clysma,
became difficult in comparison to Myos Hormos due to the northern winds

42
in the Gulf of Suez.[18] Venturing to these northern ports presented
additional difficulties such as shoals, reefs and treacherous currents.
Myos Hormos and Berenice
Myos Hormos and Berenice appear to have been important ancient
trading ports, possibly used by the Pharaonic traders of ancient Egypt and
the Ptolemaic dynasty before falling into Roman control.
The site of Berenice, since its discovery by Belzoni (1818), has been
equated with the ruins near Ras Banas in Southern Egypt. However, the
precise location of Myos Hormos is disputed with the latig Abu Sha'ar and
the accounts given in classical literature and satellite images indicating a
probable identification with Quseir el-Quadim at the end of a fortified road
from Koptos on the Nile. The Quseir el-Quadim site has further been
associated with Myos Hormos following the excavations at el-Zerqa,
halfway along the route, which have revealed ostraca leading to the
conclusion that the port at the end of this road may have been Myos
Hormos.
Major regional ports
The regional ports
of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Sounagoura (central Bangladesh) Baryga
za, Muziris in Kerala, Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu on the
southern tip of present-day India were the main centers of this trade,
along with Kodumanal, an inland city. The Periplus Maris
Erythraei describes Greco-Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin
clothing, figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of
glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine" in exchange for
"costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton
cloth, silk yarn, and indigo". In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice,
sesame oil, cotton and cloth.
Barigaza
Trade with Barigaza, under the control of the Indo-Scythian Western
Satrap Nahapana ("Nambanus"), was especially flourishing
There are imported into this market-town (Barigaza), wine, Italian
preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and
topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a
cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar, antimony, gold and
silver coin, on which there is a profit when exchanged for the money of
the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the
King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver,
singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of
the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from
these places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian,
lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper
and such other things as are brought here from the various market-towns.
Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably
about the month of July, that is Epiphi.

43
— Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (paragraph 49).
Muziris

Muziris, as shown in the Tabula Peutingeriana, with a "Templum Augusti".

Muziris is a lost port city on the south-western coast of India which was a
major center of trade in the ancient Tamil land between the Chera
kingdom and the Roman Empire. Its location is generally identified with
modern-day Cranganore (central Kerala).[22][23] Large hoards of coins and
innumerable shards of amphorae found at the town of Pattanam (near
Cranganore) have elicited recent archeological interest in finding a
probable location of this port city. According to the Periplus, numerous
Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris.
Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica (Limyrike),
and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance.
Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it is a village in plain sight by the
sea. Muziris, of the same Kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with
cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant
from Tyndis by river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from
the shore twenty stadia"

— The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (53–54)

Arikamedu
The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a marketplace named Poduke (ch.
60), which G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly

44
being Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu, a centre of early Chola trade (now part
of Ariyankuppam), about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the
modern Pondicherry. Huntingford further notes that Roman pottery was
found at Arikamedu in 1937, and archeological excavations between 1944
and 1949 showed that it was "a trading station to which goods of Roman
manufacture were imported during the first half of the 1st century AD".
Decline and legacy
Following the Roman-Persian Wars, the areas under the Roman Byzantine
Empire were captured by Khosrow II of the Persian Sassanian Dynasty, but
the Byzantine emperor Heraclius reconquered them (628). The Arabs, led
by 'Amr ibn al-'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE. This
advance marked the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Egypt and the
fall of ports such as Alexandria, used to secure trade with the
subcontinent by the Roman world since the Ptolemaic dynasty.
The decline in trade saw the ancient Tamil country turn to Southeast
Asia for international trade, where it influenced the native culture to a
greater degree than the impressions made on Rome.
Dating back to the first century, Indian culture started making its way into
the region of Southeast Asia. The expansion of Indian culture into these
areas was given the term Indianization. The term was coined by French
archaeologist, George Coedes in his work Histoire ancienne des états
hindouisés d'Extrême-Orient (The Indianized States of Southeast Asia). He
defined it as the expansion of an organized culture that was framed upon
Indian originations of royalty, Hinduism and Buddhism and the Sanskrit
dialect. A large number of nations came under the influence of
the Indosphere becoming a part of Greater India, the cultural expansion
caused the Sanskritization of South East Asia, the rise of Indianized
kingdoms, spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and the Silk road
transmission of Buddhism. Indian honorifics were adopted into
the Malay, Thai, Filipino and Indonesian languages. The Indian diaspora,
both historical (PIO or Person of Indian-Origin) and current (NRI or Non-
Resident Indian), play an ongoing key role in the region in terms of
geopolitical, strategic, trade, cultural traditions, and economic aspects,
with most Southeast Asian countries having sizable Indian communities
alongside often much larger ethnic Chinese
minorities.he Satavahanas developed shipping ventures in Southeast Asia.
They were also referred to as the Andhras in the Puranas, were an
ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. Most modern scholars
believe that the Satavahana rule began in the late second century BCE
and lasted until the early third century CE, although some assign the
beginning of their rule to as early as the 3rd century BCE based on
the Puranas, but uncorroborated by archaeological evidence. The
Satavahana kingdom mainly comprised the present-
day Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. At different times, their
rule extended to parts of modern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
and Karnataka. The dynasty had different capital cities at different times,
including Pratishthana (Paithan) and Amaravati (Dharanikota).

45
The origin of the dynasty is uncertain, but according to the Puranas, their
first king overthrew the Kanva dynasty. In the post-Maurya era, the
Satavahanas established peace in the Deccan region, and resisted the
onslaught of foreign invaders. In particular their struggles with
the Saka Western Satraps went on for a long time. The dynasty reached
its zenith under the rule of Gautamiputra Satakarni and his
successor Vasisthiputra Pulamavi. The kingdom fragmented into smaller
states by the early 3rd century CE.
The Satavahanas were early issuers of Indian state coinage struck with
images of their rulers. They formed a cultural bridge and played a vital
role in trade and the transfer of ideas and culture to and from the Indo-
Gangetic Plain to the southern tip of India. They supported Hinduism as
well as Buddhism, and patronised Prakrit literature.

The 8th century depiction of a wooden double outrigger and

sailed Borobudur ship in ancient Java suggests that there were ancient
trading links across the Indian Ocean
between Indonesia and Madagascar and East Africa sometimes referred to
as the 'Cinnamon Route.' The single or double outrigger is a typical
feature of vessels of the seafaring Austronesians and the most likely
vessel used for their voyages and exploration across Southeast Asia,
Oceania, and Indian Ocean. During this period, between 7th to 13th
century in Indonesian archipelago flourished
the Srivijaya thalassocracy empire that rule the maritime trade network
in maritime Southeast Asia and connecting India and China.
Silk route

The island of Hormuz was captured by an Anglo-Persian force in

46
the 1622 Capture of Ormuz.Part of Zheng He's navigation
map providing instruction for aligning ship to travel from Hormuz
to Calicut, 1430
Chinese fleets under Zheng He crisscrossed the Indian Ocean during the
early part of the 15th century. The missions were diplomatic rather than
commercial, but many exchanges of gift and produces were made.
During the 16th and 17th century, Japanese ships also made forays into
Indian Ocean trade through the Red Seal ship system.
During the Muslim period, in which the Muslims had dominated the trade
across the Indian Ocean, the Gujaratis were bringing spices from
the Moluccas as well as silk from China, in exchange for manufactured
items such as textiles, and then selling them to the Egyptians and Arabs.
Calicut was the center of Indian pepper exports to the Red
Sea and Europe at this time with Egyptian and Arab traders being
particularly active.

In Madagascar, merchants and slave traders from the Middle East (Shirazi
Persians, Omani Arabs, Arabized Jews, accompanied by Bantus from
southeast Africa) and from Asia (Gujaratis, Malays, Javanese, Bugis) were
sometimes integrated within the indigenous Malagasy clans New waves
of Austronesian migrants arrived in Madagascar at this time leaving
behind a lasting cultural and genetic legacy. Therefore generally the
upper caste Hindus did not take up maritime activities involving
seafaring.For, the upper Hindu castes, i.e. dwija or twice born castes
crossing the sea was prohibited by custom. Sizable population of the
coastal region was lslamised in the middle ages and they followed all
these maritime activities particularly the Marakkayan and Labbais. For the
voyages on the sea and across the seas the people of the Neithal or
coastal region used various kinds of vessels. The names of such vessels
used by the ancient Tamils are found in the Tamil literatures down from
Sangam Age. A few of them are vangam, umpi, nawai, dhoney, kalam,
madhalai, pathai, punai, thonnai, paru, podam.panri, thimil,
pattihai,paduvai, midavai and odams. The word Kappal seems to be a very
late derivation. by about 17th century. The parts of these vessels are also
described in detail in these literatures9.

The spread of Islam paved the way for the emergence of powerful Muslim
trading communities in peninsular India. Peninsular India occupies a
central position in this region and it's Lital roie in trade I undeniable. With
the rise of Islamic power in West Asia, the Muslims lost no time in
spreading their influence in the ports of peninsular India. Among the
Hindu communities along the coast with whom they had already
established friendly and close trade relations they also tried to spread
their new faith.Islam. In the course of time, Arab settlements grew into
powerful native Muslim trade settlements Malabar was a vital link in
Muslim trade in the Indian ocean. The Chola sea power was a serious
obstruction in the eleventh centuy to the growth of Muslim influence. One

47
of the first important measure taken by Choia Raja Raja I towards the end
of the tenth centuy A.D.. was to secure Malabar coast in anengagement
off Kandalur Chalai and to conquer the Lacdives and Maldives islands This
was intended to curb the Arab influence in Indian ocean trade. After the
deciine of the Chola power in the hvelth century the Mwli influence
increased, and they enjoyed a dominant role in the sea borne trade of the
region 2.

The Coromandel ports became the favourable settlements of the Muslim

traders. Kayal was the principal port, in the thirteenth century where
Muslims were principal traders. Nagapattanam also became a busy port,
and important Muslim centres of trade. These maritime acts played a
major economic role in the pre-cobnial Coromandel Coast. The import of
war horses was one of the earliest spzdahties. By the early fourteenth
century, the armies of Pandya rulers were supplied with west Asian
horses, shipped in by the Muslim traders to Kayal, Petiapatham. In this, an
important agency had been established here by an Arab Chief who is
described by Muslim history as Malikkul Islam. He was very influencial in
Pandyan Kingdom. Kayal was also an important link in horse trade to
Ceylon.The diverse Muslim communities of peninsular lndia had a
significant role to play in the Indian ocean trade in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries until they were ousted by the European powers By
the end of twelth century, the naval power of the Cholas and the
Shylendras completely declined and many mercantile communities of
peninsular India began to claim a major role in Indo-Ceylon trade and as
well as trans oceanic trade. Soon they were able to secure a dominent
role in the maritime trade of Ida and an enviable share of the seaborne
trade in Malacca, lndonasian islands, Jam, Aden and Maldiws. The Muslims
controlled much of the region's trade in gem stones and pearls. Many
Muslim port centres also sed as outlet for the international trade in cotton
piece goods. After the destruction of Bagdad in the middle thirteenth
century by Mangoles, the Arab activities in the East became restricted. In
fact at the end of fifteenth century the Arabs had lost their supreme
position in the sea borne trade13. The Gujarathi Muslims and Tamil
Muslims had taken over from the Arabs the dominant role in the Indian
ocean trade
Portuguese period
The Portuguese under Vasco da Gama discovered a naval route to the
Indian Ocean through the southern tip of Africa in 1497–98. Initially, the
Portuguese were mainly active in Calicut, but the northern region
of Gujarat was even more important for trade, and an essential
intermediary in east–west trade.[30]
Reception of Venetian ambassadors in Damascus in the time
of Qaitbay.
Venetian interests were directly threatened as the traditional trade
patterns were eliminated and the Portuguese became able to undersell
the Venetians in the spice trade in Europe. Venice broke diplomatic

48
relations with Portugal and started to look at ways to counter its
intervention in the Indian Ocean, sending an ambassador to the Egyptian
court. Venice negotiated for Egyptian tariffs to be lowered to facilitate
competition with the Portuguese, and suggested that "rapid and secret
remedies" be taken against the Portuguese. The Mamluks sent a fleet in
1507 under Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, which would fight in the Battle of Chaul.
The Ottomans tried to challenge Portugal's hegemony in the Persian Gulf
region by sending an armada against the Portuguese under Ali Bey in
1581. They were supported in this endeavor by the chiefs of several local
principalities and port towns such as Muscat, Gwadar, and Pasni. However,
the Portuguese successfully intercepted and destroyed the Ottoman
Armada. Subsequently, the Portuguese attacked Gwadar and Pasni on
the Mekran Coast and sacked them in retaliation for providing aid and
comfort to the enemy.
Dutch and English period
During the 16th century the Portuguese had established bases in
the Persian Gulf. In 1602, the Iranian army under the command of Imam-
Quli Khan Undiladze managed to expel the Portuguese from Bahrain. In
1622, with the help of four English ships, Abbas retook Hormuz from the
Portuguese in the capture of Ormuz. He replaced it as a trading centre
with a new port, Bandar Abbas, nearby on the mainland, but it never
became as successful.
It is a fact that the Muslims of Coromandel stumbled by the ruthless
attack of the Portuguese.Their maritime enterprises met with a sudden
economic misfortunes. Many withdrew from the scene.But in the course of
time the Muslim traders began to accommodate and cooperate with the
exploiters. There developed a symbiotic relationship between the two
even with mutual freight space on board on one others ship but it was too
late for the Muslims to tide up the situations. With regard to the Southeast
Asian markets the Muslims avoided the Portuguese and shifted to
alternate trade centres. However the superior naval power and higher
capital resources of the Portuguese continued to be the real challenge to
the Muslims. With their half shattered economic condition they had to
face the new competitors. The English had no religious bias against the
Muslims like the Portuguese and the Dutch. From
the second half of eighteenth centuy to the first half of nineteenth , the
English East lndia

Company encouraged the Muslims particularly Mamkkayars in the

maritime trade. They extended them concessions but from the second
quarter of nineteenth century, the economic ambitions of the English
marginalized and the Muslims also. In the period the English emerged as
the major political power in India and they were the purchasers and
exporters of Indian goods. It was but natural for their subjects to turn in
the direction of England for their trade prospects. But the policies of
London were detrimental to lndian traders including the Coromandel
Muslims. By 1900, the masters of maritime commerce, the Marakkayars,
Labbais, Sonakars and

49
Rowthars were reduced to small and petty traders and intermediaries to
the English and local
artisans and peasants. Their independent economic stability and social
standing were cut
short due to the various causes enumerated above. Thus at the dawn of
the twentyth century
the enterprises of the Coromandel Muslims became the story of the past
and forgotten
unsung.

Maritime trade of early south India- New Archeological evidence from

Motupalli A.P escavation of coastal sites is still discovering new evidences
by way of pattery and artifacts that there were many more ports than
those we think of today.
Marakkayars is a South Asian Muslim community found in parts
of Indian states of Tamil Nadu (the Palk Strait), Kerala and in Sri Lanka.
The Marakkars speak Tamil in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and Malayalam in
Kerala. The community claim ancestry from marriages between early Arab
Muslim traders of the high seas and indigenous coastal women. The
Islamized Arabs who arrived on the Coromandel coast brought Islamic
values and customs with them and intermarried with the indigenous
women who followed the local Hindu customs. Naturally, their children will
have imbibed both the Islamic and the local values and transmitted both
to their descendants. From the outset, the Arabs must, in all probability,
have asserted the centrality of the Islamic values in their relationship with
the local women, at the same time making the necessary adjustments to
local customs. This is the pattern that appears to have survived to this
day. The Marakkayars, the early Muslim inhabitants of Coastal Tamil
Nadu, are Sunnis of the Shafi‘i school of thought (Madhab). Most
Marakkayars, are in some way or other, connected to foreign trade
through which they became more advanced economically and socially
than the other Muslim groups in the locality and even many Hindu sub-
castes.The Marakkars were a known to be a powerful maritime spice
trading community in the medieval South Asia. They traded in and with
locations such as Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia in East Asia and South
Asia, Maldives and Sri Lanka. The Marakayar's have dominated the
educational and economic landscape in Tamil Nadu since the 17th
century.
There are two main hypothesis regarding the etymology of the term
'Marrakayar', and it's various forms.

50
Arab merchants arriving in boats at Thirukkurungudi temple
Tamil derivation
The first being from the term ‘Marakalarayar’ which may mean those who
controlled or owned boats.[4] In Tamil, 'marakalam' signifies ‘wooden boat’
and 'rayar' means ‘king’ that it is the association of these two words that
gives Marakkayar.[4]
Arabized derivation
The second theory was derived from the arrival of Yemeni Arab royals
(some of the first immigrants of this class) seeking refuge from
persecutions who came by boats called ‘markabs’ in Arabic, and settled
on the east coast. Their arrival in 'markabs', led to them being called
Marakkayar by the local people, which literally means ‘boat people’.

51
Marakkar Arabikadalinte Simham: (AKA Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea)
A movie of Kunjali Marakkars exploits
Malabari Marakkars are credited with organizing the first naval defence of
the Indian coast. With the emergence of the Portuguese in India, some
Marakkars were forced to take up arms and enlist themselves in service of
the Hindu king (the zamorin) of Calicut. The Marakkar naval chiefs of the
Calicut were known as Kunjali Marakkars. The seamen were famous for
their naval guerrilla warfare and hand-to-hand fighting on board. The
Marakkar vessels — small, lightly armed and highly mobile — were a
major threat to the Portuguese shipping all along the Indian west coast.
In 1598, the Portuguese convinced the Zamorin that Marakkar IV intended
to take over his Kingdom to create a Muslim empire. In an act of betrayal,
the Zamorin joined hands with the Portuguese who brutally killed him.
The Arabic language brought by the early merchants is no longer spoken,
though many Arabic words and phrases are still commonly used. Until the
recent past, the Tamil Muslim minority employed Arwi as their native
language, though this is also extinct as a spoken language. They today
use Tamil as their primary language with influence from Arabic. Many
Arabic and Arabized words exist in the form of Tamil spoken by
Marakkars. Among many examples, greetings and blessings are
exchanged in Arabic instead of Tamil, such as Assalamu Alaikum instead

52
of Sandhiyum Samadanamum, Jazakallah instead of Nandri
and Pinjhan/Finjan for Bowl/Cup.There are also words which are unique to
Marakkars and a few other Tamil Muslim communities such as Laatha for
elder-sister, Kaka for elder-brother, Umma for mother and Vappa for
father. There are also words derived from Sinhala such as Mattapa for
terrace. There are also words from Purananuru era such as Aanam for
Kulambu and Puliaanam for rasam or soup.
The Marakkars were an endogamous community and followed the system
of inheritance known as marumakkathayam. This type of marriage is
preferred generally among Tamils, irrespective of religion and caste,
mainly to maintain family ties and prevent property leaving the family.
However, unlike among the Hindus, the daughter of the brother or sister
of the bridegroom is not sought after for marriage. In any case,
the murai marriage, as practised among the Marakkayars, is not contrary
to Islamic law, given that it does not contradict the conditions for Islamic
marriages stipulated in Surah 4 of the Holy Qur’an.

REFERENCES

1. New Perspectives on the Anglophone World, 2019-Reinventing the Sea Jean-Marie

Kowalski, Sailing the Indian Ocean in Ancient Times », Angles [Online], 9 | 2019, Online
since 01 November 2019, connection on 28 July 2020. URL :
http://journals.openedition.org/angles/ 800 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.800
2. MARITIME ACTIVITIES OF MUSLIMS-
http://ietd.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/bitstream/10603/832/13/13_chapter%206.pdf
See also: Maritime Trade of Early South India New Archaeological Evidences from Motupalli,
Andhra Pradesh,P. Krishna Mohan Reddy,East and West,Vol. 51, No. 1/2 (June 2001), pp. 143-
156 (14 pages)-Published By: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO)
3.What a 2,000-year-old Greek merchant’s manual tells us about the Indian monsoon and oceanic trade,
Aparna Kapadia
4. The Indian Ocean: A Maritime Trade Network History Nearly Forgot
Long before the Silk Road or the Roman Empire, the Indian Ocean was awash with commerce.
By Adrianne Daggett https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/the-indian-ocean-a-
maritime-trade-network-history-nearly-forgot

III
Srivijay a Thalassocracy ?
Srivijaya’s success was to create and then manage a system by which lesser monarchs
maintained their own status and local loyalty arrangements while conforming to the overall
interests of the Srivijayan monarchy. The concept of a Mandala was of a set of dependent

53
relationships in which rulers maintained their autonomy within a common interest
framework. It was at the heart of an Indian notion of kingship and government, a series of
concentric circles of fealty and obligation headed by one supreme leader. The pre-eminent
lord led by virtue of his accomplishments, while bonds with lesser nobles were cemented
through marriages.

The Srivijayan Mandala was based on the city’s geographical position dominating the Melaka
strait. From there it could control trade and ensure fair distribution of its revenues. Dispersed
entities had their own commercial interests and their own supplies of ships and sailors. They
paid tribute to Srivijaya; in return they enjoyed the benefits of being part of a larger entity
which could provide protection and trade access. Over time this loose hegemony came to
include all the trading ports of the peninsula, and those on the Gulf of Thailand and Mekong
delta, but Srivijaya was content to be first among nominal equals. It also ensured that its own
sailors, with their intimate knowledge of the rocks and shoals, were kept happy with a fair
share of trade income – otherwise they would resort to piracy.

Local rulers retained many of the characteristics of traditional Malay datus (chieftains), who
relied heavily on personal leadership qualities. But grafted on to this were Indian ideas about
the divine nature of kingship within an all-encompassing system of beliefs and codes. These
required the monarch to provide honest government and to attend to the welfare of his
subjects in return for their loyalty, which in turn would be rewarded…. A Persian writing in
Arabic in the tenth century noted that parrots in Palembang could speak many languages
including Arabic, Persian and Greek.

The Guangzhou Massacre

Palembang also benefited commercially from the expansion of Arab and Persian trade with
China, while the Abbasid empire dominated its region and the Tang era was one of prosperity
in China. Srivijaya’s political clout probably waned as the Arabs used their own ships as well
as Nusantarian ones. Their merchants came to dominate trade – but they still needed
Srivijayan ports and sailors. So Srivijaya still collected its dues. After an initial interruption,
it also benefited from a massacre of foreign traders in Guangzhou in 878 that forced the
traders to move their bases to other ports.

The scale of the Guangzhou massacre, carried out by rebels opposing the Tang dynasty, gives
an idea of the size of the trade: it supported a foreign community that was several thousand
strong, comprising Muslim Arabs and Persians, Parsees, Jews, Hindus, and Greek, Armenian
and Nestorian Christians. A century earlier, in 758, Arab, Persian and other merchants had
plundered the city after being infuriated by the greed of Chinese officials. This followed an
incident in 684 when Kunlun merchants had killed the governor of Guangzhou. The series of
troubles illustrates both the wealth that trade generated and the weakness of Chinese imperial
control over a distant province where Sinicization was still far from complete….

The industrial scale of trade is shown in the wreck of a ninth century ship in the treacherous
waters near Belitung Island between Sumatra and Borneo. It carried 60,000 pieces of Chinese
ceramics probably destined for Basra. Mostly made to standard designs, some had Buddhist
motifs, others Islamic calligraphy. There were even ceramic pots inscribed under the glaze
with Manichean writing. This was a religion which had once thrived in Persia, central Asia
and western China and, though much reduced by competition and persecution, lingered on
until about the fourteenth century. China in turn bought cotton textiles from India, muslin and
damask from Syria, frankincense from Arabia and indigo, ivory, precious woods,

54
tortoiseshell and aromatic oils from a variety of locations to the south and west. Although
maritime archaeological evidence of this is lacking, there are plenty of Chinese written
records.

Malagasy Genes and African Echoes

Language is the starting point for uncovering another forgotten manifestation of Nusantaria
and its intercontinental maritime role. It is the key to the solution of one of the mysteries of
the first millennium Ce: the first permanent human settlement of Madagascar. The island
marks the most westward expansion of Austronesian language and culture, its settlement
roughly coinciding with the Pacific push from Polynesia to New Zealand, Hawaii and Rapa
Nui (Easter Island).

The world’s fourth largest island at 592,000 square kilometres, Madagascar lies only 200
kilometres from the trading ports on the east coast of Africa and yet lay uninhabited by
humans until the arrival of Nusantarian seafarers from 7,000 kilometres away. This
remarkable feat has gone largely unrecorded in written history, so it can only be pieced
together from scientific evidence and inferences from Arab and other sources. Much else can
be inferred or guessed at, but with, as yet, limited proof.

Even the modern name ‘Madagascar’ (‘Madagasikara’ in the Malagasy language) has its
origin in ignorance and confusion. It was first used by the traveller Marco Polo, who never
went there. He confused it with Mogadishu, the trading port on the Somali coast, and
compounded the error with a corrupted transliteration.

The main settlement may have occurred during the period of Srivijayan ascendancy in
Nusantaria but does not appear to have been politically driven. All that is Malagasy Genes
and African Echoes known for sure is that the language of Madagascar is basically
Austronesian but with a significant number of words from the Bantu language from Africa,
and some from Indian and Arab sources. Language origin does not itself prove that people
from Nusantaria were the first settlers. But the genetic evidence does. The gene pool of the
island’s population today shows that it is of roughly 50 percent Nusantarian island origin…

Indian Ocean Trade Triangle

Nusantarian commerce in the western Indian Ocean did not suddenly vanish, leaving the
settlements cut off from their roots. Ships from Java and Sumatra continued to play a role in
Indian Ocean trade at least until the thirteenth century, not least in the slave trade. In the mid-
tenth century an Arab ship encountered off Mozambique a group of raiders described as
‘Waqwaq’. ‘Waqwaq’ was a vague term used by Arabs to denote peoples from the extreme
south or east, hence probably Nusantarian. (Waqwaq was the subject of myths about islands
where girls grew on trees.) East Africa was a source of slaves for hundreds of years, with the
Baghdad-based Abbasid empire the main market. The Zanj slaves became so numerous that
they became a major factor in the long-lasting anti-Abbasid rebellion which led to the sack of
Basra in 871. This horrific event was widely written about in near contemporary Arab
literature, including Muhammad el-Tabari’s History of Prophets and Kings and Muhammad
al-Biruni’s Chronology of Ancient Nations. Some slaves were even sold in China. A Chinese,
Zhu Yu, writing around 1100, recorded that wealthy people in Guangzhou employed what
they called ‘devil slaves’ from Africa…

55
’

Tremble and Obey: The Zheng He Voyages

China’s engagement with Nusantaria during the Yuan era has been overshadowed by the
attention given to the voyages of Zheng He in the early Ming dynasty. The seven voyages
between 1405 and 1433 of the fleets headed by Zheng’s so-called ‘Treasure Ships’ were
remarkable demonstrations of Chinese naval power. The voyages abruptly ceased as Ming
China became more concerned with internal and land border issues than with seas where they
faced no threats. But they did have a lasting impact on the Chinese trading and migration
presence across Nusantaria….

The fleets never failed to leave a mark and a message of Chinese power. It was power
wielded more benignly than by the Yuan dynasty even if the underlying assumption was that
non-Chinese must bow before the emperor – and so must Chinese settled in the region. The
sheer size and number of its ships was awe-inspiring. A mere envoy would never need a
heavily armed fleet. That he returned with ‘treasures’ such as a giraffe from Africa, not to
mention a vast collection of precious objects from other exotic places, also helped establish
the Zheng He voyages as memorable, particularly for Chinese, for centuries afterwards.
ChauJu-kua had referred to the African coast, to Zanzibar and people with fuzzy hair, and
gave vague descriptions of zebras and giraffes. (10) A few individual Chinese had probably
been there previously on Arab or Nusantarian ships. But to go there and bring back these
creatures was more memorable, at least to later generations, than the rote messages of fealty
to the emperor.

Today, the voyages are often presented as peaceful exercises in exploration, diplomacy and
trade promotion. In reality the emperor’s goal was to make himself respected and feared
around the southern and western seas and emphasize the superiority of things Chinese. At the

56
same time, however, the emperor presented himself as an impartial peacemaker in dealing
with foreign states: ‘I do not differentiate between those here and those there.’ He was the
father figure who issued orders to others not to fight each other, as in a directive to Cambodia
and Champa, ordering Siam not to harass Melaka. More broadly, as the Xuande emperor
claimed in 1429: ‘I serve Heaven by treating the people as my children. In the 10,000 states
within the four seas, I try to provide prosperity and abundance.’ The emperor’s sway was
mostly rhetoric, the succinct if empty expression of China’s sense of being above all others
and occasionally, as in the case of the voyages, given substance by the presence of Zheng
He’s large force. The purpose of that demonstration of power was insufficiently clear in
Beijing, however, leaving the Chinese at the time less impressed than the foreigners. This
was to be China’s last, until very recent, attempt to extend towards the tropical regions of
Nusantaria and the Indian Ocean. Dislike of the heat and humidity may have played a role,
reflecting an earlier imperial comment about deployment there:

“The government of our present dynasty, out of affection for the army and for the good of
humanity, deemed it advisable that our troops should no longer be kept in this pestilential
climate for the purpose of guarding such an unprofitable territory.”

The voyages contributed nothing to global knowledge of navigation, winds and currents.
Zheng He visited places that had already been in communication with each other for a
millennium. The Zheng He trade legacy is also debatable, because the voyages were just a
three-decade episode in a boom in Asian trade which began around 1400 and involved
Europe and the Muslim world as well as China, and to which Japan also contributed. But they
did make China itself more aware of the world and of the southern seas in particular. The
voyages helped development of Nusantarian trade with China in which the already
established Chinese Muslims, sometimes intermarried with other foreign Muslims as well as
local women, played a major role. These connections speeded the advance of Islam in the
archipelago as trade boomed during the following two centuries.

The ending of the Ming voyages has been seen as short-sighted and opening the way for
European entry into Nusantaria in the next century. But it was for legitimate economic
reasons: the cost of inducing tributes was far ahead of any possible gains from trade. Nor did
China face any obvious security threats from the southern seas, in contrast to the northern and
western frontiers. The end of the voyages did not mean the end of trade, which continued
thanks both to demand from a prospering China (and Europe) and the Chinese presence in the
ports of the mercantile zone. But it did mean the end, for the next 500 years, of China’s
attempts to control Nusantaria.

The Indian Ocean trade routes connected Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa,
beginning at least as early as the third century BCE. This vast international web of routes
linked all of those areas as well as East Asia (particularly China).
Long before Europeans "discovered" the Indian Ocean, traders from Arabia, Gujarat, and
other coastal areas used triangle-sailed dhows to harness the seasonal monsoon
winds. Domestication of the camel helped bring coastal trade goods such as silk, porcelain,
spices, incense, and ivory to inland empires, as well. Enslaved people were also traded.
Classic Period Indian Ocean Trading
During the classical era (4th century BCE–3rd century CE), major empires involved in the
Indian Ocean trade included the Achaemenid Empire in Persia (550–330 BCE),
the MauryanEmpire in India (324–185 BCE), the Han Dynasty in China (202 BCE–220
CE), and the Roman Empire (33 BCE–476 CE) in the Mediterranean. Silk from China graced

57
Roman aristocrats, Roman coins mingled in Indian treasuries, and Persian jewels sparkled in
Mauryan settings.

Another major export item along the classical Indian Ocean trade routes was religious
thought. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism spread from India to Southeast Asia, brought by
merchants rather than by missionaries. Islam would later spread the same way from the 700s
CE on.

Indian Ocean Trade in the Medieval Era

During the medieval era (400–1450 CE), trade flourished in the Indian Ocean basin. The rise
of the Umayyad (661–750 CE) and Abbasid (750–1258) caliphates on the Arabian Peninsula
provided a powerful western node for the trade routes. In addition, Islam valued merchants—
the Prophet Muhammad himself was a trader and caravan leader—and wealthy Muslim cities
created an enormous demand for luxury goods.
Meanwhile, the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties in China also emphasized
trade and industry, developing strong trade ties along the land-based Silk Roads, and
encouraging maritime trade. The Song rulers even created a powerful imperial navy to
control piracy on the eastern end of the route.
Between the Arabs and the Chinese, several major empires blossomed based largely on
maritime trade. The Chola Empire (3rd century BCE–1279 CE) in southern India dazzled
travelers with its wealth and luxury; Chinese visitors record parades of elephants covered
with gold cloth and jewels marching through the city streets. In what is now Indonesia,
the Srivijaya Empire (7th–13th centuries CE) boomed based almost entirely on taxing trading
vessels that moved through the narrow Malacca Straits. Even the Angkor civilization (800–
1327), based far inland in the Khmer heartland of Cambodia, used the Mekong River as a
highway that tied it into the Indian Ocean trade network.
For centuries, China had mostly allowed foreign traders to come to it. After all, everyone
wanted Chinese goods, and foreigners were more than willing to take the time and trouble of
visiting coastal China to procure fine silks, porcelain, and other items. In 1405, however,
the Yongle Emperor of China's new Ming Dynasty sent out the first of seven expeditions to
visit all of the empire's major trading partners around the Indian Ocean. The Ming treasure
ships under Admiral Zheng He traveled all the way to East Africa, bring back emissaries and
trade goods from across the region.
Europe Intrudes on the Indian Ocean Trade
In 1498, strange new mariners made their first appearance in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese
sailors under Vasco da Gama (~1460–1524) rounded the southern point of Africa
and ventured into new seas. The Portuguese were eager to join in the Indian Ocean trade
since European demand for Asian luxury goods was extremely high. However, Europe had
nothing to trade. The peoples around the Indian Ocean basin had no need for wool or fur
clothing, iron cooking pots, or the other meager products of Europe.
As a result, the Portuguese entered the Indian Ocean trade as pirates rather than
traders. Using a combination of bravado and cannons, they seized port cities like Calicut on
India's west coast and Macau, in southern China. The Portuguese began to rob and extort
local producers and foreign merchant ships alike. Still scarred by the Moorish Umayyad
conquest of Portugal and Spain (711–788), they viewed Muslims in particular as the enemy
and took every opportunity to plunder their ships.
In 1602, an even more ruthless European power appeared in the Indian Ocean: the Dutch East
India Company (VOC). Rather than insinuating themselves into the existing trade pattern, as
the Portuguese had done, the Dutch sought a total monopoly on lucrative spices

58
like nutmeg and mace. In 1680, the British joined in with their British East India Company,
which challenged the VOC for control of the trade routes. As the European powers
established political control over important parts of Asia, turning Indonesia, India, Malaya,
and much of Southeast Asia into colonies, reciprocal trade dissolved. Goods moved
increasingly to Europe, while the former Asian trading empires grew poorer and
collapsed. With that, the two-thousand-year-old Indian Ocean trade network was crippled, if
not completely destroyed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REFERENCES
Szczepanski, Kallie. "Indian Ocean Trade Routes." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020,
thoughtco.com/indian-ocean-trade-routes-195514https://www.thoughtco.com/indian-ocean-trade-
routes-195514&

Philip Bowring.I.B. Tauris.2019(978-1788314466)

59
60
PART II

61
 I

NEIGHBOURS

Srivijaya, the powerful maritime empire in Southeast Asia, had several

neighboring polities with whom it interacted, often engaging in both trade
and rivalry. These included the Javanese kingdoms, the Khmer (Khom),
and the Champa. Additionally, Srivijaya exerted influence over various
smaller kingdoms on the Malay Peninsula and parts of Borneo.

 Javanese Kingdoms:
Srivijaya had close ties, including both cooperation and rivalry, with
Javanese kingdoms, particularly the Sailendra dynasty.
 Khmer (Khom):
The Khmer Empire, also known as the Khom, was a significant neighbor
with whom Srivijaya engaged in both trade and conflict.
 Champa:
The Champa kingdom, located in present-day Vietnam, was another
neighboring power with whom Srivijaya had interactions, including periods
of rivalry.
 Malay Peninsula Kingdoms:

62
 Srivijaya's influence extended to various kingdoms on the Malay Peninsula,
including Tambralinga, Chaiya, and Kedah.

 Borneo:
Srivijaya also had a presence and influence in parts of Borneo.
 Jambi:
While not directly a neighbor in the same sense as the others, the estuary
town of Jambi was a significant competitor and eventually became the
center of power in Sumatra after Srivijaya's decline

The Triumvirate of SANJAY- SHAILENDRA-SARIVIJAI

Explaining SANJAY- SHAILENDRA-SHRIVIJAI

“…There are things known and things unknown, and in between are the
doors…”Jim Morrison

Sanjaya or Sanjay Srivijaya is a Sanskrit- Sailendra, Syailendra or

(Sanskrit: सञ्जय, derived name: Selendra) was the name
meaning "victory") or श्रीविजय, Śrīvijaya. of a
Sanjaya Gavalgana is Śrī means "fortunate", notable Indianised dynast
an advisor from the "prosperous", or y that emerged in 8th-
ancient Indian Hindu "happy" and Vijaya century Java, whose reign
war epic Mahābhārata. means "victorious" or signified a cultural
In Mahabharata—An "excellence".The renaissance in the
ancient story of a war Srivijaya regionThe Shailendras
between the Pandavas Empire controlled were active promoters
and the Kauravas—the modern-day Indonesia of Mahayana Buddhism a
blind king and much of the Malay nd covered the Kedu
Dhritarashtra is the Archipelago from the Plain of Central Java with
father of the principals seventh to twelfth Buddhist monuments, one
of the Kaurava side. It centuries. The empire of which is the
means means traded extensively with colossal stupa of Borobud
“conquering,” India and China, ur, now
“triumphant,” or incorporating Buddhist a UNESCO World
“victory.” Sanjay and Chinese political Heritage Site.
name meaning practices into their

63
 is Victory; Lord traditions. Srivijaya was
Shiva; also a religious centre in
Dhritarashtra's the region. It adhered
Charioteer; to Mahayana
Triumphant; Caring. Buddhism and soon
The dynasty became the stopping
promoted Hinduism on point for Chinese
the island. Buddhist pilgrims on
their way to India. The
kings of Srivijaya even
founded monasteries at
Negapattam (now
Nagappattinam) in
southeastern India.

The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, natural resources, a
series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics
and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,000 to 18,000 islands stretching along
the equator in Southeast Asia. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island
and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of
Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity
of cultures, ethnicities, and languages.

Example of Rice Terraces in Indonesia//Megalithic statue found in

Tegurwangi, Sumatra, Indonesia, 1500 CE
The Indonesian archipelago was formed during the thaw after the Last Glacial Maximum.
Early humans travelled by sea and spread from mainland Asia eastward to New
Guinea and Australia. Early Indonesians were animists who honoured the spirits of the dead
believing their souls or life force could still help the living. Ideal agricultural conditions, and
the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BCE, allowed villages,

64
towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the 1st century CE. These kingdoms (little more
than collections of villages subservient to petty chieftains) evolved with their own ethnic and
tribal religions. Java's hot and even temperature, abundant rain and volcanic soil, was perfect
for wet rice cultivation. Such agriculture required a well-organized society, in contrast to the
society based on dry-field rice, which is a much simpler form of cultivation that does not
require an elaborate social structure to support it.
Buni culture clay pottery flourished in coastal northern West Java and Banten around 400
BCE to 100 CE. The Buni culture was probably the predecessor of
the Tarumanagara kingdom, one of the earliest Hindu kingdoms in Indonesia, producing
numerous inscriptions and marking the beginning of the historical period in Java.
Early kingdoms -Hindu Buddhist

8th century Borobudur Buddhist monument, Sailendra dynasty, is the largest Buddhist temple in the world/1600-
year-old stone inscription from the era of Purnawarman, king of Tarumanagara, founded in Tugu sub-district
of Jakarta

Indonesia like much of Southeast Asia was influenced by Indian culture. From the 2nd
century, through the Indian dynasties like the Pallava, Gupta, Pala and Chola in the
succeeding centuries up to the 12th century, Indian culture spread across all of
Southeast Asia.
References to the Dvipantara or Yawadvipa, a Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra appear in
Sanskrit writings from 200 BCE. In India's earliest epic, the Ramayana, Sugriva, the chief
of Rama's army dispatched his men to Yawadvipa, the island of Java, in search of Sita.
According to the ancient Tamil text Manimekalai Java had a kingdom with a capital called
Nagapuram. The earliest archaeological relic discovered in Indonesia is from the Ujung
Kulon National Park, West Java, where an early Hindu statue of Ganesha estimated from the
1st century CE was found on the summit of Mount Raksa in Panaitan island. There is also
archaeological evidence of Sunda Kingdom in West Java dating from the 2nd-century,
and Jiwa Temple in Batujaya, Karawang, West Java was probably built around this time.
South Indian culture was spread to Southeast Asia by the south Indian Pallava dynasty in the
4th and 5th centuries and by the 5th century, stone inscriptions written in Pallava scripts were
found in Java and Borneo.
A number of Hindu and Buddhist states flourished and then declined across Indonesia. Seven
rough plinths dating from the beginning of the 4th century CE were found in Kutai, East
Kalimantan, near the Mahakam River known as the Yupa inscription or "Mulavarman
Inscription" believed to be one of the earliest Sanskrit inscriptions of Indonesia, the plinths
were written by Brahmins in the Sanskrit language using the Pallava script of India recalling
of a generous king by the name of Mulavarman who donated a huge amount of alms to

65
Brahmin priests in his kingdom, the kingdom was known as the Kutai Martadipura
Kingdom located in present East Kalimantan Province, believed to be the oldest and first
Hindu kingdom of Indonesia.

Tarumanagara and Sunda

One such early kingdom was Tarumanagara, which flourished between 358 and 669 CE.
Located in West Java close to modern-day Jakarta, its 5th-century king, Purnawarman,
established the earliest known inscriptions in Java, the Ciaruteun inscription located
near Bogor. And other inscriptions called the Pasir Awi inscription and the Muncul
inscription. On this monument, King Purnawarman inscribed his name and made an imprint
of his footprints, as well as his elephant's footprints. The accompanying inscription reads,
"Here are the footprints of King Purnavarman, the heroic conqueror of the world". This
inscription is written in Pallava script and in Sanskrit and is still clear after 1500 years.
Purnawarman apparently built a canal that changed the course of the Cakung River, and
drained a coastal area for agriculture and settlement purpose. In his stone inscriptions,
Purnawarman associated himself with Vishnu, and Brahmins ritually secured the hydraulic
project.
India (Bharat) Connect
There were several trade routes between India and the Far East. One route started from
Bharukaccha to the coast of Suvarnabhumi and Yavadvipa- a term for modern Jāvā island-
Derivable forms: yavadvīpaḥ (यवद्वीपः).Yavadvīpa is a Sanskrit compound consisting of
the terms yava and dvīpa (द्वीप). The next route started from Masulipatam and went across
Bay of Bengal to the Eastern Peninsula.

66
Indian Boat, From Rajrajeswar Temple, Kototlpur, Hooghly, West Bengal, 1694 CE. Photo by Partha
Sanyal. Second map is from the paper “Austronesian Shipping in the Indian Ocean: From Outrigger Boats
to Trading Ships” (2016).

67
This was the most direct route for Yavadvipa (Java), Suvarṇadvipa (Sumatra ), Champā
(Annam) and Kamboja (Cambodia). As this route was through the high seas, a special type of
ship known as colandia was required.
Ptolemy informs us about another route, which was generally adopted by the traders of
Kalinga. The ships starting from Polura (modern Gopalpur), near the mouth of the Ganjam,
crossed the Bay of Bengal for the Eastern Peninsula in the Far East.
For the traders of Mathura, Kausambi, Vārāṇasi and Campa the most convenient port was
Tamralipti. From Tamralipti the ships sailed on the open sea for Suvarnabhumi and other
countries like Yavadvipa, Campā and Kamboja.
When a regular sea-route between India and China became popular, the port of Tamralipti
(Tamluk in West Bengal) became the most suitable port for a trader from China trading with
North India. A trade mission from Funan, for India, in the 1st c. CE, actually landed on the
port of Tamralipti.
Around the same period, in the 6th to 7th centuries (501–700 CE), the Kalingga
Kingdom was established in Central Java northern coast, mentioned in Chinese account. The
name of this kingdom was derived from ancient Indian kingdom of Kalinga, which suggest
the ancient link between India and Indonesia. Sadhabas (or Sadhavas) were
ancient mariners from the Kalinga region, which roughly corresponds to modern Odisha,
India. They used ships called Boitas to travel to distant lands such as South-East Asia to carry
out trade.The early hours of Kartik Purnima (the full moon day in October and November)
was considered an auspicious occasion by the Sadhabas to begin their long
voyages. Coconuts, earthenware, sandalwood, cloth, lime, rice, spices, salt, cloves, pumpkins,
silk sarees, betel leaves, betel nuts, elephants, precious and semi-precious stones were the
main items of trade. Even women went on voyages as well and were known as Sadhabanis -
Odia navigators were instrumental in
spreading Buddhism and Hinduism in East and Southeast Asia. In addition, they
disseminated knowledge of Indian architecture, epics such as the Ramayana and
the Mahabharata, Brahmic scripts writing system and Sanskrit loan words which are present
in many Southeast Asian languages from different language families such
as Khmer, Thai, Cham, Balinese etc.Maritime trade declined only in the 16th century, with
the decline of the Gajapati Empire.

68
The political history of Indonesian archipelago during the 7th to 11th (601–1100 CE) around
centuries was dominated by Srivijaya based in Sumatra and Sailendra that dominated
southeast Asia based in Java and constructed Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in
the world. The history prior of the 14th and 15th centuries (1301–1500 CE) is not well known
due to the scarcity of evidence. By the 15th century (1401–1500 CE), two major states
dominated this period; Majapahit in East Java, the greatest of the pre-Islamic Indonesian
states, and Malacca on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, arguably one of the greatest of
the Muslim trading empires, this marked the rise of Muslim states in the Indonesian
archipelago.
Mataram

Sewu temple in Special Region of Yogyakarta//Prambanan in Java was built during the Sanjaya
dynasty of Mataram Kingdom; it is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in Southeast Asia.
Mataram Empire
Mataram Empire, sometimes referred to as Mataram Kingdom, was an Indianized
kingdom based in Central Java around modern-day Yogyakarta between the 8th and 10th
centuries. The kingdom was ruled by the Sailendra dynasty, and later by the Sanjaya dynasty.
The centre of the kingdom was moved from central Java to East Java by Mpu Sindok. An
eruption of the volcano Mount Merapi in 929, and political pressure from Sailendrans based
in the Srivijaya Empire may have caused the move. The first king of Mataram, Sri Sanjaya,

69
left inscriptions in stone. The monumental Hindu temple of Prambanan in the vicinity of
Yogyakarta was built by Pikatan. Dharmawangsa ordered the translation of
the Mahabharata into Old Javanese in 996.
In the period 750 CE – 850 CE, the kingdom saw the blossoming of classical Javanese art and
architecture. A rapid increase in temple construction occurred across the landscape of its
heartland in Mataram (Kedu and Kewu Plain). The most notable temples constructed in
Mataram are Kalasan, Sewu, Borobudur and Prambanan. The Empire had become the
supreme power not only in Java but also over Srivijayan Empire, Bali, southern Thailand,
some Philippine kingdoms, and Khmer in Cambodia.
Later in its history, the dynasty divided into two dynasties based on their own religion,
the Buddhist and Shivaist dynasties. Civil war was unavoidable and the outcome was
Mataram Empire divided into two powerful kingdom based on region and religion.
The Shivaist dynasty of Mataram kingdom in Java led by Rakai Pikatan and the Buddhist
dynasty of Srivijaya kingdom in Sumatra led by Balaputradewa. The hostility between them
didn't end until in 1006 when the Sailendran based in Srivijaya kingdom incited rebellion by
Wurawari, vassal of Mataram kingdom and sacked Shivaist dynasty's capital in Watugaluh,
Java. Srivijaya kingdom rose into undisputed hegemonic Empire in the era as the result. Yet
the Shivaist dynasty survived and successfully reclaimed the east Java in 1019 then
descended to Kahuripan kingdom led by Airlangga son of Udayana of Bali.
The Sanjaya–Shailendra relationship has been uncertain. Poerbatjaraka theorized that there
was no distinct Sanjaya dynasty and one dynasty, Shailendra, ruled central Java. The
kingdom was called Mataram (Javanese: mātaram), with its capital in the Mataram]] area.
Sanjaya and his offspring belonged to the Shailendra family, who were initially Shaivist.
Another theory suggests that the Sanjaya dynasty was forced into northern Java by the
Shailendra dynasty, which emerged around 778. Evidence for this event is based on
the Kalasan inscription. The Sanjaya and Shailendra dynasties co-existed during this period
in central Java, which was characterized by peace and cooperation.
The association of Shailendra with Mahayana Buddhism began after the conversion of Raja
Sankhara (Rakai Panaraban or Panangkaran) to Buddhism. [3] Later Shailendran kings,
successors of Panangkaran, also became followers of Mahayana Buddhism and gave it royal
patronage in Java until the end of Samaratungga's reign. This theory is based on the Raja
Sankhara inscription (now missing), the Sojomerto inscription, and the Carita
Parahyangan manuscript. Shaivism regained royal patronage again from the reign
of Pikatan to the end of the Mataram Kingdom.
The Shailendra family used the Old Malay language in some of their inscriptions, which
suggests the dynasty's origin in Sumatra and their connections with Srivijaya. This theory
posits that the Shailendras, with their strong connections to Srivijaya, gained control of
central Java and ruled the rakais (local Javanese lords); this included the Sanjaya,
incorporating the dynasty's kings into their bureaucracy. The dynastic court was apparently in
the southern Kedu Plain, near Magelang (north of Yogyakarta).
The Javanese kingdoms maintained a close relationship with the Champa polities of mainland
Southeast Asia as early as the Sanjaya dynasty. Like the Javanese, the Chams are
an Austronesian people. An example of their relationship can be seen in the architecture of
Cham temples, which share a number of similarities with temples in central Java built during
the Sanjaya dynasty.
Crown prince Rakai Pikatan married Pramodhawardhani (833–856), a daughter of the
Shailendra king Samaratungga. The influence of the Hindu Sanjaya began to replace the

70
Buddhist Shailendra in Mataram. Rakai Pikatan overthrew King Balaputra, son
of Samaratungga and the brother of Pramodhawardhani. In 850, the Sanjaya dynasty became
the sole ruler in Mataram. This ended the Shailendra presence in central Java and Balaputra
retreated to rule in Srivijaya, Sumatra.
Information about the Sanjaya dynasty is also found in the 907 Balitung inscription; when a
ruler died, he assumed a divine form. From this inscription, scholars estimated the sequence
of the Sanjaya kings:[5]: 88–89, 91, 92, 108, 126–127

 Sanjaya (732–760)
 Panangkaran (760–780)
 Panungalan (780–800)
 Samaragrawira(Rakai Warak) (800–819)
 Rakai Garung (819–838)
 Rakai Pikatan (838–850)
 Rakai Kayuwangi (850–898), also known as Lokapala
 Balitung (898–910)
During the Sanjaya dynasty, classic Javanese literature blossomed. Translations and
adaptations of classic Hindu literature into Old Javanese were produced, such as the Kakawin
Ramayana. Around the 850s, Pikatan began construction of the Prambanan temple in central
Java; it was later completed and expanded by King Balitung. The Prambanan temple complex
is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in Southeast Asia, rivaling Borobudur (the
world's largest Buddhist temple).
Sanjaya kings after Balitung were:

 Daksa (910–919)
 Tulodong (919–924)
 Wawa (924–929)
 Mpu Sindok (929–947)
In 929, Mpu Sindok moved the Mataram court from central Java to eastern Java for unclear
reasons. Possible causes include an eruption of the Merapi volcano, a power struggle, or
political pressure from the Shailendra dynasty in the Srivijaya Empire. The move to eastern
Java marked the end of the Sanjaya dynasty, and it was followed by the Isyana dynasty.
Srivijaya-Sriwijaya was a kingdom on Sumatra which influenced much of the Maritime
Southeast Asia. From the 7th century, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a
result of trade and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with
it.Srivijaya was centred in the coastal trading centre of present-day Palembang. Srivijaya was
not a "state" in the modern sense with defined boundaries and a centralised government to
which the citizens own allegiance. Rather Srivijaya was a confederacy form of society
centred on a royal heartland. It was a thalassocracy and did not extend its influence far
beyond the coastal areas of the islands of Southeast Asia. Trade was the driving force of
Srivijaya just as it is for most societies throughout history. The Srivijayan navy controlled the
trade that made its way through the Strait of Malacca.

71
The territory of the Srivijaya empire. Historically, Srivijaya was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia//The

depiction of Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa, the first king of Srivijaya

By the 7th century, the harbours of various vassal states of Srivijaya lined both coasts of the
Straits of Melaka. Around this time, Srivijaya had established suzerainty over large areas of
Sumatra, western Java, and much of the Malay Peninsula. Dominating the Malacca
and Sunda straits, the empire controlled both the Spice Route traffic and local trade. It
remained a formidable sea power until the 13th century. This spread the ethnic Malay culture
throughout Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and western Borneo. A stronghold of Mahayana
Buddhism, Srivijaya attracted pilgrims and scholars from other parts of Asia.
The relation between Srivijaya and the Chola Empire of south India was friendly during the
reign of Raja Raja Chola I but during the reign of Rajendra Chola I the Chola Empire
attacked Srivijaya cities. A series of Chola raids in the 11th century weakened the Srivijayan
hegemony and enabled the formation of regional kingdoms based, like Kediri, on intensive
agriculture rather than coastal and long-distance trade. Srivijayan influence waned by the
11th century. The island was in frequent conflict with the Javanese kingdoms,
first Singhasari and then Majapahit. Islam eventually made its way to the Aceh region of
Sumatra, spreading its influence through contacts with Arabs and Indian traders. By the late
13th century, the kingdom of Pasai in northern Sumatra converted to Islam. The last
inscription dates to 1374, where a crown prince, Ananggavarman, is mentioned. Srivijaya
ceased to exist by 1414, when Parameswara, the kingdom's last prince, fled to Temasik, then
to Malacca. Later his son converted to Islam and founded the Sultanate of Malacca on the
Malay peninsula.

72
Map of the expansion of the Srivijaya empire, beginning in Palembang in the 7th century,
then extending to most of Sumatra, then expanding to Java, Riau Islands, Bangka
Belitung, Singapore, Malay Peninsula (also known as: Kra Peninsula), Thailand, Cambodia,
South Vietnam, Kalimantan, Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, and ended as the Kingdom
of Dharmasraya in Jambi in the 13th century.
Srivijaya was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-
day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia.[4] Srivijaya was an important
centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th to the 11th century AD. Srivijaya was the
first polity to dominate much of western Maritime Southeast Asia. Due to its location,
Srivijaya developed complex technology utilizing maritime resources. In addition, its
economy became progressively reliant on the booming trade in the region, thus transforming
it into a prestige goods-based economy.
The earliest reference to it dates from the 7th century. A Tang dynasty Chinese monk, Yijing,
wrote that he visited Srivijaya in year 671 for six months.[6][7] The earliest known inscription
in which the name Srivijaya appears also dates from the 7th century in the Kedukan Bukit
inscription found near Palembang, Sumatra, dated 16 June 682.[8] Between the late 7th and
early 11th century, Srivijaya rose to become a hegemon in Southeast Asia. It was involved in
close interactions, often rivalries, with the neighbouring Mataram, Khmer and Champa.
Srivijaya's main foreign interest was nurturing lucrative trade agreements with China which
lasted from the Tang to the Song dynasty. Srivijaya had religious, cultural and trade links
with the Buddhist Pala of Bengal, as well as with the Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East.
Although it was once thought of as a maritime empire, new research on available records
suggests that Srivijaya was primarily a land-based polity rather than a maritime power, fleets
were available but acted as logistical support to facilitate the projection of land power. In
response to the change in the maritime Asian economy, and threatened by the loss of its

73
dependencies, the kingdoms around the Malacca Straits developed a naval strategy to delay
their decline. The naval strategy of the kingdoms around the Malacca Strait was mainly
punitive; this was done to coerce trading ships to be called to their port. Later, the naval
strategy degenerated to raiding fleet.
The kingdom ceased to exist in the 1025 CE after several raids were launched by Chola
empire upon their ports. After Srivijaya fell, it was largely forgotten. It was not until 1918
that French historian George Cœdès, of l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, formally
postulated its existence.
Srivijaya is a Sanskrit-derived name: श्रीविजय, Śrīvijaya. Śrī[12] means "fortunate",
"prosperous", or "happy" and Vijaya[ means "victorious" or "excellence".Thus, the combined
word Srivijaya means "shining victory", "splendid triumph", "prosperous victor", "radiance of
excellence" or simply "glorious". According to the Kedukan Bukit inscription, dated 605
Saka (683), Srivijaya was first established in the vicinity of today's Palembang, on the banks
of Musi River. It mentions that Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa came from Minanga Tamwan.
The exact location of Minanga Tamwan is still a subject of discussion. The Palembang theory
as the place where Srivijaya was first established was presented by Cœdes and supported by
Pierre-Yves Manguin. Soekmono, on the other hand, argues that Palembang was not the
capital of Srivijaya and suggests that the Kampar River system in Riau where the Muara
Takus temple is located as Minanga Tamwan.
Other than the Kedukan Bukit inscription and other Srivijayan inscriptions, immediately to
the west of modern Palembang city, a quantity of artefacts have been revealed through
archaeological surveys commenced since the 20th century. Artefacts unearthed includes large
amount of Chinese ceramics and Indian rouletted ware remains, also the ruins of stupa at the
foot of Bukit Seguntang. Furthermore, a significant number of Hindu-Buddhist statuary has
been recovered from the Musi River basin. These discoveries reinforce the suggestion that
Palembang was the center of Srivijaya. Nevertheless, Palembang left little archaeological
traces of ancient urban settlement. This is probably because of the nature of Palembang
environment — a low-lying plain which frequently flooded by Musi River. Expert suggests
that the ancient Palembang settlement was formed as a collection of floating houses made
from thatched materials, such as wood, bamboo and straw roof. The 13th century Chinese
account confirmed this; in his Zhu Fan Zhi, Zhao Rukuo mentioned, "The residents of Sanfo-
tsi (Srivijaya) live scattered outside the city on the water, within rafts lined with reeds." It
was probably only Kedatuan (king's court) and religious structures were built on land, while
the people live in floating houses along Musi River.

Early 20th-century historians who studied the inscriptions of Sumatra and the neighboring
islands thought that the term "Srivijaya" referred to a king's name. In 1913, H. Kern was the
first epigraphist that identified the name "Srivijaya" written in a 7th-century Kota Kapur
inscription (discovered in 1892). However, at that time he believed that it referred to a king
named "Vijaya", with "Sri" as an honorific title for a king or ruler.[15]
The Sundanese manuscript of Carita Parahyangan, composed around the late 16th century
in West Java, vaguely mentioned about the name "Sang Sri Wijaya". The manuscript
describes princely hero that rose to be a king named Sanjaya that — after he secured his rule
in Java — was involved in battle with the Malayu and Keling against their king Sang Sri
Wijaya.
Subsequently, after studying local stone inscriptions, manuscripts and Chinese historical
accounts, historians concluded that the term "Srivijaya" was actually referred to

74
a polity or kingdom. The main concern is to define Srivijaya's amorphous statehood as
a thalassocracy, which dominated a confederation of semi autonomous harbour cities in
Maritime Southeast Asia.

Talang Tuwo inscription, discovered in Bukit

Seguntang area, tells the establishment of the sacred Śrīksetra park.
Little physical evidence of Srivijaya remains.[17] There had been no continuous knowledge of
the history of Srivijaya even in Indonesia and Maritime Southeast Asia; its forgotten past has
been resurrected by foreign scholars. Contemporary Indonesians, even those from the area
of Palembang (around where the kingdom was based), had not heard of Srivijaya until the
1920s. The Srivijayan historiography was acquired, composed and established from two
main sources: the Chinese historical accounts and the Southeast Asian stone inscriptions that
have been discovered and deciphered in the region. The Buddhist pilgrim Yijing's account is
especially important in describing Srivijaya, when he visited the kingdom in 671 for six
months. The 7th-century siddhayatra inscriptions discovered in Palembang and Bangka
Island are also vital primary historical sources. Also, regional accounts that some might be
preserved and retold as tales and legends, such as the Legend of the Maharaja of Zabaj and
the Khmer King also provide a glimpse of the kingdom. Some Indian and Arabic accounts
also vaguely describe the riches and fabulous fortune of the king of Zabag. It's likely that the
Zabag-Khmer story was based on Javanese overlordship over Cambodia.
Srivijaya, and by extension Sumatra, had been known by different names to different peoples.
The Chinese called it Sanfotsi, Sanfoqi or Che-li-fo-che (Shilifoshi), and there was an even
older kingdom of Kantoli, which could be considered the predecessor of
Srivijaya. The Arabs called it Zabag or Sribuza and the Khmers called it Melayu.[21] While
the Javanese called them Suvarnabhumi, Suvarnadvipa, Melayu, or Malayu. This is another
reason why the discovery of Srivijaya was so difficult. [21] While some of these names are
strongly reminiscent of the name of Java, there is a distinct possibility that they may have
referred to Sumatra instead.
Palembang and its relevance to the early Malay state suffered a great deal of controversy in
terms of its evidence build-up through the archaeological record. Strong historical evidence
found in Chinese sources, speaking of city-like settlements as early as 700 AD, and
later Arab travelers, who visited the region during the 10th and 11th centuries, held written
proof, naming the kingdom of Srivijaya in their context. As far as early state-like polities in
the Malay Archipelago, the geographical location of modern Palembang was a possible
candidate for the 1st-millennium kingdom settlement like Srivijaya as it is the best described
and most secure in historical context, its prestige was apparent in wealth and urban
characteristics, and the most unique, which no other 1st-millennium kingdom held, was its
location in junction to three major rivers, the Musi River, the Komering River, and the Ogan
River. The historical evidence was contrasted in 1975 with publications by Bennet Bronson
and Jan Wisseman. Findings at certain major excavation sites, such as Geding Suro,
Penyaringan Air Bersih, Sarang Wati, and Bukit Seguntang, conducted in the region played

75
major roles in the negative evidence of the 1st-millennium kingdom in the same region. It
was noted that the region contained no locatable settlements earlier than the middle of the
second millennium.
Lack of evidence of southern settlements in the archaeological record comes from the
disinterest in the archeologist and the unclear physical visibility of the settlement themselves.
Archeology of the 1920s and 1930s focused more on art and epigraphy found in the regions.
Some northern urban settlements were sited due to some overlap in fitting the sinocentric
model of city-state urban centers. An approach to differentiate between urban settlements in
the southern regions from the northern ones of Southeast Asia was initiated by a proposition
for an alternative model. Excavations showed failed signs of a complex urban center under
the lens of a sinocentric model, leading to parameters of a new proposed model. Parameters
for such a model of a city-like settlement included isolation in relevance to its hinterland. No
hinterland creates for low archaeological visibility. The settlement must also have access to
both easy transportation and major interregional trade routes, crucial in a region with few
resources. Access to the former and later played a major role in the creation of an extreme
economic surplus in the absence of an exploited hinterland. The urban center must be able to
organize politically without the need for ceremonial foci such as temples, monuments and
inscriptions. Lastly, habitations must be impermanent, being highly probable in the region
Palembang and of southern Southeast Asia. Such a model was proposed to challenge city
concepts of ancient urban centers in Southeast Asia and basic postulates themselves such as
regions found in the South, like Palembang, based their achievements in correlation with
urbanization.
Due to the contradicting pattern found in southern regions, like Palembang, in 1977 Bennet
Bronson developed a speculative model for a better understanding of coastal-oriented states
in Insular Southeast Asia, such as insular and peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, and
western Indonesia. Its main focus was the relationship of political, economic and
geographical systems. The general political and economic pattern of the region seems
irrelevant to other parts of the world of their time, but in correlation with their maritime trade
network, it produced high levels of socio-economic complexity. He concluded, from his
earlier publications in 1974 that state development in this region developed much differently
than the rest of early Southeast Asia. Bronson's model was based on the dendritic patterns of
a drainage basin where its opening leads out to sea. Being that historical evidence places the
capital in Palembang, and in junction of three rivers, the Musi River, the Komering River,
and the Ogan River, such model can be applied. For the system to function appropriately,
several constraints are required. The inability for terrestrial transportation results in
movements of all goods through water routes, lining up economical patterns with the
dendritic patterns formed by the streams. The second being the overseas center is
economically superior to the ports found at the mouth of the rivers, having a higher
population and a more productive and technologically advanced economy. Lastly, constraints
on the land work against and do not developments of urban settlements.
An aerial photograph taken in 1984 near Palembang (in what is now Srivijaya Archaeological
Park) revealed the remnants of ancient man-made canals, moats, ponds, and artificial islands,
suggesting the location of Srivijaya's urban centre. Several artefacts such as fragments of
inscriptions, Buddhist statues, beads, pottery and Chinese ceramics were found, confirming
that the area had, at one time, dense human habitation.[29] By 1993, Pierre-Yves Manguin had
shown that the centre of Srivijaya was along the Musi River between Bukit Seguntang and
Sabokingking (situated in what is now Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia). Palembang is
called 'Giant Harbour', this is probably a testament of its history as once a great port.

76
The recent troves discovered from the muddy sediments in the bottom of Musi river seems to
confirms that Palembang was indeed the commercial centre of Srivijaya kingdom. In 2021
numbers of treasures were surfaced from shallows and riverbed by local fishermen that turns
to be treasure divers. The troves includes coins of certain periods, gold jewelries, Buddhist
statues, gems, colourful beads, and Chinese ceramic fragments. However, these troves are
immediately lost for the historical knowledge, since local treasure hunters immediately has
sold them to international antiquities dealers before archaeologists can properly study
them. These discoveries has led to the treasure rush in Musi river in 2021, where locals has
formed groups of treasure divers operating in some parts of Musi river in and around
Palembang.
Jambi

Muaro Jambi Buddhist temple

compound, a possible location of Srivijaya's religious center
Some scholar argues that the centre of Srivijaya was located in Muaro Jambi, and not
Palembang as many previous writers suggested. In 2013, archaeological research led by
the University of Indonesia discovered several religious and habitation sites at the Muaro
Jambi Temple Compounds, suggesting that the initial centre of Srivijaya was located
in Muaro Jambi Regency, Jambi on the Batang Hari River, rather than on the originally-
proposed Musi River. The archaeological site includes eight excavated temple sanctuaries
and covers about 12 square kilometers, and stretches 7.5 kilometers along the Batang Hari
River, while 80 mounds (menapos) of temple ruins, are not yet restored. The Muaro Jambi
archaeological site was Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhist in nature, which suggests that the site
served as a Buddhist learning center, connected to the 10th century famous Buddhist
scholar Suvarṇadvipi Dharmakīrti. Chinese sources also mentioned that Srivijaya hosts
thousands of Buddhist monks.
Compared to Palembang, Muaro Jambi has richer archaeological sites, i.e. multiple red brick
temples and building structures along the Batang Hari river. On the other hand, no
comparable temple or building structure ever discovered in Palembang. The proponent of
Muaro Jambi theory as Srivijaya's capital pointing out that the descriptions written by I-
Tsing and Chau Ju-kua, the description of Srivijaya realms by the Cholas, also the
archaeological findings, suggests that the Srivijaya capital fits Muaro Jambi's environs better
than the marshy Palembang. The study also compares the environs, geographical location,
and the economic wealth of both cities; arguing that Jambi, located on the mouth of Batang
Hari river basin with its connection to Minangkabau hinterland was the centre of gold trade in
the area,that described as the fabulous wealth of Srivijaya.

77
Central Java
In the second half of the eighth century, the Srivijayan mandala seem to have been ruled by
the Sailendra dynasty of Central Java. Several Arabic sources mentioned that Zabag (the
Javanese Sailendra dynasty) ruled over Sribuza (Srivijaya), Kalah (a place in the Malay
peninsula, probably Kedah), and Ramni (a place in Sumatra, probably Lambri). However, it
was unknown whether Srivijaya's capital has moved to Java or Srivijaya simply became a
subordinate of Java
Other places
Another theory suggests that Dapunta Hyang came from the east coast of the Malay
Peninsula, and that the Chaiya District in Surat Thani Province, Thailand, was the centre of
Srivijaya.[39] The Srivijayan Period is referred to as the time when Srivijaya ruled over
present-day southern Thailand. In the region of Chaiya, there is clear evidence of Srivijayan
influence seen in artwork inspired by Mahayana Buddhism. Because of the large amount of
remains, such as the Ligor stele, found in this region, some scholars attempted to prove
Chaiya as the capital rather than Palembang. This period was also a time for art. The
Buddhist art of the Srivijayan Kingdom was believed to have borrowed from Indian styles
like that of the Dvaravati school of art.[41] Some scholars believe that Chaiya probably comes
from Srivijaya. It was a regional capital in the Srivijaya empire. Some Thai historians argue it
was the capital of Srivijaya itself, but this is generally discounted.
Formation and growth
Siddhayatra

The Kedukan Bukit inscription displayed in the National

Museum of Indonesia
Around the year 500, the roots of the Srivijayan empire began to develop around present-
day Palembang, Sumatra. The Kedukan Bukit inscription (683)—considered as the oldest
inscription related to the kingdom of Srivijaya, discovered on the banks of the Tatang River
near the Karanganyar site, states about the "glorious Srivijaya", a kadatuan (kingdom or
polity) which was founded by Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa and his retinue. He had embarked
on a sacred siddhayatra journey and led 20,000 troops and 312 people in boats with 1,312
foot soldiers from Minanga Tamwan to Jambi and Palembang. Many of this armed forces
gathered under the Srivijayan rule would have been the sea people, referred to generally as
the orang laut. In establishing its power, Srivijaya had first to consolidate its position in
Southeast Sumatra, which at that time consists of numbers of quasi-independent polities ruled
by local Datus (chieftain).
From the Old Malay inscriptions, it is notable that Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa launched a
maritime conquest in 684 with 20,000 men in the siddhayatra journey to acquire wealth,
power, and 'magical powers'. Under the leadership of Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa,
the Melayu Kingdom became the first kingdom to be integrated into Srivijaya. This possibly
occurred in the 680s. Melayu, also known as Jambi, was rich in gold and held in high esteem

78
at the time. Srivijaya recognised that the submission of Melayu would increase its own
prestige.
The empire was organised in three main zones: the estuarine capital region centred
on Palembang, the Musi River basin which served as a hinterland, and competitor estuarine
areas capable of forming competitor power centres. The areas upstream of the Musi
River were rich in various commodities valuable to Chinese traders. The capital was
administered directly by the ruler, while the hinterland remained under local datus or tribal
chiefs, who were organised into a network of alliances with the Srivijaya maharaja or king.
Force was the dominant element in the empire's relations with competitor river systems such
as the Batang Hari River, centred in Jambi.
The Telaga Batu inscription, discovered in Sabokingking, eastern Palembang, is also
a siddhayatra inscription, from the 7th century. This inscription was very likely used in a
ceremonial sumpah (allegiance ritual). The top of the stone is adorned with seven nāga heads,
and on the lower portion there is a type of water spout to channel liquid that was likely
poured over the stone during a ritual. The ritual included a curse upon those who commit
treason against Kadatuan Srivijaya.
The Talang Tuwo inscription is also a siddhayatra inscription. Discovered in Seguntang Hill,
western Palembang, this inscription tells about the establishment of the
bountiful Śrīksetra garden endowed by King Jayanasa of Srivijaya for the well-being of all
creatures. It is likely that the Seguntang Hill site was the location of the Śrīksetra garden.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

II
The Mysterious Origin of the enigmatic Shailendra of Java

Pre-Phnom (Funan) Kingdom

People of Kok Tlok (Kok means dry land and Thlok is a name of a big large tree) was a
native to Phnom Kingdom (Funan recorded by Chinese) they lived in a land surrounding with
water mixing from river and sea. They claimed that they were a descendant of the Naga
people.

Was the Funan Kingdom a Khmer nation?

79
Funan was a Khmer nation which was later leaded by King Kao Din ( From Indian) after he
married with Queen Sor Ma (Khmer). I mean the nation had already built before the Prince
arrived. It was leaded by the first Cambodian queen. Queen Soma of Kok Thlok and King
Kaudinya of South India ruled Phnom (Funan). They named people of their Kingdom
“Khmer” and named their Kingdom “Phnom” (Mountain). King Kaudinya became the first
Khmer Varman dynasty. The ruling family of Khmer Phnom (Funan) was the Kumeru-Soma
clan (Lunar) who named their people Kumer later become Khmer after the King name
Kumeru.
Phnom Kingdom (Mountain Kingdom) Funan named by the Chinese travellers Kang Tai and
Zhu Yi from Wu Kigdom of China in the 3rd century.From the 1st century ad to 6th century
ad. Phnom Kingdom (First temple in Ba Phnom, Takeo province in Cambodia)
Phnom (Funan) was the first large Southeast Asia civilization. It was centered on the lower
Mekong Delta in present -day Cambodia.

Phnom Kingdom was very famous, people from Champa, Java, India, China, Roman, Greek,
Persia came to visit and trade with people of Phnom Kingdom. The Chinese named it Funan
ruling by King Hun Tien and Queen Lievye. King Kumeru Kaudinya Jayavarman sent a
message to his brothers at Indrapat Kingdom in India, informed them that he found a home in
east near Champa Kingdom. His brothers were very happy sending ships with many men and
many gifts and informed the bad news that the King father had passed away after the
departure of Prince Kumeru. Phnom Kingdom had many Indian men married with women of
Kok Tlok and the Indigenous women of Kok Tlok.

Capital: Vyadhapura (Today Angkor Borei in Ta Keo province, Cambodia).

Ethnicity: Khmer
Language: Spoken old Khmer, Sanskrit writing.
Culture: Mixed of native beliefs, Neak Ta. Hinduism and Buddhism.
Administration; Taxes were paid in silver, gold, pearl, perfumes wood. Used bronze
coins as their currency.
Legacy: King and Queen of Mountain (The Java based Shailendra claimed that they
were descendant of Phnom (Mounting Kingdom).
Economy: Phnom (Funan) was first SEA great economy. It was prosperous through
maritime trade and agriculture using Oc Eo as its important port traded with
foreigners such as Indian, Cham, Java, Chinese, Roman, Greek and Persian.

King and Queen of Phnom Kingdom had 11 children. King Kumeru Kaudinya Varman ruled
77 years and died in the age of 103 years. Queen Nagi Phervatei Soma die at the age of 100
years. Their children, grand-children and great-grandchildren continued to reign Phnom
Kingdom until the 6th century. After that, their descendants were intermarried with their
cousin the Kampu-Mera clan (Solar) of Kampuchea (Cambodia) Chenla.

80
Quen Soma. Funan, the first Khmer Phnom Kingdom of Cambodia. Wars with Vietnem

Khmer Empire Vietnam wars

The Khmer Empire really tried many times to conquer the ancient Vietnamese state - Dai
Viet/the Great Viet Kingdom (Vietnam) during the 12th century when the powerful Empire -
Kkmer still dominated the Mainland of Southeast Asian and the Vietnamese weak state - the
Dai Viet Kingdom

Background:
During the 12th century, the Khmer Empire was powerful country compared to its
neighbouring around including Dai Viet Kingdom (Vietnam). In general, they dominated the
terrritories which covered most of parts of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand today.

81
At the time Dai Viet Kingdom (Vietnam) was in a vulnerable position due to internal conflict
and a series of wars with their neighbors. In 1127, the 12-years-old Crown Prince Lý Dương
Hoán became new ruler of Dai Viet. Suryavarman II , the ruler of the Khmer Empire
demanded Dai Viet kingdom to pay tribute for the Khmer Empire, but it wasn't happening.
After the Vietnamese refused to pay tribute to the Khmers, Suryavarman II decided to expand
his territory northward into Vietnamese territory.

Conflicts:
In 1128: King Suryavarman II led 20,000 soldiers from Savannakhet (Laos today) to Nghe
An (Central Vietnam today) but were routed in battle. The following year Suryavarman
continued skirmishes on land and sent 700 ships to bombard the coastal areas of Dai Viet.
In 1132: The Khmer Empire and Champa Empire jointly invaded the Dai Viet Kingdom and
briefly seizing Nghe An of Dai Viet.
According to the Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu book (“the official history book of ancient
Vietnam), the Khmer Empire also attacked Dai Viet in 1136, 1149, 1150 under the
Surayavarman II period, 1216, 1218 of next Khmer’s Kings (Detail later)
Aftermath
The Dai Viet Kingdom protected itself from the Khmer Empire but the Khmer Rouge still
dominated the region until slowly weakening after a few next centuries and replaced by
Vietnam and Thailand as dominant players in the eastern of Mainland Southeast Asia.
Lusia Millar

82
Matriarchal Society: Kok Tlok was ruled by a Princess Nagi, a daughter of the King and
Queen of Naga. Men and women wore the animal skins on their below bodies, but nothing on
top of their bodies. Only women can chose men to get married with. After marriage,
husbands must come to live with their wives’ parent houses. Wives were the men of the
houses, husbands had no objection when wives decided what to do, women were the
leadership, women controlled the business as we can see today in every public market in the
current Kampuchea (Cambodia). Women were Mé , Men were Ba. Children called their
mother Mé and called their father Ba. Mé means first, chief, big or huge. Mé was played very
important role in Kok Tlok Kingdom. When children get married, they needed Mé and Ba for
blessing them at their wedding ceremony. Children used their mother family name instead of
their father family name. People of Kok Tlok believed in nature spirits, in animal spirits and
Neat Ta spirits. People of Kok Tlok killed fish, wild animals and picked fruits in the jungle
for their food. They had their mother tongue speaking language, but they didn't have a writing
system of language. When they died, their death bodies were brought into the jungle or
cremated them in their village. The Khmer built the Naga statues in every Khmer temple in
Cambodia to remind of the ancestors of Khmer before the Indian arrival.

Who was the ruling family of Khmer Phnom (Funan) Kingdom, pre-Cambodia?

The ruling family of Khmer Phnom (Funan) was the Kumeru-Soma clan (Lunar) who named
their people Kumer later become Khmer after the King
name Kumeru. Phnom Kingdom (Mountain Kingdom) Funan named by the Chinese
travellers Kang Tai and Zhu Yi from Wu Kigdom of China in the 3rd century.
From the 1st century ad to 6th century AD.Phnom Kingdom (First temple in Ba Phnom,
Takeo province in Cambodia). Phnom (Funan) was the first large Southeast Asia civilization.
It was centered on the lower Mekong Delta in present -day Cambodia Phnom Kingdom was
very famous, people from Champa, Java, India, China, Rome were in toiuch with the
kingdom..

83
The ancient Khmer did leave many historical writings on palm leaves or on stone inscriptions
and even carving how the ancient Khmer living in ancient times. Some are lost because of
many wars and because the enemies burned and destroyed them.

84
The Khmer Empire is one of the strongest Empires in Mainland Southeast Asia together with
the Burmese Empire, the Thai Kingdom, and the Viet Kingdom. There are many debates
about your question of how the Khmer Empire fall. However, from my point of view, with
the short answer, the Khmer Empire fall because the Khmer imperial court had not enough
power to maintain its Empire and make its vassal states and edge territorial loyal to itself.

85
At its height, Khmer Empire consists not only central state: Cambodia but also several vassal
states around the

King Ramkamheing of Siam (Thailand)

Ram means (Ream=Brother) and Kamhaing means (Kamhaing=Threaten).

Ram Kamhaing = Threatened by brother. The King was a brother of the Khmer King
Jayavarman VIII.In the 13th century in order to found a Kingdom for his wife, his children
and his Siam people who support him, he stole the secret documents from Angkor and he was
threatened by his King brother. He was known as the father of Siam who invented the Siam
alphabets, but he didn’t invent, he just copied the Khmer alphabets, took all the hair on top of
the Khmer alphabets out and made them as the Siam a

In some Indonesian history forums/pages that I follow, sometimes there’s a debate about
where the Shailendra came from. One group says that Shailendra came from Sumatra. And
the other says that Syailendra were originally Javanese but with Srivijaya influences.
Other options are rarely discuss in Indonesia. There are 4 possibilities of the origin of
Syailendra Dinasty or in Indonesian we call them “Wangsa Syailendra / Wanga Sailendra.”

Shailendra dynasty - What is the meaning of Shailendra (Sanskrit शैलेंद्र) ?

Shailendra (IAST: Śailendra) is a Sanskrit combined words Śaila and Indra, meaning "King of
the Mountain", It is often used as an epithet of the Hindu god Shiva. It is commonly used as a
male given name in the Indian subcontinent. This Javan d ynasty ruled from about 750 to 850
CE. The bas relief of 8th century Borobudur depict a King sitting in Maharajalilasana ( king's
posture or royal ease ) pose, with his Queen and their subjects, the scene is based on

86
Shailendran royal court. It was the notable Indianised dynasty whose reign signified a
cultural renaissance in the region.

The Shailendras are considered to have been a thalassocracy and ruled vast swathes of
maritime Southeast Asia, however they also relied on agricultural pursuits, by way of
intensive rice cultivation on the Kedu Plain of Central Java. The dynasty appeared to be the
ruling family of both the Mataram Kingdom of Central Java, for some period, and the
Srivijaya Kingdom in Sumatra. The inscriptions created by Shailendras use three languages;
Old Malay , Old Javanese , and Sanskrit - written either in the Kawi alphabet , or pre- Nāgarī
script .

The use of Old Malay has sparked speculation of a Sumatran origin, or Srivijayan connection
of this family. On the other hand, the use of Old Javanese suggests their firm political
establishment on Java. The use of Sanskrit usually indicates the official nature, and/or
religious significance, of the event described in any given inscription. Primary sources. The
Sojomerto inscription (c. 725) discovered in Batang Regency , Central Java, mentioned the
name Dapunta Selendra and Selendranamah . The name 'Selendra' was another spelling of
Shailendra, suggested that Dapunta Selendra was the progenitor of Shailendra family in
Central Java. The inscription is Shaivist in nature, which suggests that the family was
probably initially Hindu Shaivist. The earliest dated inscription in Indonesia in which clearly
mentioned the dynastic name of Śailēndra as Śailēndravamśatilaka appears is the Kalasan
inscription (778) of central Java,
The idea that supports Shailendra’s Funan origin was proposed by Coedes.He he believed
that Syailendra came from Funan because of the similar title. But he didnt discuss other
proofs regarding Syailendra Dynasty origin including the inscription that was written in Old
Malay language.
The name 'Selendra' was first mentioned in Sojomerto Inscription (725) as "Dapunta
Selendra". Dapunta Selendra is suggested as the ancestor of Shailendras. The title Dapunta
is similar to those of Srivijayan King Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa, and the inscription —
although discovered in Central Java north coast — was written in old Malay, which
suggested the Sumatran origin or Srivijayan connection to this family.

English translation of the Sojomerto Inscription:

Praise to Lord Shiva Bhatara Parameshvara and all the gods ... from the honorable
Dapunta Selendra Santanu is the name of his father, Bhadrawati is the name of his
mother, Sampula is the name of the wife of noble Selendra.

With this inscription, many historians believe that Syailendra spoke old Malay and might
came from Sumatra because the used of the name Dapunta which was Srivijayan name.
Other theory is they were Javanese but spoke old Malay because of Srivijaya influence.
Srivijaya (Sumatran) origin theory is more convincing. Anyway, we can also look at
Sailendra Dynasty relic, Borobudur. A relief on that temple shows a ship that often called as
Borobudur ship.

87
.

.
This ship predates the bigger Majapahit ship known as Djong. Though not big, this type of
ship is the one that took Srivijayans to Madagascar and helped them traded with East
Africans.I honestly dont know much about Funan. But if Syailendra came from Funan, why
they used old malay and painted a typical Srivijaya/Austronesia ship on their temple?
Is it true that the Sailendra of Java, Indonesia, was a descendant of the Khmer royal
family of Phnom (Funan) Kingdom of Cambodia?

It is said that the Shailendras were active promoters of Mahayana Buddhism but there is a
section that feels that they were Hindus since their names were from the Hindu Scriptures as
you will read further on and rulked over the Kedu Plain of Central Java with Buddhist
monuments , one of which is the colossal stupa of Borobudur. In some Indonesian history
forum on the origin of Shailendras.Some say they came from Sumatra And the other says
that Shailendra were originally Javanese but with Srivijaya influences.

88
Vietnam has 1.3 million Khmer people living in the southern provinces of Tra Vinh, Soc
Trang, Kien Giang, An Giang, Bac Lieu, Can Tho, and Vinh Long. The Khmer do farm work,
fish, and produce handicraft products. They have a rich culture of folk songs, folk tales,
festivals, temples, and pagodas. The Khmer language is a branch of the Mon-Khmer
language group. Although the Khmer live in the same provinces as Kinh and Chinese people,
they congregate in their own villages.The Khmer earn a living from fishing, weaving cloth
and mats,

89
The area that is today Southern Vietnam did not look at all like it is now. It was mostly
swamps and dense jungles. And it was nominally under the administration of the Cambodian
court.
There were pockets of Khmers here and there, but for the large part, they did not really
inhabit much of the area, because it was flood-prone. Khmers were more concentrated
upstream of the Mekong River, in the area that is today Cambodia.

First and foremost, Since 1953/1954, Cambodia has officially regained its independence
and the legitimate rulers of Cambodia should be the Cambodian people instead of the
Vietnamese, the Chinese or the Thai people.

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 III
SHAILEDRAS are from INDIA?

This is the 5 th theorey that Mahendravarman, vraḥ kamrateṅ añ Śrī Mahendravarmma in

Pre-Angkorian Khmer also titled Citrasena, was a king of the kingdom of Chenla, modern
day Cambodia, during the 6th century. Chenla was the direct predecessor of the Khmer
empire. Citrasena was a close relative of Bhavavarman I , whom he joined to conquer
the Kingdom of Funan, and whom he succeeded as king and adopting the name
Mahendravarman. After Bhavavarman's death, Mahendravarman took residence in the capital
at Sambor Prei Kuk while the same time Hiraṇyavarman was ruling Cambodia.
Mahendravarman sent an ambassador to Champa to "ensure friendship between the two
countries.”
After the death of Mahendravarman, his son Īśānavarman , had taken the control of the
kingdom, where his father ruled for several years. He ruled the kingdom until 628. His sons
were namned
1. Śivadatta
2. Īsvarakumāra Khmer
3. Yuvarāja (Name not identified from historical records)

All above names are Hindu names.

The connection between the Pallava dynasty of India and the Varman dynasty of
Cambodia (Kamboja).

In 731, the Pallava king Parameswaravarman died without any heir and hence the Pallava
Empire was without a king. Parameswaravarman was the last ruler of the Simhavishnu line of
Pallavas. That their enemies would not utilize the opportunity to invade the country, the
military leaders, scholars and representatives of mercantile and peasantry formed an
entourage and undertook a long journey to reach the kingdom of– modern day Cambodia and
Vietnam– ruled by a certain Kadavesa Hari Varma, who stemmed from the Pallava lineage
and was 6th descendant of Bhimavarman, the brother of the great Simhavishnu. When
Simhavishnu ascended the throne (6th Century AD), the Pallava dynasty was beginning to
reassert its supremacy.

Simhavishnu led the revival of the Pallavas, and the period starting with him came to be
known as the Greater Pallavas or later Pallavas dynasty. The great struggle between the
Pallavas and the Chalukyas, which would last for more than two centuries, began during the
reign of Simhavishnu.

The southern peninsula of India was then ruled by five dynasties. The Pallavas, the Cholas
and the Pandyas shared the power in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, parts of southern and
eastern Karnataka border and Ceylon; the Cheras controlled Kerala and the Chalukyas
controlled Karnataka. Simhavishnu, who was known for his gallant martial courage and
judicial wisdom from a young age, overthrew the Kalabras and conquered the region up to
Kaveri, where he came into conflict with the Pandyas and Ceylon. He dispatched a naval

91
expedition and occupied Malaya and Sri Lanka and established Kanchipuram as his capital.
The presence of the Pallavas, much before further naval expeditions to Indo-China by their
illustrious succeeding and contemporary empires such as the Pandiyans and the Cholas, is
attested by the existence of specimen of art bearing striking resemblance in countries like
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, as well as scores of inscriptions in those lands in the Grantha
script (a script in which both Tamil and Sanskrit can be written) in which the Pallavas
were the first to specialize.

checkered scarf/ Vam Ray Pagoda in Tra Vinh, Vietnam. This is one of many pagodas
imbued with Khmer Buddhist architecture in the South of Vietnam.

Cambodian king Kadavesa Hari Verma had four sons. The first three (Kshatriyamalla,
Sangramamalla and Rajamalla) declined the offer. The last one Pallava Malla Parameswara
also known as Nandivarman, who was then 14 years old, accepted the request.
Nandivarman’s becoming a king at such an early age is referred to in many inscriptions and
contemporary literature (referring to him as “The one of strong arms who got the kingdom at
a tender age” or the one who became king at an early age).

Nandivarman was an intellectual with aptitude in many arts like writing, poetry, music and
philosophy. Like his predecessor Rajasimha, he is credited with augmenting temple
dramatized dance worship like Kutiyattam and chakyar koothu with many plays of his own.
He is known to have composed the same in Tamil, also, as can be seen from the poem
“Nandikkalambakam” that celebrates his erudition in Tamil, while also hailing his great
conquests. Nandi Varman is also known to have had expertise in the work of karnisuta a
magnum opus in Sanskrit dealing with crimes and punishment. The alwar saint Tirumangai
Alwar, who was a contemporary of this Pallava, also dedicates several verses in his
Divyaprabhandam to describe successful wars at Thellaru, Nellai (Tirunelveli), Urayur and
Karur and kalikottai (Kozhikode) of Tamil Chera kingdom in Kerala. He is also known for
his good looks and liking for training in gymnastics.

Nandivarman was a Vaishnava devotee, as is seen from his construction of the Vaikuntha
Perumal temple and his patronage of Tirumangai Alvar; he paid his respects to the pair of
‘worshipful feet of Mukunta’. The copper plate grants of his times give us a picture of the
privileges, especially educational, enjoyed by the Brahmins. He was a builder of temples. The
Paramesvaravinnagaram at Kanchi, the Kesava Perumal temple at Kuram, the Tiruvadigai
and the Muktesvara temples at Kanchi were all built by him.

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Nandi Varman inherited a kingdom that was made strong by the efforts of his illustrious
predecessors like Parameswaravarman and Rajasimha. The Deccan enemies of the Pallavas,
who had for long been at the receiving end from successive Pallava kings, used the
opportunity resulting from the anarchy and seem to have attempted to march against the
Pallava kingdom. Nandivarman, then only 13 years old, was not equipped physically and
mentally to command an army, nor was he allowed to take to the battlefield as per war
rule. Pallavas for the first time in their illustrious history made a tactical wait and watch.
This, however, did not have any consequence and the Pallava territories were never
endangered. The previously mentioned enemy also is known to have been further defeated
decisively during an invasion by the benevolent Pandyan Srivallabha Pandiyan in whose
kingdom the alwar saint Periyalwar lived and composed. As noted from many of his
inscriptions, the period witnessed general peace and trade flourished. The poem
Nandikkalambakam, which informs us of his great servitor ship to saivite tradition, also says
that “ships from far off continents, loaded with great wealth, creaking to the point of
breaking, sailed into the kingdom regularly”. Nandi Varman was successful in defeating
many of his foes, who mainly ruled states in the Deccan with the help of his brave
commander called Udayachandran, who was a part of the entourage that accompanied him
from Cambodia and who had long been serving in the king’s special forces in 731 A.D.
Nandi Varman was also a very pious man noted for his generosity to temples at Karkudi (the
temple still bears his name as Uyyakondan Tirumalai and is mentioned in Tevaram hymns),
vennainallur and parameswara vinnagaram in Kanchipuram. The Pandyan kingdom also
came under Pallavan rule after their defeat in the war at nellai or tirunelveli. Several other
Saiva and Vaishnava exponents like purushottama nambikal, nakkeera devar, tirukanna
nambikal etc. lived during Nandivarman’s period and composed several hymns to their lord.
A temple for goddess Bhagavati (Durga) was built in Nagercoil by Nandivarman and this
shows that the Pallavas reigned supreme in the south during his period.

Sivakamiyin sapatham and Ponniyin selvam are famous modern day literature fictionalizing
the period.Nandi Varman died in 796.

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 IV
MATARAM
Sanjay and Shailedra Dynasties and their
MOTHERLAND “Vande Mataram” (Hail to our mother)
The historical context surrounding the Mataram culture and civilization of the Mataram
Kingdom is not only interesting but a little confusing.
The Trimurthi temple of Prambanan or Rara Jonggrang is the largest Hindu temple of ancient
Java, 9th from century. Built by Rakai Pikatan to establish power of Sanjay dynasty and
dedicated to Trimūrti-Brahma Vishnu Mahesh, it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site; 2nd
largest Hindu temple in Southeast Asia.

Prambanan temple complex at night

Sanjaya (732-760) and Panangkaran (760-780)-shailendra dynasty confusion is still there?

both r related? few say Sanjay as Shaiv & Shailendra kings as Buddhist? both faiths
interlinked and overlapping too, in my opinion

Religion in the Mataram Kingdom

It played much the same role throughout much of recorded history, giving rise to early
kingdoms such as Mataram. As the population of Java continues to increase and becomes
more modern and urban, the Indonesia of today still holds strong to its cultural and historical
roots.The Mataram society was polytheistic and combined the religious beliefs of Hinduism
and Buddhism, along with native shamanism and pre-Dharmic beliefs. Under the rule of King
Sanjaya, the Mataram Kingdom favored and worshipped Lord Shiva and gave much
importance to his symbol, the Linga. The Mataram Kingdom flourished between 712 and 938

94
in Central Java, an island of Indonesia and lies southeast of Malaysia and west of Bali. It is
also noted to be the world’s most populous island in the world today.

Vande Mataram
The Mataram Kingdom, also called the Medang Kingdom, was a Javanese Hindu-
Buddhist kingdom. It was based in central and east Java and flourished between the 8th
and 11th centuries. It was ruled by the Shailendra dynasty and was established by King
Sanjaya.

Vajrasattva. Eastern Java, Kediri period, 10th–11th century CE, bronze, 19.5 x 11.5 cm

Origins of the Mataram Kingdom

Mataram means mother in Sanskrit and this mother Kingdom named itself so to give an ode
to the motherland. The first major kingdom of central Java was the Medang or Mataram
Kingdom, founded at the beginning of the 8th century. The earliest accounts of the Mataram
Kingdom are in the Canggal inscription, which dates back to 732.
The inscription gives an account of the erection of “Linga” (symbol of Lord Shiva) in the
Kunjarakunja area, which is located on the island of Yawadwipa (Java). This Linga was
raised under the rule of King Sanjaya, the lord of Mataram.
According to the inscription, the kingdom was first ruled by King Sanna, who was known for
his wisdom and knowledge. After his demise, there was a period of disunity, until Sanjaya,
the nephew of king Sanna, ascended the throne. During his reign, there was peace and
prosperity for all his subjects.
However, a Sundanese book called Carita Parahyangan gives a slightly different account of
the same story. In this book, Sanjaya is the son of Sanna. It also states that Sanna was
overthrown by the king of Galuh and was forced to retreat to Mount Merapi. His son,
Sanjaya, later avenged his father and defeated the King of Galuh. The kingdom was finally
restored to the rightful heir, and Sanjaya ruled West Java, East Java, Central Java, and Bali.

95
It is believed that King Sanjaya was the one who left the written records of these events on
the Canggal inscription, though it’s impossible to know for sure.

Mataram Kingdom Name Origins

Initially, the kingdom was called “Yawadvipa,” another name for the island of Java.
Indonesian archaeologists such as Prof.Soekmono of Indonesia identify the kingdom as
Mataram, based on a geographical location called Mataram in central Java. Additionally, king
Sanjaya’s full name was “Rakai Mataram Sang Ratu Sanjaya,” which may have been another
reason for the name of the kingdom. The etymology of the name “Mataram” is derived from
the Sanskrit term for “mother.”

The name Medang was found in East Javanese inscriptions. Some historians believe that the
Central Java period (732-929) was referred to as Mataram, and the later Eastern Java period
(929-1006) was identified as Medang.
However, it is also believed that the kingdom was called Medang, and the capital was
Mataram, based on some phrases found in the inscriptions. Etymologically, the name Medang
is an ancient Javanese term that means “to gracefully appear.”

Culture and Beliefs of the Mataram Kingdom and Mataram Social Structure
The Javanese had a complex social structure and also recognized the Hindu caste system. The
ancient Javanese society was divided into four classes:
 The royal family

 The religious authorities

 The commoners
Historians have discovered that the different classes had a dress code that they strictly
adhered to. The royal family and their servants could be identified by their luxurious clothing
and intricate golden jewelry. All the priests wore robes or cloaks called “sinhels.” The
commoners, who were also described as villagers, wore very simple clothing and rarely
adorned any jewelry or ornaments.

Religion in the Mataram Kingdom

The society was polytheistic and combined the religious beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism,
along with native shamanism and pre-Dharmic beliefs. Under the rule of King Sanjaya, the
Mataram Kingdom favored and worshipped Lord Shiva and gave much importance to his
symbol, the Linga.
However, during the reign of Panangkaran, Mahayana Buddhism gained popularity. Many
temples were built to pay homage to Buddhist beliefs.
The kingdom gave importance to the priest class in both religions. The Brahmins and the
Sangha Buddhists represented their respective religions and conducted the state’s religious
ceremonies together in the temples.
There were many ardent temple construction projects in the kingdom which were possibly
motivated by the combined religious zeal of both religions.
In the 16th century, Islam became a major religion as the island of Java became a Muslim
sultanate.

Art in the Mataram Kingdom

96
The importance of art in the kingdom depicted through the various carvings found on the
temple walls during this era. These carvings gave rich portrayals of life during the ninth
century.
The architecture was another form of art that flourished during this period, and can still be
seen in their magnificent temples that exist even today.
There was a cultural mingling in the south-western part of Java, where the Javanese and
Sundanese cultures combined to create the Banyusaman culture. In addition to this, the most
famous Javanese arts were gamelan music and wayang puppet shows, which became
traditional arts.

History of the Mataram Kingdom and flip flop betweem the Hindus and the

Buyddhists:
Historians believe that there were two prevailing dynasties that ruled Central Java together;
the Buddhist Sailendra and Shivanist Sanjaya dynasties. This period of the dual dynasty
was characterized by peaceful co-operation. However, in the middle of the ninth century, the
relationship between the dynasties deteriorated. The Sailendra managed to gain full control of
Central Java and became the overlords of the Sanjayas.

There is not much information regarding the Sailendra rule, but it signified a cultural
renaissance in the region. The kingdom saw rapid growth during the 9th century.
However, the Sailendra rule was short-lived. In 852, the Sanjaya ruler, Pikatan, defeated the
Sailendra ruler’s offspring and ended their rule in Java. The Sanjaya rule lasted until the end
of the Medang Kingdom. During his reign, King Pikatan built the royal Hindu Trimurti
temple known today as Candi Prambanan.
Mataram emerged in the highlands and fertile plains of Central Java, where productivity in
rice cultivation was aided by the advent of the island’s iconic rice terraces. These high yields
created the stable food source necessary for high population growth and an organized state
society, led by those who were in control of the upland water sources.
This societal organization would later go on to become proficient builders on not only the
public infrastructure needed for water management, but the monumental Hindu-Buddhist
religious architecture that still dots much of Java, including the renowned Borobudur and
Prambanan temples.

Mataram in Eastern Java

Central Java was always the center of the Mataram Kingdom. But in 929, the center was
shifted to East Java. Historians are uncertain about the exact cause for this sudden shift, but
believe it may have been because of a natural calamity or epidemic outbreak.
They also believe that the Merapi volcano may have erupted and destroyed the Kingdom’s
capital in Mataram. This expansion took place under the rule of the last king of the Sanjaya
dynasty, Mpu Sindok.

What Happened to the Mataram Kingdom?

Mataram flouruished between the Era: 712 – 938 CE and was located in Central Java,
Indonesia. Its Capital was Yogyakarta. However there was an ongoing rivalry between the
Sumatran Srivijaya and Javanese Medang kingdoms, which became more hostile.

97
This rivalry may have been caused by the Srivijayan attempt to seize the Sailendra lands in
Java. This is because the Srivijaya maharajas, Balaputra and his son, belonged to the
Sailendra dynasty. The collapse of the kingdom occurred in the tenth century.

In 1006, Srivijaya attacked and destroyed the Medang palace, killing most of the royal
family. With the death of king Dharmawangsa and the fall of the capital, the kingdom finally
collapsed.
However, a nephew of king Dharmawangsa had escaped capture and had remained in exile.
Later on, he reunited the fallen kingdom and re-established the kingdom (including Bali)
under the name of the kingdom of Kahuripan. After many years, the kingdom was renamed
as Kediri.
Mataram Kingdom was an early Indianized kingdom emerging from native Javanese
population. Its languages wer: Old Javanese, Sanskrit; religion: Buddhism (Mahayana),
Hinduism

Decline: Fell to Srivijaya, later reemerging as the Kediri Kingdom.

Today Indonesia is administered so that at first level subdivisions of Indonesia is Province. A
province is headed by a governor (Gubernur). Each province has its own regional assembly,
called Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah (DPRD, literally "Regional People's Representative
Council"). Governors and representative members are elected by popular vote for five-year
terms. Provinces was formerly also known as Daerah Tingkat I (Level I Region).
State emblem of Indonesia is called Garuda
Pancasila. The main part of the coat of arms is the
golden mythical bird Garuda with a shield on its
chest and a scroll gripped by its leg bears the
national motto: "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika", roughly
means "Unity in Diversity".

The shield's five emblems represent Pancasila, the

five principles of Indonesia's national philosophy.
The numbers of feathers was meant to symbolize the
date of Indonesian Proclamation of Independence;
17 feathers on each wings, 8 tail feathers, 19 upper
tail feathers (under the shield, above the tail), and 45
neck feathers; all symbolize 17-8-1945; 17th August
1945. Adopted as national coat of arms on February
11, 1950.

The Bi-Polar Kingdom of Kediri

By the beginning of the 13 th Century, according to a Chinese source in the book of Chu-fan-
chi written around 1225, the Southeast Asian archipelago had two powerful and rich
kingdoms: Srivijaya and Java (Kediri). In Java he found that people adhere two
religions: Buddhism and the religion of Brahmin (Hinduism). The book of Chu-fan-
chi mentioned that Java (Kediri) was ruled by a maharaja, who ruled several colonies.
Regarding Srivijaya, Chou-Ju-Kua reported that Kien-pi (Kampe, in northern Sumatra) with
armed forced rebellion had liberated themselves from Srivijaya, and crowned their own king.

98
The same fate befell some of Srivijaya's colonies on the Malay Peninsula that liberated
themselves from Srivijaya domination. However Srivijaya was still the mightiest and
wealthiest state in the western part of the archipelago. According to this source, in the early
13th century Srivijaya still ruled Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java (Sunda).

Regarding Sunda, the book details that the port of Sunda (Sunda Kelapa) was excellent and
strategically located, and that the pepper from Sunda was among the best quality. The people
worked in agriculture; their houses were built on wooden piles (rumah panggung). However
the country was infested with robbers and thieves.

The Kingdom of Kediri is the successor of Airlangga's Kahuripan kingdom, and thought as
the continuation of Isyana Dynasty in Java. In 1042, Airlangga divided his kingdom of
Kahuripan into two, Janggala and Panjalu (Kadiri), and abdicated in favour of his sons to live
as an ascetic. He died seven years later.It existed alongside the Srivijaya empire based in
Sumatra throughout 11th to 12th-century, and seems to have maintained trade relations with
China and to some extent India. Chinese account identify this kingdom as Tsao-wa or Chao-
wa (Java), numbers of Chinese records signify that Chinese explorers and traders frequented
this kingdom. Relations with India were cultural one, as numbers of Javanese rakawi (poet or
scholar) wrote literatures that been inspired by Hindu mythology, beliefs and epics such as
Mahabharata and Ramayana.

In 11th-century, Srivijayan hegemony in Indonesian archipelago began to decline, marked

by Rajendra Chola invasion to Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The Chola king
of Coromandel conquered Kedah from Srivijaya. The weakening of Srivijayan hegemony has
enabled the formation of regional kingdoms, like Kediri, based on agriculture rather than
trade. Later Kediri managed to control the spice trade routes to Maluku.

Airlangga's embodiment statue as Lord Vishnu riding Garuda, found in Belahan, collection of Trowulan
Museum, East Java.//// Statue of Vishnu. Kediri, East Java, circa 12th–13th century

Era of twin kingdoms

99
Period
of King/Maharaja Inscriptions and events
reign

Mentioned in inscription
Çri Samaravijaya of Pucangan (1041). Is the king
1042- Dharmasuparnawahana of the Kediri kingdom after the
1051 Teguh Uttunggadewa event of the division of the
(Çri Samaravijaya) kingdom by king Airlangga to his
two sons.

Çri Jitendrakara
1051- Wuryyawïryya Parakrama Mentioned in inscription of Mataji
1112 Bhakta inscription (1051).
(Çri Jitendrakara)

Çri Maharaja Rake sirikan Mentioned in inscription of

çri Paramecwara Padlegan I, Panumbangan
Sakalabhuwana inscription, Tangkilan inscription,
1112-
Tustikaranani waryyawïryya Besole inscription, Bameswara
1135
Parakrama inscription, Karanggayam
Digjayottunggadewa inscription, Geneng inscription,
(Çri Bamesvara) Pagiliran inscription.

Çri Maharaja Sang Mapanji

Jayabhaya çri
Mentioned in inscription
Dharmmeçwara
1135- of Hantang (1135), Jepun
Madhusudanawataranindita
1159 inscription (1144) and Talan
Suhrtsingha Parakrama
inscription (1058).
Digjayottunggadewa
(Jayabaya)

Çri Maharaja Rakai Sirikan

çri Sarwweçwara
Janardanawatara Wijaya Mentioned in inscription of
1159-
Agrajasama Singhadani Kahyunan and Padlegan II
1171
Waryawirya Parakrama inscription (1159).
Digjayottunggadewa
(Çri Sarvesvara)

Çri maharaja rakai hino çri

Aryyeçwara Madhusudand
1171- watdrdrijalyamukha Mentioned in inscription of Waleri
1181 Sakalabhuwana ritiniwiryya and Angin inscription (1171).
Parakramottunggadewa
(Çri Aryesvara)

100
 Period
of King/Maharaja Inscriptions and events
reign

Çri maharaja çri

Kroncarryadipa
Handabhuwanapalaka
1181- Mentioned in inscription of Jaring
Parakramanindita
1182 inscription.
Digjayottunggadewanama
çri Gandra
(Çri Gandra)

Çri Maharaja Rake Sirikan

çri Kameçvara
Sakalabhuvanatustikarana Mentioned in inscription of
1182-
Sarvanivaryyaviryya Semanding (1182) and Ceker
1194
Parakrama inscription (1185).
Digjayottunggadeva
(Kameçvara)

Çri maharaja çri Mentioned in inscription of Sapu

Sarwweçwara Angin inscription, Galunggung
Triwikramawataranindita inscription, Kamulan inscription,
1194-
Çrngga lancana Palah inscription, Biri inscription,
1222
Digwijayottunggadewa Lawadan
inscription, Nagarakretagama),
(Kertajaya) fall in 1144 Shaka (1222).

Jayakatwang's rebellion from Gelang-gelang or Gegelang which revived

the short-lived second dynasty of Kadiri.

1292- Çri Jayakatwang Mentioned in inscription

1293 (Jayakatwang) of Nagarakretagama (1365).[2]: 168

See also
The first king of Kediri to leave historical records was Maharaja Çri Samaravijaya. His
royal seal was Garudmukhalancana or Garudmukha, the same as Airlangga's. he reigned
from 1042-1051 and succeeded by Çri Jitendrakara Parakrama Bakta in 1051-1112.
It is not known exactly when Çri Bamesvara ascended the throne of the Kediri Kingdom.
The Lanchana (royal seal) of his reign was a skull with a crescent moon
called chandrakapala, the symbol of Shiva. During the reign of Maharaja Çri
Bamesvara himself, there were at least ten inscriptions containing the development of Java
in the eastern part around 1112-1135.
Jayabhaya (reigned 1135-1157) succeeded Bamesvara. His formal stylised name was Çri
Maharaja çri Dharmmeçwara Madhusudanawataranindita Suhrtsingha Parakrama

101
Digjayottunggadewa. The Lanchana (royal seal) of his reign was Narasinghavatara depicts
one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu, namely Narasinghavatara. His form is described as a
human with a lion's head tearing the stomach of Hiranyakasipu (King of the Giants). The
name Jayabhaya was immortalised in Sedah's Kakawin Bharatayuddha, a Javanese version
of the Mahabharata, written in 1135. This Kakawin was perfected by his brother, Mpu
Panuluh. Mpu Panuluh wrote Hariwangsa and Gatotkacasraya. Jayabhaya's reign was
considered the golden age of Old Javanese literature. The Prelambang Joyoboyo, a prophetic
book ascribed to Jayabhaya, is well known among Javanese. It predicted that the archipelago
would be ruled by a white race for a long time, then a yellow race for a short time, then be
glorious again. The Jayabhaya prophecies mention Ratu Adil, the Just Prince, a recurring
popular figure in Javanese folklore. During the reign, Ternate was a vassal state of Kediri.
Jayabhaya's successor was Sarwweçwara/Sarvesvara (reigned from 1159 to 1171) the royal
symbol is named Sarwwecwaralancana, wing-shaped numbering nine and at the end there is
a crested circle. Where everything is surrounded by three striped circles.
followed by Aryyeçwara/Aryesvara (reigned 1171-1181), who uses Ganesha the elephant-
headed god as Lanchana of his kingdom. and became the (royal seal) of his reign and the
Kingdom of Kadiri as stated in the inscription.
The next monarch was king Gandra his formal stylised name was Çri maharaja çri
Kroncarryadipa Handabhuwanapalaka Parakramanindita Digjayottunggadewanama çri
Gandra. An inscription (dated 1181) from his reign documents the beginning of the adoption
of animal names for important officials, such as Kbo Salawah, Menjangan Puguh, Lembu
Agra, Gajah Kuning, and Macan Putih. Among these highly ranked officials mentioned in
the inscription, there is a title Senapati Sarwwajala, or laksmana, a title reserved for navy
generals, which means that Kediri had a navy during his reign.
The eighth king was Kameçvara. His formal stylised name was Çri Maharaja Rake Sirikan
çri Kameçvara Sakalabhuwanatustikarana Sarwaniwaryyawiryya Parakrama
Digjayottunggadewa. He uses the (winged shell) as his royal seal under the
name Kamecwaralancana. During his reign, Mpu Dharmaja wrote Smaradhana, in which the
king was adored as the incarnation of Kamajaya, the god of love, and his capital city Dahana
was admired throughout the known world. Kameçvara's wife, Çri Kirana, was celebrated as
the incarnation of Kamaratih, goddess of love and passion. The tales of this story, known
as Panji cycle, spread throughout Southeast Asia as far as Siam.
The last king of Kediri was Kritajaya/Kertajaya (1194–1222), King Çrngga or Kritajaya
ruled Kediri, with the official name Çri maharaja çri Sarwweçwara
Triwikramawataranindita Çrngga lancana Digwijayottunggadewa. He used a Crnggalancana
picture of (Cangkha) flanked by two horns and continued with the words "Krtajaya" above.
The presence of a dominant horns makes this badge called Crnggalancana or horned badge.
In 1222 he was forced to surrender his throne to Ken Arok and so lost the sovereignty of his
kingdom to the new kingdom of Singhasari. This was the result of his defeat at the battle of
Ganter. This event marked the end of Kediri era, and the beginning of the Singhasari era.

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Srivijaya and Kediri around 12th to early 13th century AD
According to a Chinese source in the book of Chu-f
Agastya
The Canggal inscription is a Sanskrit inscription dated to 732, discovered in the Gunung
Wukir temple complex in Kadiluwih village, Salam, Magelang Regency, Central
Java, Indonesia. The inscription is written in the Pallava alphabet. The inscription documents
an edict of Sanjaya, in which he declared himself the universal ruler of Mataram Kingdom.

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The inscription describes the erection of a lingam (the symbol of Shiva) on the country of
Kunjarakunja, by Sanjaya's order. The lingam is sited on the noble island of Yava (Java),
which the inscription describes as "rich in grain and gold mines".Yawadwipa ("Java island"),
and had long been under the rule of the wise and virtuous king Sanna, but fell into disunity
after his death. Amid a period of confusion Sanjaya, son of Sannaha (the sister of Sanna)
ascended to the throne. Sanjaya mastered holy scriptures, martial arts, and displayed military
prowess. After the conquest of neighboring areas his reign was peaceful and prosperous.
The inscription makes reference to Kunjarakunja-desa, perhaps meaning "the hermitage land
of Kunjara", which has been identified as the hermitage of Rishi Agastya, a Hindu Maharishi
revered in Southern India. The Ramayana contains a reference to a visit to Agastya hermitage
on Kunjara by Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana.
The name Sanjaya, Sanna and Sannaha curiously was also mentioned in Carita Parahyangan,
a book from later period composed around 16th century which suggested refer to same
historical person.

The main temple of the Penataran complex took the form of a stepped pyramid.
Penataran or Panataran (Indonesian: Candi Penataran) is one of the largest Hindu
temple ruins complex in East Java, Indonesia. It is located in Penataran, Blitar Regency,
roughly 12 km northeast of Blitar, with the closest airport being farther away at Malang.
Believed to have been constructed between the 12th century to the 15th century, the temple
played a significant role in the Majapahit Kingdom, especially under King Hayam Wuruk. He
considered his favorite sanctuary. Penataran dates from the Kediri era. This temple was
identified in Nagarakretagama as Palah temple and reported being visited by King Hayam
Wuruk during his royal tour across East Java. The site is being considered to be put on
the World Heritage list of sites that have "outstanding universal value" to the world.
However, on 2015, the site was pulled out from the tentative list along with 11 other sites.
Candi Panataran is a Shiva (Siwa) temple. It is notable for including one of the largest
Indonesian collection of reliefs showing life stories of Hindu god Vishnu in different avatar.
In particular, the temple site include the Rama story in the Javanese version of the
epic Ramayana, as well Krishna story as depicted Triguna's Krishnayana epic poem.
Comparative studies of reliefs related to Hindu epics at Penataran and Prambanan temple
(Yogyakarta) complexes have attracted the attention of archaeologists.[

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The dated temple in the Penataran complex. The Penataran Temple is a temple that is four centuries old
because it was built and developed by several kingdoms at once, from the Kingdom of Kediri to Majapahit.

Candi Penataran, the Largest Ancient Hindu Temple Compound in East Java
Swirling tongues of fire welcomed erstwhile royal families and priests who ascended the
stairs of Palah, a late 12th-century Hindu temple located on the southwestern slopes of Mount
Kelud. The volcano was so active and unpredictable that a temple was deemed necessary to
appease Acalapati, the mountain god, so he would spare the surrounding settlements from his
erratic wrath. Inspired by Krishnayana (Krishna’s life told in an epic poem), the upper walls
of the temple were encrusted with bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the epic. One panel
portrayed Krishna’s escape from Kalayawana (Kalayavana), a ruthless king who was killed
by Muchukunda through his burning gaze (another version of the story refers to
Wiswamitra/Vishvamitra as the killer of Kalayavana). The flames were indeed a metaphor
for Kelud’s volcanic eruptions.

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More than eight centuries later, I find myself looking at the same weathered relief, carved on
andesite rock on the second level of the stone platform. The motif itself is not instantly
recognizable, but on a closer inspection the outline of the flames is clearly the centerpiece of
the ornately-carved panel. Penataran, as Palah is known today, was commissioned by the king
of Kediri, a kingdom that emerged as a prominent power in eastern Java during the mid-11th
century.

Two centuries before the construction of Penataran, Java was already home to great Hindu
and Buddhist temples, including Borobudur and Prambanan, both built by the Central
Javanese rulers of the Medang kingdom. As the center of power on the island gradually
shifted to the east in the decades that followed, new temples were commissioned around the
new capital. However, unlike most Central Javanese temples which followed a concentric
layout (also known as mandala, representing the Hindu-Buddhist universe) with the most
important structure located at the center of the temple compound, Penataran – the largest
Hindu temple in East Java – was constructed in a linear layout where the sanctum is situated
at the back of the compound. This centuries-old layout is in fact still used in Bali to build
Balinese Hindu temples known as pura.
For three centuries since its completion, new structures were added to Penataran temple
complex by different rulers of East Java. Candi Naga, ‘dragon temple’, was commissioned in
the 13th century when this part of Java was controlled by the kingdom of Singhasari. Named
after its distinctive serpentine carvings, held by nine figures clad in opulent costumes, the
temple is believed to have functioned as a reliquary for sacred weapons. In front of Candi
Naga lies Candi Candra Sengkala, a 14th-century tall and slender addition to the temple
compound. Constructed in a typical East Javanese architectural style, the temple was built
under the rule of Hayam Wuruk, the greatest of all Majapahit kings. Majapahit itself was the
last great Hindu kingdom to ever rule much of Java.

Candi Naga, Named after the Mythical Serpent Carved around the Structure’s Walls//
The Story of Sri Tanjung, Popular in the 13th-Century East Java

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The Slender and Distinctively East Javanese Candi Candra Sengkala

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Ever-Menacing Kala above Candi Candra Sengkala’s Doorway

Candi Naga, South Side

Candi Naga, North Side

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Candi Penataran, the Main Structure in the Compound
Following the decline of Majapahit as more and more people on the island converted to
Islam, Penataran’s importance gradually diminished until it was completely abandoned. In
the span of centuries, neglect and natural disasters caused heavy damage to the formerly
imposing temple. The rediscovery of Penataran is credited to Thomas Stamford Raffles, a
British colonial governor at a time when Java was briefly occupied by the British. The ruins
of the temple were first mentioned in a 1815 account, although reconstruction work did not
begin in earnest until many years later.
Further studies revealed that the lower walls of the three-tiered main temple were adorned
with stories from the Ramayana, one of the greatest and most well-known Hindu epics
alongside the Mahabharata. The Ramayana had inspired ancient Javanese sculptors to
immortalize figures, animals, plants and other motifs from the epic on andesite rock – widely
available in volcanic Java – which were then used to decorate a plethora of Hindu temples on
the island. However, Penataran’s medallions – depicting real and mythical animals – are
unique to the temple as they aren’t found on any Central Javanese temple.

In front of Candi Candra Sengkala is Batur Pendapa, where it is believed that devotees once
placed offerings in religious ceremonies. Modern-day visitors would likely notice the strange
look of the main sanctum, Batur Pendapa, as well as Bale Agung – also located at the front
part of the compound – for they all seem to have lost their upper structures. Believed to be
made from perishable materials – possibly wood and ijuk (palm fiber) – these structures have
long succumbed to the power of nature. Fortunately some relief panels at the lower part of the
main temple suggest how the whole structure used to look, which unsurprisingly reminds me
of some Hindu temples in Bali given the fact that many Javanese royals fled to the
neighboring island following the decline of Hinduism in Java.

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Candi Penataran’s Unique Medallions and Relief Panels

A Scene from the Ramayana

Each Panel Has Its Own Style

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A Centuries-Old Masterpiece

Straight Lines and Curves

Ancient Javanese Architecture

Apart from the architecture, what stays the same is the activity of Mount Kelud itself. Unlike
most accounts about volcanic eruptions across the archipelago which were exclusively

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written by the Europeans during the colonial period, Kelud’s eruption was mentioned in a
14th-century epic Javanese poem. The volcano erupted in the same year when Hayam Wuruk
was born, perceived by the locals as a divine sign of great things the baby would accomplish
in his life – Majapahit was in fact at its peak during Hayam Wuruk’s rule. Interestingly,
centuries after the island’s conversion to Islam and the arrival of Christianity from Europe,
the Javanese reverence toward volcanoes has barely changed.

In 1901, Kelud erupted again with a mighty explosion (heard hundreds of kilometers away)
and an ash cloud that reached as far as West Java. Two weeks later, a baby boy was born, and
as goes with tradition, the locals saw this as an omen of something great about to happen to
him. Less than five decades later, the same boy had grown up to become none other than the
first president of Indonesia. Even in the 21st century, volcanic eruptions are often interpreted
as a prelude to major political events. But when no such thing occurs following an eruption,
the locals will still tell you stories about Mount Kelud with a sense of veneration, pride and
astonishment.

“When Kelud erupted in 2014, Yogyakarta was covered in thick ash,” a local tells me in
reference to Kelud’s latest major eruption which paralyzed the city, more than 200 km away
to the west of the volcano. The ash forced the closure of major airports across Java, causing
weeks-long travel disruptions. “But strangely, Blitar was safe,” he adds, referring to the
nearest city to the volcano. As tempting it is to explain the phenomenon from a scientific
perspective, to him and many other people Penataran seems to serve its purpose after all. It
has been protecting the surrounding areas from the wrath of the mountain god, more than
eight centuries since its completion.

A Metaphorical Depiction of Mount Kelud///A Small Asian Elephant along with Foreign-
Looking Soldiers

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Winged Lions and Serpents//An Artistic Creation during the Peak of Hinduism in East Java

A Fierce-Looking Winged Snake//A Guardian of Batur Pendapa

An Intricately-Decorated Pond at the Back of the Main Temple

Penataran is still not very well known among Indonesians – when we returned to Jakarta and
I told my coworkers about it, none of them had ever heard of the temple.

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 As for the why Penataran is not that well-known even among Indonesians, I think
it’s because of its location which is not as easily accessible from big cities as
Borobudur or Prambanan.https://harindabama.com/2017/07/30/penataran-appeasing-
the-mountain-god/

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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