Chapter 3
The Greater Indic Civilization
The influence of India on her
neighbors, specifically those in Central, East, and Southeast Asia, has long
been recognized, largely because peoples of these other nations went to great
lengths to accurately translate and disseminate Indic knowledge into their own
languages and cultural idioms. This resulted in an accurate transmission that
maintained respect for the cultural source. Indians had immense trading
networks that ran through Central Asia and Eastern Europe until as late as the
1700s. Why did this trading network collapse completely and what were its
consequences?
The fact remains that for the vast
majority of Indians, the history of how this Indianization of South East Asia
came about, is largely a mystery. We will review the bare outlines of the
spread of Indian civilization in South East Asia and to a lesser extent in
Central and East Asia, because it is pertinent to our narrative. Prominent
among historians of this region are R.C. Majumdar[1],
K.A. Nilakanta Sastri[2]
and G.Coedes[3]. In what
follows we will draw heavily upon the account of G. Coedes.
Brief overview of Indian colonization of the Far East
By the time of the first 5 centuries of the common era Indian traders actively
participated in trade with the far east and established trading colonies in the
Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malay peninsula. They were accompanied by several kshatriya and brAhmaNa immigrants
who started establishing Indian-styled monarchies in the region. Most of the
early brahminical colonies were localized to Takua Pa, Nakhon Sri and Dhammarat in the peninsula
-Before 400 AD the shrivijaya Kingdom was founded in
the Island of Sumatra by kshatriyas.
-Before 500 AD the kshatriya pUrNavarman
founded a kingdom in Western Java.
-By around 600-700AD kshatriya sanjaya
founded a mighty kingdom in Central Java with matarAm.
-By around mid 700s the Shailendra empire arose in
Java who started one of the most remarkable series of conquests of the Eastern
Indic potentates. They annexed all the pre-existing Indic states in Malayasia, Java, Sumatra, Bali, Borneo and further islands
of modern Indonesia. Subsequently they raided Vietnam and Cambodia and
established control over these regions for some time. Their empire known as suvarNadvipa established diplomatic relationships with the cholas and pAlas in India and
with the emperor of China. They also built a university modeled after nAlandA and kanchi in Java. The
great tantric dipAmkarashriGYAna
from Bengal studied there at some point.
-The Shailendra emperor mAravijayottungavarman,
was a great ally of chola emperor rAjarAja,
who helped him the construction of vihAra in jAva.
-The Shailendras fell out with the cholas after an apparent dispute over trade with China.
This resulted in rAjendra launching a massive
amphibious assault on the shailendras. It resulted in
a total route of the shailendras with the cholas seizing the Malay peninsula, Java and Sumatra.