Short notes on South Indian Literature in 5th Century

The four Vedas, The foundation of the Hindu faith, were learnt there as widely as in India. The same may be said about the twin epics-the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Characters like Bhishma, Arjuna, and Bhima are found sculptured in temples in Cambdia and Java.

The Hindu sacred book Siva Vyakarana is mentioned in Angkor Vat. Reference has already been made to the popularity of the Dharmasastras and Arthasastra. Ministers of kings like Brahmadatta were well versed in the lore of these works.

King Yasovarman was well versed in the medical treatise of yore by the Indian Susruta. The Science of Music, Astrology and Zoology were well cultivated in South East Asia based on the Indian model. Many books on sculpture, birds as animals have been written in Java based on Sanskrit originals.

There is no doubt that Sanskrit was ever popular in South East Asia. The Buddhist monk I-Tsing bears evidence to this when he says that Indian books were very popular among the Malaysians. In Java, in particular, Sanskrit knowledge was widespread. Many works like Arjuna-vivaha Arjuna Vijayam and Krishnayanam were written in Indonesia during the period, based on the Indian epic Mahabharata.

The Indian Puranas lent their own source material for indigenous works like Song Satyavan bearing on the story of Satyavan and Savitri. Puranic ideas like the churning of the ocean and Agastya’s mission to set right the lost balance of the earth had a great popularity among the South East Asians.

The Javanese have a tradition that Agastya came to East Jave to set right the balance of West Java which had gone down unable to bear the weight of the people who have gathered in West Java. Two works written in Bali base themselves on Indian Puranic lore. One is called Yamapurnasthava and it depicts the sufferings in hell, the other is called Kupak and it describes the sufferings for ingratitude.

On politics, administration and history also a few works were written in South East Asia based on Indian models. Gajamada’s Gudaramanatam is on good government; Bharatham and Nagaragrithakam are ‘historical’ works on post-Sailendra history. One can well see in these “historical’ works the model of Harshacharita.

The Indian influence on the Malayan languages can never be exaggerated. The Indian influence on the building up of words in South East Asian languages stares one in the fact at every turn in a literary study of the South East Asian culture. The very name Sumatra is said to have been derived from the Sanskrit Samudradvipa (more probably form su-Mathura) and that of Java is from Yovadvipa.

The place name Taruma in Java is merely a repetition of the name near Cape Comorin; so is also the name Amaravati in Champa. Then there are others which are obvious variations of South Indian names. Such are tribal names in South East Asia like Solia, Pandikera, Meliyala found in Sumatra.

The term “Talaing’ is obviously drawn from the South Indian Telingana. When we consider the regal names in South East Asia many end with the suffix varman which is distinctly Pallava. The Sailendra kings of Java are strongly reminiscent of the Pallvas who were somtimes called Saila Rajahs. The Hoysalas themselves were called malapas, or hill chiefs.

The very term Fu-nan from which Cambodia developed signifies “Lord of the Mountain”. The Javanese king Jayanagara is given the sonorus title Sri Sundarapandya devadisvaranama rajabhisheka vikramathunga deva Jayanagara’, which is distinctly South Indian.

Curiously his royal seal bears the Pandyan carp mark. The occurrence of names like Kulottunga, i.e., names ending with suffix Uttunga Indicates the movement of a tradition of nomenclature from South East Asia to South India.

The significance of these similarities has been such as to posit actual conquest of South East Asia by South India particularly of Fu-nan and Cambodia, Java and even Sumatra by South Indian rulers especially the Pallavas.

The story of Kaundinya and Soma with reference to the foundation of Fu-nan and of Kambu and Mera with reference to Cambodia reminds one of Virakurcha’s marriage alliance with the Naga princess mentioned in the Velurpalayam plates of Nandivarman Pallavamalla and of what is found in Manimekhalai about the mesalliance between the Chola king Killivalavan and the Naga princess Pilli Valai which is referred to by many scholars in connection with the origin of the Pallavas.

Doubtless Saivism and Vaishnavism went to South East Asia only from South India. Sankara’s disciple Somasiva went into Cambodia. Buddhism also had many propagators from South India like Dhammapala, Amonghavarsha and Budhidhamma.

Much of the architectural style of South East Asia is derived from South India, the first temples built across the seas being of the pattern of Mahabalipuram. The gopuram of the South East Asian temples are mainly derived from the Chola style of architecture. A Siva temple in Kadaram has its roofing in the Pallava style.

The Kala makara motif which is also of Pallava origin has been very popular in Greater India. The temple built in honor of Agastya is also found there and that is a tribute to the great influence exerted by South India over this region.

The iconographic influence of South India becomes clear when we see the images in South East Asia. Such are the figures of Agastya and his water-pot and the well-known image of Nataraja prominently found in Malaya and Siam.

South Indian traders have done much for the increase of the trade and economic prosperity of South East Asia. Many necessary articles of trade like cloth were taken into South East Asia only from South India particularly from the Tamil country and Kalinga.

That this trade had commenced from very early times is seen from references in our Sangam poems which speak of merchants going in ships to the islands beyond the seas.

The Manimekhalai speaks pointedly to Javakativu or Java and Svarnatipam or Sumatra and of merchants going to and returning from them. The well-known Takuapa inscription from Siam dated in the 9th century and written in Tamil script speaks of South Indian merchants in that place, the tisai-ayirattu-ainurruvar.

They are also referred to in a Sumatran inscription at Loboe Towa. The script of this and many other inscriptions of South East Asia is of the Pallavagranta type. The era followed in most of them is the Salivahana era, after the practice of South Indian inscriptions. In later days Rajendra Chola’s naval expedition to Kedah or Kadaram brought the two regions-South India and South East Asia-into closer contact.