DR UDAY DOKRAS

The Cosmic Order of Mandalas in S.E. Asia

Citation- Dr Uday Dokras,The Cosmoc Order of the mandalas in S.E. Asia, Journal of The Indo
Nordic Author’s Collective, 2021

C o n t e n t s
 Cosmic means occurring in, or coming from, the part of space that lies outside Earth
 The categories of Brahman
 The exact nature, process and extent of Indian influence upon the civilisations of the region is
still fiercely debated by contemporary scholars.
 Sea trade from China
 The Maritime Silk Road
 Spread of Buddhism
 Local rulers benefited from the introduction of Hinduism with emphasis on individual effort
and conduct.
 Between the 5th and the 13th century, Buddhism flourished in Southeast Asia.
 Maṇḍala 
 Emphasis on Mandala personal relationships
 Mandala by matrimony
 Another example is that of Princess Pramodhawardhani:
 Kinshipin
 Imperial Mandalas: Angkor and Bagan
 The Nirvana Route stretched across the Silk Road
 Bagan was where the first imperial mandala of Myanmar
 Maritime Mandalas: Srivijaya and Champa
 The Universal Mandala: Borobudur

ABSTRACT

Cosmic means occurring in, or coming from, the part of space that lies outside Earth and

its atmosphere. In the Universe, there is a particular order. This order is known as ‘rta’. Since
its very beginning, the order of a system prevails in the entire universe and cosmos. This cosmic
order is known as ‘Mahan Rta. At the Conference, Heaven on Earth: Temples, Ritual, & Cosmic
Symbolism in the Ancient World, Organizer, Deena Ragavan, March 2-3, 2012- the query was
directed at the cult centers of the ancient world where the prime location and focus was of ritual
activity. Temples and shrines were not constructed in isolation, but existed as part of what may
be termed a ritual landscape, where ritualized movement within individual buildings, temple
complexes, and the city as a whole shaped their function and meaning. Furthermore, both ritual
practice and temple topography may provide evidence for the conception of the temple as a
reflection, or embodiment, of the cosmos. The interconnections between temple topography and

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architecture, ritual practice, and cosmic symbolism was the focal point of the conference.

There is a substantial body of literature devoted to this topic, from archaeological, textual, and
theoretical perspectives in various different ancient cultures, which suggests an excellent
opportunity for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural analysis. Recent work illustrates the
significance of this subject just as it illuminates the value of historical and comparative
perspectives. The importance of this topic is paramount not only to scholars of the ancient world,
but also to the study of religion, particularly the understanding and interpretation of ritual and
sacred architecture.

“The cosmic order and cultural astronomy that framed the cityscapes and sacredscapes
covering a time span of over thousands years, from the sites of the Ramayana period (e.g.
Chitrakut), and later Vedic period (e.g. Gaya) to the cultural capital city of India (Varanasi/
Kashi). All of these sacred sites and pilgrimage places display varying degrees of geometrical
order and planning. By their respective geometries, each of these places establishes an interior
cosmos with order and meaning. Geometries utilizing lines, triangles, rectangles, and circles
were used to couple interior spaces with those of the larger cosmos. The geometric connection
between microcosm and macrocosm that has always been easiest to construct and to interpret is
cardinal orthogonality. Space within the city was designed to mimic the geometry of the larger
cosmos by constructing a grid work of mutually perpendicular lines aligned to true north.”
Cosmic Order and cultural Astronomy Rana P.B. Singh
The temples of Borobudur and the Angkor Wat contain geometries that indicate both cosmic and
local influences, and both have been destination points for pilgrimage. The cosmic and local
dimensions of these sites are not independent and mutually exclusive. For instance, they do not
influence different sections of the structure, but they are intertwined in complex interdependent
relationships with each other. In Borobudur, which has been in existence for perhaps three
millennia, imperial power had no major influence on its design, although there are definite
examples of planning in certain of the pilgrimage circuits. This Stupa ( Borobudur) is rich with
cosmic symbolism and is understood to be a copy of the universe.
The Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra or The Excellent Manifestation Sūtra or Sutra of the Tree's Display is a
Buddhist Mahayana Sutra of Indian origin dating roughly c. 200 to 300 CE. It depicts one of the
world's most celebrated spiritual pilgrimages, and comprises the 39th chapter of the Avatamsaka
Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture. In Buddhabhadra's Chinese translation of the Avatamsaka,
this 39th chapter is entitled "Entrance into the Dharma Realm".The Sutra is described as the
"Sudhana's quest for the ultimate truth", as the sutra chronicles the journey of a disciple, Sudhana
("Excellent Riches"), as he encounters various teachings and Bodhisattvas until his journey
reaches full circle and he awakens to teachings of the Buddha.
As a Buddhist text, Gandavyuha was circulated widely around Asia, sometimes as a gift among
rulers. For example, the Chinese emperor received a Sanskrit language text of the book as a gift
from the king of Odisha in the 8th century.

Gandavyuha gives Borobudur a special meaning as a universal mandala. Its message is to find
enlightenment not only in one place, or in one source. The two religions Hinduism and

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Buddhism are said to have implanted more organized and resilient political arrangements onto
Southeast Asia’s loose pre-existing political fabric, turning the region into mandalas. –Meaning
that the mandala (circle) precipitated neither chaos nor absolutism, but a state with loose political
organization, relatively mild coercion, fluid boundaries, and overlapping spheres of political
authority with neighboring mandalas.

The arrival of Hinduism and Buddhism deeply influenced the spiritual and political make up of
Southeast Asian societies. But it did not displace pre-existing indigenous beliefs and worships.
Instead, local traditions and foreign beliefs were fused. To give one example, the “spirit houses”
that one finds in every Thai home to this day combine the worship of ancestors and traditional
deities with Hindu-Buddhist ones. While Hinduism and Buddhism came to Southeast Asia in
peaceful ways, once they arrived, they fed aspirations for universal kingship among Southeast
Asian rulers. This meant emulating King Ashoka of India’s Maurya dynasty, who was regarded
as a chakravartin, or a universal ruler, and a role model in Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asians did not merely copy Indian culture and architecture but gave it a distinct local
flavor. The largest Hindu and Buddhist temples anywhere in the world are both are in Southeast
Asia, in Cambodia (Angkor Wat) and Indonesia (Borobudur), respectively. While they were
constructed on the basis of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, such as the Mount Meru and the
stupa (Borobudur combined both), neither is purely Indian in its appearance. They reveal a
Southeast Asian “local genius.”

How did this happen? The attraction of Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia was as
much political as spiritual.The arrival of Hinduism and Buddhism brought an elaborate system of
beliefs and rituals with which Southeast Asian rulers could claim divine legitimacy before their
subjects, for example by identifying with Vishnu, Shiva, or Buddha, and build larger, more
organized polities or even empires. Not surprisingly, both quickly became official religions
throughout Southeast Asia, with Sanskrit often serving as the principal court language.

Since around 500 B.C. Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had led to socio-economic
interaction and cultural stimulation and diffusion of mainly Hindu beliefs into the regional
cosmology of Southeast Asia. Iron Age trade expansion caused
regional geostrategic remodelling. 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 concept of the Indianised kingdoms, a term coined by George Coedès,
describes Southeast Asian principalities that since the early common era as a result of prolonged
interaction had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft,
administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and architecture. Arriving in the archipelago before
the second century AD with traders and missionaries from India, Hindu beliefs were greatly
modified when adapted to Indonesian society. The central concept of ritual purity, maintained
through a division of society into occupational groups, or castes (varna, literally color), was
never rigidly applied in Indonesia.
The categories of Brahman (priests; brahmana in Indonesian), Kshatriya (ruler-warrior; satria
in Indonesian), Vaishya (merchant-farmer; waisya in Indonesian), and Shudra (commoner-
servant; sudra in Indonesian) do exist in Bali; besides the category of Brahman, however, they
appear to have little influence over occupational choices, or even over social status and marital

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opportunities. Two Hindu epics, the Mahabharata (Great Battle of the Descendants of Bharata)
and the Ramayana (The Travels of Rama), have become classics among Indonesians, both Hindu
believers and others, especially in Java, and are rendered in wayang and dance performances.

Shiva statue, Champa (modern Vietnam) Myson

The earliest Hindu kingdoms emerged in Sumatra and Java, followed by mainland polities

such as Funan and Champa. Selective adoption of Indian civilisation elements and individual
suitable adaption stimulated the emergence of centralised states and development of highly
organised societies. Ambitious local leaders realised 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.
The exact nature, process and extent of Indian influence upon the civilisations 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 emphasised the
thorough Indianisation of Southeast Asia, more recent authors argued that this influence was
very limited and affected only a small section of the elite.
Sea trade from China to India passed Champa, Funan at the Mekong Delta, proceeded along
the coast to the Isthmus of Kra, portaged across the narrow and transhipped for distribution in
India. This trading link boosted the development of Funan, its successor Chenla and the Malayan
states of Langkasuka on the eastern and Kedah on the western coast.
Numerous coastal communities in maritime Southeast Asia adopted Hindu and Buddhist cultural
and religious elements from India and developed complex polities ruled by native dynasties.
Early Hindu kingdoms in Indonesia are 4th century Kutai that rose in East
Kalimantan, Tarumanagara in West Java and Kalingga in Central Java.

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Early relations with China

Major trading routes in the pre-colonial Eastern Hemisphere

Earliest attested trading contacts existed between Southeast Asia and the Chinese Shang
dynasty (around 1600 BCE to around 1046 BCE), when cowry shells served as currency.
Various natural products, such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shells, pearls and birds’
feathers found their way to Luoyang the capital of the Zhou dynasty, that lasted from 1050 to
771 BCE. Although knowledge about port localities and shipping lanes is very limited, it is
assumed that most of this exchange took place on land routes and only a small percentage was
shipped "on coastal vessels crewed by Malay and Yue traders".
Military conquests during the Han dynasty brought a number of foreign peoples within the
Chinese empire when the Imperial Chinese tributary system began to evolve under Han rule.
This tributary system was based on the Chinese worldview, that had developed under the Shang
dynasty, in which China is deemed the center and apogee of culture and civilization, the Middle
kingdom (Zhōngguó), surrounded by several layers of increasingly barbarous peoples. Contact
with Southeast Asia steadily increased by the end of the Han period.
Between the 2nd-century BCE and 15th-century CE, the Maritime Silk Road flourished,
connecting China, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Arabian peninsula, Somalia and all
the way to Egypt and finally Europe.[  Despite its association with China in recent centuries, the
Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by Austronesian sailors in Southeast
Asia, and by Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea.
The Maritime Silk Road developed from the earlier Austronesian spice trade networks
of Islander Southeast Asians with Sri Lanka and Southern India (established 1000 to 600 BCE),
as well as the jade industry trade in lingling-o artifacts from the Philippines in the South China
Sea (c. 500 BCE). For most of its history, Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of the
Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around the Strait of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay
peninsula and the Mekong delta; although Chinese records misidentified these kingdoms as

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being "Indian" due to the Indianization of these regions. Prior to the 10th century, the route was
primarily used by Southeast Asian traders, although Tamil and Persian traders also sailed them.
The route was influential in the early spread of Hinduism and Buddhism to the east.
China later built its own fleets starting from the Song dynasty in the 10th century, participating
directly in the trade route up until the end of the Colonial Era and the collapse of the Qing
dynasty.
Spread of Buddhism

Shwezigon golden pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar (12th century)/ Borobudur stupa, central Java (9th century)

Local rulers benefited from the introduction of Hinduism during the early common era as it
greatly enhanced the legitimacy of their reign. Historians increasingly argue, that the process of
Hindu religious diffusion must be attributed to the initiative of the local chieftains. Buddhist
teachings, that almost simultaneously arrived in Southeast Asia developed during the subsequent
centuries an exalted distinction and eventually came to be more appealing to the demands of the
general population, a belief system and philosophy that addresses concrete human affairs.
Emperor Ashoka initiated the missionary efforts to send trained monks and missionaries abroad
in order to propagate Buddhism, that includes a sizeable body of literature, oral traditions,
iconography, art and offers guidance as it seeks to solve central existential questions with
emphasis on individual effort and conduct.

Between the 5th and the 13th century, Buddhism flourished in Southeast Asia. By the 8th
century, the Buddhist Srivijaya kingdom emerged as a major trading power in central Maritime
Southeast Asia and around the same period the Shailendra dynasty of Java extensively
promoted Buddhist art that found its strongest expression in the vast Borobudur monument. After
the establishment of a new royal dynasty of provincial origin in the Khmer Empire, the first
Buddhist kings emerged during the 11th century. [94] Mahayana Buddhist ideas from India where
the original Theravada Buddhism had already been replaced centuries ago took hold first in
Southeast Asia. However, a pure form of Theravada Buddhist teachings had been preserved in
Sri Lanka since the 3rd century. Pilgrims and wandering monks from Sri Lanka introduced
Theravada Buddhism in the Pagan Empire of Burma, the Siamese Sukhothai Kingdom in Laos,
the Lower Mekong Basin during Cambodia's dark ages and further into Vietnam and Insular
Southeast Asia
Maṇḍala is a Sanskrit word meaning 'circle'. The mandala is a model for describing the patterns of
diffuse political power distributed among Mueang or Kedatuan (principalities) in early Southeast
Asian history, when local power was more important than the central leadership. The concept of the
mandala balanced modern tendencies to look for unified political power to denote
traditional Southeast Asian political formations, such as

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1.  federations of kingdoms or 
2. vassalized polity under a center of domination
3.  feudal system with linkages in a  suzerain–tributary relationships.
4. It was not rejecting empire- just finding a via-media alternative

In ancient China, the tribute system provided an administrative means to control their interests, as

well as providing exclusive trading priorities to those who paid tribute from foreign regions. It was
an integral part of the Confucian philosophy of  Political marriages that existed between the Chinese
empire and tribute states, such as Songtsen Gampo and Wencheng (Gyasa).

In the 5th century, a status hierarchy was an explicit element of the tributary system in
which Korea and Vietnam were ranked higher than others, including Japan, the Ryukyus, Siam and
others. All diplomatic and trade missions were construed in the context of a tributary relationship
with China, including:

 Brunei
o Borneo
o Poni
 Cambodia
o Kingdom of Funan
o Zhenla
 Japan
o Wa (Japan) (16 tribute missions)
o Japanese missions to Tang China (16 tribute missions)
o Japanese missions to Ming China (20 tribute missions) 
 Korea
o Goguryeo (173 tribute missions) 
o Baekje (45 tribute missions) 
o Silla (19 tribute missions)
o Unified Silla (63 tribute missions in 8th century)
o Goryeo (The envoy missions)
o Joseon (391 envoy missions between 1392 and 1450, 435 special embassy missions
between 1637 and 1881
 Malaysia
o Tanah Merah Kingdom
o Kedah Kingdom
o Kelantan
o Malacca Sultanate
 Nepal
 Philippines
o Sulu
 Ryūkyū Kingdom (Ryukyuan missions to Imperial China)

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o Hokuzan
o Chūzan
 Nanzan
 Siam 
 Tibet
 Vietnam
 Ceylon

The  Portraits of Periodical Offering  of Liang. 6th-century painting in National Museum of China.
Ambassadors from right to
left: Uar  (Hephthalites); Persia; Baekje (Korea); Qiuci; Wo (Japan);  Langkasuka (in present-day
Malaysia); Dengzhi (Qiang)  Ngawa; Zhouguke, Hebatan , Humidan, Baiti of similar Hephthalite
people), who dwell close to Hephthalite; Mo (Qiem

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Mural from the Qianling Mausoleum in Shaanxi, 706. Tributary envoys are being received at court.
The bald man in the middle is from the West and the man to his right is from Korea.

The temples all over India attract us not only for the awe- inspiring sculptures but for the
accuracy maintained in the buildings to such large dimensions as well. The architecture of the
temples have been well studied keeping in mind the impact of religion, culture and tradition. The
art associated with temples has been extensively studied. When we look at the foundations of
some temples which are not squares or rectangles, we cannot help wondering at their knowledge
of geometry. It is interesting to trace how the geometrical pattern was executed so precisely. The
precise alignment of the buildings can be traced from the ruins of Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
The axis orientation of the township is studied in detail and the circular stones obtained there are
identified as calendar stones.
(Astronomical aspects associated with temples, Shylaja B-
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321949369_Astronomical_aspects_associated_with_temples)

Emphasis on Mandala personal relationships

The emphasis on personal relationships was one of the defining characteristics of the mandala
system. The tributary ruler was subordinate to the overlord ruler, rather than to the overlord state in
the abstract. This had many important implications. A strong ruler could attract new tributaries, and
would have strong relationships over his existing tributaries. A weaker ruler would find it harder to

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attract and maintain these relationships. This was put forward as one cause of the sudden rise
of Sukhothai under Ramkhamhaeng, for example, and for its almost equally steep decline after his
death (Wyatt, 45 and 48). The tributary ruler could repudiate the relationship and seek either a
different overlord or complete independence. The system was non-territorial. The overlord was owed
allegiance by the tributary ruler, or at most by the tributary's main town, but not by all the people of a
particular area. The tributary owner in turn had power either over tributary states further down the
scale, or directly over "his" people, wherever they lived. No ruler had authority over unpopulated
areas.
The personal relationship between overlord and subordinate rulers is also defining the dynamic of
relationship within mandala. For instance the relations between Dharmasetu of Srivijaya
and Samaratungga of Sailendra  defining the succession of these dynastic family.
Dharmasetu was the Srivijayan Maharaja overlord, while the house of Sailendra in Java is suggested
to be related and was subscribed to Srivijayan mandala domination. After Samaratungga married
Princess Tara, the daughter of Dharmasetu, Samaratungga become his successor and the house of
Sailendra was promoted to become the dynastic lineage of later Srivijayan kings, and for a century
period the center of Srivijaya was shifted from Sumatra to Java.

An overview of the Bayon, state temple of Jayavarman VII. Photo by Amitav Acharya.

MANDALA BY MATRIMONY
In ancient times, Cleopatra entered into marriages (though challenged as polygamous) with both
Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. But neither of these men was officially royalty, and neither
succeeded in assuring a dynastic claim (that sons would become heirs to absolute power). In this
case, though, Rome already dominated Egypt, so it wouldn’t have created a “new kingdom” in
any case. Though rare it was common for a princess to marry the heir to the throne of another
country. Heir or not, such mergers amalgamated the polity in a pleasant non- violent order..

1. Mary Tudor married Phillip of Spain, an unusual situation, but in this case Mary
primarily ruled England, and Phillip ruled Spain, and the two realms did not merge. This,
however, was an unusual situation.

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2. Perhaps the most famous example in modern history is that of Ferdinand and Isabella.
Each of them was the reigning monarch of a different part of the Spanish Peninsula.
3. There had not been a united ‘Spain for awhile. The Romans ruled it as a province. Later,
the Muslims conquered it and named it “Andalusia.” But in the centuries leading up to
1492, it had devolved into a group of warring kingdoms. The two largest were ruled by
Ferdinand and Isabella: Castile and Aragon respectively.
4. “Spain” became the name of the kingdom after that, as they united most of the “Spanish
Peninsula.” Therefore, Spain.
5. The United Kingdom of Britain is not a perfect example because it was not produced by
marriage — at least not directly. But because of intermingled dynastic ties, James VI of
Scotland ended up inheriting both the Scottish and English Thrones. Even then, the
“United Kingdom” did not officially exist until a few generations later, after the Stuarts
were out of power. At that point, an Act of Union was required to keep England and
Scotland under a single government… at which point the “United Kingdom” was
officially created.

But you could say that all the intermingling of bloodlines between the Tudors, Stuarts, and other
monarchical lines indirectly produced the United Kingdom.

The Cambodian King Chey Chettha II married the Vietnamese Nguyễn lord Princess Nguyễn

Thị Ngọc Vạn, a daughter of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, in 1618. In return, the king granted the
Vietnamese the right to establish settlements in Mô Xoài (now Bà Rịa), in the region of Prey
Nokor—which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn, and which later became Ho Chi Minh
City.

The Chakri Dynasty of Thailand has included marriages between royal relatives, but marriages

between dynasties and foreigners, including foreign royals, are rare. This is in part due to Section
11 of 1924 Palace Law of Succession which excludes members of the royal family from the line
of succession if they marry a non-Thai national.
The late king Bhumibol Adulyadej was a first-cousin once removed of his wife, Sirikit, the two
being, respectively, a grandson and a great-granddaughter of Chulalongkorn. Chulalongkorn
married a number of his half-sisters, including Savang Vadhana and Sunandha Kumariratana; all
shared the same father, Mongkut.[17] He also married Dara Rasmi, a princess of a vassal state.
Vietnam
The Lý dynasty which ruled Dai Viet (Vietnam) married its princesses off to regional rivals to
establish alliances with them. One of these marriages was between a Lý empress regnant (Lý
Chiêu Hoàng) and a member of the Chinese-descended Trần (Chen) clan (Trần Thái Tông),
which enabled the Trần to then topple the Lý and established their own Trần dynasty.
A Lý princess also married into the Hồ family, which was also of Chinese origin and later
established the Hồ dynasty which also took power after having a Tran princess marry one of their
members, Hồ Quý Ly.
The beginning of the Khmer race as suggested by their own historians was due to the
marriage of a Hindu Brahmin from the Chola Dynesty with a local princess-Gaudes, R. (1993).

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Kauṇḍinya, Preah Thaong, and the “Nāgī Somā”: Some Aspects of a Cambodian Legend. Asian
Folklore Studies, 52(2), 333–358. https://doi.org/10.2307/1178160

Ledgerwood, J. L. (1995). Khmer Kinship: The Matriliny/Matriarchy Myth. Journal of

Anthropological Research, 51(3), 247–261. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3630360states that
matriarchal and matrilineal character of the Khmer society resulted in expanding kingdoms.
The Mataram Kingdom was a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the
8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established by
King Sanjaya, the kingdom was ruled by the Sailendra dynasty.During the intervening period of
late 8th century and the mid-9th century, the kingdom saw the blossoming of classical Javanese
art and architecture reflected in the rapid growth of temple construction. Temples dotted the
landscape of its heartland in Mataram. The most notable of the temples constructed in Mataram
are Kalasan, Sewu, Borobudur and Prambanan, all quite close to present-day city of Yogyakarta. 
Later the dynasty divided into two kingdoms identified by religious patronage—
the Buddhist and Shivaist dynasties. Civil war followed. The outcome was that the Mataram
kingdom was divided into two powerful kingdoms; the Shivaist dynasty of Mataram kingdom
in Java led by Rakai Pikatan and the Buddhist dynasty of Srivijaya kingdom in Sumatra led
by Balaputradewa. Hostility between them did not end until 1016 when the Sailendra clan based
in Srivijaya incited a rebellion by Wurawari, a vassal of the Mataram kingdom, and sacked the
capital of Watugaluh in East Java. Srivijaya rose to become the undisputed hegemonic empire in
the region. The Shivaist dynasty survived, reclaimed east Java in 1019, and then established
the Kahuripan kingdom led by Airlangga, son of Udayana of Bali.

In the middle of the 9th century however, the two dynasties were united through the marriage
bonds between a prince of Sanjaya, Rakai Pikatan and Pramodawhardani, a daughter of the
Shailendra dynasty. Nonetheless, the two dynasties appeared to have competed with each other
to build temples. The Sanjaya dynasty constructed Hindu temples, the largest of which was the
Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta. Tthe Shailendra dynasty constructed Buddhist temples, of
which the largest was Borobudur, also known as Kamulan.

Another example is that of Princess Pramodhawardhani: This story is as follows- King

Samaratungga son of King Samaragrawira who ruled from 792 to 835 CE. Following his
father’s example, he chose to focus his effort within his dominion and dedicate his life to the
prosperity of his subjects. He was famous for completing the massive stone mandala, the
Borobudur Temple, during his reign in 825 CE.

King Samaratungga was succeeded by Princess Pramodhawardhani, a Buddhist Mahayana

princess who was married to the Hindu-Shivaist Rakai Pikatan, the son of a landlord in Central
Java. Rakai Pikatan was enthroned as the King of the Medang Kingdom. During the reign of
King Rakai Pikatan, Hinduism and Buddhism co-existed peacefully most of the time, and the
construction of the Sewu Temple complex was finalized. Later, King Rakai Pikatan decided to
abdicate his throne in favor of his youngest son, Dyah Lokapala who rule from 856 to 880s CE.
Rakai Pikatan renounced worldly affairs and became a hermit known as Sang Prabhu Jatiningrat.
The reign of King Rakai Pikatan also marked the decline of Mahayana Buddhist influence in the
Medang Kingdom as it was slowly converted to Hindu-Shivaist.

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 Kinshipin in  anthropology is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the
lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are
often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox states that "the study of kinship is the study of what
man does with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship
etc." Human society is unique, he argues, in that we are "working with the same raw material as
exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends."
These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic,
political and religious groups.
Kinship can refer to the patterns of social relationships themselves, or it can refer to the study of
the patterns of social relationships in one or more human cultures (i.e. kinship studies). Over its
history, anthropology has developed a number of related concepts and terms in the study of
kinship, such as descent, descent group, lineage, affinity/affine, consanguinity/cognate / fictive
kinship. Broadly, kinship patterns may be considered to include people related by both descent
– i.e. social relations during development – and by marriage. Human kinship relations
through marriage are commonly called "affinity" in contrast to the relationships that arise in
one's group of origin, which may be called one's descent group. In some cultures, kinship
relationships may be considered to extend out to people an individual has economic or political
relationships with, or other forms of social connections. Within a culture, some descent groups
may be considered to lead back to gods or animal ancestors (totems). This may be conceived of
on a more or less literal basis. Further, even within these two broad usages of the term, there are
different theoretical approaches.
Kinship can also refer to a principle by which individuals or groups of individuals are organized
into social groups, roles, categories and genealogy by means of kinship
terminologies. Family relations can be represented concretely (mother, brother, grandfather) or
abstractly by degrees of relationship (kinship distance). A relationship may be relative (e.g. a
father in relation to a child) or reflect an absolute (e.g. the difference between a mother and a
childless woman). Degrees of relationship are not identical to heirship or legal succession. Many
codes of ethics consider the bond of kinship as creating obligations between the related persons
stronger than those between strangers, as in Confucian filial piety.
In a more general sense, kinship may refer to a similarity or affinity between entities on the basis
of some or all of their characteristics that are under focus. This may be due to a
shared ontological origin, a shared historical or cultural connection, or some other perceived
shared features that connect the two entities. For example, a person studying the ontological
roots of human languages (etymology) might ask whether there is kinship between the English
word seven and the German word sieben. It can be used in a more diffuse sense as in, for
example, the news headline "Madonna feels kinship with vilified Wallis Simpson", to imply a
felt similarity or empathy between two or more entities.
In biology, "kinship" typically refers to the degree of genetic relatedness or coefficient of
relationship between individual members of a species (e.g. as in kin selection theory). It may also
be used in this specific sense when applied to human relationships, in which case its meaning is
closer to consanguinity or genealogy.
Suryavarman II, for example (died c. 1150), king of the Khmer (Cambodian) empire defeated
rival claimants to the throne and established sole rule over the Khmer empire by 1113, reuniting
the empire after more than 50 years of unrest. Suryavarman was formally crowned in 1113, with

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his guru, the powerful priest Divakarapandita, presiding. The king was a religious reformer who
blended the mystical cults of Vishnu and Shiva, supreme Hindu deities,
and promulgated Vaishnavism as the official religion, rather than Buddhism, which had briefly
flourished under his predecessors.

Warlike and ambitious, he expanded the limits of the empire to include much of what is
now Thailand; his patronage stretched as far west as the frontiers of the Burmese state of Pagan,
south to the coast of the Gulf of Thailand (including part of the eastern coast of the Malay
Peninsula), and east to the kingdom of Champa.

In her article-Blood and marriage in Cambodia, Mylee Thavat

(https://www.newmandala.org/995/) hints at the ties between the royalty, the army and the senior
administration by marriage as a vehicle to retain and stay in power.

Southeast Asia, vast region of Asia situated east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China.
It consists of two dissimilar portions: a continental projection (commonly called mainland
Southeast Asia) and a string of archipelagoes to the south and east of the mainland (insular
Southeast Asia). Extending some 700 miles (1,100 km) southward from the mainland into insular
Southeast Asia is the Malay Peninsula; this peninsula structurally is part of the mainland, but it
also shares many ecological and cultural affinities with the surrounding islands and thus
functions as a bridge between the two regions.

Mainland Southeast Asia is divided into the countries

of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, and the small city-state
of Singapore at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula; Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, which
occupy the eastern portion of the mainland, often are collectively called the Indochinese
Peninsula. Malaysia is both mainland and insular, with a western portion on the Malay Peninsula
and an eastern part on the island of Borneo. Except for the small sultanate of Brunei (also on
Borneo), the remainder of insular Southeast Asia consists of the archipelagic nations
of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Southeast Asia stretches some 4,000 miles at its greatest extent (roughly from northwest to
southeast) and encompasses some 5,000,000 square miles (13,000,000 square km) of land and
sea, of which about 1,736,000 square miles is land. Mount Hkakabo in northern Myanmar on the
border with China, at 19,295 feet (5,881 metres), is the highest peak of mainland Southeast Asia.
Although the modern nations of the region are sometimes thought of as being small, they are—
with the exceptions of Singapore and Brunei—comparatively large. Indonesia, for example, is
more than 3,000 miles from west to east (exceeding the west-east extent of the continental
United States) and more than 1,000 miles from north to south; the area of Laos is only slightly
smaller than that of the United Kingdom; and Myanmar is considerably larger than France.

In contemporary definition, Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions:

1. Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula and historically
as Indochina, comprising Cambodia, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand,
and Vietnam.

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2. Maritime Southeast Asia, also known as the Malay Archipelago and historically
as Nusantara, comprising the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India), Brunei, East
Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Imperial Mandalas: Angkor and Bagan

The mandalas of mainland Southeast Asia combined compassion with conquest. Their rulers
were both empire-seeking “world conquerors” and nirvana-seeking “world renouncers,” as the
late Harvard scholar Stanley Tambiah put it. Nowhere was this empire-enlightenment link more
striking than in Angkor, which grew to be the largest empire of Southeast Asia around the 12th
century. During that time, it produced two grand monuments: the Hindu Angkor Wat built by
Suryavarman II (1113-1150) and the Buddhist Bayon erected by its greatest ruler, Jayavarman
VII (1181-1201).

These and other Khmer monuments provide one of the most striking examples of how art
follows politics and how politics shapes art. Angkor’s greatest ruler, Jayavarman VII, embraced
Mahayana Buddhism in what had been a staunch Hindu ruling class. The switch might have been
inspired by his disillusionment with Hinduism which was seen as having failed to protect Angkor
from its sacking by the rival Champa kingdom in A.D. 1177. But after his death Hinduism
regained prominence, leading to the mutilation of Buddha images in Bayon, which Jayavarman
VII had erected as his state temple.

Haunting faces of Avalokiteasvra (Boddhisatva) still adorn the Bayon, which stands at the center
of the royal capital of Angkor Thom that was conceived as a Jayagiri, or victory mountain, after
Jayavarman VII’s defeat of the Champa kingdom in A.D. 1190. The Bayon contains numerous
stone reliefs depicting the battle between the Chams and the Khmers. While Angkor Wat is
mainly a religious monument, the Bayon provides an extensive portrayal of society and politics
of the Angkor period.

Bay
on is a Khmer temple in the center of Angkor Thom built in the late 12th or early 13th century
as the official temple of Buddhist King Jayavarman VII. Filled with smiling faces this temple
is the most intriguing and captivates imagination and curiosity.

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Bayon towers
Bayon currently has 37 stone towers in ruins, when built there were originally 54 towers
which represents the 54 days of the lunar calender and the number of provinces under the
Khmer empire rule. Each tower 13 meters tall adorn stone carved smiling faces with their eyes
closed. Within the temple there are 216 smiling serene faces carved on the towers. Since the
construction of the temple several of the towers have fallen and around 200 faces still
remain. There are several theories relating to the meaning of these faces, one belief is that
these faces belong to the bodhisattva (Buddhist enlightened being) of compassion known as
Avalokiteśvara . 

Stacked sandstone blocks some weighing as much as 2,000 lbs were carved to form the
faces

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A stone relief at Bayon depicts a battle between Chams and Khmers.

The Nirvana Route stretched across the Silk Road: Ancient centers of Myanmar were another
major node of the Nirvana route. A popular Myanmar story about the founding of Myanmar’s
most sacred site, the Shwedagon pagoda, attests to this. According to the story, two merchant
brothers from Ukkala (modern Yangon), Tapusa and Bhallika, were traveling in India, when they
met the newly enlightened Buddha. After offering him honey cakes, the brothers became the
Buddha’s first lay disciples. The Buddha gave them eight strands of his hair, which were
enshrined at the Shwedagon. According to Pali records, the brothers were actually from Utkala
(Odisha) and their link with Yangon was a later formulation. Whatever the case, it was not
uncommon for Hindu and Buddhist centers in Southeast Asia to be named after Indian places,
the result of close trade, migration and spiritual links. Odisha also inspired the naming of Ussa,
the ancient name of Pegu (Bago).

Bagan was where the first imperial mandala of Myanmar flourished between the 9th to 13th
centuries. It is still dotted with over 2,000 temples; the original number of temples, small and
large, might have been more. These were constructed with tax breaks and land grants provided
by rulers such as Anawrahta and Kyansittha, to earn merit for a higher rebirth and ultimately
salvation or Nirvana. “The more one donated to the religion – the bigger the temple built, the
larger the land and labor endowments one made – the more legitimate the king and his state
became. The scale increased as others in the society followed the royal example,” writes Michael
Aung-Thwin, one of the foremost historians of Myanmar.

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Bagan’s scared landscape. Photo by Amitav Acharya.

Buddhism not only became a source of legitimacy in Myanmar but also a source of  rivalry with
its neighbors, triggering conflict between the later Myanmar kingdoms of Hanthawaddy (today’s
Bago) and Ava and the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya, including wars over the possession of white
elephants, deeply associated with the birth of Buddha.

Maritime Mandalas: Srivijaya and Champa

Srivijaya, centered around Palembang in Sumatra, was at the heart of the maritime Nirvana
Route. It was the commercial crossroads of Southeast Asia from the 7th to the 13th centuries,
and major center of Buddhist learning. The Chinese monk Yijing, who in 7th century traveled to
India to study at the Nalanda monastery and collect Buddhist scripts, spent several years in
Srivijaya to translate them and write his own records of Buddhist exchanges between China and
India. He described the presence of more than 1,000 Buddhist monks in Srivijaya who could
study Buddhism with the same ease and facility as in India. Srivijaya’s territorial footprint and
cultural impact extended across the Malacca straits to west Malaysia and southern Thailand,
where there are a number of Srivijayan style temples, especially War Phra Mahathat in Nakhon
Si Thammarat.

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Champa merits its own place in the history of the Nirvana Route. A classic mandala, Champa
was a loosely organized polity on the eastern coast of today’s central and south Vietnam.
Champa owed its prosperity to its location on the maritime routes that stretched from China to
India. Before being defeated by the northern Dai Viet state in 1471, Champa was an enterprising
civilization, known for its innovations in architecture, seafaring, and rice cultivation. It was with
the help of Champa’s “hundred-day” rice that southern Song China was able to achieve its
agriculture revolution to feed millions of its people. Champa rulers claimed personal legitimacy
by closely identifying with Hindu god Shiva, although other Hindu deities such as Vishnu and
Brahma were also worshiped. In Champa, Shiva was known not as the destroyer of the world (as
is the norm in India), but as the protector. At times Buddhism found patronage in Champa, as
seen in the relics of the monastery at Dong Duong.

The towered temples of Champa (now called “Cham towers”), combining Indian, Javanese, and
Khmer aspects, are not as grandiose as the temple complexes of Angkor. But they are true
beauties in brick, representing a high point of artistic achievement in the ancient world. The
towers were political-religious shrines, which sometimes served as temple-mausoleums of its
rulers.

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Temple architecture in southern India followed two main evolutionary trajectories that
spanned roughly 800 years. Temples often feature sculptural panels of deities, myths and legends
on their outer walls. We examine some of the legends, such as the Tripurantaka legend of Shiva,
commonly depicted on temple walls, for astronomical symbolism. Heavenly bodies, such as the
Sun, Moon and planets, are deified in traditions of the Indic religions, and we examine some of
these deities depicted in temple sculptures. We also discuss the Dikpalas—guardians of the
directions—often depicted to safeguard temple precincts. The phenomena of Sun Temples,
1
depictions of eclipses, zodiacal stones and navagraha worship are also dealt with.

The Universal Mandala: Borobudur

Built in the 8th century by the ruling Shailendra dynasty of central Java, Borobudur is a unique
cultural universe combining the features of a mountain, a stupa, and a pyramid of the megalithic
period, showing how Indian themes were grafted onto a pre-existing Javanese genius. Its vast
reliefs depict two major Buddhist narratives: the Lalitavistara, which narrates the life of Buddha,
and Gandavyuha, which portrays the pilgrimage of the youth Sudhana in his search for
knowledge. While the life of Buddha is sketched in many Buddhist monuments around Asia, the
reliefs of Borobudur contain important variations. One example is the “Great Departure” of
Prince Siddhartha from the royal palace as he embarks on his quest for enlightenment. The feet
of his horse are lifted by Hindu gods Indra and Brahma to stop any noise that could wake up the
guards assigned to prevent his departure; a perfect blending of Buddhist and Hindu narratives of
Nirvana.

----------------------------------------------------------------
1.FROM MEGALITHS TO TEMPLES: ASTRONOMY IN THE LITHIC RECORD OF
SOUTH INDIA Srikumar M. Menon School of Humanities, National Institute of Advanced
Studies, Bangalore 560012, India.

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Relief in Borobudur showing the “Great Departure” (Siddhartha leaving the palace). Photo by Amitav Acharya.

As a Buddhist text, Gandavyuha was circulated widely around Asia, sometimes as a gift among
rulers. For example, the Chinese emperor received a Sanskrit language text of the book as a gift
from the king of Odisha in the 8th century.

Gandavyuha gives Borobudur a special meaning as a universal mandala. Its message, as leading
Borobudur scholar John Miksic notes, is “that one should not expect to find enlightenment only
in one place, or in one source. Sudhana’s Good Friends [spiritual instructors] are women, men
and children from all levels of society, as well as supernatural beings. Anyone is eligible for
enlightenment and there is no suggestion that wisdom is something to be jealously hoarded and
imparted only to the elite.”

Borobudur thus represents the essence of the Nirvana Route. Its Buddhist-Hindu conception of
enlightenment beckoned all people, irrespective of age, sex, wealth, or place of origin. What a far
cry from the European Enlightenment, with its parochial Eurocentric worldview that contributed
much to racism, elitism, and imperialism!

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