Dear friends There are ruins of numerous Hindu temples I find scattered in this archipelic country, especially in the island of Jawa and I am told that the most ancient of them are the ones built by the Pallavas during 6th / 7th Century. I suppose that of St.Arasu / Mahendra Pallava period. Here is a piece authenticating what I hear often, published in the Jakarta Post recently.
Western Java's history written on stones
By Ida Indawati Khouw
Many may be unaware that flood problems in the capital Jakarta,date back to ancient times. The evidence is on ancient boulders, which also show that Jakarta was part of the ancient Tarumanagara kingdom.
JAKARTA (JP): The capital, along with neighboring Bogor and the Banten area, once formed part of Tarumanagara (1), the oldest Kingdom in Java.
Jakarta was the site of the most important ancient monument, the Tugu, one of seven stone monuments dating back to the Kingdom.
Tarumanagara existed between the fifth century and the seventh century. The area where the substantial monument was found was a village of Batu Tumbuh in present-day Tugu subdistrict in North Jakarta.
Besides praising the revered Tarumanagara King Purnawarman, the opal- shaped Tugu boulder told of the digging of a water channel, called Gomati, near the place where the monument was found.
The stone also described another water channel, Candrabhaga (2), also built during the era of the kingdom. It is believed the two channels were near the present Cakung River in the Tugu area.
The story, which was written in the South Indian Pallava script of the Sanskrit language (3), said the digging of the 11-kilometer Gomati "river" which passed through the Brahman priests' lodgings was completed within 21 days and the priests were rewarded with 1,000 cattle.
The boulder does not tell the purpose of the project, but experts surmise it was to cope with flooding or an irrigation system for crops.
Experts say the historical evidence makes it unsurprising that modern-day Jakarta is drenched by devastating floods during the annual rainy season.
The evidence is slim, but archeologist Hasan Djafar from the University of Indonesia said the two ideas about the use of the channels seemed the most reasonable.
"The surface of Jakarta's land is one meter to two meters lower than the sea level, compared to centuries ago when some areas were equal to the level. So, it's reasonable to assume that flooding also occurred in the fifth century like this year."
He speculated that residents were also involved in farming during the kingdom era.
"Hulls of rice used as a mixture for bricks of ancient temples were found at the archeological sites of Cibuaya and Batujaya villages in Bogor (West Java)," he said.
"It indicates that hulls of rice were abundant, meaning that paddy fields existed at that time."
Historian Adolf Heuken questioned whether the original construction was a river.
"It's so surprising that an 11-kilometer river could be built within only 21 days, or it is just a ditch?" he said in his book Sumber- sumber Asli Sejarah Jakarta (The Original Sources of Jakarta History).
But the king's prize of 1,000 cattle indicated that the project was a great achievement, he said.
Heuken said the project showed that people at the time had the capability of digging long water channels, and were also able to breed livestock.
Besides the Pallava scripts, a picture of a priest's trident rod was also carved in the monument, functioning to separate the beginning and the end of lines, Heuken said.
"It could be that the rod has symbolic or magical meaning," he said.
The stone was found in 1879 at Batu Tumbuh, which literally means "emerging stone".
"It is said that the stone appeared suddenly after a monthlong period of rain. I think the monument appeared after the soil was eroded by rain," said a resident of the Tugu area, Samuel Quico.
Hasan said Tugu subdistrict, and thus the present Jakarta area, was only part of the Kingdom, which spanned over much of present day Jakarta -- ranging from Banten in the west, Karawang in the east and Sukabumi in the south.
Experts are still searching for the kingdom's capital as no archeological proof has been uncovered. Many believe it was at the Tugu area but others consider the likely site in Bekasi (4), about 40 kilometers east of Jakarta.
It is also notable that the seven monuments dating back to the third century only mention one king, Purnawarman (5).
Four other monuments at Bogor's Ciaruteun, Kebon Kopi and Jambu, and Cidanghiang in the Pandeglang area about 120 kilometers southwest of Jakarta, also praise Purnawarman as a great and powerful king.
Images on two other stones, the Muara Cianten and Pasir Awi monuments of Bogor, remain indecipherable up to the present.
The eight-ton Ciaruteun stone was named after the river where it was found in 1863. It is now well protected by the Bogor administration, which built a structure to protect the stone from the elements.
It is not easy to reach remote Kampung Muara village -- visitors must use a muddy, unpaved road, and pass along a wooden bridge with some of its slats missing.
The four lines written in Pallava tell of two footprints carved in it, and note their similarity to those of the Hindu god Vishnu, "These are the footprints of His Majesty Purnawarman, the brave king," the inscription reads.
Unfortunately, inscriptions bearing no relation to history -- such as "Ina, I love you" -- have been written on the stone.
Located nearby is the Kebon Kopi stone with the engraving of a couple of big footprints of Purnawarman, akin to those of the strong Airwata elephant.
Footprints and more praise of Purnawarman are also at the Jambu monument. The Cidanghiang stone bears only two lines of inscription about Purnawarman, who is proclaimed the standard for rulers around the world.
Hasan said the footprints found at almost of the monuments have been interpreted by some as a seal, while others believed they were a fertility symbol.
He said Purnawarman's identification with Vishnu showed that the king was Hindu.
I am reading a fantastic book by John Keay called 'India - A History'. Not just a history but an actual analysis of the artifacts and the inscriptions through which the history is derived, peppered with very interesting anecdotes of the various archeologists and linguists who have helped unravel the history of India. Currently I am reading the history of India around 300AD and I find it interesting to note that he has written extensively on the cultural influence of India in the south east Asian countries. He uses the evidences of the travellers and the actual settlements in Malay peninsula and the Mekong valley area. He uses references from Chinese resources which mention the Indian settlements in these areas during the first centuries after Christ. Infact the Funan dynasty in the Khmer region (includes Vietnam and Cambodia) is said to have been founded by a Indian Brahmin named Kaudiniya and his Khmer queen Naga Soma in the first century AD. There have been reports of the missionaries sent by Asoka who were the first bearers of Indian civilization in these areas. Keay also mentions of an island named Mathura in Indonesia which clearly is inspired by the Indian city names of Mathura/Madurai. There were merchant communities that operated in these areas from the Greaco-Roman times and there is proof in the form of the Roman coins found and the inscriptions found in these areas (in Pallava scripts, which are nothing but Tamil-Brahmi). What Keay argues is that Indians never ruled these areas but were mainly traders and there may have been raids by Indian kings in these areas to protect the trade interests(from Pallavas to Cholas). But these areas were Indianized to a higher level due to influence of the Hindu epics and the presence of the trading community which usually settled down and never thought of going back home. Thus I think it is very doubtful that the Pallavas built anything on Java/Sumatra and the article cited has very thin evidence as to that fact. Infact I see an article on a local Hindu king using the pallava scripts and I am not sure how that authenticates that the Pallavas built anything on these islands. If there is a inscription in Pallava script naming Mahendra varman, that is iron-clad evidence of this fact not just the usage of Pallava script(which was used from the second century AD much before pallavas).
Javanese is one of the earliest languages in Indonesia to possess a literary tradition. As a result of contact with Indian merchants, speakers of Javanese adapted the Pallava script, a variant of the Brahmi script, during the 4th centruy CE to write their own language. By the 8th century CE, this Indian prototype has evolved into a distinctive script known as the Kawi script. The transition from Kawi into Javanese during the 13th century BCE was more stylistic than structural. Only the visual composition of the script changed. The way the script worked remained unchanged.
i have also uploading two files ( sourced from various sources on the net ofcourse) which trace the evolution of most SEA scripts from pallava prototype which again evolved from brahmi
would leave the rest to the learned scholars to comment upon.
Think I stirred the hornet's nest here. 1. There is a mention of a Tamil-brahmi inscription in mamandur which is deciphered by Iravatham Mahadeven and dated as the later part of the 2nd century AD. As per the timelines, Pallavas does not appear on the horizon till the middle of the third century AD and they start using the Tamil-Brahmi right away. Meaning, the script is already available for usage. But it would be interesting to see the kind of changes they introduced. But as per my readings, tamil-brahmi is what is referred as pallava scripts by the south eastern historians. I am open to change my view if there is evidence to the contrary.
2.My contention is that the merchantile contact with the south east asia is what is responsible for the introduction of the script in these areas and Pallavas has nothing to do with it.
3. The only known military raid(atleast to me) is by Rajendra I and by one of his successors which resulted in more contacts with SE Asia and more intermingling between the Indian settlers and the natives. This resulted in the formation of communities with mixed Hindu/Buddhist heritage and influenced heavily by Indic culture.
4. There were Hindu kings who ruled in SE Asia and this is the reason for the fantastic temples still found as ruins. And the reason for a lot of hindu epic reliefs in buddhist temples like borobadur, Angor Wat(which was converted to a buddhist temple) etc.
Back to John Keay, he calls the 'wars' of Rajaraja and Rajendra as raids for plunder and cites an inscription by the Chalukyas lamenting the loss of wealth due to the plunder of Chola forces. Also cites from the sources in Sri Lanka about Rajaraja's plunder of Anurathapura and equates it with raids by, hold your breath, Mohamed of Ghazni. I know, I know I am going to take a lot of flak for this, but barring the comparison, I tend to think that war is ugly and there is always the possibility that plunder was a necessity to bring other people to submission.
Also cites from the > sources in Sri Lanka about Rajaraja's plunder of > Anurathapura and equates it with raids by, hold your > breath, Mohamed of Ghazni. I know, I know I am going > to take a lot of flak for this, but barring the > comparison, I tend to think that war is ugly and there > is always the possibility that plunder was a necessity > to bring other people to submission.
hi to the individual who is being looted or killed or having his city torched the perpetarator is a demon. just that rrc must have killed in hundreds and ghazni killed in thousands. war should be seen in the context of megalomania and economic reasons. allaudin khilji and malik kafur raided the south to fund a defence against the mongol hordes. the mongols used to raze and burn one city and kill all citizens to set an example for other cities to surrender.
though there are not many studies on it i feel the human need to go to war also should also be seen in context of sickness of the leader. julius ceasar was propably epileptic, hitler had parkinson's,there was familial history of mental illness in alexanders family( his half brother who succeeded him went mad)
Unfortunately the history I have read during my school days has not even made passing mention of Rajendra. It has been mainly gupta and maurya periods, the moghuls, shivaji and the most detailed of all south kingdoms covered was the Krishnadevaraya times. So I did not know that Rajendra was a contemporary of Mohd of Ghazni. Perhaps Indian history could have been different had he turned his attention on Ghazni and engaged him in warfares. I know it's like saying the world history would have been different had not Napolean attacked Russia or Hitler failed to learn from history and made the same mistake, attacking Russia, and was beaten by its extreme weather.
Am reproducing the concluding part of an article on Rajendra Chola by Prasannan in Sikhtimes.com. it's anold piece but have just chanced on it. Accounts of Rajendra's exploits make one wonder: would India's history have been different if the father and son were ruling a kingdom farther north? All this was happening in the eastern half of the country when Mahmud's horses were trotting across the western half."
There are at least more than 15 spots all over Indonesia where Ganesh statues were found. Below are the sites.
1. Bara Temple, Tuliskaiyo village, Blitar Regency, East Java. Built in 1239. An immense statue of three meters height Ganesha.
2. Ratu Boko, few kilometers from Prambanan Temple. There is an unfinished statue of Ganesha. Built in 9th Century.
3. Lorojongrang or Prambanan Temple. This magnificent Shivaite temple derives it name from the village where it is located. Locally known as the Loro Jongrang Temple, or the Temple of the "Slender Virgin", it is the biggest and most beautiful Hindu temple in Indonesia. Built in 9th Century.
4. Penataran Temple.
The dated temple. Is engraved on the lintel of the door western side. In the cellar there is a statue of Ganesha. Earliest inscription reveals year 1197 (12th Century).
5. Balaputradewa Museum, Palembang, West Sumatera. One of its collections is statue of Ganesha dated back from Sriwijaya Kingdom (7th - 13th Century)
6. Sambisari Temple - Jogyakarta.
A statue of Ganesha is on the East side of the temple. Built in 9th Century.
7. Pura Luhur Uluwatu, Bali.
Statues of Ganesha herald at the gate. Built in 15th Century.
8. Complex of tombs of the last Hindu Madura and early Islamic Kings. 16th Century. Statue and relief of Ganesha are inside the complex.
9. Torongrejo village, Wukir Mt., Malang - East Java.
Archeological excavation revealed Ganesha statue dated back from Singosari Kingdom (13th Century)
10. Ujung Kulon National Park, West Java
Ujung Kulon National Park is the first national park, founded in Indonesia. The park (80,000 ha) lies on a peninsula in southwest Java and includes the islands Pulau Peucang, Pulau Panaitan and the Krakatau archipelago. On 1 February 1992, the Proposed Ujung Kulon National Park complex and the Krakatau Islands Nature Reserve were declared a World Heritage Site. An early Hindu archaeological relic of a Ganesha statue from the first century AD founded in pulau Panaitan on the summit of Mt. Raksa.
11. Pura Blanjong, Sanur - Bali.
A Brahmin dominated complex. There inside located Ganesh statue and Bali's oldest inscription dated 914 AD.
12. Gebang Temple, Jogyakarta. A blend of Buddha-Hindu temple. A Ganesh enchased on its architecture.
13. Gedongsongo Temple, Candi Village, Ungaran Mt., Semarang - Central Java. Nine small temples with Ganesh relief. 8th Century.
14. Sangiran Museum, Sragen, Central Java.
It is a home to magnificent collection of thousand of years of fossils and early historical Indonesia. One of its collections is Ganesh statue.
15. Goa Gajah, Gianyar, Bali. 11th Century.
16. Museum Nasional, Jakarta.
One of its huge collections is Ganesh statue found in Banon Temple, Magelang, Central Java. 8th Century
In educational institution like Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) or Bandung Institute of Technology), the symbol or logo of Ganesh is like an ITB trademark. The picture and ornaments like the broken ivory means Ganesh is willing to sacrifice while the rest represent wisdom and firmness. The using of the logo is widely applied in any of ITB activities that makes the logo is identical to ITB's students. The institute's address itself is Ganesha Road No. 10, Bandung, West java.
One of the Indonesian currency notes carries the picture of Ganesh. The currency symbol ("Rp" India = "Rs") and its pronunciation ("Rupiah" - "Rupe") are actually almost similar to India's.
Vanakkam vj at indonasia in madan where my atthai ( en thanthyin thamakkai)got married 40 years ago with tamil setteld my uncle Dharmaseelan. their street name is angalaamman st with amman temple . in that temple they are having ganesh too.