Greater India

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Indian Cultural Sphere
Greater India
File:Indian cultural zone.svg
Indian cultural extent
Dark orange: The Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan).
Light orange: Southeast Asia culturally linked to India, notably Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Champa (Southern Vietnam), Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.
Yellow: Regions with significant Indian cultural influence, notably, Afghanistan, China's Yunnan and Tibet provinces and the Philippines.
Southeast Asia
Indianized kingdoms



Hinduism

Architecture

Epigraphy		Butuan, Champa, Dvaravati, Funan, Gangga Negara, Chenla, Kalingga, Kutai, Langkasuka, Pagan, Pan Pan, Tarumanagara, Tondo

devaraja, Harihara

Angkor, Borobodur

Sanskrit, Pali
South Asia
BuddhismBangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka
HinduismBangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
East Asia
BuddhismChina (Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism), Japan, Korea, Mongolia
Central Asia
Buddhist monasticismCentral Asia (Afghanistan · Uzbekistan)
Indosphere  · Hindu texts  · Buddhist texts  · Folklore of India  · Ramayana (Versions of Ramayana)

The term Greater India is most commonly used to encompass the historical and geographic extent of all political entities of the Indian subcontinent and beyond, that had to varying degrees been transformed by the acceptance and induction of cultural and institutional elements of pre-Islamic India. Since around 500 B.C. Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had resulted in prolonged socio-economic and cultural stimulation and diffusion of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs into regional cosmology, in particular in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.[1] In Central Asia transmission of ideas were predominantly of religious nature.[2]

By the early centuries of the common era most of the principalities of maritime and continental Southeast Asia had effectively absorbed defining aspects of Hindu culture, religion and administration. The notion of divine god-kingship was introduced by submission to the concept of Harihara, Sanskrit and other Indian epigraphic systems declared official like those of the south Indian Pallava dynasty and Chalukya dynasty.[3][4] These Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability.[5]

To the north, Indian religious ideas dissipated into the cosmology of Himalayan peoples, most profoundly in Tibet and Bhutan. Buddhist monasticism extended into Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia and Buddhist texts and ideas successfully reached China and Japan in the east.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag Unlike Southeast Asia cultural and technological stimulation in East Asia always went in both directions.[6] To the west, Indian culture converges with Greater Persia via the Hindukush and the Pamir Mountains.[7]

Other uses

File:Prambanan Complex 1.jpg
The 9th-century Shivaistic temple of Prambanan in Central Java near Yogyakarta, the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia

European designations

Further information: Indies and Geography (Ptolemy)

The concept of the Three Indias was in common circulation In pre-industrial Europe. Greater India was the southern part of South Asia, Lesser India was the northern part of South Asia, and Middle India was the region near the Middle East.[8] The Portuguese form (Portuguese: [India Maior] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)[8][9][10][11]) was used at least since the mid-15th century.[9] The term, which seems to have been used with variable precision,[12] sometimes meant only the Indian subcontinent;[13] Europeans used a variety of terms related to South Asia to designate the South Asian peninsula, including High India, Greater India, Exterior India and India aquosa.[14]

However, in some accounts of European nautical voyages, Greater India (or India Major) extended from the Malabar Coast (present-day Kerala) to India extra Gangem[15] (lit. "India, beyond the Ganges," but usually the East Indies, i.e. present-day Malay Archipelago) and India Minor, from Malabar to Sind.[16] Farther India was sometimes used to cover all of modern Southeast Asia and sometimes only the mainland portion.[14] Until the fourtheenth century, India could also mean areas along the Red Sea, including Somalia, South Arabia, and Ethiopia (e.g., Diodorus of Sicily of the first century BCE says that "the Nile rises in India" and Marco Polo of the fourteenth century says that "Lesser India ... contains ... Abash [Abyssinia]")[17]

In late 19th-century geography Greater India referred to British India, Hindustan (Northwestern Subcontinent) which included the Punjab, the Himalayas, and extended eastwards to Indochina (including Burma), parts of Indonesia (namely, the Sunda Islands, Borneo and Celebes), and the Philippines."[18] German atlases distinguished Vorder-Indien (Anterior India) as the South Asian peninsula and Hinter-Indien as Southeast Asia.[14]

Geology

Greater India, or Greater India Basin signifies "the Indian Plate plus a postulated northern extension", the product of the Indian–Asia collision.[19] Although its usage in geology pre-dates Plate tectonic theory,[20] the term has seen increased usage since the 1970s.

The hypothesis is legitimate as long as the controversy of the location and time of the India-Asia convergence exists. How and where the India–Asia (Indian and Eurasian Plate) convergence was accommodated, after the collision, at or before 52 Million years ago? Since the plates have converged up to 3,600 km (2,200 mi) ± 35 km (22 mi), yet the upper crustal shortening documented from the geological record of Asia and the Himalaya is up to approximately 2,350 km (1,460 mi) less.[21]

Nationalist movement

The use of Greater India refers here to a popularization by a network of Bengali scholars in the 1920s who were all members of the Calcutta-based Greater India Society. The movement's early leaders included the historian R. C. Majumdar (1888–1980); the philologists Suniti Kumar Chatterji (1890–1977) and P. C. Bagchi (1898–1956) and the historians Phanindranath Bose and Kalidas Nag (1891–1966).[22]

The term Greater India and the notion of an explicit Hindu expansion of ancient Southeast Asia have been linked to both Indian nationalism[23] and Hindu nationalism.[24]

Indianised kingdoms

Further information: Hinduism in Southeast Asia
File:Ayutthaya-old.jpg
Ruins of Ayutthaya in Thailand which was named after Ayodhya

The concept of the Indianized kingdoms, a term coined by George Coedès, describes maritime and continental Southeast Asian principalities that since the early common era as a result of centuries of socio-economic interaction had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and architecture.[25]

Iron age trade expansion caused regional geostrategic remodeling. Southeast Asia was now situated in the central area of convergence of the Indian and the East Asian maritime trade routes, the basis for economic and cultural growth. The earliest Hindu kingdoms emerged in Sumatra and Java, followed by mainland polities such as Funan and Champa. Selective adoption of Indian civilization elements and individual suitable adaption stimulated the emergence of centralized states and development of highly organized societies. Ambitious local leaders realized the benefits of Hindu worship. Rule in accord with universal moral principles represented in the concept of the devaraja was more appealing than the Chinese concept of intermediaries.[26][27]

The exact nature, process and extent of Indian influence upon the civilizations of the region is still fiercely debated by contemporary scholars. Debated are most claims over whether it was Indian merchants, brahmins, nobles or Southeast Asian mariner-merchants who played a central role in bringing Indian conceptions to Southeast Asia. Debated is the depth of the influence of traditions for the people. Whereas early 20th-century scholars emphasized the thorough Indianization of Southeast Asia, more recent authors argued that this influence was very limited and affected only a small section of the elite.[28]

Hinduism, authority and legitimacy

The pre-Indic political and social systems in Southeast Asia were marked by a relative indifference towards lineage descent. Hindu god kingship enabled rulers to supersede loyalties, forge cosmopolitan polities and the worship of Shiva and Vishnu was combined with ancestor worship, so that Khmer, Javanese, and Cham rulers claimed semi-divine status as descendants of a god. Hindu traditions especially the relationship to the sacrality of the land and social structures indicates that Hinduism was characterized by transnational features. The epic traditions of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa further legitimized a ruler identified with a god who battled the demonic forces that threaten the ethical order of the world.[28]

Hinduism does not have a single historical founder, a centralized imperial authority in India proper and a bureaucratic structure ensuring relative religious independence for the individual ruler. It also allows for multiple forms of divinity, centered upon the Trimurti the triad of Brahma, Visnu, and Siva, the deities responsible for the creation, preservation and destruction of the universe.[29]

Butuan, Champa, Dvaravati, Funan, Gangga Negara, Kadaram, Kalingga, Kutai, Langkasuka, Pagan, Pan Pan, Po-ni, Tarumanagara and Tondo had by the 1st to 4th centuries CE. adopted Hindu cosmology, the devaraja concept of kingship, and Sanskrit as official writing. Despite the fundamental cultural integration, these kingdoms remained independent from the Indian mainland states.[30]

Adaption and adoption

It is unknown how immigration, interaction and settlement took place, whether by key figures from India or through Southeast Asians visiting India who took elements of Indian culture back home. It is likely that Hindu and Buddhist traders, priests, and princes traveled to Southeast Asia from India in the first few centuries of the Common Era and eventually settled there. Strong impulse most certainly came from the region’s ruling classes who invited Brahmans to serve at their courts as priests, astrologers and advisers.[31] Divinity and royalty were closely connected in these polities as Hindu rituals served to validate the powers of the monarch. Brahmans and priests from India proper played a key role in elevating ruling dynasties through exact rituals. Dynastic consolidation was the basis for more centralized kingdoms that emerged in Java, Sumatra, Cambodia, Burma, and along the central and south coasts of Vietnam during the 8th century.[32]

Art, architecture, rituals, and cultural elements such as the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata had been adopted and customized increasingly developed a regional character. The caste system, although adopted was never applied universally and reduced to serve for a selected group of nobles only.[33]

States such as Srivijaya, Majapahit and the Khmer empire with territorial continuity, resilient population and surplus economies soon rivaled those in India itself. Borobudur in Java and Angkor in Cambodia are, apart from their grandeur examples for a distinctly developed regional culture, style and expression.[34]

Southeast Asia is called Suvarnabhumi or Sovannah Phoum - the golden land and Suvarnadvipa - the golden Islands in Sanskrit.[35] It was frequented by traders from eastern India, particularly Kalinga. Cultural and trading relations between the powerful Chola dynasty of South India and the Southeast Asian Hindu kingdoms led the Bay of Bengal to be called "The Chola Lake", and the Chola attacks on Srivijaya in the 10th century CE are the sole example of military attacks by Indian rulers against Southeast Asia. The Pala dynasty of Bengal, which controlled the heartland of Buddhist India, maintained close economic, cultural and religious ties, particularly with Srivijaya.[36]

Indian roots of pre-Islamic West and Central Asia

Further information: Bharata Khanda
File:EpicIndiaCities.jpg
Map of Ancient India with locations of cities and places during the time of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Buddha.

West and Central Asia had been culturally close to mainland India from ancient times. Western parts of India were dominated by tribes who had a slightly different culture that was considered as non-Vedic by the mainstream Vedic culture. Similarly there were some tribes in the eastern regions of India, considered to be in this category. Tribes with non-Vedic culture specially those of barbaric nature were collectively termed as Mlechha. Very little was mentioned in the ancient Indian literature, about the kingdoms to the North, beyond the Himalayas. China was mentioned as a kingdom known as Cina, often grouped with Mlechcha kingdoms.

Ancient Indian or Indianized kingdoms of Central or West Asia include:-

File:SirkapJainTemple.JPG
A Jain Temple at Sirkap, part of the Indo-Greek kingdom

Individual mainland kingdoms

File:Angkor wat temple.jpg
Angkor Wat in Cambodia is the largest Hindu temple in the world
  • Funan: Funan was a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong,[67] Funan is noted as the oldest Hindu culture in this region, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west.[68] Cultural and religious ideas had reached Funan via the Indian Ocean trade route. Trade with India had commenced well before 500 BC as Sanskrit hadn't yet replaced Pali.[68] Indian author Dr. Pragya Mishra even postulates: "Funan Was One Of The Colonies Established By Indians Within Cambodia...[sic]" in his essay "Cultural History of Indian Diaspora in Cambodia".[69] Funans language has been determined as to have been an early form of Khmer and its written form was Sanskrit.[70]
  • Chenla was the successor polity of Funan that existed from around the late 6th century until the early 9th century in Indochina, preceding the Khmer Empire. Like its predecessor Funan, Chenla occupied a strategic position where the maritime trade routes of the Indosphere and the Sinosphere converged, resulting in prolonged socio-economic and cultural influence and the adoption of the epigraphic system of the south Indian Pallava dynasty and Chalukya dynasty.[69][71][72] Chenla's first ruler Vīravarman adopted the idea of divine kingship and deployed the concept of Harihara, the syncretistic Hindu "god that embodied multiple conceptions of power". His successors continued this tradition, thus obeying the code of conduct Manusmṛti, the Laws of Manu for the Kshatriya warrior caste and conveying the idea of political and religious authority.[3]
  • Langkasuka: Langkasuka (-langkha Sanskrit for "resplendent land" -sukkha of "bliss") was an ancient Hindu kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula. The kingdom, along with the Old Kedah settlement, are probably the earliest territorial footholds founded on the Malay Peninsula. According to tradition, the founding of the kingdom happened in the 2nd century; Malay legends claim that Langkasuka was founded at Kedah, and later moved to Pattani.[73]
  • Champa: The kingdom of Champa (or Lin-yi in Chinese records) controlled what is now south and central Vietnam since approximately 192. The dominant religion was Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India. By the late fifteenth century, the Vietnamese—descendants of the Sinic civilisation sphere—had conquered the last remaining territories of the once powerful maritime kingdom of Champa.[74] The last surviving Chams began their diaspora in 1471, many re-settling in Khmer territory.[75][76]
  • Kambuja: The Khmer Empire was established by the early 9th century in a mythical initiation and consecration ceremony to claim political legitimacy by founder Jayavarman II at Mount Kulen (Mount Mahendra) in 802 C.E.[77] A succession of powerful sovereigns, continuing the Hindu devaraja cult tradition, reigned over the classical era of Khmer civilization until the 11th century. A new dynasty of provincial origin introduced Buddhism as royal religious discontinuities and decentralisation result.[78] The royal chronology ends in the 14th century. Administration, agriculture, architecture, hydrology, logistics, urban planning and the arts saw an unprecedented degree of development, refinement and accomplishment in execution on the basis of a distinct expression of Hindu cosmology.[79]
  • Mon kingdoms: From the 9th century until the abrupt end of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in 1539, the Mon kingdoms (Hariphunchai, Pegu, Pagan) were notable for facilitating Indianised cultural exchange in lower Burma, in particular by having strong ties with Sri Lanka.[80]
  • Sukhothai: The first Tai peoples to gain independence from the Khmer Empire and start its own kingdom in the 13th century. Sukhothai was a precursor for the Ayutthaya Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam. Though ethnically Thai, the Sukhothai kingdom in many ways was a continuation of the Buddhist Mon-Dvaravati civilizations, as well as the neighboring Khmer Empire.[citation needed][81]

Individual island kingdoms

File:Durga Loro Jonggrang copy.jpg
A statue of Hindu goddess Durga Mahisasuramardini in Prambanan northern cella, dated to the 9th-century Medang i Bhumi Mataram kingdom in Central Java.
File:LagunaCopperplateLucbanHHCS.jpg
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is a legal document inscribed on a copper plate in 900 AD in Laguna in the Philippines.
File:Ancient Filipino.jpg
A painting of a mother and child belonging to the Maharlika or Maginoo class.
File:Gold Kinnara.jpg
The sculpture of gold Kinnari with its fine 3D features (c. 10th century CE).
File:Golden tara of Agusan.jpg
The Golden Tara of Agusan, Philippines.
File:Golden Belt usually worn by the Hindu, Brahmi Caste, found in Butuan Archeological Digs.jpg
A golden vestment worn by the Hindu Brahmin Caste, found in archeological digs from Butuan.
  • Butuan: or Butwan which often called 蒲端國, Púduānguó in Chinese records, was an Indic polity centered on present Mindanao island in the city of Butuan in what is now the southern Philippines. It was known for its mining of gold, its gold products and its extensive trade network across the Nusantara area. The kingdom had trading relationships with the ancient civilizations of Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Persia, Cambodia and areas now comprised in Thailand.[82][83] The balangay (large outrigger boats) that have been found along the east and west banks of the Libertad river (old Agusan River) have revealed much about Butuan's history. As a result, Butuan is considered to have been a major trading port in the Caraga region during the pre-colonial era.[84]
  • Salakanagara: Salakanagara kingdom is the first historically recorded Indianised kingdom in Western Java, established by Indian trader after marrying a local Sundanese princess. This Kingdom existed between 130-362 AD.[85]
  • Tarumanagara was an early Sundanese Indianised kingdom, located not far from modern Jakarta, and according to Tugu inscription ruler Purnavarman apparently built a canal that changed the course of the Cakung River, and drained a coastal area for agriculture and settlement. In his inscriptions, Purnavarman associated himself with Vishnu, and Brahmins ritually secured the hydraulic project.
  • Kalingga: Kalingga (Javanese: Karajan Kalingga; 訶陵 Hēlíng or 闍婆 Dūpó in Chinese sources) was the 6th century Indianized kingdom on the north coast of Central Java, Indonesia. It was the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Central Java, and together with Kutai and Tarumanagara are the oldest kingdoms in Indonesian history.
  • Malayu was a classical Southeast Asian kingdom. The primary sources for much of the information on the kingdom are the New History of the Tang, and the memoirs of the Chinese Buddhist monk Yijing who visited in 671, and states was "absorbed" by Srivijaya by 692, but had "broken away" by the end of the eleventh century according to Chao Jukua. The exact location of the kingdom is the subject of studies among historians.
  • Srivijaya: From the 7th to 13th centuries Srivijaya, a maritime empire centred on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, had adopted Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism under a line of rulers from Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa to the Sailendras. A stronghold of Vajrayana Buddhism, Srivijaya attracted pilgrims and scholars from other parts of Asia. I Ching reports that the kingdom was home to more than a thousand Buddhist scholars. A notable Buddhist scholar of local origin, Dharmakirti, taught Buddhist philosophy in Srivijaya and Nalanda, and was the teacher of Atisha. Most of the time, this Buddhist Malay empire enjoyed cordial relationship with China and the Pala Empire in Bengal, and the 860 Nalanda inscription records that Maharaja Balaputra dedicated a monastery at the Nalanda university in Pala territory. The kingdom ceased to exist in the 13th century due to various factors, including the expansion of the Javanese, Singhasari, and Majapahit empires.[86]
  • Tambralinga was an ancient kingdom located on the Malay Peninsula that at one time came under the influence of Srivijaya. The name had been forgotten until scholars recognized Tambralinga as Nagara Sri Dharmaraja (Nakhon Si Thammarat). Early records are scarce but its duration is estimated to range from the seventh to fourteenth century. Tambralinga first sent tribute to the emperor of the Tang dynasty in 616. In Sanskrit tambra means "red" and linga means "symbol", typically representing the divine energy of Shiva.
  • Medang Mataram: Medang i Bhumi Mataram Kingdom flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was first centred in central Java before later moving to east Java. This kingdom produced numbers of Hindu-Buddhist temples in Java, including Borobudur Buddhist mandala and Prambanan Trimurti Hindu temple dedicated mainly for Shiva. The Sailendras are the ruling family of this kingdom in an earlier stage in central Java before replaced by the Isyana Dynasty.
  • Kadiri: In the 10th century, Mataram, challenged the supremacy of Srivijaya, resulting in the destruction of the Mataram capital by Srivijaya early in the 11th century. Restored by King Airlangga (c. 1020–1050), the kingdom split on his death; and the new state of Kediri, in eastern Java, became the centre of Javanese culture for the next two centuries, spreading its influence to the eastern part of island South East Asia. The spice trade was now becoming of increasing importance, as the demand by European countries for spices grew. Before they learned to keep sheep and cattle alive in the winter, they had to eat salted meat, made palatable by the addition of spices. One of the main sources was the Maluku Islands (or "Spice Islands") in Indonesia, and Kediri became a strong trading nation.
  • Singhasari: In the 13th century, however, the Kediri dynasty was overthrown by a revolution, and Singhasari arose in east Java. The domains of this new state expanded under the rule of its warrior-king Kertanegara. He was killed by a prince of the previous Kediri dynasty, who then established the last great Hindu-Javanese kingdom, Majapahit. By the middle of the 14th century Majapahit controlled most of Java, Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, part of Borneo, the southern Celebes and the Moluccas. It also exerted considerable influence on the mainland.
  • Majapahit: Majapahit empire centred in East Java succeeded the Singhasari empire and flourished in Indonesian archipelago between the 13th and 15th centuries. Noted for their naval expansion the Javanese spanned west—east from Lamuri in Aceh to Wanin in Papua. Majapahit was one of the last and greatest Hindu empires in Maritime Southeast Asia. Most of Balinese Hindu culture, traditions and civilisations were derived from Majapahit legacy. A large number of Majapahit nobles, priests, and artisans found their home in Bali after the decline of Majapahit to Islamic Demak Sultanate.
  • Galuh was an ancient Hindu kingdom in the eastern Tatar Pasundan (now West Java province and Banyumasan region of Central Java province), Indonesia. It was established following the collapse of the Tarumanagara kingdom around the 7th century. Traditionally the kingdom of Galuh was associated with Eastern Priangan cultural region, around the Citanduy and Cimanuk rivers, with territory spanned from Citarum river on the west, Pamali and Serayu river on the east. Its capital was located in Kawali, near today Ciamis city.
  • Sunda: The Kingdom of Sunda was a Hindu kingdom located in western Java from 669 to around 1579, covering the area of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java. According to primary historical records, the Bujangga Manik manuscript, the eastern border of the Sunda Kingdom was the Pamali River (Ci Pamali, the present day Brebes River) and the Serayu River (Ci Sarayu) in Central Java.
  • Tondo: also known as Tundun was an Indianised kingdom in the 10th century, Tondo capitalised on being central to the long-existing ancient regional trading routes throughout the archipelago to include among others, initiating diplomatic and commercial ties with China during the Ming Dynasty. Thus it became an established force in trade throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia.

Indian cultural sphere

File:006 Bujang Valley Candi.jpg
Candi Bukit Batu Pahat of Bujang Valley. A Hindu-Buddhist kingdom ruled ancient Kedah possibly as early as 110 CE, the earliest evidence of strong Indian influence which was once prevalent among the pre-Islamic Kedahan Malays.

Indosphere

The term Indosphere encompasses the full extent of Indian linguistic and cultural influence in Asia in a non-geographical sense. It is commonly used in areal linguistics in contrast with the Sinosphere.[87]

Cultural sphere

The use of Greater India to refer to an Indian cultural sphere was popularised by a network of Bengali scholars in the 1920s who were all members of the Calcutta-based Greater India Society. The movement's early leaders included the historian R. C. Majumdar (1888–1980); the philologists Suniti Kumar Chatterji (1890–1977) and P. C. Bagchi (1898–1956), and the historians Phanindranath Bose and Kalidas Nag (1891–1966).[22][88]

Some of their formulations were inspired by concurrent excavations in Angkor by French archaeologists and by the writings of French Indologist Sylvain Lévi. The scholars of the society postulated a benevolent ancient Indian cultural colonisation of Southeast Asia, in stark contrast—in their view—to the colonialism of the early 20th century.[89][90][91]

The term Greater India and the notion of an explicit Hindu expansion of ancient Southeast Asia have been linked to both Indian nationalism[92] and Hindu nationalism.[93] However, many Indian nationalists, like Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, although receptive to "an idealisation of India as a benign and uncoercive world civiliser and font of global enlightenment,"[94] stayed away from explicit "Greater India" formulations.[95] In addition, some scholars have seen the Hindu/Buddhist acculturation in ancient Southeast Asia as "a single cultural process in which Southeast Asia was the matrix and South Asia the mediatrix."[96] In the field of art history, especially in American writings, the term survived longer due to the influence of art theorist Ananda Coomaraswamy. Coomaraswamy's view of pan-Indian art history was influenced by the "Calcutta cultural nationalists."[97]

By some accounts Greater India consists of "lands including Burma, Java, Cambodia, Bali, and the former Champa and Funan polities of present-day Vietnam,"[98] in which pre-Islamic Indian culture left an "imprint in the form of monuments, inscriptions and other traces of the historic "Indianising" process."[98] By some other accounts, many Pacific societies and "most of the Buddhist world including Ceylon, Tibet, Central Asia, and even Japan were held to fall within this web of Indianising culture colonies"[98] This particular usage—implying cultural "sphere of influence" of India—was promoted by the Greater India Society, formed by a group of Bengali men of letters,[99] and is not found before the 1920s. The term Greater India was used in historical writing in India into the 1970s.[100]

Cultural expansion

File:Hinduism Expansion in Asia.svg
Expansion of Hinduism in Southeast Asia.

Culture spread via the trade routes that linked India with southern Burma, central and southern Siam, the Malay peninsula and Sumatra to Java, lower Cambodia and Champa.

The Pali and Sanskrit languages and the Indian script, together with Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Brahmanism and Hinduism, were transmitted from direct contact as well as through sacred texts and Indian literature.

Southeast Asia had developed some prosperous and very powerful colonial empires that contributed to Hindu-Buddhist artistic creations and architectural developments. Art and architectural creations that rivaled those built in India, especially in its sheer size, design and aesthetic achievements. The notable examples are Borobudur in Java and Angkor monuments in Cambodia. The Srivijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence in the region.

A defining characteristic of the cultural link between Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent is the spread of ancient Indian Vedic/Hindu and Buddhist culture and philosophy into Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaya, Laos and Cambodia. Indian scripts are found in Southeast Asian islands ranging from Sumatra, Java, Bali, south Sulawesi and most of the Philippines.[101]

File:Atashgah Fire Temple.jpg
Atashgah of Baku, a fire temple in Azerbaijan used by both Hindus[102][103] and Persian Zoroastrians

Literature

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata have had a large impact on the South Asia and Southeast Asia. However, the Mahabharata has faded from the memory of many Southeast Asian nations and is not as widely known as the Ramayana.[citation needed]

Shared traditions

One of the most tangible evidence of dharmic tradition commonality, probably is the widespread of Añjali Mudrā as the gesture of greeting and respect. It is demonstrated in Indian namasté, and similar gestures are known in Southeast Asia, as it cognate to the Cambodian sampeah, Indonesian sembah and Thai wai.

Cultural commonalities

Religion, mythology and folklore

File:Heliodorus-Pillar2.jpg
The Heliodorus pillar, erected [110], by Heliodorus, ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas, was surmounted by a sculpture of Garuda and was apparently dedicated to Vāsudeva
  • Sun Wukong also known as the Monkey King, is a main character in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West published in the 16th century[111]. Sun Wukong is considered by some scholars to be influenced by both the Hindu deity Hanuman from the Ramayana and elements of Chinese folklore.[112][113][114][115]
  • Philippine mythology includes the supreme god Bathala and the concept of Diwata and the still-current belief in Karma—all derived from Hindu-Buddhist concepts.
  • Malay folklore contains a rich number of Indian-influenced mythological characters, such as Bidadari, Jentayu, Garuda and Naga.
  • Wayang shadow puppets and classical dance-dramas of Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand took stories from episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
  • Tengri was the main god of the Turkic pantheon, controlling the celestial sphere.[116] Tengri is considered to be strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god, *Dyeus, and the structure of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion is closer to that of the early Turks than to the religion of any people of Near Eastern or Mediterranean antiquity.[117]
  • Qormusta Tengri (Qormusata Tngri "King of the Gods", also transliterated as Qormusta Tngri and Hormusta) is a god in Mongolian mythology and shamanism, described as the chief god of the 99 tngri and leader of the 33 gods.[118] It is the same of Turkish deities / gods Hürmüz and Kormos Han.[119][120]According to Walther Heissig, the group of 33 gods led by Qormusata Tngri exists alongside the well-known group of 99 tngri. Qormusata Tngri is to be equated with Ahura Mazda, the chief Iranian god, and with Esrua, who in turn is Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. The Indian influence may explain the 33 gods, analogous with Indra (to whom Michael York compares him, as a more active being[121]) and his 33 planets (or gods).[122]
  • In case of the Aesir-Asura correspondence, it could have been that the Indo-Iranian Asura or Ahura left India and traveled west until they found the home of the Vanir (and fought and defeated them). In the Indian stories, the violent Asura fight the Deva (Iranian Daeva) and leave. In Norse stories the Aesir arrive and fight with the more peaceable Vanir. When the Aesir win, they take hostages from the Vanir in the form of the god Nord, as well as his children Frey and Freja. It could be that the stories told in both places are related, that it tells the story of migration, perhaps the leaving of more aggressive members of the Indo-Iranian community, who then moved to the harsher climate of Europe and Scandinavia, bringing their own version of events with them.

Architecture and monuments

Linguistic influence

See also: Indosphere
File:Character-sphere.png
A map of East, South and Southeast Asia. Red signifies current and historical (China, Vietnam) distribution of Chinese characters. Green signifies current and historical (Greater India) distribution of Indic scripts. Blue signifies the current use of non-Sinitic or Indic scripts.

Scholars like Sheldon Pollock have used the term Sanskrit Cosmopolis to describe the region, and argued for millennium-long cultural exchanges without necessarily involving migration of peoples or colonisation. Pollock's 2006 book The Language of the Gods in the World of Men makes a case for studying the region as comparable with Latin Europe and argues that the Sanskrit language was its unifying element.

Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan-speaking neighbours to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation.[125] Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries sent by Emperor Ashoka mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. The situation in Tibet is similar; many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan translation (in the Tanjur).

In Southeast Asia, languages such as Thai and Lao contain many loan words from Sanskrit, as does Khmer to a lesser extent. For example, in Thai, Rāvaṇa, the legendary emperor of Sri Lanka, is called 'Thosakanth' which is derived from his Sanskrit name 'Daśakaṇṭha' ("having ten necks").

Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in Austronesian languages, such as Javanese particularly the old form from which nearly half the vocabulary is derived from the language.[126] [127] Other Austronesian languages, such as traditional Malay, modern Indonesian, also derive much of their vocabulary from Sanskrit, albeit to a lesser extent, with a large proportion of words being derived from Arabic. Similarly, Philippine languages such as Tagalog have many Sanskrit loanwords.

A Sanskrit loanword encountered in many Southeast Asian languages is the word bhāṣā, or spoken language, which is used to mean language in general, for example bahasa in Malay, Indonesian and Tausug, basa in Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese, phasa in Thai and Lao, bhasa in Burmese, and phiesa in Khmer.

Linguistic commonalities

Toponyms

  • Suvarnabhumi is a toponym that has been historically associated with Southeast Asia. In Sanskrit it means "The Land of Gold". Thailand's Suvarnabhumi Airport is named after this toponym, signifying its intent to be a major transport hub of Southeast Asia.[citation needed]
  • Several of Indonesian toponyms has Indian parallel or origin, such as Madura with Mathura, Serayu and Sarayu river, Semeru with Sumeru mountain, Kalingga from Kalinga Kingdom, and Ngayogyakarta from Ayodhya.
  • Siamese ancient city of Ayutthaya also derived from Ramayana's Ayodhya.
  • Names of places could simply renders their Sanskrit origin, such as Singapore, from Singapura (Singha-pura the "lion city"), Jakarta from Jaya and kreta ("complete victory").
  • Some of Indonesian regencies such as Indragiri Hulu and Indragiri Hilir derived from Indragiri River, Indragiri itself means "mountain of Indra".
  • Some Thai toponyms also often have Indian parallels or Sanskrit origin, although the spellings are adapted to the Siamese tongue, such as Ratchaburi from Raja-puri ("king's city"), Buriram from Puri-Rama ("city of Rama"), and Nakhon Si Thammarat from Nagara Sri Dharmaraja.
  • The tendency to use Sanskrit for modern neologism also continued to modern day. In 1962 Indonesia changed the colonial name of New Guinean city of Hollandia to Jayapura ("glorious city"), Orange mountain range to Jayawijaya Mountains.
  • Malaysia named their new government seat as Putrajaya ("prince of glory") in 1999.

See also


Quotes

  • For Pollock, the fact that tradition local writers have written about Ayodhya, mount Meru, Ganga, etc., in multiple locations is dumbfounding and irrational..... I propose a different interpretation of the same data. As per our tradition, the conceptual space of Hindus can be replicated and localized easily. The Hindu metaphysics of immanence leads to the decentralization of sacred geography. The Vedic principle of 'rtam' is about recreating a universal structure in one's own particular locale, desh. This is why such localized references to the sacred geography of India are prevalent, and are perfectly fine. In fact, in the Vedic yajna, the mantras define the local space of the yajna as a replica or representation of the cosmos, and the universal deity is invoked to be present locally. Pollock ignores the Vedic bandhuta principles that made it easy to find local equivalences and adaption rather than impose a homogeneity from a central template. This is why people in south India substitute their local rivers for Ganga for ritualist purposes; there is a town called Ayodhya in Thailand; the cognitive landscape of people in Java started to include Mount Meru as a local place, and so on.
    • The Battle for Sanskrit by Rajiv Malhotra
  • Many similar views were also expressed in the Sanskrit Commision Report written under the Nehru government in the 1950s. That report declares: "The State in ancient India, it must be specially pointed out, freely patronised education establishments, but left them to develop on their own lines, without any interference or control. It says that until the British disruption, the salient features of our traditional education included: 'oral instruction, insistence on moral discipline and character-building, freedom in the matter of the courses of study, absence of extraneous control ....' .... We can never insist too strongly on this signal fact that Sanskrit has been the Great Unifying Force of India, and that India with its nearly 400 millions of people is One Country, and not half a dozen or more countries, only because of Sanskrit.
    • The Battle for Sanskrit by Rajiv Malhotra


  • "The English have taught us that we were not one nation before and that it will reaquire centuries before we become one nation. This is without foundation. We were one nation before they came to India. One thought inspired us. Our mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom." (Gandhi: Hind Swaraj Chapter ix)

Citations

  1. ↑ Kenneth R. Hal (1985). Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia [archive]. University of Hawaii Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8248-0843-3.
  2. ↑ "History of India and Greater India" [archive]. Collège de France. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "As in Heaven, So on Earth: The Politics of Visnu Siva and Harihara Images in Preangkorian Khmer Civilisation" [archive]. academia edu. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Results of the 1995–1996 Archaeological Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Cambodia" [archive] (PDF). University of Hawai'i-Manoa. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  5. ↑ Pierre-Yves Manguin, “From Funan to Sriwijaya: Cultural continuities and discontinuities in the Early Historical maritime states of Southeast Asia”, in 25 tahun kerjasama Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi dan Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, Jakarta, Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi / EFEO, 2002, p. 59-82.
  6. ↑ Indian Embassy, Beijing. India-China Bilateral Relations - Historical Ties. [archive]
  7. ↑ "SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS everyone knows well the so-called "Buddhist conquest of China" or "Indianized China"" [archive] (PDF). sino-platonic. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Phillips, J. R. S. (1998). The Medieval Expansion of Europe [archive]. Clarendon Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-19-820740-5.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 (Azurara 1446)
  10. ↑ Lewis, Martin W.; Wigen, Kären (1997). The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography. University of California Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-520-20742-4.
  11. ↑ Pedro Machado, José (1992). "Terras de Além: no Relato da Viagem de Vasco da Gama" [archive]. Journal of the University of Coimbra. 37: 333–.
  12. ↑ (Beazley 1910, p. 708) Quote: "Azurara's hyperbole, indeed, which celebrates the Navigator Prince as joining Orient and Occident by continual voyaging, as transporting to the extremities of the East the creations of Western industry, does not scruple to picture the people of the Greater and the Lesser India"
  13. ↑ (Beazley 1910, p. 708) Quote: "Among all the confusion of the various Indies in Mediaeval nomenclature, "Greater India" can usually be recognized as restricted to the "India proper" of the modern world."
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lewis, Martin W.; Wigen, Kären (1997). The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography. University of California Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-520-20742-4.
  15. ↑ (Wheatley 1982, p. 13) Quote: "Subsequently the whole area came to be identified with one of the "Three Indies," though whether India Major or Minor, Greater or Lesser, Superior or Inferior, seems often to have been a personal preference of the author concerned. When Europeans began to penetrate into Southeast Asia in earnest, they continued this tradition, attaching to various of the constituent territories such labels as Further India or Hinterindien, the East Indies, the Indian Archipelago, Insulinde, and, in acknowledgment of the presence of a competing culture, Indochina."
  16. ↑ (Caverhill 1767)
  17. ↑ Uhlig, Siegbert (2003). Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: He-N [archive]. Isd. p. 145. ISBN 978-3-447-05607-6.
  18. ↑ "Review: New Maps," (1912) Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 44(3): 235–240.
  19. ↑ (Ali & Aitchison 2005, p. 170)
  20. ↑ Argand, E., 1924. La tectonique de l' Asie. Proc. 13th Int. Geol. Cong. 7 (1924), 171–372.
  21. ↑ "The Greater India Basin hypothesis" [archive] (PDF). University of Oslo. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 (Bayley 2004, p. 710)
  23. ↑ (Keenleyside 1982, pp. 213–214) Quote: "Starting in the 1920s under the leadership of Kalidas Nag-and continuing even after independence-a number of Indian scholars wrote extensively and rapturously about the ancient Hindu cultural expansion into and colonisation of South and Southeast Asia. They called this vast region "Greater India"–a dubious appellation for a region which to a limited degree, but with little permanence, had been influenced by Indian religion, art, architecture, literature and administrative customs. Indeed, Congress leaders made occasional references to Greater India while the organisation's abiding interest in the problems of overseas Indians lent indirect support to the Indian hope of restoring the alleged cultural and spiritual unity of South and Southeast Asia."
  24. ↑ (Thapar 1968, pp. 326–330) Quote: "At another level, it was believed that the dynamics of many Asian cultures, particularly those of Southeast Asia, arose from Hindu culture, and the theory of Greater India derived sustenance from Pan-Hinduism. A curious pride was taken in the supposed imperialist past of India, as expressed in sentiments such as these: "The art of Java and Kambuja was no doubt derived from India and fostered by the Indian rulers of these colonies." (Majumdar, R. C. et al. (1950), An Advanced History of India, London: Macmillan, p. 221) "
  25. ↑ National Library of Australia. Asia's French Connection : George Coedes and the Coedes Collection [archive] Archived [archive] 21 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  26. ↑ "Societies, Networks, and Transitions, Volume I: To 1500: A Global History" [archive]. Google Books. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  27. ↑ "The Mon-Dvaravati Tradition of Early North-Central Thailand" [archive]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 "Hinduism in Southeast Asia" [archive]. oxford press. 28 May 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  29. ↑ Carlos Ramirez-Faria (1 January 2007). Concise Encyclopeida Of World History The "King of the mountain" [archive]. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. pp. 106–. ISBN 978-81-269-0775-5.
  30. ↑ Parker, Vrndavan Brannon. "Vietnam's Champa Kingdom Marches on" [archive]. Hinduism Today. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  31. ↑ "The spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific" [archive]. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  32. ↑ "Chenla - 550-800" [archive]. Global Security. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  33. ↑ "Hinduism in Southeast Asia" [archive]. Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  34. ↑ Theories of Indianisation [archive] Archived [archive] 24 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Exemplified by Selected Case Studies from Indonesia (Insular Southeast Asia), by Dr. Helmut Lukas
  35. ↑ "History of Ancient India Kapur, Kamlesh" [archive]. Google Books. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  36. ↑ Takashi Suzuki (25 December 2012). "Śrīvijaya―towards ChaiyaーThe History of Srivijaya" [archive]. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  37. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahlika_people [archive]
  38. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkh#Buddhism [archive]
  39. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara#Name [archive]
  40. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambojas [archive]
  41. ↑ The author of Vayu Purana uses the name Kumuda-dvipa for Kusha-dvipa (Vayu I.48.34-36). 'Kumuda is also a Puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of the Mount Meru (i.e. Pamirs). In anterior Epic Age, Kumuda was the name given to high table-land of the Tartary located to north of the Himalaya range from which the Aryan race may have originally pushed their way southwards into Indian peninsula and preserved the name in their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship (O. Thompson, A History of Ancient Geography, London 1965). Thus, the Kumuda-dvipa lay close north to the Pamirs. Lying in the Transoxiana (in Saka-dvipa), this Komuda or Kumuda-dvipa of the Puranic texts is often identified as the ancient Kamboja land which corresponds to the Parama Kamboja referred to in the Sabha Parava of Mahabharata.
  42. ↑ Dr Buddha Prakash maintains that, based on the evidence of Kalidasa's Raghuvamsha, Raghu defeated the Hunas on river Vamkshu (Raghu vamsha 4.68), and then he marched against the Kambojas (4.69-70). These Kambojas were of Iranian affinities who lived in Pamirs and Badakshan. Hiun Tsang calls this region Kiu.mi.to which is thought to be Komdei of Ptolemy and Kumadh or Kumedh of Muslim writers (See: Studies in Indian History and Civilization, Agra, p 351; India and the World, 1964, p 71, Dr Buddha Prakash; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, p 300, Dr J. L. Kamboj; India and Central Asia, 1955, p 35, P. C. Bagch).
  43. ↑ This Kiumito or Komdei corresponds to the region which in Mahabharata has been referred to as Parama Kamboja (The Kambojas Through the Ages, 2005, p 59, 92, 159 S Kirpal Singh.
  44. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parama_Kamboja_Kingdom [archive]
  45. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttara_Kuru_Kingdom [archive]
  46. ↑ Turvasu also known as Yavana and his descendant formed the Yavana Kingdom. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayati#Descendants [archive]
  47. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yavana_Kingdom#Integration_with_the_Vedic_culture [archive]
  48. ↑ "These Indo-Greeks were called Yavanas in ancient Indian litterature" p.9 + note 1 "The term had a precise meaning until well into the Christian era, when gradually its original meaning was lost and, like the word Mleccha, it degenerated into a general term for a foreigner" p.18, Narain "The Indo-Greeks"
  49. ↑ "All Greeks in India were however known as Yavanas", Burjor Avari, "India, the ancient past", p.130
  50. ↑ "The term Yavana may well have been first applied by the Indians to the Greeks of various cities of Asia Minor who were settled in the areas contiguous to north-west India" Narain "The Indo-Greeks", p.227
  51. ↑ "Of the Sanskrit Yavana, there are other forms and derivatives, viz. Yona, Yonaka, Javana, Yavana, Jonon or Jononka, Ya-ba-na etc... Yona is a normal Prakrit form from Yavana", Narain "The Indo-Greeks", p.228
  52. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Greek_Kingdom [archive]
  53. ↑ Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999). The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC [archive]. Cambridge University Press. p. 87-88. ISBN 0-5214-7030-7. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  54. ↑ "Zhang Qian" [archive]. Encyclopedia Britannica online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
  55. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khasa_Kingdom [archive]
  56. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saka_Kingdom [archive]
  57. ↑ Alexander's Invasion of India, p. 57
  58. ↑ Ramayana Kisk. Kanda, 43-12
  59. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parada_Kingdom [archive]
  60. ↑ India: A History by John Keay p.158
  61. ↑ Kurbanov, Aydogdy (2010). "The Hephthalites: Archaeological and Historical Analysis" [archive] (PDF). p. 24. Retrieved 17 January 2013. The Hūnas controlled an area that extended from Malwa in central India to Kashmir.
  62. ↑ History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume 3 By Boris Abramovich Litvinovskiĭ Page 173
  63. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huna_people [archive]
  64. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara_Huna_Kingdom [archive]
  65. ↑ See MBH 2.27.25.
  66. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishika_Kingdom [archive]
  67. ↑ Stark, Miriam T. (2006). "Pre-Angkorian Settlement Trends In Cambodia's Mekong Delta and the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project" [archive] (PDF). Indo-Pacific Pre-History Association Bulletin. 26. University of Hawai’i-Manoa. Retrieved 5 July 2015. The Mekong delta played a central role in the development of Cambodia's earliest complex polities from approximately 500 BC to AD 600.
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Stark, Miriam T.; Griffin, Bion; Phoeurn, Chuch; Ledgerwood, Judy; et al. (1999). "Results of the 1995–1996 Archaeological Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Cambodia" [archive] (PDF). Asian Perspectives. 38 (1). University of Hawai’i-Manoa. Retrieved 5 July 2015. The development of maritime commerce and Hindu influence stimulated early state formation in polities along the coasts of mainland Southeast Asia, where passive indigenous populations embraced notions of statecraft and ideology introduced by outsiders...
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 Mishra, Pragya (December 2013). "Cultural History of Indian Diaspora in Cambodia" [archive] (PDF). International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention. 2 (12): 67–71. ISSN 2319-7714 [archive]. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  70. ↑ Rooney, Dawn (1984). Khmer Ceramics [archive] (PDF). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 July 2015. The language of Funan was...
  71. ↑ Some Aspects of Asian History and Culture by Upendra Thakur p.2
  72. ↑ "Considerations on the Chronology and History of 9th Century Cambodia by Dr. Karl-Heinz Golzio, Epigraphist - ...the realm called Zhenla by the Chinese. Their contents are not uniform but they do not contradict each other" [archive] (PDF). Khmer Studies. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  73. ↑ Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h (January 2002). The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk-Road (100 BC-1300 AD) [archive]. Victoria Hobson (translator). Brill. pp. 162–163. ISBN 9789004119734.
  74. ↑ "Blood and Soil: Modern Genocide 1500–2000 By Ben Kiernan p. 102 The Vietnamese destruction of Champa 1390–1509" [archive]. Google Books. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  75. ↑ "The Cham: Descendants of Ancient Rulers of South China Sea Watch Maritime Dispute From Sidelines Written by Adam Bray" [archive]. IOC-Champa. Archived from the original [archive] on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (help)
  76. ↑ "The Cambridge History of China: Volume 8, The Ming Part 2 Parts 1368-1644 By Denis C. Twitchett, Frederick W. Mote" [archive]. Google Books. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  77. ↑ Wolters, O. W. (1973). "Jayavarman II's Military Power: The Territorial Foundation of the Angkor Empire". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1). Cambridge University Press: 21–30. JSTOR 25203407 [archive].
  78. ↑ "The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire - Many scholars attribute the halt of the development of Angkor to the rise of Theravada..." [archive] (PDF). Studies Of Asia. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  79. ↑ "Khmer Empire" [archive]. The Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  80. ↑ Coedès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1.
  81. ↑ พระราชพงษาวดาร ฉบับพระราชหัดถเลขา ภาค 1. Bangkok: Wachirayan Royal Library. 1912. p. 278. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (help)
  82. ↑ [1] [archive]
  83. ↑ http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2071/ [archive]
  84. ↑ Lealiz, Sia (February 4, 2009). "Discovering the Ancient Kingdom of Butuan" [archive]. The Philippine Star. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  85. ↑ "Salakanagara, Kerajaan "Tertua" di Nusantara" [archive] (in Indonesian). Retrieved 25 January 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  86. ↑ "Thailand's World : The Srivijaya Kingdom in Thailand" [archive]. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  87. ↑ Martin Haspelmath, The World Atlas of Language Structures [archive], page 569, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-925591-1
  88. ↑ Ram Gopal and K. V. Paliwal, Hindu renaissance, page 83, Hindu Writers Forum, 2005 Quote: "Colonial and Cultural Expansion (of Ancient India)",[citation needed] written by R. C. Majumdar, concluded with: "We may conclude with a broad survey of the Indian colonies in the Far East. For nearly fifteen hundred years, and down to a period when the Hindus had lost their independence in their own home, Hindu kings were ruling over Indo-China and the numerous islands of the Indian Archipelago, from Sumatra to New Guinea. Indian religion, Indian culture, Indian laws and Indian government moulded the lives of the primitive races all over this wide region, and they imbibed a more elevated moral spirit and a higher intellectual taste through the religion, art, and literature of India. In short, the people were lifted to a higher plane of civilisation."
  89. ↑ (Bayley 2004, p. 712)
  90. ↑ Review by 'SKV' of The Hindu Colony of Cambodia by Phanindranath Bose [Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House 1927] in The Vedic Magazine and Gurukula Samachar 26: 1927, pp. 620–1.
  91. ↑ Lyne Bansat-Boudon, Roland Lardinois and Isabelle Ratié, Sylvain Lévi (1863-1935), page 196, Brepols, 2007, ISBN 9782503524474 Quote: "The ancient Hindus of yore were not simply a spiritual people, always busy with mystical problems and never troubling themselves with the questions of 'this world'... India also has its Napoleons and Charlemagnes, its Bismarcks and Machiavellis. But the real charm of Indian history does not consist in these aspirants after universal power, but in its peaceful and benevolent Imperialism—a unique thing in the history of mankind. The colonisers of India did not go with sword and fire in their hands; they used... the weapons of their superior culture and religion... The Buddhist age has attracted special attention, and the French savants have taken much pains to investigate the splendid monuments of the Indian cultural empire in the Far East."
  92. ↑ (Keenleyside 1982, pp. 213–214) Quote: "Starting in the 1920s under the leadership of Kalidas Nag-and continuing even after independence-a number of Indian scholars wrote extensively and rapturously about the ancient Hindu cultural expansion into and colonisation of South and Southeast Asia. They called this vast region "Greater India"–a dubious appellation for a region which to a limited degree, but with little permanence, had been influenced by Indian religion, art, architecture, literature and administrative customs. As a consequence of this renewed and extensive interest in Greater India, many Indians came to believe that the entire South and Southeast Asian region formed the cultural progeny of India; now that the sub-continent was reawakening, they felt, India would once again assert its non-political ascendancy over the area.... While the idea of reviving the ancient Greater India was never officially endorsed by the Indian National Congress, it enjoyed considerable popularity in nationalist Indian circles. Indeed, Congress leaders made occasional references to Greater India while the organisation's abiding interest in the problems of overseas Indians lent indirect support to the Indian hope of restoring the alleged cultural and spiritual unity of South and Southeast Asia."
  93. ↑ (Thapar 1968, pp. 326–330) Quote: "At another level, it was believed that the dynamics of many Asian cultures, particularly those of Southeast Asia, arose from Hindu culture, and the theory of Greater India derived sustenance from Pan-Hinduism. A curious pride was taken in the supposed imperialist past of India, as expressed in sentiments such as these: "The art of Java and Kambuja was no doubt derived from India and fostered by the Indian rulers of these colonies." (Majumdar, R. C. et al. (1950), An Advanced History of India, London: Macmillan, p. 221) This form of historical interpretation, which can perhaps best be described as being inspired by Hindu nationalism, remains an influential school of thinking in present historical writings."
  94. ↑ (Bayley 2004, pp. 735–736) Quote:"The Greater India visions which Calcutta thinkers derived from French and other sources are still known to educated anglophone Indians, especially but not exclusively Bengalis from the generation brought up in the traditions of post-Independence Nehruvian secular nationalism. One key source of this knowledge is a warm tribute paid to Sylvain Lévi and his ideas of an expansive, civilising India by Jawaharlal Nehru himself, in his celebrated book, The Discovery of India, which was written during one of Nehru’s periods of imprisonment by the British authorities, first published in 1946, and reprinted many times since.... The ideas of both Lévi and the Greater India scholars were known to Nehru through his close intellectual links with Tagore. Thus Lévi’s notion of ancient Indian voyagers leaving their invisible ‘imprints’ throughout east and southeast Asia was for Nehru a recapitulation of Tagore’s vision of nationhood, that is an idealisation of India as a benign and uncoercive world civiliser and font of global enlightenment. This was clearly a perspective which defined the Greater India phenomenon as a process of religious and spiritual tutelage, but it was not a Hindu supremacist idea of India’s mission to the lands of the trans-gangetic Sarvabhumi or Bharat Varsha."
  95. ↑ (Narasimhaiah 1986) Quote: "To him (Nehru), the so-called practical approach meant, in practice, shameless expediency, and so he would say, "the sooner we are not practical, the better". He rebuked a Member of Indian Parliament who sought to revive the concept of Greater India by saying that ‘the honorable Member lived in the days of Bismarck; Bismarck is dead, and his politics more dead!' He would consistently plead for an idealistic approach and such power as the language wields is the creation of idealism—politics’ arch enemy—which, however, liberates the leader of a national movement from narrow nationalism, thus igniting in the process a dead fact of history, in the sneer, "For him the Bastille has not fallen!" Though Nehru was not to the language born, his utterances show a remarkable capacity for introspection and sense of moral responsibility in commenting on political processes."
  96. ↑ (Wheatley 1982, pp. 27–28) Quote: "The tide of revisionism that is currently sweeping through Southeast Asian historiography has in effect taken us back almost to the point where we have to consider reevaluating almost every text bearing on the protohistoric period and many from later times. Although this may seem a daunting proposition, it is nonetheless supremely worth attempting, for the process by which the peoples of western Southeast Asia came to think of themselves as part of Bharatavarsa (even though they had no conception of "India" as we know it) represents one of the most impressive instances of large-scale acculturation in the history of the world. Sylvain Levi was perhaps overenthusiastic when he claimed that India produced her definitive masterpieces—he was thinking of Angkor and the Borobudur—through the efforts of foreigners or on foreign soil. Those masterpieces were not strictly Indian achievements: rather were they the outcome of a Eutychian fusion of natures so melded together as to constitute a single cultural process in which Southeast Asia was the matrix and South Asia the mediatrix."
  97. ↑ (Guha-Thakurta 1992, pp. 159–167)
  98. ↑ 98.0 98.1 98.2 (Bayley 2004, p. 713)
  99. ↑ (Handy 1930, p. 364) Quote: "An equally significant movement is one that brought about among the Indian intelligentsia of Calcutta a few years ago the formation of what is known as the "Greater India Society," whose membership is open "to all serious students of the Indian cultural expansion and to all sympathizers of such studies and activities." Though still in its infancy, this organisation has already a large membership, due perhaps as much as anything else to the enthusiasm of its Secretary and Convener, Dr. Kalidas Nag, whose scholarly affiliations with the Orientalists in the University of Paris and studies in Indochina, Insulindia and beyond, have equipped him in an unusual way for the work he has chosen-namely, stimulating interest in and spreading knowledge of Greater Indian culture of the past, present and future. The Society's President is Professor Jadunath Sarkar, Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, and its Council is made up largely of professors on the faculty of the University and members of the staff of the Calcutta Museum, as well as of Indian authors, journalists, and so on. Its activities, besides meetings, have included illustrated lecture series at the various universities throughout India by Dr. Nag, the assembling of a research library and the publication of monographs, of which four very excellent examples have already been printed: 1)Greater India, by Kalidas Nag, M.A., D.Litt(Paris), 2) India and China, by Prabodh Chandra Bagchi, M.A., D.Litt., 3) Indian Culture in Java and Sumatra, by Bijan Raj Chatterjee, D.Litt. (Punjab), Ph.D (London), and 4) India and Central Asia, by Niranjan Prasad Chakravarti, M.A., Ph.D.(cantab.)."
  100. ↑ (Majumdar 1960, pp. 222–223)
  101. ↑ Martin Haspelmath, The World Atlas of Language Structures [archive] Archived [archive] 29 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine., page 569, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-925591-1
  102. ↑ Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson (1911), From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam: travels in Transcaucasia and northern Persia for historic and literary research [archive], The Macmillan company, ... they are now wholly substantiated by the other inscriptions.... They are all Indian, with the exception of one written in Persian... dated in the same year as the Hindu tablet over it... if actual Gabrs (i.e. Zoroastrians, or Parsis) were among the number of worshipers at the shrine, they must have kept in the background, crowded out by Hindus, because the typical features Hanway mentions are distinctly Indian, not Zoroastrian... met two Hindu Fakirs who announced themselves as 'on a pilgrimage to this Baku Jawala Ji'....
  103. ↑ Richard Delacy, Parvez Dewan (1998), Hindi & Urdu phrasebook [archive], Lonely Planet, ISBN 0-86442-425-6, ... The Hindu calendar (vikramaditiy) is 57 years ahead of the Christian calendar. Dates in the Hindu calendar are prefixed by the word: samvat संवत ...
  104. ↑ Balinese Religion [archive] Archived [archive] 10 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  105. ↑ Buhnemann, Gudrun (2006). "Erotic forms of Ganesa in Hindu and Buddhist iconography". In Koskikallo, Petteri; Parpola, Asko (ed.). Papers of the th World Sanskrit Conference held in Helsinki, Finland, 13- July, 2003. Script and Image: Papers on Art and Epigraphy. Vol. 11.1. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. pp. 19–20. ISBN 81-208-2944-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  106. ↑ Frédéric, Louis (2002). "Kangi-ten". Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 470. (originally published in 1996, translated by Rothe, Kathe)
  107. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangiten [archive]
  108. ↑ Catherine Ludvik (2001), From Sarasvati to Benzaiten, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto, National Library of Canada; PDF Download [archive]
  109. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzaiten [archive]
  110. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L71FAhl7Yfo&feature=player_embedded [archive]
  111. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West [archive]
  112. ↑ Hera S. Walker, "Indigenous or Foreign?: A Look at the Origins of the Monkey Hero Sun Wukong [archive]," Sino-Platonic Papers, 81 (September 1998)
  113. ↑ Wendy Doniger. "Hanuman (Hindu mythology)" [archive]. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
  114. ↑ Ramnath Subbaraman, "Beyond the Question of the Monkey Imposter: Indian Influence on the Chinese Novel The Journey to the West [archive]," Sino-Platonic Papers, 114 (March 2002)
  115. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong [archive]
  116. ↑ Abazov, Rafis. "Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics". Greenwood Press, 2006. page 62 [archive]
  117. ↑ Mircea Eliade, John C. Holt, Patterns in comparative religion, 1958, p. 94.
  118. ↑ Дугаров Б. С. Этнос и культура. Культ горы Хормуста в Бурятии
  119. ↑ Religion and Politics in Russia: A Reader Edited by: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer ISBN 978-0-7656-2414-7
  120. ↑ Sims-Williams 1992, p. 44.
  121. ↑ York 2005, p. 129
  122. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qormusta_Tengri [archive]
  123. ↑ "Batu Caves Inside and Out, Malaysia" [archive]. lonelyplanet.tv. Archived from the original [archive] on 7 December 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (help)
  124. ↑ Buddhist Channel | Buddhism News, Headlines | Thailand | Phra Prom returns to Erawan Shrine [archive] Archived [archive] 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  125. ↑ van Gulik (1956:?)
  126. ↑ See this page from the Indonesian Wikipedia for a list
  127. ↑ Zoetmulder (1982:ix)
  128. ↑ Khatnani, Sunita (11 October 2009). "The Indian in the Filipino" [archive]. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original [archive] on 24 April 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (help)
  129. ↑ Kuizon, Jose G. (1962). "The Sanskrit loan-words in the Cebuano-Bisayan language and the Indian elements to Cebuano-Bisayan culture". University of San Carlos, Cebu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  130. ↑ Sharma, Sudhindra. "King Bhumibol and King Janak" [archive]. nepalitimes.com. Himalmedia Private Limited. Retrieved 13 July 2011.

References

Further reading

  • Language variation: Papers on variation and change in the Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in honour of James A. Matisoff, David Bradley, Randy J. LaPolla and Boyd Michailovsky eds., pp. 113–144. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Bijan Raj Chatterjee (1964). Indian Cultural Influence in Cambodia [archive]. University of Calcutta.
  • Ankerl, Guy (2000). Global communication without universal civilisation. INU societal research. Vol. Vol.1: Coexisting contemporary civilisations : Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INU Press. ISBN 2-88155-004-5. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  • Cœdès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Lokesh, Chandra, & International Academy of Indian Culture. (2000). Society and culture of Southeast Asia: Continuities and changes. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan.
  • R. C. Majumdar, Study of Sanskrit in South-East Asia
  • R. C. Majumdar, India and South-East Asia, I.S.P.Q.S. History and Archaeology Series Vol. 6, 1979, ISBN 81-7018-046-5.
  • R. C. Majumdar, Champa, Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, Vol.I, Lahore, 1927. ISBN 0-8364-2802-1
  • R. C. Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa, Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, Vol.II, Calcutta,
  • R. C. Majumdar, Kambuja Desa Or An Ancient Hindu Colony In Cambodia, Madras, 1944
  • Daigorō Chihara (1996). Hindu-Buddhist Architecture in Southeast Asia [archive]. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-10512-3.
  • Hoadley, M. C. (1991). Sanskritic continuity in Southeast Asia: The ṣaḍātatāyī and aṣṭacora in Javanese law. Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

External links

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