XXXVII. SIAM[188]…

XXXVII. SIAM[188]

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The Buddhism of Siam does not differ materially from that of Burma and Ceylon but merits separate mention, since it has features of its own due in some measure to the fact that Siam is still an independent kingdom ruled by a monarch who is also head of the Church. But whereas for the last few centuries this kingdom may be regarded as a political and religious unit, its condition in earlier times was different and Siamese history tells us nothing of the introduction and first diffusion of Indian religions in the countries between India and China.

The people commonly known as Siamese call themselves Thăi which (in the form Tai) appears to be the racial name of several tribes who can be traced to the southern provinces of China. They spread thence, in fanlike fashion, from Laos to Assam, and the middle section ultimately descended the Menam to the sea. The Siamese claim to have assumed the name Thăi (free) after they threw off the yoke of the Cambojans, but this derivation is more acceptable to politics than to ethnology. The territories which they inhabited were known as Siem, Syâm or Syâma, which is commonly identified with the Sanskrit Śyâma, dark or brown[189]. But the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word and Śyâma is possibly not its origin but a learned and artificial distortion[190]. The Lao were another division of the same race who occupied the country now called Laos before the Tai had moved into Siam. This movement was gradual and until the beginning of the twelfth century they merely established small principalities, the principal of which was Lamphun[191], on the western arm of the Mekong. They gradually penetrated into the kingdoms of Svankalok, Sukhothai[192] and Lavo (Lophburi) which then were vassals of Camboja, and they were reinforced by another body of Tais which moved southwards early in the twelfth century. For some time the Cambojan Empire made a successful effort to control these immigrants but in the latter part of the thirteenth century the Siamese definitely shook off its yoke and founded an independent state with its capital at Sukhothai. There was probably some connection between these events and the southern expeditions of Khubilai Khan who in 1254 conquered Talifu and set the Tai tribes in motion.

The history of their rule in Siam may be briefly described as a succession of three kingdoms with capitals at Sukhothai, Ayuthia and Bangkok respectively. Like the Burmese, the Siamese have annals or chronicles. They fall into two divisions, the chronicles[193] of the northern kingdom in three volumes which go down to the foundation of Ayuthia and are admitted even by the Siamese to be mostly fabulous, and the later annals in 40 volumes which were rearranged after the sack of Ayuthia in 1767 but claim to begin with the foundation of the city. Various opinions have been expressed as to their trustworthiness[194], but it is allowed by all that they must be used with caution. More authoritative but not very early are the inscriptions set up by various kings, of which a considerable number have been published and translated[195].

The early history of Sukhothai and its kings is not yet beyond dispute but a monarch called Râmarâja or Râma Khomhëng played a considerable part in it. His identity with Phăya Rùang, who is said to have founded the dynasty and city, has been both affirmed and denied. Sukhothai, at least as the designation of a kingdom, seems to be much older than his reign[196]. It was undoubtedly understood as the equivalent of the Sanskrit Sukhodaya, but like Śyâma it may be an adaptation of some native word. In an important inscription found at Sukhothai and now preserved at Bangkok[197], which was probably composed about 1300 A.D., Râma Khomhëng gives an account of his kingdom. On the east it extended to the banks of the Mekhong and beyond it to Chavâ (perhaps a name of Luang-Prabang): on the south to the sea, as far as Śrî Dharmarâja or Ligor: on the west to Haṃsavatî or Pegu. This last statement is important for it enables us to understand how at this period, and no doubt considerably earlier, the Siamese were acquainted with Pali Buddhism. The king states that hitherto his people had no alphabet but that he invented one[198]. This script subsequently developed into the modern Siamese writing which, though it presents many difficulties, is an ingenious attempt to express a language with tones in an alphabet. The vocabulary of Siamese is not homogeneous: it comprises (a) a foundation of Thai, (b) a considerable admixture of Khmer words, (c) an element borrowed from Malay and other languages, (d) numerous ecclesiastical and learned terms taken from Pali and Sanskrit. There are five tones which must be distinguished, if either written or spoken speech is to be intelligible. This is done partly by accents and partly by dividing the forty-four consonants (many of which are superfluous for other purposes) into three groups, the high, middle and deep.

The king also speaks of religion. The court and the inhabitants of Sukhothai were devout Buddhists: they observed the season of Vassa and celebrated the festival of Kaṭhina with processions, concerts and reading of the scriptures. In the city were to be seen statues of the Buddha and scenes carved in relief, as well as large monasteries. To the west of the city was the Forest Monastery, presented to a distinguished elder who came from Śri Dharmarâja and had studied the whole Tripitaka. The mention of this official and others suggests that there was a regular hierarchy and the king relates how he exhumed certain sacred relics and built a pagoda over them. Though there is no direct allusion to Brahmanism, stress is laid on the worship of spirits and devas on which the prosperity of the kingdom depends.

The form of Buddhism described seems to have differed little from the Hinayanism found in Siam to-day. Whence did the Siamese obtain it? For some centuries before they were known as a nation, they probably professed some form of Indian religion. They came from the border lands, if not from the actual territory of China, and must have been acquainted with Chinese Buddhism. Also Burmese influence probably reached Yünnan in the eighth century[199], but it is not easy to say what form of religion it brought with it. Still when the Thai entered what is now Siam, it is likely that their religion was some form of Buddhism. While they were subject to Camboja they must have felt the influence of Śivaism and possibly of Mahayanist Sanskrit Buddhism but no Pali Buddhism can have come from this quarter[200].

Southern Siam was however to some extent affected by another wave of Buddhism. From early times the eastern coast of India (and perhaps Ceylon) had intercourse not only with Burma but with the Malay Peninsula. It is proved by inscriptions that the region of Ligor, formerly known as Śrî Dharmarâja, was occupied by Hindus (who were probably Buddhists) at least as early as the fourth century A.D.[201], and Buddhist inscriptions have been found on the mainland opposite Penang. The Chinese annals allude to a change in the customs of Camboja and I-Ching says plainly that Buddhism once nourished there but was exterminated by a wicked king, which may mean that Hinayanist Buddhism had spread thither from Ligor but was suppressed by a dynasty of Śivaites. He also says that at the end of the seventh century Hinayanism was prevalent in the islands of the Southern Sea. An inscription of about the fourth century found in Kedah and another of the seventh or eighth from Phra Pathom both contain the formula Ye dharmâ, etc. The latter inscription and also one from Mergui ascribed to the eleventh century seem to be in mixed Sanskrit and Pali. The Sukhothai inscription summarized above tells how a learned monk was brought thither from Ligor and clearly the Pali Buddhism of northern Siam may have followed the same route. But it probably had also another more important if not exclusive source, namely Burma. After the reign of Anawrata Pali Buddhism was accepted in Burma and in what we now call the Shan States as the religion of civilized mankind and this conviction found its way to the not very distant kingdom of Sukhothai. Subsequently the Siamese recognized the seniority and authority of the Sinhalese Church by inviting an instructor to come from Ceylon, but in earlier times they can hardly have had direct relation with the island.

We have another picture of religious life in a Khmer inscription[202] of Lidaiya or Śrî Sûryavaṃsa Râma composed in 1361 or a little later. This monarch, who is also known by many lengthy titles, appears to have been a man of learning who had studied the Tipiṭaka, the Vedas, the Śâstrâgama and Dharmañâya and erected images of Maheśvara and Vishnu as well as of the Buddha. In 1361 he sent a messenger to Ceylon charged with the task of bringing back a Metropolitan or head of the Saṇgha learned in the Pitakas. This ecclesiastic, who is known only by his title, was duly sent and on arriving in Siam was received with the greatest honour and made a triumphal progress to Sukhothai. He is not represented as introducing a new religion: the impression left by the inscription is rather that the king and his people being already well-instructed in Buddhism desired ampler edification from an authentic source. The arrival of the Saṇgharâja coincided with the beginning of Vassa and at the end of the sacred season the king dedicated a golden image of the Buddha, which stood in the midst of the city, and then entered the order. In doing so he solemnly declared his hope that the merit thus acquired might make him in future lives not an Emperor, an Indra or a Brahmâ but a Buddha able to save mankind. He pursued his religious career with a gratifying accompaniment of miracles and many of the nobility and learned professions followed his example. But after a while a deputation waited on his Majesty begging him to return to the business of his kingdom[203]. An edifying contest ensued. The monks besought him to stay as their preceptor and guide: the laity pointed out that government was at an end and claimed his attention. The matter was referred to the Saṇgharâja who decided that the king ought to return to his secular duties. He appears to have found little difficulty in resuming lay habits for he proceeded to chastise the people of Luang-Prabang.

Two other inscriptions[204], apparently dating from this epoch, relate that a cutting of the Bo-tree was brought from Ceylon and that certain relics (perhaps from Patna) were also installed with great solemnity. To the same time are referred a series of engravings on stone (not reliefs) found in the Vat-si-jum at Sukhothai. They illustrate about 100 Jatakas, arranged for the most part according to the order followed in the Pali Canon.

The facts that King Śrî Sûryavaṃsa sent to Ceylon for his Metropolitan and that some of the inscriptions which extol his merits are in Pali[205] make it probable that the religion which he professed differed little from the Pali Buddhism which flourishes in Siam to-day and this supposition is confirmed by the general tone of his inscriptions. But still several phrases in them have a Mahayanist flavour. He takes as his model the conduct of the Bodhisattvas, described as ten headed by Metteyya, and his vow to become a Buddha and save all creatures is at least twice mentioned. The Buddhas are said to be innumerable and the feet of Bhikkhus are called Buddha feet[206]. There is no difficulty in accounting for the presence of such ideas: the only question is from what quarter this Mahayanist influence came. The king is said to have been a student of Indian literature: his country, like Burma, was in touch with China and his use of the Khmer language indicates contact with Camboja.

Another inscription engraved by order of Dharmâsokarâja[207] and apparently dating from the fourteenth century is remarkable for its clear statement of the doctrine (generally considered as Mahayanist) that merit acquired by devotion to the Buddha can be transferred. The king states that a woman called Bunrak has transferred all her merit to the Queen and that he himself makes over all his merit to his teacher, to his relations and to all beings in unhappy states of existence.

At some time in this period the centre of the Thai empire changed but divergent views have been held as to the date[208] and character of this event. It would appear that in 1350 a Siamese subsequently known as King Râmâdhipati, a descendant of an ancient line of Thai princes, founded Ayuthia as a rival to Sukhothai. The site was not new, for it had long been known as Dvâravatî and seems to be mentioned under that name by I-Ching (c. 680), but a new city was apparently constructed. The evidence of inscriptions indicates that Sukhothai was not immediately subdued by the new kingdom and did not cease to be a royal residence for some time. But still Ayuthia gradually became predominant and in the fifteenth century merited the title of capital of Siam.

Its rise did not affect the esteem in which Buddhism was held, and it must have contained many great religious monuments. The jungles which now cover the site of the city surround the remnants of the Wăt Somarokot, in which is a gigantic bronze Buddha facing with scornful calm the ruin which threatens him. The Wăt Chern, which lies at some distance, contains another gigantic image. A curious inscription[209] engraved on an image of Śiva found at Sukhothai and dated 1510 A.D. asserts the identity of Buddhism and Brahmanism, but the popular feeling was in favour of the former. At Ayuthia the temples appear to be exclusively Buddhist and at Lophburi ancient buildings originally constructed for the Brahmanic cult have been adapted to Buddhist uses. It was in 1602 that the mark known as the footprint of Buddha was discovered at the place now called Phra-bat.

Ayuthia was captured by the Burmese in 1568 and the king was carried into captivity but the disaster was not permanent, for at the end of the century the power of the Siamese reached its highest point and their foreign relations were extensive. We hear that five hundred Japanese assisted them to repulse a Burmese attack and that there was a large Japanese colony in Ayuthia. On the other hand when Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592, the Siamese offered to assist the Chinese. Europeans appeared first in 1511 when the Portuguese took Malacca. But on the whole the dealings of Siam with Europe were peaceful and both traders and missionaries were welcomed. The most singular episode in this international intercourse was the career of the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulcon who in the reign of King Nărai was practically Foreign Minister. In concert with the French missionaries he arranged an exchange of embassies (1682 and 1685) between Nărai and Louis XIV, the latter having been led to suppose that the king and people of Siam were ready to embrace Christianity. But when the French envoys broached the subject of conversion, the king replied that he saw no reason to change the religion which his countrymen had professed for two thousand years, a chronological statement which it might be hard to substantiate. Still, great facilities were given to missionaries and further negotiations ensued, in the course of which the French received almost a monopoly of foreign trade and the right to maintain garrisons. But the death of Nărai was followed by a reaction. Phaulcon died in prison and the French garrisons were expelled. Buddhism probably flourished at this period for the Mahâvaṃsa tells us that the king of Ceylon sent to Ayuthia for monks in 1750 because religion there was pure and undefiled.

Ayuthia continued to be the capital until 1767 when it was laid in ruins by the Burmese who, though Buddhists, did not scruple to destroy or deface the temples and statues with which it was ornamented. But the collapse of the Siamese was only local and temporary. A leader of Chinese origin named Phăya Täk Sin rallied their forces, cleared the Burmese out of the country and made Bangkok, officially described as the Capital of the Angels, the seat of Government. But he was deposed in 1782 and one of the reasons for his fall seems to have been a too zealous reformation of Buddhism. In the troublous times following the collapse of Ayuthia the Church had become disorganized and corrupt, but even those who desired improvement would not assent to the powers which the king claimed over monks. A new dynasty (of which the sixth monarch is now on the throne) was founded in 1782 by Chao Phăya Chakkri. One of his first acts was to convoke a council for the revision of the Tipiṭaka and to build a special hall in which the text thus agreed on was preserved. His successor Phra: Buddha Löt La is considered the best poet that Siam has produced and it is probably the only country in the world where this distinction has fallen to the lot of a sovereign. The poet king had two sons, Phra: Nang: Klao, who ascended the throne after his death, and Mongkut, who during his brother's reign remained in a monastery strictly observing the duties of a monk. He then became king and during his reign (1851-1868) Siam "may be said to have passed from the middle ages to modern times[210]." It is a tribute to the excellence of Buddhist discipline that a prince who spent twenty-six years as a monk should have emerged as neither a bigot nor an impractical mystic but as an active, enlightened and progressive monarch. The equality and simplicity of monastic life disposed him to come into direct touch with his subjects and to adopt straightforward measures which might not have occurred to one who had always been surrounded by a wall of ministers. While still a monk he founded a stricter sect which aimed at reviving the practice of the Buddha, but at the same time he studied foreign creeds and took pleasure in conversing with missionaries. He wrote several historical pamphlets and an English Grammar, and was so good a mathematician that he could calculate the occurrence of an eclipse. When he became king he regulated the international position of Siam by concluding treaties of friendship and commerce with the principal European powers, thus showing the broad and liberal spirit in which he regarded politics, though a better acquaintance with the ways of Europeans might have made him refuse them extraterritorial privileges. He abolished the custom which obliged everyone to keep indoors when the king went out and he publicly received petitions on every Uposatha day. He legislated against slavery[211], gambling, drinking spirits and smoking opium and considerably improved the status of women. He also published edicts ordering the laity to inform the ecclesiastical authorities if they noticed any abuses in the monasteries. He caused the annals of Siam to be edited and issued numerous orders on archaeological and literary questions, in which, though a good Pali scholar, he deprecated the affected use of Pali words and enjoined the use of a terse and simple Siamese style, which he certainly wrote himself. He appears to have died of scientific zeal for he caught a fatal fever on a trip which he took to witness a total eclipse of the sun.

He was succeeded by his son Chulalongkorn[212] (1868-1911), a liberal and enlightened ruler, who had the misfortune to lose much territory to the French on one side and the English on the other. For religion, his chief interest is that he published an edition of the Tipiṭaka. The volumes are of European style and printed in Siamese type, whereas Cambojan characters were previously employed for religious works.

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As I have already observed, there is not much difference between Buddhism in Burma and Siam. In mediæval times a mixed form of religion prevailed in both countries and Siam was influenced by the Brahmanism and Mahayanism of Camboja. Both seem to have derived a purer form of the faith from Pegu, which was conquered by Anawrata in the eleventh century and was the neighbour of Sukhothai so long as that kingdom lasted. Both had relations with Ceylon and while venerating her as the metropolis of the faith also sent monks to her in the days of her spiritual decadence. But even in externals some differences are visible. The gold and vermilion of Burma are replaced in Siam by more sober but artistic tints--olive, dull purple and dark orange--and the change in the colour scheme is accompanied by other changes in the buildings.

A religious establishment in Siam consists of several edifices and is generally known as Wăt[213], followed by some special designation such as Wăt Chang. Bangkok is full of such establishments mostly constructed on the banks of the river or canals. The entrance is usually guarded by gigantic and grotesque figures which are often lions, but at the Wăt Phô in Bangkok the tutelary demons are represented by curious caricatures of Europeans wearing tall hats. The gate leads into several courts opening out of one another and not arranged on any fixed plan. The first is sometimes surrounded by a colonnade in which are set a long line of the Buddha's eighty disciples. The most important building in a Wăt is known as Bỗt[214]. It has a colonnade of pillars outside and is surmounted by three or four roofs, not much raised one above the other, and bearing finials of a curious shape, said to represent a snake's head[215]. It is also marked off by a circuit of eight stones, cut in the shape of Bo-tree leaves, which constitute a sîmâ or boundary. It is in the Bỗt that ordinations and other acts of the Sangha are performed. Internally it is a hall: the walls are often covered with paintings and at the end there is always a sitting figure of the Buddha[216] forming the apex of a pyramid, the lower steps of which are decorated with smaller images and curious ornaments, such as clocks under glass cases.

Siamese images of the Buddha generally represent him as crowned by a long flame-like ornament called Sĩrô rồt[217], probably representing the light supposed to issue from the prominence on his head. But the ornament sometimes becomes a veritable crown terminating in a spire, as do those worn by the kings of Camboja and Siam. On the left and right of the Buddha often stand figures of Phra: Môkha: la (Moggalâna) and Phra: Sárĩbŭt (Sâriputta). It is stated that the Siamese pray to them as saints and that the former is invoked to heal broken limbs[218]. The Buddha when represented in frescoes is robed in red but his face and hands are of gold. Besides the Bỗt a Wăt contains one or more wĩháns. The word is derived from Vihâra but has come to mean an image-house. The wĩháns are halls not unlike the Bỗts but smaller. In a large Wăt there is usually one containing a gigantic recumbent image of the Buddha and they sometimes shelter Indian deities such as Yama.

In most if not in all Wăt there are structures known as Phra: chedi and Phra: prang. The former are simply the ancient cetiyas, called dagobas in Ceylon and zedis in Burma. They do not depart materially from the shape usual in other countries and sometimes, for instance in the gigantic chedi at Pra Pratom, the part below the spire is a solid bell-shaped dome. But Siamese taste tends to make such buildings slender and elongate and they generally consist of stone discs of decreasing size, set one on the other in a pile, which assumes in its upper parts the proportions of a flagstaff rather than of a stone building. The Phra: prangs though often larger than the Phra: chedis are proportionally thicker and less elongate. They appear to be derived from the Brahmanic temple towers of Camboja which consist of a shrine crowned by a dome. But in Siam the shrine is often at some height above the ground and is reduced to small dimensions, sometimes becoming a mere niche. In large Phra: prangs it is approached by a flight of steps outside and above it rises the tower, terminating in a metal spire. But whereas in the Phra: chedis these spires are simple, in the Phra: prangs they bear three crescents representing the trident of Śiva and appear like barbed arrows. A large Wat is sure to contain a number of these structures and may also comprise halls for preaching, a pavilion covering a model of Buddha's foot print, tanks for ablution and a bell tower. It is said that only royal Wats contain libraries and buildings called chẵtta mŭkh, which shelter a four-faced image of Brahmâ[219].

The monks are often housed in single chambers arranged round the courts of a Wat but sometimes in larger buildings outside it. The number of monks and novices living in one monastery is larger than in Burma, and according to the Bangkok Directory (1907) works out at an average of about 12. In the larger Wats this figure is considerably exceeded. Altogether there were 50,764 monks and 10,411 novices in 1907[220], the province of Ayuthia being decidedly the best provided with clergy. As in Burma, it is customary for every male to spend some time in a monastery, usually at the age of about 20, and two months is considered the minimum which is respectable. It is also common to enter a monastery for a short stay on the day when a parent is cremated. During the season of Vassa all monks go out to collect alms but at other seasons only a few make the daily round and the food collected, as in Burma and Ceylon, is generally not eaten. But during the dry season it is considered meritorious for monks to make a pilgrimage to Phra Bât and while on the way to live on charity. They engage to some extent in manual work and occupy themselves with carpentering[221]. As in Burma, education is in their hands, and they also act as doctors, though their treatment has more to do with charms and faith cures than with medicine.

As in Burma there are two sects, the ordinary unreformed body, and the rigorous and select communion founded by Mongkut and called Dhammayut. It aims at a more austere and useful life but in outward observances the only distinction seems to be that the Dhammayuts hold the alms-bowl in front of them in both hands, whereas the others hold it against the left hip with the left hand only. The hierarchy is well developed but somewhat secularized, though probably not more so than it was in India under Asoka. In the official directory where the departments of the Ministry of Public Instruction are enumerated, the Ecclesiastical Department comes immediately after the Bacteriological, the two being clearly regarded as different methods of expelling evil spirits. The higher clerical appointments are made by the king. He names four Primates[222], one of whom is selected as chief. The Primates with nineteen superior monks form the highest governing body of the Church. Below them are twelve dignitaries called Gurus, who are often heads of large Wats. There are also prelates who bear the Cambojan title of Burien equivalent to Mahâcârya. They must have passed an examination in Pali and are chiefly consulted on matters of ceremonial.

It will thus be seen that the differences between the churches of Burma, Ceylon and Siam are slight; hardly more than the local peculiarities which mark the Roman church in Italy, Spain, and England. Different opinions have been expressed as to the moral tone and conduct of Siamese monks and most critics state that they are somewhat inferior to their Burmese brethren. The system by which a village undertakes to support a monk, provided that he is a reasonably competent school-master and of good character, works well. But in the larger monasteries it is admitted that there are inmates who have entered in the hope of leading a lazy life and even fugitives from justice. Still the penalty for any grave offence is immediate expulsion by the ecclesiastical authorities and the offender is treated with extreme severity by the civil courts to which he then becomes amenable.

The religious festivals of Siam are numerous and characteristic. Many are Buddhist, some are Brahmanic, and some are royal. Uposatha days (wăn phra:) are observed much as in Burma. The birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha (which are all supposed to have taken place on the 15th day of the 6th waxing moon) are celebrated during a three days festival. These three days are of peculiar solemnity and are spent in the discharge of religious duties, such as hearing sermons and giving alms. But at most festivals religious observances are mingled with much picturesque but secular gaiety. In the morning the monks do not go their usual round[223] and the alms-bowls are arranged in a line within the temple grounds. The laity (mostly women) arrive bearing wicker trays on which are vessels containing rice and delicacies. They place a selection of these in each bowl and then proceed to the Bỗt where they hear the commandments recited and often vow to observe for that day some which are usually binding only on monks. While the monks are eating their meal the people repair to a river, which is rarely far distant in Siam, and pour water drop by drop saying "May the food which we have given for the use of the holy ones be of benefit to our fathers and mothers and to all of our relatives who have passed away." This rite is curiously in harmony with the injunctions of the Tirokuḍḍasuttam in the Khuddakapâtha, which is probably an ancient work[224]. The rest of the day is usually devoted to pious merrymaking, such as processions by day and illuminations by night. On some feasts the laws against gambling are suspended and various games of chance are freely indulged in. Thus the New Year festival called Trŭ̃t (or Krŭ̃t) Thăi lasts three days. On the first two days, especially the second, crowds fill the temples to offer flowers before the statues of Buddha and more substantial presents of food, clothes, etc., to the clergy. Well-to-do families invite monks to their houses and pass the day in listening to their sermons and recitations. Companies of priests are posted round the city walls to scare away evil spirits and with the same object guns are fired throughout the night. But the third day is devoted to gambling by almost the whole population except the monks. Not dissimilar is the celebration of the Só̆ngkran holidays, at the beginning of the official year. The special religious observance at this feast consists in bathing the images of Buddha and in theory the same form of watery respect is extended to aged relatives and monks. In practice its place is taken by gifts of perfumes and other presents.

The rainy season is preceded and ended by holidays. During this period both monks and pious laymen observe their religious duties more strictly. Thus monks eat only once a day and then only what is put into their bowls and laymen observe some of the minor vows. At the end of the rains come the important holidays known as Thòt Kăthí̆n[225], when robes are presented to monks. This festival has long had a special importance in Siam. Thus Râma Khomhëng in his inscription of A.D. 1292[226] describes the feast of Kaṭhina which lasts a month. At the present day many thousands of robes are prepared in the capital alone so as to be ready for distribution in October and November, when the king or some deputy of high rank visits every temple and makes the offering in person. During this season Bangkok witnesses a series of brilliant processions.

These festivals mentioned may be called Buddhist though their light-hearted and splendour-loving gaiety, their processions and gambling are far removed from the spirit of Gotama. Others however are definitely Brahmanic and in Bangkok are superintended by the Brahmans attached to the Court. Since the time of Mongkut Buddhist priests are also present as a sign that the rites, if not ordered by Buddhism, at least have its countenance. Such is the R`ëk Na[227], or ploughing festival. The king is represented by the Minister of Agriculture who formerly had the right to exact from all shops found open such taxes as he might claim for his temporary sovereignty. At present he is escorted in procession to Dusit[228], a royal park outside Bangkok, where he breaks ground with a plough drawn by two white oxen.

Somewhat similar is the Thĩb-Chĩng-Cha, or Swinging holidays, a two days' festival which seems to be a harvest thanksgiving. Under the supervision of a high official, four Brahmans wearing tall conical hats swing on a board suspended from a huge frame about 100 ft high. Their object is to catch with their teeth a bag of money hanging at a little distance from the swing. When three or four sets of swingers have obtained a prize in this way, they conclude the ceremony by sprinkling the ground with holy water contained in bullock horns. Swinging is one of the earliest Indian rites[229] and as part of the worship of Krishna it has lasted to the present day. Yet another Brahmanic festival is the Loi Kăthŏng[230], when miniature rafts and ships bearing lights and offerings are sent down the Menam to the sea.

Another class of ceremonies may be described as royal, inasmuch as they are religious only in so far as they invoke religion to protect royalty. Such are the anniversaries of the birth and coronation of the king and the Thú̓ Năm or drinking of the water of allegiance which takes place twice a year. At Bangkok all officials assemble at the Palace and there drink and sprinkle on their heads water in which swords and other weapons have been dipped thus invoking vengeance on themselves should they prove disloyal. Jars of this water are despatched to Governors who superintend the performance of the same ceremony in the provincial capitals. It is only after the water has been drunk that officials receive their half yearly salary. Monks are excused from drinking it but the chief ecclesiastics of Bangkok meet in the Palace temple and perform a service in honour of the occasion.

Besides these public solemnities there are a number of domestic festivals derived from the twelve Saṃskâras of the Hindus. Of these only three or four are kept up by the nations of Indo-China, namely the shaving of the first hair of a child a month after birth, the giving of a name, and the piercing of the ears for earrings. This last is observed in Burma and Laos, but not in Siam and Camboja where is substituted for it the Kôn Chũ̆k or shaving of the topknot, which is allowed to grow until the eleventh or thirteenth year. This ceremony, which is performed on boys and girls alike, is the most important event in the life of a young Siamese and is celebrated by well-to-do parents with lavish expenditure. Those who are indigent often avail themselves of the royal bounty, for each year a public ceremony is performed in one of the temples of Bangkok at which poor children receive the tonsure gratis. An elaborate description of the tonsure rites has been published by Gerini[231]. They are of considerable interest as showing how closely Buddhist and Brahmanic rites are intertwined in Siamese family life.

Marriages are celebrated with a feast to which monks are invited but are not regarded as religious ceremonies. The dead are usually disposed of by cremation, but are often kept some time, being either embalmed or simply buried and exhumed subsequently. Before cremation the coffin is usually placed within the grounds of a temple. The monks read Suttas over it and it is said[232] that they hold ribbons which enter into the coffin and are supposed to communicate to the corpse the merit acquired by the recitations and prayers.

3

In the preceding pages mention has often been made not only of Brahmanic rites but of Brahman priests[233]. These are still to be found in Bangkok attached to the Court and possibly in other cities. They dress in white and have preserved many Hindu usages but are said to be poor Sanskrit scholars. Indeed Gerini[234] seems to say that they use Pali in some of their recitations. Their principal duty is to officiate at Court functions, but wealthy families invite them to take part in domestic rites, and also to cast horoscopes and fix lucky days. It is clear that the presence of these Brahmans is no innovation. Brahmanism must have been strong in Siam when it was a province of Camboja, but in both countries gave way before Buddhism. Many rites, however, connected with securing luck or predicting the future were too firmly established to be abolished, and, as Buddhist monks were unwilling to perform them[235] or not thought very competent, the Brahmans remained and were perhaps reinforced from time to time by new importations, for there are still Brahman colonies in Ligor and other Malay towns. Siamese lawbooks, like those of Burma, seem to be mainly adaptations of Indian Dharmaśâstras.

On a cursory inspection, Siamese Buddhism, especially as seen in villages, seems remarkably free from alien additions. But an examination of ancient buildings, of royal temples in Bangkok and royal ceremonial, suggests on the contrary that it is a mixed faith in which the Brahmanic element is strong. Yet though this element appeals to the superstition of the Siamese and their love of pageantry, I think that as in Burma it has not invaded the sphere of religion and ethics more than the Piṭakas themselves allow. In art and literature its influence has been considerable. The story of the Ramayana is illustrated on the cloister walls of the royal temple at Bangkok and Indian mythology has supplied a multitude of types to the painter and sculptor; such as Yŏmma: ràt (Yâma), Phăya Man (Mâra), Phra: In (Indra). These are all deities known to the Piṭakas but the sculptures or images[236] in Siamese temples also include Ganeśa, Phra: Nărai (Nârâyana or Vishṇu) riding on the Garuda and Phra: Isuén (Śiva) riding on a bull. There is a legend that the Buddha and Śiva tried which could make himself invisible to the other. At last the Buddha sat on Śiva's head and the god being unable to see him acknowledged his defeat. This story is told to explain a small figure which Śiva bears on his head and recalls the legend found in the Piṭakas[237] that the Buddha made himself invisible to Brahmâ but that Brahmâ had not the corresponding power. Lingas are still venerated in a few temples, for instance at Wăt Phô in Bangkok, but it would appear that the majority (e.g. those found at Pra Pratom and Lophburi) are survivals of ancient Brahmanic worship and have a purely antiquarian importance. The Brahmanic cosmology which makes Mt. Meru the centre of this Universe is generally accepted in ecclesiastical treatises and paintings, though the educated Siamese may smile at it, and when the topknot of a Siamese prince is cut off, part of the ceremony consists in his being received by the king dressed as Śiva on the summit of a mound cut in the traditional shape of Mt. Kailâśa.

Like the Nâts of Burma, Siam has a spirit population known as Phís[238]. The name is occasionally applied to Indian deities, but the great majority of Phís fall into two classes, namely, ghosts of the dead and nature spirits which, though dangerous, do not rise above the position of good or bad fairies. In the first class are included the Phí Prẽt, who have the characteristics as well as the name of the Indian Pretas, and also a multitude of beings who like European ghosts, haunt houses and behave in a mysterious but generally disagreeable manner. The Phíăm is apparently our nightmare. The ghosts of children dying soon after birth are apt to kill their mothers and in general women are liable to be possessed by Phís. The ghosts of those who have died a violent death are dangerous but it would seem that Siamese magicians know how to utilize them as familiar spirits. The better sort of ghosts are known as Chào Phí and shrines called San Chào are set up in their honour. It does not however appear that there is any hierarchy of Phís like the thirty-seven Náts of Burma.

Among those Phís who are not ghosts of the dead the most important is the Phí ru̓en or guardian spirit of each house. Frequently a little shrine is erected for him at the top of a pole. There are also innumerable Phís in the jungle mostly malevolent and capable of appearing either in human form or as a dangerous animal. But the tree spirits are generally benevolent and when their trees are cut down they protect the houses that are made of them.

Thus the Buddhism of Siam, like that of Burma, has a certain admixture of Brahmanism and animism. The Brahmanism is perhaps more striking than in Burma on account of the Court ceremonies: the belief in spirits, though almost universal, seems to be more retiring and less conspicuous. Yet the inscription of Râma Komhëng mentioned above asserts emphatically that the prosperity of the Empire depends on due honour being shown to a certain mountain spirit[239].

It is pretty clear that the first introduction of Hinayanist Buddhism into Siam was from Southern Burma and Pegu, but that somewhat later Ceylon was accepted as the standard of orthodoxy. A learned thera who knew the Sinhalese Tipitaka was imported thence, as well as a branch of the Bo-tree. But Siamese patriotism flattered itself by imagining that the national religion was due to personal contact with the Buddha, although not even early legends can be cited in support of such traditions. In 1602 a mark in the rocks, now known as the Phra: Bãt, was discovered in the hills north of Ayuthia and identified as a footprint of the Buddha similar to that found on Adam's Peak and in other places. Burma and Ceylon both claim the honour of a visit from the Buddha but the Siamese go further, for it is popularly believed that he died at Praten, a little to the north of Phra Pathom, on a spot marked by a slab of rock under great trees[240]. For this reason when the Government of India presented the king of Siam with the relics found in the Piprava vase, the gift though received with honour, aroused little enthusiasm and was placed in a somewhat secluded shrine[241].

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 188: The principal sources for information about Siamese Buddhism are: Journal of Siam Society, 1904, and onwards.

L. Fournereau, Le Siam Ancien, 2 vols. 1895 and 1908 in Annales du Musée Guimet. Cited here as Fournereau.

Mission Pavie II, Histoire du Laos, du Cambodge et du Siam, 1898.

Gerini, Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern Asia, 1909. Cited here as Gerini, Ptolemy.

Gerini, Chŭlăkantamangala or Tonsure Ceremony, 1893.

H. Alabaster, The Wheel of the Law, 1871.

P.A. Thompson, Lotus Land, 1906.

W.A. Graham, Siam, 1912.

Petithuguenin, "Notes critiques pour servir à l'histoire du Siam," B.E.F.E.O. 1916, No. 3.

Coedès, "Documents sur la Dynastie de Sukhodaya," ib. 1917, No. 2.

Much curious information may be found in the Directory for Bangkok and Siam, a most interesting book. I have only the issue for 1907.

I have adopted the conventional European spelling for such words as may be said to have one. For other words I have followed Pallegoix's dictionary (1896) for rendering the vowels and tones in Roman characters, but have departed in some respects from his system of transliterating consonants as I think it unnecessary and misleading to write j and x for sounds which apparently correspond to y and ch as pronounced in English.

The King of Siam has published a work on the spelling of His Majesty's own language in Latin letters which ought to be authoritative, but it came into my hands too late for me to modify the orthography here adopted.

As Pallegoix's spelling involves the use of a great many accents I have sometimes begun by using the strictly correct orthography and afterwards a simpler but intelligible form. It should be noted that in this orthography ":" is not a colon but a sign that the vowel before it is very short.]

[Footnote 189: The name is found on Champan inscriptions of 1050 A.D. and according to Gerini appears in Ptolemy's Samarade = Sâmaraṭṭha. See Gerini, Ptolemy, p. 170. But Samarade is located near Bangkok and there can hardly have been Tais there in Ptolemy's time.]

[Footnote 190: So too in Central Asia Kustana appears to be a learned distortion of the name Khotan, made to give it a meaning in Sanskrit.]

[Footnote 191: Gerini states (Ptolemy, p. 107) that there are Pali manuscript chronicles of Lamphun apparently going back to 924 A.D.]

[Footnote 192: Strictly Sŭkhồthăi.]

[Footnote 193: Phongsá va: dan or Vaṃsavâda. See for Siamese chronicles, B.E.F.E.O. 1914, No. 3, "Recension palie des annales d'Ayuthia," and ibid. 1916, pp. 5-7.]

[Footnote 194: E.g. Aymonier in J.A. 1903, p. 186, and Gerini in Journal of Siam Society, vol. II. part 1, 1905.]

[Footnote 195: See especially Fournereau and the publications of the Mission Pavie and B.E.F.E.O.]

[Footnote 196: Gerini, Ptolemy, p. 176.]

[Footnote 197: See Fournereau, I. p. 225. B.E.F.E.O. 1916, III. pp. 8-13, and especially Bradley in J. Siam Society, 1909, pp. 1-68.]

[Footnote 198: This alphabet appears to be borrowed from Cambojan but some of the letters particularly in their later shapes show the influence of the Môn or Talaing script. The modern Cambojan alphabet, which is commonly used for ecclesiastical purposes in Siam, is little more than an elaborate form of Siamese.]

[Footnote 199: See B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 161.]

[Footnote 200: Bradley, J. Siam Society, 1913, p. 10, seems to think that Pali Buddhism may have come thence but the objection is that we know a good deal about the religion of Camboja and that there is no trace of Pali Buddhism there until it was imported from Siam. The fact that the Siamese alphabet was borrowed from Camboja does not prove that religion was borrowed in the same way. The Mongol alphabet can be traced to a Nestorian source.]

[Footnote 201: See for these inscriptions papers on the Malay Peninsula and Siam by Finot and Lajonquière in _Bull. de la Comm. Archéol. de l'Indo-Chine_, 1909, 1910 and 1912.]

[Footnote 202: Fournereau, pp. 157 ff. and Coedès in B.E.F.E.O. 1917, No. 2. Besides the inscription itself, which is badly defaced in parts, we have (1) a similar inscription in Thai, which is not however a translation, (2) a modern Siamese translation, used by Schmitt but severely criticized by Coedès and Petithuguenin.]

[Footnote 203: This portion of the narrative is found only in Schmitt's version of the Siamese translation. The part of the stone where it would have occurred is defaced.]

[Footnote 204: See Fournereau, vol. II. inscriptions xv and xvi and the account of the Jâtakas, p. 43.]

[Footnote 205: Fournereau, I. pp. 247, 273. B.E.F.E.O. 1917, No. 2, p. 29.]

[Footnote 206: See the texts in B.E.F.E.O. l.c. The Bodhisattvas are described as Ariyametteyâdînam dasannam Bodhisattânam. The vow to become a Buddha should it seems be placed in the mouth of the King, not of the Metropolitan as in Schmitt's translation.]

[Footnote 207: See Fournereau, pp. 209 ff. Dharmâsokarâja may perhaps be the same as Mahâdharmarâja who reigned 1388-1415. But the word may also be a mere title applied to all kings of this dynasty, so that this may be another inscription of Śrî Sûryavaṃsa Râma.]

[Footnote 208: 1350 is the accepted date but M. Aymonier, J.A. 1903, pp. 185 ff. argues in favour of about 1460. See Fournereau, Ancien Siam, p. 242, inscription of 1426 A.D. and p. 186, inscription of 1510 described as Groupe de Sajjanalaya et Sukhodaya.]

[Footnote 209: Fournereau, vol. I. pp. 186 ff.]

[Footnote 210: O. Frankfürter, "King Mongkut," Journal of Siam Society, vol. I. 1904.]

[Footnote 211: But it was his son who first decreed in 1868 that no Siamese could be born a slave. Slavery for debt, though illegal, is said not to be practically extinct.]

[Footnote 212: = Cûlâlaṇkâra.]

[Footnote 213: The word has been derived from Vâta, a grove, but may it not be the Pali Vatthu, Sanskrit Vâstu, a site or building?]

[Footnote 214: = Uposatha.]

[Footnote 215: These finials are very common on the roof ends of Siamese temples and palaces. It is strange that they also are found in conjunction with multiple roofs in Norwegian Churches of eleventh century. See de Beylié, Architecture hindoue dans l'extrême Orient, pp. 47, 48.]

[Footnote 216: The Buddha is generally known as Phra: Khodom ( = Gotama).]

[Footnote 217: In an old Siamese bronze from Kampeng Pet, figured in Grünwedel's Buddhist Art in India, p. 179, fig. 127, the Sirô rồt seems to be in process of evolution.]

[Footnote 218: P.A. Thompson, Lotus Land, 1906, p. 100.]

[Footnote 219: Four images facing the four quarters are considered in Burma to represent the last four Buddhas and among the Jains some of the Tirthankaras are so represented, the legend being that whenever they preached they seemed to face their hearers on every side.]

[Footnote 220: These figures only take account of twelve out of the seventeen provinces.]

[Footnote 221: Thompson, Lotus Land, p. 120.]

[Footnote 222: They bear the title of Só̆mdĕ̃t Phra: Chào Ràjagama and have authority respectively over (a) ordinary Buddhists in northern Siam, (b) ordinary Buddhists in the south, (c) hermits, (d) the Dhammayut sect.]

[Footnote 223: For this and many other details I am indebted to P.A. Thompson, Lotus Land, p. 123.]

[Footnote 224: When gifts of food are made to monks on ceremonial occasions, they usually acknowledge the receipt by reciting verses 7 and 8 of this Sutta, commonly known as Yathâ from the first word.]

[Footnote 225: Kathina in Pali. See Mahâvag. cap. VII.]

[Footnote 226: Fournereau, p. 225.]

[Footnote 227: The ploughing festival is a recognized imperial ceremony in China. In India ceremonies for private landowners are prescribed in the Gṛihya Sûtras but I do not know if their performance by kings is anywhere definitely ordered. However in the Nidâna Kathâ 270 the Buddha's father celebrates an imposing ploughing ceremony.]

[Footnote 228: I.e. Tusita. Compare such English names descriptive of beautiful scenery as Heaven's Gate.]

[Footnote 229: See Keith, Aitereya Aranyaka, pp. 174-178. The ceremony there described undoubtedly originated in a very ancient popular festival.]

[Footnote 230: I.e. float-raft. Most authors give the word as Krathong, but Pallegoix prefers Kathong.]

[Footnote 231: Chulakantamangalam, Bangkok, 1893.]

[Footnote 232: P.A. Thompson, Lotus Land, p. 134.]

[Footnote 233: For the Brahmans of Siam see Frankfürter, Oriental. Archiv. 1913, pp. 196-7.]

[Footnote 234: Chulakantamangala, p. 56.]

[Footnote 235: They are mostly observances such as Gotama would have classed among "low arts" (tîracchânavijjâ). At present the monks of Siam deal freely in charms and exorcisms but on important occasions public opinion seems to have greater confidence in the skill and power of Brahmans.]

[Footnote 236: King Śrî Sûryavaṃsa Râma relates in an inscription of about 1365 how he set up statues of Parameśvara and Vishṇukarma (?) and appointed Brahmans to serve them.]

[Footnote 237: Maj. Nik. 47.]

[Footnote 238: Siam Society, vol. IV. part ii. 1907. Some Siamese ghost-lore by A.J. Irwin.]

[Footnote 239: Jour. Siam Soc. 1909, p. 28. "In yonder mountain is a demon spirit Phră Khăphŭng that is greater than every other spirit in this realm. If any Prince ruling this realm reverences him well with proper offerings, this realm stands firm, this realm prospers. If the spirit be not reverenced well, if the offerings be not right, the spirit in the mountain does not protect, does not regard:--this realm perishes."]

[Footnote 240: The most popular life of the Buddha in Siamese is called Pa:thó̆mma Só̆mphôthĩyan, translated by Alabaster in The Wheel of the Law. But like the Lalita vistara and other Indian lives on which it is modelled it stops short at the enlightenment. Another well-known religious book is the Traiphûm ( = Tribhûmi), an account of the universe according to Hindu principles, compiled in 1776 from various ancient works.

The Pali literature of Siam is not very large. Some account of it is given by Coedès in B.E.F.E.O. 1915, III. pp. 39-46.]

[Footnote 241: When in Bangkok in 1907 I saw in a photographer's shop a photograph of the procession which escorted these relics to their destination. It was inscribed "Arrival of Buddha's tooth from Kandy." This shows how deceptive historical evidence may be. The inscription was the testimony of an eye-witness and yet it was entirely wrong.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXXVIII. CAMBOJA[242]

1

The French Protectorate of Camboja corresponds roughly to the nucleus, though by no means to the whole extent of the former Empire of the Khmers. The affinities of this race have given rise to considerable discussion and it has been proposed to connect them with the Muṇḍa tribes of India on one side and with the Malays and Polynesians on the other[243]. They are allied linguistically to the Mons or Talaings of Lower Burma and to the Khasias of Assam, but it is not proved that they are similarly related to the Annamites, and recent investigators are not disposed to maintain the Mon-Annam family of languages proposed by Logan and others. But the undoubted similarity of the Mon and Khmer languages suggests that the ancestors of those who now speak them were at one time spread over the central and western parts of Indo-China but were subsequently divided and deprived of much territory by the southward invasions of the Thais in the middle ages.

The Khmers also called themselves Kambuja or Kamvuja and their name for the country is still either Srŏk Kâmpûchéa or Srŏk Khmer[244]. Attempts have been made to find a Malay origin for this name Kambuja but native tradition regards it as a link with India and affirms that the race is descended from Kambu Svayambhuva and Merâ or Perâ who was given to him by Śiva as wife[245]. This legend hardly proves that the Khmer people came from India but they undoubtedly received thence their civilization, their royal family and a considerable number of Hindu immigrants, so that the mythical ancestor of their kings naturally came to be regarded as the progenitor of the race. The Chinese traveller Chou Ta-kuan (1296 A.D.) says that the country known to the Chinese as Chên-la is called by the natives Kan-po-chih but that the present dynasty call it Kan-p'u-chih on the authority of Sanskrit (Hsi-fan) works. The origin of the name Chên-la is unknown.

There has been much discussion respecting the relation of Chên-la to the older kingdom of Fu-nan which is the name given by Chinese historians until the early part of the seventh century to a state occupying the south-eastern and perhaps central portions of Indo-China. It has been argued that Chên-la is simply the older name of Fu-nan and on the other hand that Fu-nan is a wider designation including several states, one of which, Chên-la or Camboja, became paramount at the expense of the others[246]. But the point seems unimportant for their religious history with which we have to deal. In religion and general civilization both were subject to Indian influence and it is not recorded that the political circumstances which turned Fu-nan into Chên-la were attended by any religious revolution.

The most important fact in the history of these countries, as in Champa and Java, is the presence from early times of Indian influence as a result of commerce, colonization, or conquest. Orientalists have only recently freed themselves from the idea that the ancient Hindus, and especially their religion, were restricted to the limits of India. In mediæval times this was true. Emigration was rare and it was only in the nineteenth century that the travelling Hindu became a familiar and in some British colonies not very welcome visitor. Even now Hindus of the higher caste evade rather than deny the rule which forbids them to cross the ocean[247]. But for a long while Hindus have frequented the coast of East Africa[248] and in earlier centuries their traders, soldiers and missionaries covered considerable distances by sea. The Jâtakas[249] mention voyages to Babylon: Vijaya and Mahinda reached Ceylon in the fifth and third centuries B.C. respectively. There is no certain evidence as to the epoch when Hindus first penetrated beyond the Malay peninsula, but Java is mentioned in the Ramayana[250]: the earliest Sanskrit inscriptions of Champa date from our third or perhaps second century, and the Chinese Annals of the Tsin indicate that at a period considerably anterior to that dynasty there were Hindus in Fu-nan[251]. It is therefore safe to conclude that they must have reached these regions about the beginning of the Christian era and, should any evidence be forthcoming, there is no reason why this date should not be put further back. At present we can only say that the establishment of Hindu kingdoms probably implies earlier visits of Hindu traders and that voyages to the south coast of Indo-China and the Archipelago were probably preceded by settlements on the Isthmus of Kra, for instance at Ligor.

The motives which prompted this eastward movement have been variously connected with religious persecution in India, missionary enterprise, commerce and political adventure. The first is the least probable. There is little evidence for the systematic persecution of Buddhists in India and still less for the persecution of Brahmans by Buddhists. Nor can these Indian settlements be regarded as primarily religious missions. The Brahmans have always been willing to follow and supervise the progress of Hindu civilization, but they have never shown any disposition to evangelize foreign countries apart from Hindu settlements in them. The Buddhists had this evangelistic temper and the journeys of their missionaries doubtless stimulated other classes to go abroad, but still no inscriptions or annals suggest that the Hindu migrations to Java and Camboja were parallel to Mahinda's mission to Ceylon. Nor is there any reason to think that they were commanded or encouraged by Indian Rajas, for no mention of their despatch has been found in India, and no Indian state is recorded to have claimed suzerainty over these colonies. It therefore seems likely that they were founded by traders and also by adventurers who followed existing trade routes and had their own reasons for leaving India. In a country where dynastic quarrels were frequent and the younger sons of Rajas had a precarious tenure of life, such reasons can be easily imagined. In Camboja we find an Indian dynasty established after a short struggle, but in other countries, such as Java and Sumatra, Indian civilization endured because it was freely adopted by native chiefs and not because it was forced on them as a result of conquest.

The inscriptions discovered in Camboja and deciphered by the labours of French savants offer with one lacuna (about 650-800 A.D.) a fairly continuous history of the country from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries. For earlier periods we depend almost entirely on Chinese accounts which are fragmentary and not interested in anything but the occasional relations of China with Fu-nan. The annals of the Tsin dynasty[252] already cited say that from 265 A.D. onwards the kings of Fu-nan sent several embassies to the Chinese Court, adding that the people have books and that their writing resembles that of the Hu. The Hu are properly speaking a tribe of Central Asia, but the expression doubtless means no more than alphabetic writing as opposed to Chinese characters and such an alphabet can hardly have had other than an Indian origin. Originally, adds the Annalist, the sovereign was a woman, but there came a stranger called Hun-Hui who worshipped the Devas and had had a dream in which one of them gave him a bow[253] and ordered him to sail for Fu-nan. He conquered the country and married the Queen but his descendants deteriorated and one Fan-Hsün founded another dynasty. The annals of the Ch'i dynasty (479-501) give substantially the same story but say that the stranger was called Hun-T'ien (which is probably the correct form of the name) and that he came from Chi or Chiao, an unknown locality. The same annals state that towards the end of the fifth century the king of Fu-nan who bore the family name of Ch'iao-ch'ên-ju[254] or Kauṇḍinya and the personal name of Shê-yeh-po-mo (Jayavarman) traded with Canton. A Buddhist monk named Nâgasena returned thence with some Cambojan merchants and so impressed this king with his account of China that he was sent back in 484 to beg for the protection of the Emperor. The king's petition and a supplementary paper by Nâgasena are preserved in the annals. They seem to be an attempt to represent the country as Buddhist, while explaining that Maheśvara is its tutelary deity.

The Liang annals also state that during the Wu dynasty (222-280) Fan Chan, then king of Fu-nan, sent a relative named Su-Wu on an embassy to India, to a king called Mao-lun, which probably represents Muruṇḍa, a people of the Ganges valley mentioned by the Purâṇas and by Ptolemy. This king despatched a return embassy to Fu-nan and his ambassadors met there an official sent by the Emperor of China[255]. The early date ascribed to these events is noticeable.

The Liang annals contain also the following statements. Between the years 357 and 424 A.D. named as the dates of embassies sent to China, an Indian Brahman called Ch'iao-ch'ên-ju (Kauṇḍinya) heard a supernatural voice bidding him go and reign in Fu-nan. He met with a good reception and was elected king. He changed the customs of the country and made them conform to those of India. One of his successors, Jayavarman, sent a coral image of Buddha in 503 to the Emperor Wu-ti (502-550). The inhabitants of Fu-nan are said to make bronze images of the heavenly genii with two or four heads and four or eight arms. Jayavarman was succeeded by a usurper named Liu-t'o-pa-mo (Rudravarman) who sent an image made of sandal wood to the Emperor in 519 and in 539 offered him a hair of the Buddha twelve feet long. The Sui annals (589-618) state that Citrasena, king of Chên-la, conquered Fu-nan and was succeeded by his son Iśânasena.

Two monks of Fu-nan are mentioned among the translators of the Chinese scriptures[256], namely, Saṇghapâla and Mandra. Both arrived in China during the first years of the sixth century and their works are extant. The pilgrim I-Ching who returned from India in 695 says[257] that to the S.W. of Champa lies the country Po-nan, formerly called Fu-nan, which is the southern corner of Jambudvîpa. He says that "of old it was a country the inhabitants of which lived naked; the people were mostly worshippers of devas and later on Buddhism flourished there, but a wicked king has now expelled and exterminated them all and there are no members of the Buddhist brotherhood at all."

These data from Chinese authorities are on the whole confirmed by the Cambojan inscriptions. Rudravarman is mentioned[258] and the kings claim to belong to the race of Kauṇḍinya[259]. This is the name of a Brahman gotra, but such designations were often borne by Kshatriyas and the conqueror of Camboja probably belonged to that caste. It may be affirmed with some certainty that he started from south-eastern India and possibly he sailed from Mahâbalipûr (also called the Seven Pagodas). Masulipatam was also a port of embarcation for the East and was connected with Broach by a trade route running through Tagara, now Têr in the Nizam's dominions. By using this road, it was possible to avoid the west coast, which was infested by pirates.

The earliest Cambojan inscriptions date from the beginning of the seventh century and are written in an alphabet closely resembling that of the inscriptions in the temple of Pâpanâtha at Paṭṭadkal in the Bîjapur district[260]. They are composed in Sanskrit verse of a somewhat exuberant style, which revels in the commonplaces of Indian poetry. The deities most frequently mentioned are Śiva by himself and Śiva united with Vishṇu in the form Hari-Hara. The names of the kings end in Varman and this termination is also specially frequent in names of the Pallava dynasty[261]. The magnificent monuments still extant attest a taste for architecture on a large scale similar to that found among the Dravidians. These and many other indications justify the conclusion that the Indian civilization and religion which became predominant in Camboja were imported from the Deccan.

The Chinese accounts distinctly mention two invasions, one under Ch'iao-ch'ên-ju (Kaundinya) about 400 A.D. and one considerably anterior to 265 under Hun-T'ien. It might be supposed that this name also represents Kauṇḍinya and that there is a confusion of dates. But the available evidence is certainly in favour of the establishment of Hindu civilization in Fu-nan long before 400 A.D. and there is nothing improbable in the story of the two invasions and even of two Kauṇḍinyas. Maspéro suggests that the first invasion came from Java and formed part of the same movement which founded the kingdom of Champa. It is remarkable that an inscription in Sanskrit found on the east coast of Borneo and apparently dating from the fifth century mentions Kuṇḍagga as the grandfather of the reigning king, and the Liang annals say that the king of Poli (probably in Borneo but according to some in Sumatra) was called Ch'iao-ch'ên-ju. It seems likely that the Indian family of Kauṇḍinya was established somewhere in the South Seas (perhaps in Java) at an early period and thence invaded various countries at various times. But Fu-nan is a vague geographical term and it may be that Hun-T'ien founded a Hindu dynasty in Champa.

It is clear that during the period of the inscriptions the religion of Camboja was a mixture of Brahmanism and Buddhism, the only change noticeable being the preponderance of one or other element in different centuries. But it would be interesting to know the value of I-Ching's statement that Buddhism flourished in Fu-nan in early times and was then subverted by a wicked king, by whom Bhavavarman[262] may be meant. Primâ facie the statement is not improbable, for there is no reason why the first immigrants should not have been Buddhists, but the traditions connecting these countries with early Hinayanist missionaries are vague. Târanâtha[263] states that the disciples of Vasubandhu introduced Buddhism into the country of Koki (Indo-China) but his authority does not count for much in such a matter. The statement of I-Ching however has considerable weight, especially as the earliest inscription found in Champa (that of Vocan) appears to be inspired by Buddhism.

2

It may be well to state briefly the chief facts of Cambojan history[264] before considering the phases through which religion passed. Until the thirteenth century our chief authorities are the Sanskrit and Khmer inscriptions, supplemented by notices in the Chinese annals. The Khmer inscriptions are often only a translation or paraphrase of Sanskrit texts found in the same locality and, as a rule, are more popular, having little literary pretension. They frequently contain lists of donations or of articles to be supplied by the population for the upkeep of pious foundations. After the fourteenth century we have Cambojan annals of dubious value and we also find inscriptions in Pali or in modern Cambojan. The earliest Sanskrit inscriptions date from the beginning of the seventh century and mention works undertaken in 604 and 624.

The first important king is Bhavavarman (c. 500 A.D.), a conqueror and probably a usurper, who extended his kingdom considerably towards the west. His career of conquest was continued by Mahâvarman (also called Citrasena), by Iśânavarman and by Jayavarman[265]. This last prince was on the throne in 667, but his reign is followed by a lacuna of more than a century. Notices in the Chinese annals, confirmed by the double genealogies given for this period in later inscriptions, indicate that Camboja was divided for some time into two states, one littoral and the other inland.

Clear history begins again with the reign of Jayavarman II (802-869). Later sovereigns evidently regard him as the great national hero and he lives in popular legend as the builder of a magnificent palace, Beng Mealea, whose ruins still exist[266] and as the recipient of the sacred sword of Indra which is preserved at Phnom-penh to this day. We are told that he "came from Javâ," which is more likely to be some locality in the Malay Peninsula or Laos than the island of that name. It is possible that Jayavarman was carried away captive to this region but returned to found a dynasty independent of it[267].

The ancient city of Angkor has probably done more to make Camboja known in Europe than any recent achievements of the Khmer race. In the centre of it stands the temple now called Bayon and outside its walls are many other edifices of which the majestic Angkor Wat is the largest and best preserved. King Indravarman (877-899) seems responsible for the selection of the site but he merely commenced the construction of the Bayon. The edifice was completed by his son Yaśovarman (889-908) who also built a town round it, called Yaśod harapura, Kambupuri or Mahânagara. Angkor Thom is the Cambojan translation of this last name, Angkor being a corruption of Nokor ( = Nagara). Yaśovarman's empire comprised nearly all Indo-China between Burma and Champa and he has been identified with the Leper king of Cambojan legend. His successors continued to embellish Angkor Thom, but Jayavarman IV abandoned it and it was deserted for several years until Rajendravarman II (944-968) made it the capital again. The Chinese Annals, supported by allusions in the inscriptions, state that this prince conquered Champa. The long reigns of Jayavarman V, Suryavarman I, and Udayâdityavarman, which cover more than a century (968-1079) seem to mark a prosperous period when architecture flourished, although Udayâdityavarman had to contend with two rebellions. Another great king, Sûryavarman II (1112-1162) followed shortly after them, and for a time succeeded in uniting Camboja and Champa under his sway. Some authorities credit him with a successful expedition to Ceylon. There is not sufficient evidence for this, but he was a great prince and, in spite of his foreign wars, maintained peace and order at home.

Jayavarman VII, who appears to have reigned from 1162 to 1201, reduced to obedience his unruly vassals of the north and successfully invaded Champa which remained for thirty years, though not without rebellion, the vassal of Camboja. It was evacuated by his successor Indravarman in 1220.

After this date there is again a gap of more than a century in Cambojan history, and when the sequence of events becomes clear again, we find that Siam has grown to be a dangerous and aggressive enemy. But though the vigour of the kingdom may have declined, the account of the Chinese traveller Chou Ta-kuan who visited Angkor Thom in 1296 shows that it was not in a state of anarchy nor conquered by Siam. There had however been a recent war with Siam and he mentions that the country was devastated. He unfortunately does not tell us the name of the reigning king and the list of sovereigns begins again only in 1340 when the Annals of Camboja take up the history. They are not of great value. The custom of recording all events of importance prevailed at the Cambojan Court in earlier times but these chronicles were lost in the eighteenth century. King Ang Chan (1796-1834) ordered that they should be re-written with the aid of the Siamese chronicles and such other materials as were available and fixed 1340 as the point of departure, apparently because the Siamese chronicles start from that date[268]. Although the period of the annals offers little but a narrative of dissensions at home and abroad, of the interference of Annam on one side and of Siam on the other, yet it does not seem that the sudden cessation of inscriptions and of the ancient style of architecture in the thirteenth century was due to the collapse of Camboja, for even in the sixteenth century it offered a valiant, and often successful, resistance to aggressions from the west. But Angkor Thom and the principal monuments were situated near the Siamese frontier and felt the shock of every collision. The sense of security, essential for the construction of great architectural works, had disappeared and the population became less submissive and less willing to supply forced labour without which such monuments could not be erected.

The Siamese captured Angkor Thom in 1313, 1351 and 1420 but did not on any occasion hold it for long. Again in 1473 they occupied Chantaboun, Korat and Angkor but had to retire and conclude peace. King Ang Chan I successfully disputed the right of Siam to treat him as a vassal and established his capital at Lovek, which he fortified and ornamented. He reigned from 1505 to 1555 and both he and his son, Barom Racha, seem entitled to rank among the great kings of Camboja. But the situation was clearly precarious and when a minor succeeded to the throne in 1574 the Siamese seized the opportunity and recaptured Lovek and Chantaboun. Though this capture was the death blow to the power of the Khmers, the kingdom of Camboja did not cease to exist but for nearly three centuries continued to have an eventful but uninteresting history as the vassal of Siam or Annam or even of both[269], until in the middle of the nineteenth century the intervention of France substituted a European Protectorate for these Asiatic rivalries.

The provinces of Siem-reap and Battambang, in which Angkor Thom and the principal ancient monuments are situated, were annexed by Siam at the end of the eighteenth century, but in virtue of an arrangement negotiated by the French Government they were restored to Camboja in 1907, Krat and certain territories being at the same time ceded to Siam[270].

3

The religious history of Camboja may be divided into two periods, exclusive of the possible existence there of Hinayanist Buddhism in the early centuries of our era. In the first period, which witnessed the construction of the great monuments and the reigns of the great kings, both Brahmanism and Mahayanist Buddhism nourished, but as in Java and Champa without mutual hostility. This period extends certainly from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries and perhaps its limits should be stretched to 400-1400 A.D. In any case it passed without abrupt transition into the second period in which, under Siamese influence, Hinayanist Buddhism supplanted the older faiths, although the ceremonies of the Cambojan court still preserve a good deal of Brahmanic ritual.

During the first period, Brahmanism and Mahayanism were professed by the Court and nobility. The multitude of great temples and opulent endowments, the knowledge of Sanskrit literature and the use of Indian names, leave no doubt about this, but it is highly probable that the mass of the people had their own humbler forms of worship. Still there is no record of anything that can be called Khmer--as opposed to Indian--religion. As in Siam, the veneration of nature spirits is universal in Camboja and little shrines elevated on poles are erected in their honour in the neighbourhood of almost every house. Possibly the more important of these spirits were identified in early times with Indian deities or received Sanskrit names. Thus we hear of a pious foundation in honour of Brahmarakshas[271], perhaps a local mountain spirit. Śiva is adored under the name of Śrî Śikhareśvara, the Lord of the Peak and Krishṇa appears to be identified with a local god called Śrî Champeśvara who was worshipped by Jayavarman VI[272].

The practice of accepting and hinduizing strange gods with whom they came in contact was so familiar to the Brahmans that it would be odd if no examples of it occurred in Camboja. Still the Brahmanic religion which has left such clear records there was in the main not a hinduized form of any local cult but a direct importation of Indian thought, ritual and literature. The Indian invaders or colonists were accompanied by Brahmans: their descendants continued to bear Indian names and to give them to all places of importance: Sanskrit was the ecclesiastical and official language, for the inscriptions written in Khmer are clearly half-contemptuous notifications to the common people, respecting such details as specially concerned them: Aśramas and castes (varṇa) are mentioned[273] and it is probable that natives were only gradually and grudgingly admitted to the higher castes. There is also reason to believe that this Hindu civilization was from time to time vivified by direct contact with India. The embassy of Su-Wu has already been mentioned[274] and an inscription records the marriage of a Cambojan princess with a Brahman called Divâkara who came from the banks of the Yamunâ, "where Kṛishṇa sported in his infancy."

During the whole period of the inscriptions the worship of Śiva seems to have been the principal cultus and to some extent the state religion, for even kings who express themselves in their inscriptions as devout Buddhists do not fail to invoke him. But there is no trace of hostility to Vishnuism and the earlier inscriptions constantly celebrate the praises of the compound deity Vishṇu-Śiva, known under such names as Hari-Hara[275], Śambhu-Vishṇu, Śaṇkara-Narâyaṇa, etc. Thus an inscription of Ang-Pou dating from Iśânavarman's reign says "Victorious are Hara and Acyuta become one for the good of the world, though as the spouses of Parvatî and Śrî they have different forms[276]." But the worship of this double being is accompanied by pure Śivaism and by the adoration of other deities. In the earliest inscriptions Bhavavarman invokes Śiva and dedicates a linga. He also celebrates the compound deity under the name of Śambhu-Vishṇu and mentions Umâ, Lakshmî, Bhâratî, Dharma, the Maruts, and Vishṇu under the names of Caturbhuja and Trailokyasâra. There appears to be no allusion to the worship of Vishṇu-Śiva as two in one after the seventh century, but though Śiva became exalted at the expense of his partner, Vishṇu must have had adorers for two kings, Jayavarman III and Sûryavarman II, were known after their death by the names of Vishṇu-loka and Parama-Vishṇu-loka.

Śiva became generally recognized as the supreme deity, in a comprehensive but not an exclusive sense. He is the universal spirit from whom emanate Brahmâ and Vishṇu. His character as the Destroyer is not much emphasized: he is the God of change, and therefore of reproduction, whose symbol is the Linga. It is remarkable to find that a pantheistic form of Śivaism is clearly enunciated in one of the earliest inscriptions[277]. Śiva is there styled Vibhu, the omnipresent, Paramvrahmâ ( = Brahmâ), Jagatpati, Paśupati. An inscription found at Angkor[278] mentions an Acârya of the Pâśupatas as well as an Acârya of the Śaivas and Chou Ta-kuan seems to allude to the worshippers of Paśupati under the name of Pa-ssŭ-wei. It would therefore appear that the Pâśupatas existed in Camboja as a distinct sect and there are some indications[279] that ideas which prevailed among the Lingayats also found their way thither.

The most interesting and original aspect of Cambojan religion is its connection with the state and the worship of deities somehow identified with the king or with prominent personages[280]. These features are also found in Champa and Java. In all these countries it was usual that when a king founded a temple, the god worshipped in it should be called by his name or by something like it. Thus when Bhadravarman dedicated a temple to Śiva, the god was styled Bhadreśvara. More than this, when a king or any distinguished person died, he was commemorated by a statue which reproduced his features but represented him with the attributes of his favourite god. Thus Indravarman and Yaśovarman dedicated at Bakô and Lolei shrines in which deceased members of the royal family were commemorated in the form of images of Śiva and Devî bearing names similar to their own. Another form of apotheosis was to describe a king by a posthumous title, indicating that he had gone to the heaven of his divine patron such as Paramavishṇuloka or Buddhaloka. The temple of Bayon was a truly national fane, almost a Westminster abbey, in whose many shrines all the gods and great men of the country were commemorated. The French archæologists recognize four classes of these shrines dedicated respectively to (a) Indian deities, mostly special forms of Śiva, Devî and Vishṇu; (b) Mahayanist Buddhas, especially Buddhas of healing, who were regarded as the patron saints of various towns and mountains; (c) similar local deities apparently of Cambojan origin and perhaps corresponding to the God of the City worshipped in every Chinese town; (d) deified kings and notables, who appear to have been represented in two forms, the human and divine, bearing slightly different names. Thus one inscription speaks of Śrî Mahendreśvarî who is the divine form (vraḥ rûpa) of the lady Śrî Mahendralakshmî.

The presiding deity of the Bayon was Śiva, adored under the form of the linga. The principal external ornaments of the building are forty towers each surmounted by four heads. These were formerly thought to represent Brahmâ but there is little doubt that they are meant for lingas bearing four faces of Śiva, since each head has three eyes. Such lingas are occasionally seen in India[281] and many metal cases bearing faces and made to be fitted on lingas have been discovered in Champâ. These four-headed columns are found on the gates of Angkor Thom as well as in the Bayon and are singularly impressive. The emblem adored in the central shrine of the Bayon was probably a linga but its title was Kamrateṇ jagat ta râja or Devarâja, the king-god. More explicitly still it is styled Kamrateṇ jagat ta râjya, the god who is the kingdom. It typified and contained the royal essence present in the living king of Camboja and in all her kings. Several inscriptions make it clear that not only dead but living people could be represented by statue-portraits which identified them with a deity, and in one very remarkable record a general offers to the king the booty he has captured, asking him to present it "to your subtle ego who is Iśvara dwelling in a golden linga[282]." Thus this subtle ego dwells in a linga, is identical with Śiva, and manifests itself in the successive kings of the royal house.

The practices described have some analogies in India. The custom of describing the god of a temple by the name of the founder was known there[283]. The veneration of ancestors is universal; there are some mausolea (for instance at Ahar near Udeypore) and the notion that in life the soul can reside elsewhere than in the body is an occasional popular superstition. Still these ideas and practices are not conspicuous features of Hinduism and the Cambojans had probably come within the sphere of another influence. In all eastern Asia the veneration of the dead is the fundamental and ubiquitous form of religion and in China we find fully developed such ideas as that the great should be buried in monumental tombs, that a spirit can be made to reside in a tablet or image, and that the human soul is compound so that portions of it can be in different places. These beliefs combined with the Indian doctrine that the deity is manifested in incarnations, in the human soul and in images afford a good theoretical basis for the worship of the Devarâja. It was also agreeable to far-eastern ideas that religion and the state should be closely associated and the Cambojan kings would be glad to imitate the glories of the Son of Heaven. But probably a simpler cause tended to unite church and state in all these Hindu colonies. In mediæval India the Brahmans became so powerful that they could claim to represent religion and civilization apart from the state. But in Camboja and Champa Brahmanic religion and civilization were bound up with the state. Both were attacked by and ultimately succumbed to the same enemies.

The Brahmanism of Camboja, as we know it from the inscriptions, was so largely concerned with the worship of this "Royal God" that it might almost be considered a department of the court. It seems to have been thought essential to the dignity of a Sovereign who aspired to be more than a local prince, that his Chaplain or preceptor should have a pontifical position. A curious parallel to this is shown by those mediæval princes of eastern Europe who claimed for their chief bishops the title of patriarch as a complement to their own imperial pretensions. In its ultimate form the Cambojan hierarchy was the work of Jayavarman II, who, it will be remembered, reestablished the kingdom after an obscure but apparently disastrous interregnum. He made the priesthood of the Royal God hereditary in the family of Śivakaivalya and the sacerdotal dynasty thus founded enjoyed during some centuries a power inferior only to that of the kings.

In the inscriptions of Sdok Kâk Thom[284] the history of this family is traced from the reign of Jayavarman II to 1052. The beginning of the story as related in both the Sanskrit and Khmer texts is interesting but obscure. It is to the effect that Jayavarman, anxious to assure his position as an Emperor (Cakravartin) independent of Javâ[285], summoned from Janapada a Brahman called Hiranyadâma, learned in magic (siddhividyâ), who arranged the rules (viddhi) for the worship of the Royal God and taught the king's Chaplain, Śivakaivalya, four treatises called Vrah Vinâśikha, Nayottara, Sammoha and Śiraścheda. These works are not otherwise known[286]. The king made a solemn compact that "only the members of his (Śivakaivalya's) maternal[287] family, men and women, should be Yâjakas (sacrificers or officiants) to the exclusion of all others." The restriction refers no doubt only to the cult of the Royal God and the office of court chaplain, called Purohita, Guru or Hotri, of whom there were at least two.

The outline of this narrative, that a learned Brahman was imported and charged with the instruction of the royal chaplain, is simple and probable but the details are perplexing. The Sanskrit treatises mentioned are unknown and the names singular. Janapada as the name of a definite locality is also strange[288], but it is conceivable that the word may have been used in Khmer as a designation of India or a part of it.

The inscription goes on to relate the gratifying history of the priestly family, the grants of land made to them, the honours they received. We gather that it was usual for an estate to be given to a priest with the right to claim forced labour from the population. He then proceeded to erect a town or village embellished with temples and tanks. The hold of Brahmanism on the country probably depended more on such priestly towns than on the convictions of the people. The inscriptions often speak of religious establishments being restored and sometimes say that they had become deserted and overgrown. We may conclude that if the Brahman lords of a village ceased for any reason to give it their attention, the labour and contributions requisite for the upkeep of the temples were not forthcoming and the jungle was allowed to grow over the buildings.

Numerous inscriptions testify to the grandeur of the Śivakaivalya family. The monotonous lists of their properties and slaves, of the statues erected in their honour and the number of parasols borne before them show that their position was almost regal, even when the king was a Buddhist. They prudently refrained from attempting to occupy the throne, but probably no king could succeed unless consecrated by them. Sadaśiva, Śaṇkarapaṇḍita and Divâkarapaṇḍita formed an ecclesiastical dynasty from about 1000 to 1100 A.D. parallel to the long reigns of the kings in the same period[289]. The last-named mentions in an inscription that he had consecrated three kings and Śaṇkarapaṇḍita, a man of great learning, was de facto sovereign during the minority of his pupil Udayâdityavarman nor did he lose his influence when the young king attained his majority.

The shrine of the Royal God was first near Mt. Mahendra and was then moved to Hariharâlaya[290]. Its location was definitely fixed in the reign of Indravarman, about 877 A.D. Two Śivakaivalya Brahmans, Śivasoma and his pupil Vâmaśiva, chaplain of the king, built a temple called the Śivâśrama and erected a linga therein. It is agreed that this building is the Bayon, which formed the centre of the later city of Angkor. Indravarman also illustrated another characteristic of the court religion by placing in the temple now called Prah Kou three statues of Śiva with the features of his father, grandfather and Jayavarman II together with corresponding statues of Śakti in the likeness of their wives. The next king, Yaśovarman, who founded the town of Angkor round the Bayon, built near his palace another linga temple, now known as Ba-puon. He also erected two convents, one Brahmanic and one Buddhist. An inscription[291] gives several interesting particulars respecting the former. It fixes the provisions to be supplied to priests and students and the honours to be rendered to distinguished visitors. The right of sanctuary is accorded and the sick and helpless are to receive food and medicine. Also funeral rites are to be celebrated within its precincts for the repose of the friendless and those who have died in war. The royal residence was moved from Angkor in 928, but about twenty years later the court returned thither and the inscriptions record that the Royal God accompanied it.

The cultus was probably similar to what may be seen in the Sivaite temples of India to-day. The principal lingam was placed in a shrine approached through other chambers and accessible only to privileged persons. Libations were poured over the emblem and sacred books were recited. An interesting inscription[292] of about 600 A.D. relates how Śrîsomasarman (probably a Brahman) presented to a temple "the Râmâyaṇa, the Purâṇa and complete Bhârata" and made arrangements for their recitation. Sanskrit literature was held in esteem. We are told that Sûryavarman I was versed in the Atharva-Veda and also in the Bhâshya, Kâvyas, the six Darśanas, and the Dharmaśâstras[293]. Sacrifices are also frequently mentioned and one inscription records the performance of a Koṭihoma[294]. The old Vedic ritual remained to some extent in practice, for no circumstances are more favourable to its survival than a wealthy court dominated by a powerful hierarchy. Such ceremonies were probably performed in the ample enclosures surrounding the temples[295].

4

Mahayanist Buddhism existed in Camboja during the whole of the period covered by the inscriptions, but it remained in such close alliance with Brahmanism that it is hard to say whether it should be regarded as a separate religion. The idea that the two systems were incompatible obviously never occurred to the writers of the inscriptions and Buddhism was not regarded as more distinct from Śivaism and Vishnuism than these from one another. It had nevertheless many fervent and generous, if not exclusive, admirers. The earliest record of its existence is a short inscription dating from the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century[296], which relates how a person called Pon Prajnâ Candra dedicated male and female slaves to the three Bodhisattvas, Śâstâ[297], Maitreya and Avalokiteśvara. The title given to the Bodhisattvas (Vrah Kamratâañ) which is also borne by Indian deities shows that this Buddhism was not very different from the Brahmanic cult of Camboja.

It is interesting to find that Yaśovarman founded in Angkor Thom a Saugatâśrama or Buddhist monastery parallel to his Brâhmaṇâśrama already described. Its inmates enjoyed the same privileges and had nearly the same rules and duties, being bound to afford sanctuary, maintain the destitute and perform funeral masses. It is laid down that an Acârya versed in Buddhist lore corresponds in rank to the Acâryas of the Śaivas and Pâsupatas and that in both institutions greater honour is to be shown to such Acâryas as also are learned in grammar. A Buddhist Acârya ought to be honoured a little less than a learned Brahman. Even in form the inscriptions recording the foundation of the two Aśramas show a remarkable parallelism. Both begin with two stanzas addressed to Śiva: then the Buddhist inscription inserts a stanza in honour of the Buddha who delivers from transmigration and gives nirvâṇa, and then the two texts are identical for several stanzas[298].

Mahayanism appears to have flourished here especially from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries and throughout the greater part of this period we find the same feature that its principal devotees were not the kings but their ministers. Sûryavarman I († 1049) and Jayavarman VII († 1221) in some sense deserved the name of Buddhists since the posthumous title of the former was Nirvâṇapada and the latter left a long inscription[299] beginning with a definitely Buddhist invocation. Yet an inscription of Sûryavarman which states in its second verse that only the word of the Buddha is true, opens by singing the praises of Śiva, and Jayavarman certainly did not neglect the Brahmanic gods. But for about a hundred years there was a series of great ministers who specially encouraged Buddhism. Such were Satyavarman (c. 900 A.D.), who was charged with the erection of the building in Angkor known as Phimeanakas; Kavindrârimathana, minister under Râjendravarman II and Jayavarman V, who erected many Buddhist statues and Kîrtipaṇḍita, minister of Jayavarman V. Kîrtipaṇḍita was the author[300] of the inscription found at Srey Santhor, which states that thanks to his efforts the pure doctrine of the Buddha reappeared like the moon from behind the clouds or the sun at dawn.

It may be easily imagined that the power enjoyed by the court chaplain would dispose the intelligent classes to revolt against this hierarchy and to favour liberty and variety in religion, so far as was safe. Possibly the kings, while co-operating with a priesthood which recognized them as semi-divine, were glad enough to let other religious elements form some sort of counterpoise to a priestly family which threatened to be omnipotent. Though the identification of Śivaism and Buddhism became so complete that we actually find a Trinity composed of Padmodbhava (Brahmâ), Ambhojanetra (Vishṇu) and the Buddha[301], the inscriptions of the Buddhist ministers are marked by a certain diplomacy and self-congratulation on the success of their efforts, as if they felt that their position was meritorious, yet delicate.

Thus in an inscription, the object of which seems to be to record the erection of a statue of Prajñâ-pâramitâ by Kavindrârimathana we are told that the king charged him with the embellishment of Yaśodharapura because "though an eminent Buddhist" his loyalty was above suspicion[302]. The same minister erected three towers at Bàṭ C̆uṃ with inscriptions[303] which record the dedication of a tank. The first invokes the Buddha, Vajrapâni[304] and Lokeśvara. In the others Lokeśvara is replaced by Prajñâ-pâramitâ who here, as elsewhere, is treated as a goddess or Śakti and referred to as Devî in another stanza[305]. The three inscriptions commemorate the construction of a sacred tank but, though the author was a Buddhist, he expressly restricts the use of it to Brahmanic functionaries.

The inscription of Srey Santhor[306] (c. 975 A.D.) describes the successful efforts of Kîrtipaṇḍita to restore Buddhism and gives the instructions of the king (Jayavarman V) as to its status. The royal chaplain is by no means to abandon the worship of Śiva but he is to be well versed in Buddhist learning and on feast days he will bathe the statue of the Buddha with due ceremony.

A point of interest in this inscription is the statement that Kîrtipaṇḍita introduced Buddhist books from abroad, including the Śâstra Madhyavibhâga and the commentary on the Tattvasangraha. The first of these is probably the Mâdhyântavibhâga śâstra[307] by Vasubandhu and the authorship is worth attention as supporting Târanâtha's statement that the disciples of Vasubandhu introduced Buddhism into Indo-China.

In the time of Jayavarman VII (c. 1185 A.D.), although Hindu mythology is not discarded and though the king's chaplain (presumably a Śivaite) receives every honour, yet Mahayanist Buddhism seems to be frankly professed as the royal religion. It is noteworthy that about the same time it becomes more prominent in Java and Champa. Probably the flourishing condition of the faith in Ceylon and Burma increased the prestige of all forms of Buddhism throughout south-eastern Asia. A long inscription of Jayavarman in 145 stanzas has been preserved in the temple of Ta Prohm near Angkor. It opens with an invocation to the Buddha, in which are mentioned the three bodies, Lokeśvara[308], and the Mother of the Jinas, by whom Prajñâ-pâramitâ must be meant. Śiva is not invoked but allusion is made to many Brahmanic deities and Bhikkhus and Brahmans are mentioned together. The inscription contains a curious list of the materials supplied daily for the temple services and of the personnel. Ample provision is made for both, but it is not clear how far a purely Buddhist ritual is contemplated and it seems probable that an extensive Brahmanic cultus existed side by side with the Buddhist ceremonial. We learn that there were clothes for the deities and forty-five mosquito nets of Chinese material to protect their statues. The Uposatha days seem to be alluded to[309] and the spring festival is described, when "Bhagavat and Bhagavatî" are to be escorted in solemn procession with parasols, music, banners and dancing girls. The whole staff, including Burmese and Chams (probably slaves), is put down at the enormous figure of 79,365, which perhaps includes all the neighbouring inhabitants who could be called on to render any service to the temple. The more sacerdotal part of the establishment consisted of 18 principal priests (adhikâriṇaḥ), 2740 priests and 2232 assistants, including 615 dancing girls. But even these figures seem very large[310].

The inscription comes to a gratifying conclusion by announcing that there are 102 hospitals in the kingdom[311]. These institutions, which are alluded to in other inscriptions, were probably not all founded by Jayavarman VII and he seems to treat them as being, like temples, a natural part of a well-ordered state. But he evidently expended much care and money on them and in the present inscription he makes over the fruit of these good deeds to his mother. The most detailed description of these hospitals occurs in another of his inscriptions found at Say-fong in Laos. It is, like the one just cited, definitely Buddhist and it is permissible to suppose that Buddhism took a more active part than Brahmanism in such works of charity. It opens with an invocation first to the Buddha who in his three bodies transcends the distinction between existence and non-existence, and then to the healing Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas who drive away darkness and disease. These divinities, who are the lords of a heaven in the east, analogous to the paradise of Amitâbha, are still worshipped in China and Japan and were evidently gods of light[312]. The hospital erected under their auspices by the Cambojan king was open to all the four castes and had a staff of 98 persons, besides an astrologer and two sacrificers (yâjaka).

5

These inscriptions of Jayavarman are the last which tell us anything about the religion of mediæval Camboja but we have a somewhat later account from the pen of Chou Ta-kuan, a Chinese who visited Angkor in 1296[313]. He describes the temple in the centre of the city, which must be the Bayon, and says that it had a tower of gold and that the eastern (or principal) entrance was approached by a golden bridge flanked by two lions and eight statues, all of the same metal. The chapter of his work entitled "The Three Religions," runs as follows, slightly abridged from M. Pelliot's version.

"The literati are called Pan-ch'i, the bonzes Ch'u-ku and the Taoists Pa-ssŭ-wei. I do not know whom the Pan-ch'i worship. They have no schools and it is difficult to say what books they read. They dress like other people except that they wear a white thread round their necks, which is their distinctive mark. They attain to very high positions. The Ch'u-ku shave their heads and wear yellow clothes. They uncover the right shoulder, but the lower part of their body is draped with a skirt of yellow cloth and they go bare foot. Their temples are sometimes roofed with tiles. Inside there is only one image, exactly like the Buddha Śâkya, which they call Po-lai ( = Prah), ornamented with vermilion and blue, and clothed in red. The Buddhas of the towers (? images in the towers of the temples) are different and cast in bronze. There are no bells, drums, cymbals, or flags in their temples. They eat only one meal a day, prepared by someone who entertains them, for they do not cook in their temples. They eat fish and meat and also use them in their offerings to Buddha, but they do not drink wine. They recite numerous texts written on strips of palm-leaf. Some bonzes have a right to have the shafts of their palanquins and the handles of their parasols in gold or silver. The prince consults them on serious matters. There are no Buddhist nuns.

"The Pa-ssŭ-wei dress like everyone else, except that they wear on their heads a piece of red or white stuff like the Ku-ku worn by Tartar women but lower. Their temples are smaller than those of the Buddhists, for Taoism is less prosperous than Buddhism. They worship nothing but a block of stone, somewhat like the stone on the altar of the God of the Sun in China. I do not know what god they adore. There are also Taoist nuns. The Pa-ssŭ-wei do not partake of the food of other people or eat in public. They do not drink wine.

"Such children of the laity as go to school frequent the bonzes, who give them instruction. When grown up they return to a lay life.

"I have not been able to make an exhaustive investigation."

Elsewhere he says "All worship the Buddha" and he describes some popular festivals which resemble those now celebrated in Siam. In every village there was a temple or a Stûpa. He also mentions that in eating they use leaves as spoons and adds "It is the same in their sacrifices to the spirits and to Buddha."

Chou Ta-kuan confesses that his account is superficial and he was perhaps influenced by the idea that it was natural there should be three religions in Camboja, as in China. Buddhists were found in both countries: Pan-ch'i no doubt represents Paṇḍita and he saw an analogy between the Brahmans of the Cambojan Court and Confucian mandarins: a third and less known sect he identified with the Taoists. The most important point in his description is the prominence given to the Buddhists. His account of their temples, of the dress and life of their monks[314] leaves no doubt that he is describing Hinayanist Buddhism such as still nourishes in Camboja. It probably found its way from Siam, with which Camboja had already close, but not always peaceful, relations. Probably the name by which the bonzes are designated is Siamese[315]. With Chou Ta-kuan's statements may be compared the inscription of the Siamese King Râma Khomhëng[316] which dwells on the nourishing condition of Pali Buddhism in Siam about 1300 A.D. The contrast indicated by Chou Ta-kuan is significant. The Brahmans held high office but had no schools. Those of the laity who desired education spent some portion of their youth in a Buddhist monastery (as they still do) and then returned to the world. Such a state of things naturally resulted in the diffusion of Buddhism among the people, while the Brahmans dwindled to a Court hierarchy. When Chou Ta-kuan says that all the Cambojans adored Buddha, he probably makes a mistake, as he does in saying that the sculptures above the gates of Angkor are heads of Buddha. But the general impression which he evidently received that everyone frequented Buddhist temples and monasteries speaks for itself. His statement about sacrifices to Buddha is remarkable and, since the inscriptions of Jayavarman VII speak of sacrificers, it cannot be rejected as a mere mistake. But if Hinayanist Buddhism countenanced such practices in an age of transition, it did not adopt them permanently for, so far as I have seen, no offerings are made to-day in Cambojan temples, except flowers and sticks of incense.

The Pa-ssŭ-wei have given rise to many conjectures and have been identified with the Basaih or sacerdotal class of the Chams. But there seems to be little doubt that the word really represents Pâśupata and Chou Ta-kuan's account clearly points to a sect of linga worshippers, although no information is forthcoming about the "stone on the altar of the Sun God in China" to which he compares their emblem. His idea that they represented the Taoists in Camboja may have led him to exaggerate their importance but his statement that they were a separate body is confirmed, for an inscription of Angkor[317] defines the order of hierarchical precedence as "the Brahman, the Śaiva Acârya, the Pâśupata Acârya[318]."

From the time of Chou Ta-kuan to the present day I have found few notices about the religion of Camboja. Hinayanist Buddhism became supreme and though we have few details of the conquest we can hardly go wrong in tracing its general lines. Brahmanism was exclusive and tyrannical. It made no appeal to the masses but a severe levy of forced labour must have been necessary to erect and maintain the numerous great shrines which, though in ruins, are still the glory of Camboja[319]. In many of them are seen the remains of inscriptions which have been deliberately erased. These probably prescribed certain onerous services which the proletariat was bound to render to the established church. When Siamese Buddhism invaded Camboja it had a double advantage. It was the creed of an aggressive and successful neighbour but, while thus armed with the weapons of this world, it also appealed to the poor and oppressed. If it enjoyed the favour of princes, it had no desire to defend the rights of a privileged caste: it offered salvation and education to the average townsman and villager. If it invited the support and alms of the laity, it was at least modest in its demands. Brahmanism on the other hand lost strength as the prestige of the court declined. Its greatest shrines were in the provinces most exposed to Siamese attacks. The first Portuguese writers speak of them as already deserted at the end of the sixteenth century. The connection with India was not kept up and if any immigrants came from the west, after the twelfth century they are more likely to have been Moslims than Hindus. Thus driven from its temples, with no roots among the people, whose affections it had never tried to win, Brahmanism in Camboja became what it now is, a court ritual without a creed and hardly noticed except at royal functions.

It is remarkable that Mohammedanism remained almost unknown to Camboja, Siam and Burma. The tide of Moslim invasion swept across the Malay Peninsula southwards. Its effect was strongest in Sumatra and Java, feebler on the coasts of Borneo and the Philippines. From the islands it reached Champa, where it had some success, but Siam and Camboja lay on one side of its main route, and also showed no sympathy for it. King Rama Thuppdey Chan[320] who reigned in Camboja from 1642-1659 became a Mohammedan and surrounded himself with Malays and Javanese. But he alienated the affections of his subjects and was deposed by the intervention of Annam. After this we hear no more of Mohammedanism. An unusual incident, which must be counted among the few cases in which Buddhism has encouraged violence, is recorded in the year 1730, when a Laotian who claimed to be inspired, collected a band of fanatics and proceeded to massacre in the name of Buddha all the Annamites resident in Camboja. This seems to show that Buddhism was regarded as the religion of the country and could be used as a national cry against strangers.

As already mentioned Brahmanism still survives in the court ceremonial though this by no means prevents the king from being a devout Buddhist. The priests are known as Bakus. They wear a top-knot and the sacred thread after the Indian fashion, and enjoy certain privileges. Within the precincts of the palace at Phnom Penh is a modest building where they still guard the sword of Indra. About two inches of the blade are shown to visitors, but except at certain festivals it is never taken out of its sheath.

The official programme of the coronation of King Sisowath (April 23-28, 1906), published in French and Cambojan, gives a curious account of the ceremonies performed, which were mainly Brahmanic, although prayers were recited by the Bonzes and offerings made to Buddha. Four special Brahmanic shrines were erected and the essential part of the rite consisted in a lustral bath, in which the Bakus poured water over the king. Invocations were addressed to beings described as "Anges qui êtes au paradis des six séjours célestes, qui habitez auprès d'Indra, de Brahmâ et de l'archange Sahabodey," to the spirits of mountains, valleys and rivers and to the spirits who guard the palace. When the king has been duly bathed the programme prescribes that "le Directeur des Bakous remettra la couronne â M. le Gouverneur Général qui la portera sur la tête de Sa Majesté au nom du Gouvernement de la République Française." Equally curious is the "Programme des fêtes royales à l'occasion de la crémation de S.M. Norodom" (January 2-16, 1906). The lengthy ceremonial consisted of a strange mixture of prayers, sermons, pageants and amusements. The definitely religious exercises were Buddhist and the amusements which accompanied them, though according to our notions curiously out of place, clearly correspond to the funeral games of antiquity. Thus we read not only of "offrande d'un repas aux urnes royales" but of "illuminations générales ... lancement de ballons ... luttes et assauts de boxe et de l'escrime ... danses et soirée de gala.... Après la crémation, Sa Majesté distribuera des billets de tombola."

The ordinary Buddhism of Camboja at the present day resembles that of Siam and is not mixed with Brahmanic observances. Monasteries are numerous: the monks enjoy general respect and their conduct is said to be beyond reproach. They act as schoolmasters and, as in Siam and Burma, all young men spend some time in a monastery. A monastery generally contains from thirty to fifty monks and consists of a number of wooden houses raised on piles and arranged round a square. Each monk has a room and often a house to himself. Besides the dwelling houses there are also stores and two halls called Salâ and Vihéar (vihâra). In both the Buddha is represented by a single gigantic sitting image, before which are set flowers and incense. As a rule there are no other images but the walls are often ornamented with frescoes of Jâtaka stories or the early life of Gotama. Meals are taken in the Salâ at about 7 and 11 a.m.[321], and prayers are recited there on ordinary days in the morning and evening. The eleven o'clock meal is followed by a rather long grace. The prayers consist mostly of Pali formulæ, such as the Three Refuges, but they are sometimes in Cambojan and contain definite petitions or at least wishes formulated before the image of the Buddha. Thus I have heard prayers for peace and against war. The more solemn ceremonies, such as the Uposatha and ordinations, are performed in the Vihear. The recitation of the Pâtimokkha is regularly performed and I have several times witnessed it. All but ordained monks have to withdraw outside the Sîmâ stones during the service. The ceremony begins about 6 p.m.: the Bhikkhus kneel down in pairs face to face and rubbing their foreheads in the dust ask for mutual forgiveness if they have inadvertently offended. This ceremony is also performed on other occasions. It is followed by singing or intoning lauds, after which comes the recitation of the Pâtimokkha itself which is marked by great solemnity. The reader sits in a large chair on the arms of which are fixed many lighted tapers. He repeats the text by heart but near him sits a prompter with a palm-leaf manuscript who, if necessary, corrects the words recited. I have never seen a monk confess in public, and I believe that the usual practice is for sinful brethren to abstain from attending the ceremony and then to confess privately to the Abbot, who assigns them a penance. As soon as the Pâtimokkha is concluded all the Bhikkhus smoke large cigarettes. In most Buddhist countries it is not considered irreverent to smoke[322], chew betel or drink tea in the intervals of religious exercises. When the cigarettes are finished there follows a service of prayer and praise in Cambojan. During the season of Wassa there are usually several Bhikkhus in each monastery who practise meditation for three or four days consecutively in tents or enclosures made of yellow cloth, open above but closed all round. The four stages of meditation described in the Piṭakas are said to be commonly attained by devout monks[323].

The Abbot has considerable authority in disciplinary matters. He eats apart from the other monks and at religious ceremonies wears a sort of red cope, whereas the dress of the other brethren is entirely yellow. Novices prostrate themselves when they speak to him.

Above the Abbots are Provincial Superiors and the government of the whole Church is in the hands of the Somdec práh sanghrâc. There is, or was, also a second prelate called Lòk práh só̆kŏn, or Braḥ Sugandha, and the two, somewhat after the manner of the two primates of the English Church, supervise the clergy in different parts of the kingdom, the second being inferior to the first in rank, but not dependent on him. But it is said that no successor has been appointed to the last Braḥ Sugandha who died in 1894. He was a distinguished scholar and introduced the Dhammayut sect from Siam into Camboja. The king is recognized as head of the Church, but cannot alter its doctrine or confiscate ecclesiastical property.

6

No account of Cambojan religion would be complete without some reference to the splendid monuments in which it found expression and which still remain in a great measure intact. The colonists who established themselves in these regions brought with them the Dravidian taste for great buildings, but either their travels enlarged their artistic powers or they modified the Indian style by assimilating successfully some architectural features found in their new home. What pre-Indian architecture there may have been among the Khmers we do not know, but the fact that the earliest known monuments are Hindu makes it improbable that stone buildings on a large scale existed before their arrival. The feature which most clearly distinguishes Cambojan from Indian architecture is its pyramidal structure. India has stupas and gopurams of pyramidal appearance but still Hindu temples of the normal type, both in the north and south, consist of a number of buildings erected on the same level. In Camboja on the contrary many buildings, such as Ta-Keo, Ba-phuong and the Phimeanakas, are shrines on the top of pyramids, which consist of three storeys or large steps, ascended by flights of relatively small steps. In other buildings, notably Angkor Wat, the pyramidal form is obscured by the slight elevation of the storeys compared with their breadth and by the elaboration of the colonnades and other edifices, which they bear. But still the general plan is that of a series of courts each rising within and above the last and this gradual rise, by which the pilgrim is led, not only through colonnade after colonnade, but up flight after flight of stairs, each leading to something higher but invisible from the base, imparts to Cambojan temples a sublimity and aspiring grandeur which is absent from the mysterious halls of Dravidian shrines.

One might almost suppose that the Cambojan architects had deliberately set themselves to rectify the chief faults of Indian architecture. One of these is the profusion of external ornament in high relief which by its very multiplicity ceases to produce any effect proportionate to its elaboration, with the result that the general view is disappointing and majestic outlines are wanting. In Cambojan buildings on the contrary the general effect is not sacrificed to detail: the artists knew how to make air and space give dignity to their work. Another peculiar defect of many Dravidian buildings is that they were gradually erected round some ancient and originally humble shrine with the unfortunate result that the outermost courts and gateways are the most magnificent and that progress to the holy of holies is a series of artistic disappointments. But at Angkor Wat this fault is carefully avoided. The long paved road which starts from the first gateway isolates the great central mass of buildings without dwarfing it and even in the last court, when one looks up the vast staircases leading to the five towers which crown the pyramid, all that has led up to the central shrine seems, as it should, merely an introduction.

The solidity of Cambojan architecture is connected with the prevalence of inundations. With such dangers it was of primary importance to have a massive substructure which could not be washed away and the style which was necessary in building a firm stone platform inspired the rest of the work. Some unfinished temples reveal the interesting fact that they were erected first as piles of plain masonry. Then came the decorator and carved the stones as they stood in their places, so that instead of carving separate blocks he was able to contemplate his design as a whole and to spread it over many stones. Hence most Cambojan buildings have a peculiar air of unity. They have not had ornaments affixed to them but have grown into an ornamental whole. Yet if an unfavourable criticism is to be made on these edifices--especially Angkor Wat--it is that the sculptures are wanting in meaning and importance. They cannot be compared to the reliefs of Boroboedoer, a veritable catechism in stone where every clause teaches the believer something new, or even to the piles of figures in Dravidian temples which, though of small artistic merit, seem to represent the whirl of the world with all its men and monsters, struggling from life into death and back to life again. The reliefs in the great corridors of Angkor are purely decorative. The artist justly felt that so long a stretch of plain stone would be wearisome, and as decoration, his work is successful. Looking outwards the eye is satisfied with such variety as the trees and houses in the temple courts afford: looking inwards it finds similar variety in the warriors and deities portrayed on the walls. Some of the scenes have an historical interest, but the attempt to follow the battles of the Ramayana or the Churning of the Sea soon becomes a tedious task, for there is little individuality or inspiration in the figures.

This want of any obvious correspondence between the decoration and cult of the Cambojan temples often makes it difficult to say to what deities they were dedicated. The Bayon, or Śivâśrama, was presumably a linga temple, yet the conjecture is not confirmed as one would expect by any indubitable evidence in the decoration or arrangements. In its general plan the building seems more Indian than others and, like the temple of Jagannâtha at Puri, consists of three successive chambers, each surmounted by a tower. The most remarkable feature in the decoration is the repetition of the four-headed figure at the top of every tower, a striking and effective motive, which is also found above the gates of the town. Chou Ta-kuan says that there were golden statues of Buddhas at the entrance to the Bayon. It is impossible to say whether this statement is accurate or not. He may have simply made a mistake, but it is equally possible that the fusion of the two creeds may have ended in images of the Buddha being placed outside the shrine of the linga.

Strange as it may seem, there is no clear evidence as to the character of the worship performed in Camboja's greatest temple, Angkor Wat. Since the prince who commenced it was known by the posthumous title of Paramavishṇuloka, we may presume that he intended to dedicate it to Vishṇu and some of the sculptures appear to represent Vishṇu slaying a demon. But it was not finished until after his death and his intentions may not have been respected by his successors. An authoritative statement[324] warns us that it is not safe to say more about the date of Angkor Wat than that its extreme limits are 1050 and 1170. Jayavarman VII (who came to the throne at about this latter date) was a Buddhist, and may possibly have used the great temple for his own worship. The sculptures are hardly Brahmanic in the theological sense, and those which represent the pleasures of paradise and the pains of hell recall Buddhist delineations of the same theme[325]. The four images of the Buddha which are now found in the central tower are modern and all who have seen them will, I think, agree that the figure of the great teacher which seems so appropriate in the neighbouring monasteries is strangely out of place in this aerial shrine. But what the designer of the building intended to place there remains a mystery. Perhaps an empty throne such as is seen in the temples of Annam and Bali would have been the best symbol[326].

Though the monuments of Camboja are well preserved the grey and massive severity which marks them at present is probably very different from the appearance that they wore when used for worship. From Chou Ta-kuan and other sources[327] we gather that the towers and porches were gilded, the bas-reliefs and perhaps the whole surface of the walls were painted, and the building was ornamented with flags. Music and dances were performed in the courtyards and, as in many Indian temples, the intention was to create a scene which by its animation and brilliancy might amuse the deity and rival the pleasures of paradise.

It is remarkable that ancient Camboja which has left us so many monuments, produced no books[328]. Though the inscriptions and Chou Ta-kuan testify to the knowledge of literature (especially religious), both Brahmanic and Buddhist, diffused among the upper classes, no original works or even adaptations of Indian originals have come down to us. The length and ambitious character of many inscriptions give an idea of what the Cambojans could do in the way of writing, but the result is disappointing. These poems in stone show a knowledge of Sanskrit, of Indian poetry and theology, which is surprising if we consider how far from India they were composed, but they are almost without exception artificial, frigid and devoid of vigour or inspiration.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 242: See among other authorities:

(a) E. Aymonier, Le Cambodge, Paris, 3 vols. 1900, 1904 (cited as Aymonier).

(b) A. Barth, Inscriptions Sanscrites du Cambodge (Notices et extraits des MSS. de la Bibliot. Nat.), Paris, 1885 (cited as Corpus, I.).

(c) A. Bergaigne, Inscriptions Sanscrites de Campâ et du Cambodge (in same series), 1893 (cited as Corpus, II.).

(d) L. Finot, "Buddhism in Indo-China," Buddhist Review, Oct. 1909.

(e) G. Maspéro, L'Empire Khmèr, Phnom Penh, 1904 (cited as Maspéro).

(f) P. Pelliot, "Mémoires sur les Coutumes de Cambodge par Tcheou Ta-kouan, traduits et annotés," B.E.F.E.O. 1902, pp. 123-177 (cited as Pelliot, Tcheou Ta-kouan).

(g) Id. "Le Founan," B.E.F.E.O. 1903, pp. 248-303 (cited as Pelliot, Founan).

(h) Articles on various inscriptions by G. Coedès in J.A. 1908, XI. p. 203, XII. p. 213; 1909, XIII. p. 467 and p. 511.

(i) Bulletin de la Commission Archéologique de l'Indochine, 1908 onwards.

(j) Le Bayon d'Angkor Thom, Mission Henri Dufour, 1910-1914. Besides the articles cited above the Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient (quoted as B.E.F.E.O.) contains many others dealing with the religion and archaeology of Camboja.

(k) L. Finot, Notes d'Epigraphie Indo-Chinoise, 1916. See for literature up to 1909, G. Coedès, Bibliothèque raisonnée des travaux relatifs à l'Archéologie du Cambodge et du Champa. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1909.]

[Footnote 243: See especially P.W. Schmitt, Die Mon-Khmer Völker. Ein Bindeglied zwischen Völkern Zentral-Asiens und Austronesiens. Braunschweig, 1906.]

[Footnote 244: Cambodge is the accepted French spelling of this country's name. In English Kamboja, Kambodia, Camboja and Cambodia are all found. The last is the most usual but di is not a good way of representing the sound of j as usually heard in this name. I have therefore preferred Camboja.]

[Footnote 245: See the inscription of Bàksĕ, Càṃkró̆ṇ, J.A. XIII. 1909, pp. 468, 469, 497.]

[Footnote 246: The Sui annals (Pelliot, Founan, p. 272) state that "Chên-la lies to the west of Lin-yi: it was originally a vassal state of Fu-nan.... The name of the king's family was Kshatriya: his personal name was Citrasena: his ancestors progressively acquired the sovereignty of the country: Citrasena seized Fu-nan and reduced it to submission." This seems perfectly clear and we know from Cambojan inscriptions that Citrasena was the personal name of the king who reigned as Mahendravarman, c. 600 A.D. But it would appear from the inscriptions that it was his predecessor Bhavavarman who made whatever change occurred in the relations of Camboja to Fu-nan and in any case it is not clear who were the inhabitants of Fu-nan if not Cambojans. Perhaps Maspéro is right in suggesting that Fu-nan was something like imperial Germany (p. 25), "Si le roi de Bavière s'emparait de la couronne impériale, rien ne serait changé en Allemagne que la famille régnante."]

[Footnote 247: It is remarkable that the Baudhâyana-dharma-sûtra enumerates going to sea among the customs peculiar to the North (I. 1, 2, 4) and then (II. 1, 2, 2) classes making voyages by sea as the first of the offences which cause loss of caste. This seems to indicate that the emigrants from India came mainly from the North, but it would be rash to conclude that in times of stress or enthusiasm the Southerners did not follow their practice. A passage in the second chapter of the Kautilîya Arthaśâstra has been interpreted as referring to the despatch of colonists to foreign countries, but it probably contemplates nothing more than the transfer of population from one part of India to another. See Finot, B.E.F.E.O. 1912, No. 8. But the passage at any rate shows that the idea of the King being able to transport a considerable mass of population was familiar in ancient India. Jâtaka 466 contains a curious story of a village of carpenters who being unsuccessful in trade built a ship and emigrated to an island in the ocean. It is clear that there must have been a considerable seafaring population in India in early times for the Rig Veda (II. 48, 3; I. 56, 2; I. 116, 3), the Mahabharata and the Jâtakas allude to the love of gain which sends merchants across the sea and to shipwrecks. Sculptures at Salsette ascribed to about 150 A.D. represent a shipwreck. Ships were depicted in the paintings of Ajanta and also occur on the coins of the Andhra King Yajñaśrî (c. 200 A.D.) and in the sculptures of Boroboedoer. The Dîgha Nikâya (XI. 85) speaks of sea-going ships which when lost let loose a land sighting bird. Much information is collected in Radhakumud Mookerji's History of Indian Shipping, 1912.]

[Footnote 248: Voyages are still regularly made in dhows between the west coast of India and Zanzibar or Mombasa and the trade appears to be old.]

[Footnote 249: See Jâtaka 339 for the voyage to Baveru or Babylon. Jâtakas 360 and 442 mention voyages to Suvaṇṇabhûmi or Lower Burma from Bharukaccha and from Benares down the river. The Milinda Pañha (VI. 21) alludes to traffic with China by sea.]

[Footnote 250: Râm. iv. 40, 30.]

[Footnote 251: Pelliot, Founan, p. 254. The Western and Eastern Tsin reigned from 265 to 419 A.D.]

[Footnote 252: Pelliot, Founan, p. 254. Most of the references to Chinese annals are taken from this valuable paper.]

[Footnote 253: The inscription of Mi-son relates how Kauṇḍinya planted at Bharapura (? in Camboja) a javelin given to him by Aśvatthâman.]

[Footnote 254: This is the modern reading of the characters in Peking, but Julien's Méthode justifies the transcription Kau-ḍi-nya.]

[Footnote 255: See S. Lévi in Mélanges Charles de Harlez, p. 176. Deux peuples méconnus. i. Les Murunḍas.]

[Footnote 256: Nanjio Catalogue, p. 422.]

[Footnote 257: I-Tsing, trans. Takakusu, p. 12.]

[Footnote 258: Corpus, I. p. 65.]

[Footnote 259: Corpus, I. pp. 84, 89, 90, and Jour. Asiatique, 1882, p. 152.]

[Footnote 260: When visiting Badami, Paṭṭadkal and Aihole in 1912 I noted the following resemblances between the temples of that district and those of Camboja. (a) The chief figures are Harihara, Vâmana and Nṛisiṃha. At Paṭṭadkal, as at Angkor Wat, the reliefs on the temple wall represent the Churning of the Sea and scenes from the Râmâyana. (b) Large blocks of stone were used for building and after being put in their positions were carved in situ, as is shown by unfinished work in places. (c) Medallions containing faces are frequent. (d) The architectural scheme is not as in Dravidian temples, that is to say larger outside and becoming smaller as one proceeds towards the interior. There is generally a central tower attached to a hall. (e) The temples are often raised on a basement. (f) Mukhalingas and kośhas are still used in worship. (g) There are verandahs resembling those at Angkor Wat. They have sloping stone roofs, sculptures in relief on the inside wall and a series of windows in the outside wall. (h) The doors of the Linga shrines have a serpentine ornamentation and are very like those of the Bayon. (i) A native gentleman told me that he had seen temples with five towers in this neighbourhood, but I have not seen them myself.]

[Footnote 261: E.g. Mahendravarman, Narasinhavarman, Parameśvaravarman, etc. It may be noticed that Paṭṭadkal is considerably to the N.W. of Madras and that the Pallavas are supposed to have come from the northern part of the present Madras Presidency. Though the Hindus who emigrated to Camboja probably embarked in the neighbourhood of Madras, they may have come from countries much further to the north. Varman is recognized as a proper termination of Kshatriya names, but it is remarkable that it is found in all the Sanskrit names of Cambojan kings and is very common in Pallava names. The name of Aśvatthâman figures in the mythical genealogies of both the Pallavas and the kings of Champa or perhaps of Camboja, see B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 923.]

[Footnote 262: Some authorities think that Kaundinya is meant by the wicked king, but he lived about 300 years before I-Ching's visit and the language seems to refer to more recent events. Although Bhavavarman is not known to have been a religious innovator he appears to have established a new order of things in Camboja and his inscriptions show that he was a zealous worshipper of Śiva and other Indian deities. It would be even more natural if I-Ching referred to Iśânavarman (c. 615) or Jayavarman I (c. 650), but there is no proof that these kings were anti-buddhist.]

[Footnote 263: Schiefner, p. 262.]

[Footnote 264: See Maspéro, L'Empire Khmèr, pp. 24 ff.]

[Footnote 265: Perhaps a second Bhavavarman came between these last two kings; see Coedès in B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p 691.]

[Footnote 266: See Mecquenem in B.E.F.E.O. 1913, No. 2.]

[Footnote 267: But the captivity is only an inference and not a necessary one. Finot suggests that the ancient royal house of Fu-nan may have resided at Javâ and have claimed suzerain rights over Camboja which Jayavarman somehow abolished. The only clear statements on the question are those in the Sdok Kak Thom inscription, Khmer text c. 72, which tell us that Camboja had been dependent on Javâ and that Jayavarman II instituted a special state cult as a sign that this dependence had come to an end.

It is true that the Hindu colonists of Camboja may have come from the island of Java, yet no evidence supports the idea that Camboja was a dependency of the island about 800 A.D. and the inscriptions of Champa seem to distinguish clearly between Yavadvîpa (the island) and the unknown country called Javâ. See Finot, Notes d'Epig. pp. 48 and 240. Hence it seems unlikely that the barbarous pirates (called the armies of Java) who invaded Champa in 787 (see the inscription of Yang Tikuh) were from the island. The Siamese inscription of Râma Khomhëng, c. 1300 A.D., speaks of a place called Chavâ, which may be Luang Prabang. On the other hand it does not seem likely that pirates, expressly described as using ships, would have come from the interior.]

[Footnote 268: For these annals see F. Garnier, "La Chronique royale du Cambodje," J.A. 1871 and 1872. A. de Villemereuil, Explorations et Missions de Doudard de Lagrée, 1882. J. Moura, Le Royaume de Cambodje, vol. II. 1883. E. Aymonier, Chronique des Anciens rois du Cambodje. (Excursions et reconnaissances. Saigon, 1881.)]

[Footnote 269: E.g. Ang Chan (1796-1834) received his crown from the King of Siam and paid tribute to the King of Annam; Ang Duong (1846-1859) was crowned by representatives of Annam and Siam and his territory was occupied by the troops of both countries.]

[Footnote 270: The later history of Camboja is treated in considerable detail by A. Leclerc, Histoire de Cambodge, 1914.]

[Footnote 271: Inscrip. of Moroun, Corpus, II. 387.]

[Footnote 272: Other local deities may be alluded to, under the names of Śrî Jayakshetra, "the field of victory" adored at Basset Simâdamataka, Śrî Mandareśvara, and Śrî Jalangeśvara. Aymonier, II. p. 297; I. pp. 305, 306 and 327.]

[Footnote 273: Inscrip. of Lovek.]

[Footnote 274: Prea Eynkosey, 970 A.D. See Corpus, I. pp. 77 ff.]

[Footnote 275: This compound deity is celebrated in the Harivamsa and is represented in the sculptures of the rock temple at Badami, which is dated 578 A.D. Thus his worship may easily have reached Camboja in the sixth or seventh century.]

[Footnote 276: Jayato jagatâm bhûtyai Kritasandhî Harâcyutau, Parvatîśrîpatitvena Bhinnamûrttidharâvapi. See also the Inscrip. of Ang Chumnik (667 A.D.), verses 11 and 12 in Corpus, I. p. 67.]

[Footnote 277: The Bayang Inscription, Corpus, I. pp. 31 ff. which mentions the dates 604 and 626 as recent.]

[Footnote 278: Corpus, II. p. 422 Śaivapaśupatâcâryyau. The inscription fixes the relative rank of various Acâryas.]

[Footnote 279: See B.E.F.E.O. 1906, p. 70.]

[Footnote 280: See specially on this subject, Coedès in Bull. Comm. Archéol. de l'Indochine, 1911, p. 38, and 1913, p. 81, and the letterpress of Le Bayon d'Angkor Thorn, 1914.]

[Footnote 281: I have seen myself a stone lingam carved with four faces in a tank belonging to a temple at Maḥakut not far from Badami.]

[Footnote 282: Suvarṇamayalingagateśvare te sûkshmântarâtmani. Inscrip. of Prea Ngouk, Corpus, I. p. 157.]

[Footnote 283: E.g. see Epig. Indica, vol. III. pp. 1 ff. At Paṭṭadkal (which region offers so many points of resemblance to Camboja) King Vijayâditya founded a temple of Vijayeśvara and two Queens, Lokamahâdevî and Trailokyamahâdevî founded temples of Lokeśvara and Trailokyeśvara.]

[Footnote 284: Aymonier, II. pp. 257 ff. and especially Finot in B.E.F.E.O. 1915, xv. 2, p. 53.]

[Footnote 285: See above.]

[Footnote 286: Sammohana and Niruttara are given as names of Tantras. The former word may perhaps be the beginning of a compound. There are Pali works called Sammohavinodinî and S. vinâśinî. The inscription calls the four treatises the four faces of Tumburn.]

[Footnote 287: This shows that matriarchy must have been in force in Camboja.]

[Footnote 288: Jânapada as the name of a locality is cited by Böthlingck and Roth from the Gaṇa to Pâniṇi, 4. 2. 82.]

[Footnote 289: Possibly others may have held office during this long period, but evidently all three priests lived to be very old men and each may have been Guru for forty years.]

[Footnote 290: This place which means merely "the abode of Hari and Hara" has not been identified.]

[Footnote 291: Corpus, II. Inscrip. lvi. especially pp. 248-251.]

[Footnote 292: Veal Kantel. Corpus, I. p. 28.]

[Footnote 293: Inscr. of Prah Khan, B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 675.]

[Footnote 294: B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 677.]

[Footnote 295: Just as a Vedic sacrifice was performed in the court of the temple of Chidambaram about 1908.]

[Footnote 296: Aymonier, Cambodja, I. p. 442.]

[Footnote 297: Śâstâ sounds like a title of Śâkyamuni, but, if Aymonier is correct, the personage is described as a Bodhisattva. There were pagoda slaves even in modern Burma.]

[Footnote 298: See Coedès, "La Stèle de Tép Praṇaṃ," in J.A. XI. 1908, p. 203.]

[Footnote 299: Inscrip. of Ta Prohm, B.E.F.E.O. 1906, p. 44.]

[Footnote 300: See Senart in Revue Archéologique, 1883. As in many inscriptions it is not always plain who is speaking but in most parts it is apparently the minister promulgating the instructions of the king.]

[Footnote 301: Inscript. of Prasat Prah Khse, Corpus, I. p. 173.]

[Footnote 302: Buddhânâm agraṇîr api, J.A. XX. 1882, p. 164.]

[Footnote 303: See Coedès, "Inscriptions de Bàt Cuṃ," in J.A. XII. 1908, pp. 230, 241.]

[Footnote 304: The Bodhisattva corresponding to the Buddha Akshobhya. He is green or blue and carries a thunderbolt. It seems probable that he is a metamorphosis of Indra.]

[Footnote 305: An exceedingly curious stanza eulogizes the doctrine of the non-existence of the soul taught by the Buddha which leads to identification with the universal soul although contrary to it. Vuddho vodhîm vidaddhyâd vo yena nairâtmyadarśanaṃ viruddhasyâpi sâdhûktaṃ sâdhanaṃ paramâtmanaḥ.]

[Footnote 306: Aymonier, I pp. 261 ff. Senart, Revue Archéologique, Mars-Avril, 1883.]

[Footnote 307: Nanjio, 1244 and 1248.]

[Footnote 308: The common designation of Avalokita in Camboja and Java. For the inscription see B.E.F.E.O. 1906, pp. 44 ff.]

[Footnote 309: Stanza XLVI.]

[Footnote 310: The inscription only says "There are here (atra)." Can this mean in the various religious establishments maintained by the king?]

[Footnote 311: See also Finot, Notes d'Epig. pp. 332-335. The Mahâvaṃsa repeatedly mentions that kings founded hospitals and distributed medicines. See too, Yule, Marco Polo, I. p. 446. The care of the sick was recognized as a duty and a meritorious act in all Buddhist countries and is recommended by the example of the Buddha himself.]

[Footnote 312: Their somewhat lengthy titles are Bhaishajyaguruvaidûryaprabharâja, Sûryavairocanacaṇḍaroci and Candravairocanarohinîśa. See for an account of them and the texts on which their worship is founded the learned article of M. Pelliot, "Le Bhaiṣajyaguru," B.E.F.E.O. 1903, p. 33.]

[Footnote 313: His narrative is translated by M. Pelliot in B.E.F.E.O. 1902, pp. 123-177.]

[Footnote 314: Pelliot (B.E.F.E.O. 1902, p. 148) cites a statement from the Ling Wai Tai Ta that there were two classes of bonzes in Camboja, those who wore yellow robes and married and those who wore red robes and lived in convents.]

[Footnote 315: M. Finot conjectures that it represents the Siamese Chao (Lord) and a corruption of Guru.]

[Footnote 316: See chapter on Siam, sect. 1.]

[Footnote 317: Corpus, II. p. 422.]

[Footnote 318: The strange statement of Chou Ta-kuan (pp. 153-155) that the Buddhist and Taoist priests enjoyed a species of jus primæ noctis has been much discussed. Taken by itself it might be merely a queer story founded on a misunderstanding of Cambojan customs, for he candidly says that his information is untrustworthy. But taking it in connection with the stories about the Aris in Burma (see especially Finot, J.A. 1912, p. 121) and the customs attributed by Chinese and Europeans to the Siamese and Philippinos, we can hardly come to any conclusion except that this strange usage was an aboriginal custom in Indo-China and the Archipelago, prior to the introductions of Indian civilization, but not suppressed for some time. At the present day there seems to be no trace or even tradition of such a custom. For Siamese and Philippine customs see B.E.F.E.O. 1902, p. 153, note 4.]

[Footnote 319: The French Archæological Commission states that exclusive of Angkor and the neighbouring buildings there are remains of 600 temples in Camboja, and probably many have entirely disappeared.]

[Footnote 320: Maspéro, pp. 62-3.]

[Footnote 321: The food is prepared in the monasteries, and, as in other countries, the begging round is a mere formality.]

[Footnote 322: But in Chinese temples notices forbidding smoking are often posted on the doors.]

[Footnote 323: The word dhyâna is known, but the exercise is more commonly called Vipassanâ or Kammathâna.]

[Footnote 324: M.G. Coedès in Bull. Comm. Archéol. 1911, p. 220.]

[Footnote 325: Although there is no reason why these pictures of the future life should not be Brahmanic as well as Buddhist, I do not remember having seen them in any purely Brahmanic temple.]

[Footnote 326: After spending some time at Angkor Wat I find it hard to believe the theory that it was a palace. The King of Camboja was doubtless regarded as a living God, but so is the Grand Lama, and it does not appear that the Potala where he lives is anything but a large residential building containing halls and chapels much like the Vatican. But at Angkor Wat everything leads up to a central shrine. It is quite probable however that the deity of this shrine was a deified king, identified with Vishṇu after his death. This would account for the remarks of Chou Ta-kuan who seems to have regarded it as a tomb.]

[Footnote 327: See especially the inscription of Bassac. Kern, Annales de l'Extrème Orient, t. III. 1880, p. 65.]

[Footnote 328: Pali books are common in monasteries. For the literature of Laos see Finot, B.E.F.E.O. 1917, No. 5.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXXIX. CHAMPA[329]

THE kingdom of Champa, though a considerable power from about the third century until the end of the fifteenth, has attracted less attention than Camboja or Java. Its name is a thing of the past and known only to students: its monuments are inferior in size and artistic merit to those of the other Hindu kingdoms in the Far East and perhaps its chief interest is that it furnishes the oldest Sanskrit inscription yet known from these regions.

Champa occupied the south-eastern corner of Asia beyond the Malay Peninsula, if the word corner can be properly applied to such rounded outlines. Its extent varied at different epochs, but it may be roughly defined in the language of modern geography as the southern portion of Annam, comprising the provinces of Quãng-nam in the north and Bînh-Thuan in the south with the intervening country. It was divided into three provinces, which respectively became the seat of empire at different periods. They were (i) in the north Amarâvatî (the modern Quãng-nam) with the towns of Indrapura and Sinhapura; (ii) in the middle Vijaya (the modern Bing-Dinh) with the town of Vijaya and the port of Śrî-Vinaya; (iii) in the south Pâṇḍurânga or Panran (the modern provinces of Phanrang and Binh-Thuan) with the town of Vîrapura or Râjapura. A section of Pâṇḍurânga called Kauthâra (the modern Kanh hoa) was a separate province at certain times. Like the modern Annam, Champa appears to have been mainly a littoral kingdom and not to have extended far into the mountains of the interior.

Champa was the ancient name of a town in western Bengal near Bhagalpur, but its application to these regions does not seem due to any connection with north-eastern India. The conquerors of the country, who were called Chams, had a certain amount of Indian culture and considered the classical name Champa as an elegant expression for the land of the Chams. Judging by their language these Chams belonged to the Malay-Polynesian group and their distribution along the littoral suggests that they were invaders from the sea like the Malay pirates from whom they themselves subsequently suffered. The earliest inscription in the Cham language dates from the beginning of the ninth century but it is preceded by a long series of Sanskrit inscriptions the oldest of which, that of Vo-can[330], is attributed at latest to the third century, and refers to an earlier king. It therefore seems probable that the Hindu dynasty of Chaṃpa was founded between 150 and 200 A.D. but there is no evidence to show whether a Malay race already settled in Champa was conquered and hinduized by Indian invaders, or whether the Chams were already hinduized when they arrived, possibly from Java.

The inferiority of the Chams to the Khmers in civilization was the result of their more troubled history. Both countries had to contend against the same difficulty--a powerful and aggressive neighbour on either side. Camboja between Siam and Annam in 1800 was in very much the same position as Champa had been between Camboja and Annam five hundred years earlier. But between 950 and 1150 A.D. when Champa by no means enjoyed stability and peace, the history of Camboja, if not altogether tranquil, at least records several long reigns of powerful kings who were able to embellish their capital and assure its security. The Chams were exposed to attacks not only from Annam but also from the more formidable if distant Chinese and their capital, instead of remaining stationary through several centuries like Angkor Thom, was frequently moved as one or other of the three provinces became more important.

The inscription of Vo-can is in correct Sanskrit prose and contains a fragmentary address from a king who seems to have been a Buddhist and writes somewhat in the style of Asoka. He boasts that he is of the family of Śrîmârarâja. The letters closely resemble those of Rudradaman's inscription at Girnar and contemporary inscriptions at Kanheri. The text is much mutilated so that we know neither the name of the writer nor his relationship to Śrîmâra. But the latter was evidently the founder of the dynasty and may have been separated from his descendant by several generations. It is noticeable that his name does not end in Varman, like those of later kings. If he lived at the end of the second century this would harmonize with the oldest Chinese notices which fix the rise of Lin-I (their name for Champa) about 192 A.D.[331] Agreeably to this we also hear that Hun T'ien founded an Indian kingdom in Fu-nan considerably before 265 A.D. and that some time between 220 and 280 a king of Fu-nan sent an embassy to India. The name Fu-nan may include Champa. But though we hear of Hindu kingdoms in these districts at an early date we know nothing of their civilization or history, nor do we obtain much information from those Cham legends which represent the dynasties of Champa as descended from two clans, those of the cabbage palm (aréquier) and cocoanut.

Chinese sources also state that a king called Fan-yi sent an embassy to China in 284 and give the names of several kings who reigned between 336 and 440. One of these, Fan-hu-ta, is apparently the Bhadravarman who has left some Sanskrit inscriptions dating from about 400 and who built the first temple at Mĩ-so'n. This became the national sanctuary of Champa: it was burnt down about 575 A.D. but rebuilt. Bhadravarman's son Gangarâja appears to have abdicated and to have gone on a pilgrimage to the Ganges[332]--another instance of the intercourse prevailing between these regions and India.

It would be useless to follow in detail the long chronicle of the kings of Champa but a few events merit mention. In 446 and again in 605 the Chinese invaded the country and severely chastised the inhabitants. But the second invasion was followed by a period of peace and prosperity. Śambhuvarman (†629) restored the temples of Mi-so'n and two of his successors, both called Vikrântavarman, were also great builders. The kings who reigned from 758 to 859, reckoned as the fifth dynasty, belonged to the south and had their capital at Vîrapura. The change seems to have been important, for the Chinese who had previously called the country Lin-I, henceforth call it Huan-wang. The natives continued to use the name Champa but Satyavarman and the other kings of the dynasty do not mention Mi-so'n though they adorned and endowed Po-nagar and other sanctuaries in the south. It was during this period (A.D. 774 and 787) that the province of Kauthâra was invaded by pirates, described as thin black barbarians and cannibals, and also as the armies of Java[333]. They pillaged the temples but were eventually expelled. They were probably Malays but it is difficult to believe that the Javanese could be seriously accused of cannibalism at this period[334].

The capital continued to be transferred under subsequent dynasties. Under the sixth (860-900) it was at Indrapura in the north: under the seventh (900-986) it returned to the south: under the eighth (989-1044) it was in Vijaya, the central province. These internal changes were accompanied by foreign attacks. The Khmers invaded the southern province in 945. On the north an Annamite Prince founded the kingdom of Dai-côviêt, which became a thorn in the side of Champa. In 982 its armies destroyed Indrapura, and in 1044 they captured Vijaya. In 1069 King Rudravarman was taken prisoner but was released in return for the cession of the three northernmost provinces. Indrapura however was rebuilt and for a time successful wars were waged against Camboja, but though the kings of Champa did not acquiesce in the loss of the northern provinces, and though Harivarman III (1074-80) was temporarily victorious, no real progress was made in the contest with Annam, whither the Chams had to send embassies practically admitting that they were a vassal state. In the next century further disastrous quarrels with Camboja ensued and in 1192 Champa was split into two kingdoms, Vijaya in the north under a Cambojan prince and Panran in the south governed by a Cham prince but under the suzerainty of Camboja. This arrangement was not successful and after much fighting Champa became a Khmer province though a very unruly one from 1203 till 1220. Subsequently the aggressive vigour of the Khmers was tempered by their own wars with Siam. But it was not the fate of Champa to be left in peace. The invasion of Khubilai lasted from 1278 to 1285 and in 1306 the provinces of O and Ly were ceded to Annam.

Champa now became for practical purposes an Annamite province and in 1318 the king fled to Java for refuge. This connection with Java is interesting and there are other instances of it. King Jaya Simhavarman III († 1307) of Champa married a Javanese princess called Tapasi. Later we hear in Javanese records that in the fifteenth century the princess Darawati of Champa married the king of Madjapahit and her sister married Raden Radmat, a prominent Moslim teacher in Java[335].

The power of the Chams was crushed by Annam in 1470. After this date they had little political importance but continued to exist as a nationality under their own rulers. In 1650 they revolted against Annam without success and the king was captured. But his widow was accorded a titular position and the Cham chronicle[336] continues the list of nominal kings down to 1822.

In Champa, as in Camboja, no books dating from the Hindu period have been preserved and probably there were not many. The Cham language appears not to have been used for literary purposes and whatever culture existed was exclusively Sanskrit. The kings are credited with an extensive knowledge of Sanskrit literature. An inscription at Po-nagar[337] (918 A.D.) says that Śrî Indravarman was acquainted with the Mîmâṃsâ and other systems of philosophy, Jinendra, and grammar together with the Kâśikâ (vṛitti) and the Śaivottara-Kalpa. Again an inscription of Mi-son[338] ascribes to Jaya Indravarmadeva (c. 1175 A.D.) proficiency in all the sciences as well as a knowledge of the Mahâyâna and the Dharmaśâstras, particularly the Nâradîya and Bhârgavîya. To some extent original compositions in Sanskrit must have been produced, for several of the inscriptions are of considerable length and one[339] gives a quotation from a work called the Purâṇârtha or Arthapurâṇaśâstra which appears to have been a chronicle of Champa. But the language of the inscriptions is often careless and incorrect and indicates that the study of Sanskrit was less flourishing than in Camboja.

2

The monuments of Champa, though considerable in size and number, are inferior to those of Camboja. The individual buildings are smaller and simpler and the groups into which they are combined lack unity. Brick was the chief material, stone being used only when brick would not serve, as for statues and lintels. The commonest type of edifice is a square pyramidal structure called by the Chams Kalan. A Kalan is as a rule erected on a hill or rising ground: its lowest storey has on the east a porch and vestibule, on the other three sides false doors. The same shape is repeated in four upper storeys of decreasing size which however serve merely for external decoration and correspond to nothing in the interior. This is a single windowless pyramidal cell lighted by the door and probably also by lamps placed in niches on the inner walls. In the centre stood a pedestal for a linga or an image, with a channel to carry off libations, leading to a spout in the wall. The outline of the tower is often varied by projecting figures or ornaments, but the sculpture is less lavish than in Camboja and Java.

In the greater religious sites several structures are grouped together. A square wall surrounds an enclosure entered by a gateway and containing one or more Kalans, as well as smaller buildings, probably for the use of priests. Before the gateway there is frequently a hall supported by columns but open at the sides.

All known specimens of Cham architecture are temples; palaces and other secular buildings were made of wood and have disappeared. Of the many sanctuaries which have been discovered, the most remarkable are those of Mi-son, and Dong Duong, both in the neighbourhood of Tourane, and Po Nagar close to Nhatrang.

Mi-son[340] is an undulating amphitheatre among mountains and contains eight or nine groups of temples, founded at different times. The earliest structures, erected by Bhadravarman I about 400, have disappeared[341] and were probably of wood, since we hear that they were burnt (apparently by an accident) in 575 A.D. New temples were constructed by Śambhuvarman about twenty-five years later and were dedicated to Śambhu-bhadreśvara, in which title the names of the founder, restorer and the deity are combined. These buildings, of which portions remain, represent the oldest and best period of Cham art. Another style begins under Vikrântavarman I between 657 and 679 A.D. This reign marks a period of decadence and though several buildings were erected at Mi-son during the eighth and ninth centuries, the locality was comparatively neglected[342] until the reign of Harivarman III (1074-1080). The temples had been ravaged by the Annamites but this king, being a successful warrior, was able to restore them and dedicated to them the booty which he had captured. Though his reign marks a period of temporary prosperity in the annals of Champa, the style which he inaugurated in architecture has little originality. It reverts to the ancient forms but shows conscious archaism rather than fresh vigour. The position of Mi-son, however, did not decline and about 1155 Jaya Harivarman I repaired the buildings, dedicated the booty taken in battle and erected a new temple in fulfilment of a vow. But after this period the princes of Champa had no authority in the district of Mi-son, and the Annamites, who seem to have disliked the religion of the Chams, plundered the temples.

Po-nagar[343] is near the port of Nha-trang and overlooks the sea. Being smaller that Mi-son it has more unity but still shows little attempt to combine in one architectural whole the buildings of which it is composed.

An inscription[344] states with curious precision that the shrine was first erected in the year 5911 of the Dvâpara age and this fantastic chronology shows that in our tenth century it was regarded as ancient. As at Mi-son, the original buildings were probably of wood for in 774 they were sacked and burnt by pirates who carried off the image[345]. Shortly afterwards they were rebuilt in brick by King Satyavarman and the existing southern tower probably dates from his reign, but the great central tower was built by Harivarman I (817 A.D.) and the other edifices are later.

Po Nagar or Yang Po Nagar means the Lady or Goddess of the city. She was commonly called Bhagavatî in Sanskrit[346] and appears to have been the chief object of worship at Nha-trang, although Śiva was associated with her under the name of Bhagavatîśvara. In 1050 an ardhanarî image representing Śiva and Bhagavatî combined in one figure was presented to the temple by King Parameśvara and a dedicatory inscription describes this double deity as the cosmic principle.

When Champa was finally conquered the temple was sold to the Annamites, who admitted that they could not acquire it except by some special and peaceful arrangement. Even now they still continue the worship of the goddess though they no longer know who she is[347].

Dong Duong, about twenty kilometres to the south of Mi-son, marks the site of the ancient capital Indrapura. The monument which has made its name known differs from those already described. Compared with them it has some pretensions to be a whole, laid out on a definite plan and it is Buddhist. It consists of three courts[348] surrounded by walls and entered by massive porticoes. In the third there are about twenty buildings and perhaps it did not escape the fault common to Cham architecture of presenting a collection of disconnected and unrelated edifices, but still there is clearly an attempt to lead up from the outermost portico through halls and gateways to the principal shrine. From an inscription dated 875 A.D. we learn that the ruins are those of a temple and vihâra erected by King Indravarman and dedicated to Avalokita under the name of Lakshmîndra Lokeśvara.

3

The religion of Champa was practically identical with that of Camboja. If the inscriptions of the former tell us more about mukhalingas and koshas and those of the latter have more allusions to the worship of the compound deity Hari-hara, this is probably a matter of chance. But even supposing that different cults were specially prominent at different places, it seems clear that all the gods and ceremonies known in Camboja were also known in Champa and vice versa. In both countries the national religion was Hinduism, mainly of the Śivaite type, accompanied by Mahayanist Buddhism which occasionally came to the front under royal patronage. In both any indigenous beliefs which may have existed did not form a separate system. It is probable however that the goddess known at Po-nagar as Bhagavatî was an ancient local deity worshipped before the Hindu immigration and an inscription found at Mi-son recommends those whose eyes are diseased to propitiate Kuvera and thus secure protection against Ekâkshapingalâ, "the tawny one-eyed (spirit)." Though this goddess or demon was probably a creation of local fancy, similar identifications of Kâlî with the spirits presiding over cholera, smallpox, etc., take place in India.

The social system was theoretically based on the four castes, but Chinese accounts indicate that in questions of marriage and inheritance older ideas connected with matriarchy and a division into clans still had weight. But the language of the inscriptions is most orthodox. King Vikrântavarman[349] quotes with approval the saying that the horse sacrifice is the best of good deeds and the murder of a Brahman the worst of sins. Brahmans, chaplains (purohita), pandits and ascetics are frequently mentioned as worthy of honour and gifts. The high priest or royal chaplain is styled Śrîparamapurohita but it does not appear that there was a sacerdotal family enjoying the unique position held by the Śivakaivalyas in Camboja. The frequent changes of capital and dynasty in Champa were unfavourable to continuity in either Church or State.

Śivaism, without any hostility to Vishṇuism or Buddhism, was the dominant creed. The earliest known inscription, that of Vo-can, contains indications of Buddhism, but three others believed to date from about 400 A.D. invoke Śiva under some such title as Bhadreśvara, indicating that a temple had been dedicated to him by King Bhadravarman. Thus the practice of combining the names of a king and his patron deity in one appellation existed in Champa at this early date[350]. It is also recorded from southern India, Camboja and Java. Besides Śiva one of the inscriptions venerates, though in a rather perfunctory manner, Umâ, Brahmâ, Vishṇu and the five elements. Several inscriptions[351] give details of Śivaite theology which agree with what we know of it in Camboja. The world animate and inanimate is an emanation from Śiva, but he delivers from the world those who think of him. Meditation, the practice of Yoga, and devotion to Śiva are several times mentioned with approval[352]. He abides in eight forms corresponding to his eight names Śarva, Bhava, Paśupati, Iśâna, Bhîma, Rudra, Mahâdeva, and Ugra. He is also, as in Java, Guru or the teacher and he has the usual mythological epithets. He dances in lonely places, he rides on the bull Nandi, is the slayer of Kâma, etc. Though represented by figures embodying such legends he was most commonly adored under the form of the linga which in Champa more than elsewhere came to be regarded as not merely symbolic but as a personal god. To mark this individuality it was commonly enclosed in a metal case (kosha) bearing one or more human faces[353]. It was then called mukhalinga and the faces were probably intended as portraits of royal donors, identified with the god in form as well as in name. An inscription of 1163 A.D. records the dedication of such a kosha, adorned with five royal faces, to Śrîśânabhadreśvara. The god, it is said, will now be able to give his blessing to all regions through his five mouths which he could not do before, and being enclosed in the kosha, like an embryo in the matrix, he becomes Hiraṇyagarbha. The linga, with or without these ornaments, was set on a snânadroṇi or stone table arranged for receiving libations, and sometimes (as in Java and Camboja) four or more lingas were set upon a single slab. From A.D. 400 onwards, the cult of Śiva seems to have maintained its paramount position during the whole history of Champa, for the last recorded Sanskrit inscription is dedicated to him. From first to last it was the state religion. Śiva is said to have sent Uroja to be the first king and is even styled the root of the state of Champa.

An inscription[354] of 811 A.D. celebrates the dual deity Śankara-Nârâyaṇa. It is noticeable that Nârâyaṇa is said to have held up Mt. Govardhana and is apparently identified with Kṛishṇa. Râma and Kṛishṇa are both mentioned in an inscription of 1157 which states that the whole divinity of Vishṇu was incarnate in King Jaya Harivarman I[355]. But neither allusions to Vishṇu nor figures of him[356] are numerous and he plays the part of an accessory though respected personage. Garuḍa, on whom he rides, was better known than the god himself and is frequently represented in sculpture.

The Śakti of Śiva, amalgamated as mentioned with a native goddess, received great honour (especially at Nhatrang) under the names of Umâ, Bhagavatî, the Lady of the city (Yang Po Nagar) and the goddess of Kauthâra. In another form or aspect she was called Maladâkuṭhâra.[357] There was also a temple of Ganeśa (Śri-Vinâyaka) at Nhatrang but statues of this deity and of Skanda are rare.

The Chinese pilgrim I-Ching, writing in the last year of the seventh century, includes Champa (Lin-I) in the list of countries which "greatly reverence the three jewels" and contrasts it with Fu-nan where a wicked king had recently almost exterminated Buddhism. He says "In this country Buddhists generally belong to the Arya-sammiti school, and there are also a few followers of the Aryasarvâstivâdin school." The statement is remarkable, for he also tells us that the Sarvâstivâdins were the predominant sect in the Malay Archipelago and flourished in southern China. The headquarters of the Sammitîyas were, according to the accounts of both Hsüan Chuang and I-Ching, in western India though, like the three other schools, they were also found in Magadha and eastern India. We also hear that the brother and sister of the Emperor Harsha belonged to this sect and it was probably influential. How it spread to Champa we do not know, nor do the inscriptions mention its name or indicate that the Buddhism which they knew was anything but the mixture of the Mahayana with Śivaism[358] which prevailed in Camboja.

I-Ching's statements can hardly be interpreted to mean that Buddhism was the official religion of Champa at any rate after 400 A.D., for the inscriptions abundantly prove that the Śivaite shrines of Mi-son and Po-nagar were so to speak national cathedrals where the kings worshipped on behalf of the country. But the Vo-can inscription (? 250 A.D.), though it does not mention Buddhism, appears to be Buddhist, and it would be quite natural that a dynasty founded about 150 A.D. should be Buddhist but that intercourse with Camboja and probably with India should strengthen Śivaism. The Chinese annals mention[359] that 1350 Buddhist books were carried off during a Chinese invasion in 605 A.D. and this allusion implies the existence of Buddhism and monasteries with libraries. As in Camboja it was perhaps followed by ministers rather than by kings. An inscription found[360] in southern Champa and dated as 829 A.D. records how a sthavira named Buddhanirvâṇa erected two vihâras and two temples (devakula) to Jina and Śankara (Buddha and Śiva) in honour of his deceased father. Shortly afterwards there came to the throne Indravarman II (860-890 A.D.), the only king of Champa who is known to have been a fervent Buddhist. He did not fail to honour Śiva as the patron of his kingdom but like Asoka he was an enthusiast for the Dharma[361]. He desires the knowledge of the Dharma: he builds monasteries for the sake of the Dharma: he wishes to propagate it: he even says that the king of the gods governs heaven by the principles of Dharma. He wishes to lead all his subjects to the "yoke and abode of Buddha," to "the city of deliverance."

To this end he founded the vihâra of Dong Duong, already described, and dedicated it to Śri Lakshmîndra Lokeśvara[362]. This last word is a synonym of Avalokita, which also occurs in the dedicatory inscription but in a fragmentary passage. Lakshmîndra is explained by other passages in the inscription from which we learn that the king's name before he ascended the throne was Lakshmîndra Bhûmîśvara, so that the Bodhisattva is here adored under the name of the king who erected the vihâra according to the custom prevalent in Śivaite temples. Like those temples this vihâra received an endowment of land and slaves of both sexes, as well as gold, silver and other metals[363].

A king who reigned from 1080 to 1086 was called Paramabodhisattva, but no further epigraphic records of Buddhism are known until the reigns of Jaya Indravarmadeva (1167-1192) and his successor Sûryavarmadeva[364]. Both of these monarchs, while worshipping Śiva, are described as knowing or practising the jñâna or dharma of the Mahayana. Little emphasis seems to be laid on these expressions but still they imply that the Mahayana was respected and considered part of the royal religion. Sûryavarmadeva erected a building called Śrî Herukaharmya[365]. The title is interesting for it contains the name of the Tantric Buddha Heruka.

The grotto of Phong-nha[366] in the extreme north of Champa (province of Quang Binh) must have been a Buddhist shrine. Numerous medallions in clay bearing representations of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dagobas have been found there but dates are wanting.

It does not appear that the Hinayanist influence which became predominant in Camboja extended to Champa. That influence came from Siam and before it had time to traverse Camboja, Champa was already in the grip of the Annamites, whose religion with the rest of their civilization came from China rather than India. Chinese culture and writing spread to the Cambojan frontier and after the decay of Champa, Camboja marks the permanent limit within which an Indian alphabet and a form of Buddhism not derived through China have maintained themselves.

A large number of the Chams were converted to Mohammedanism but the time and circumstances of the event are unknown. When Friar Gabriel visited the country at the end of the sixteenth century a form of Hinduism seems to have been still prevalent[367]. It would be of interest to know how the change of religion was effected, for history repeats itself and it is likely that the Moslims arrived in Champa by the route followed centuries before by the Hindu invaders.

There are still about 130,000 Chams in the south of Annam and Camboja. In the latter country they are all Mohammedans. In Annam some traces of Hinduism remain, such as mantras in broken Sanskrit and hereditary priests called Baśaih. Both religions have become unusually corrupt but are interesting as showing how beliefs which are radically distinct become distorted and combined in Eastern Asia[368].

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 329: Also spelt Campâ and Tchampa. It seems safer to use Ch for C in names which though of Indian origin are used outside India. The final a though strictly speaking long is usually written without an accent. The following are the principal works which I have consulted about Champa.

(a) G. Maspéro, Le Royaume de Champa. Published in T'oung Pao, 1910-1912. Cited as Maspéro.

(b) A. Bergaigne, "Inscriptions Sanskrites de Champa" in _Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale_, tome XXVII. 1^re partie. 2^e fascicule, 1893, pp. 181-292. Cited as Corpus, II.

(c) H. Parmentier, Inventaire descriptif des Monuments Ćams de l'Annam. 1899.

(d) L. Finot, "La Religion des Chams," B.E.F.E.O, 1901, and Notes d'Epigraphie. "Les Inscriptions de Mi-son," ib. 1904. Numerous other papers by this author, Durand, Parmentier and others in the same periodical can be consulted with advantage.

(e) Id., Notes d'Epigraphie Indo-Chinoise, 1916.]

[Footnote 330: Corpus, II. p. 11, and Finot, Notes d'Epig. pp. 227 ff.]

[Footnote 331: See authorities quoted by Maspéro, T'oung Pao, 1910, p. 329.]

[Footnote 332: Finot in B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 918 and 922.]

[Footnote 333: Corpus, II. Stêle de Po Nagar, pp. 252 ff. and Stêle de Yang Tikuh, p. 208, etc.]

[Footnote 334: The statements that they came from Java and were cannibals occur in different inscriptions and may conceivably refer to two bodies of invaders. But the dates are very near. Probably Java is not the island now so called. See the chapter on Camboja, sec. 2. The undoubted references in the inscriptions of Champa to the island of Java call it Yavadvîpa.]

[Footnote 335: Veth. Java, I. p. 233.]

[Footnote 336: See "La Chronique Royale," B.E.F.E.O. 1905, p. 377.]

[Footnote 337: Corpus, II. p. 259. Jinendra may be a name either of the Buddha or of a grammarian. The mention of the Kâśikâ vṛitti is important as showing that this work must be anterior to the ninth century. The Uttara Kalpa is quoted in the Tantras (see Bergaigne's note), but nothing is known of it.]

[Footnote 338: B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 973.]

[Footnote 339: From Mi-son, date 1157 A.D. See B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 961 and 963.]

[Footnote 340: = Chinese Mei shan, beautiful mountain. For an account of the temples and their history see the articles by Parmentier and Finot, B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 805-977.]

[Footnote 341: But contemporary inscriptions have been discovered. B.E.F.E.O. 1902, pp. 185 ff.]

[Footnote 342: Doubtless because the capital was transferred to the south where the shrine of Po-nagar had rival claims.]

[Footnote 343: See especially the article by Parmentier, B.E.F.E.O. 1902, pp. 17-54.]

[Footnote 344: XXVI Corpus, II. pp. 244, 256; date 918 A.D.]

[Footnote 345: Śivamukham: probably a mukhalinga.]

[Footnote 346: Also Yäpunagara even in Sanskrit inscriptions.]

[Footnote 347: Parmentier, l.c. p. 49.]

[Footnote 348: This is only a very rough description of a rather complicated structure. For details see Parmentier, Monuments C̆ams, planche XCVIII.]

[Footnote 349: Inscrip. at Mi-son of 658 A.D. See B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 921.]

[Footnote 350: Other examples are Indrabhadreśvara, Corpus, II. p. 208. Harivarmeśvara, B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 961.]

[Footnote 351: E.g. B.E.F.E.O. pp. 918 ff. Dates 658 A.D. onwards.]

[Footnote 352: Yogaddhyâna, Śivârâdha, Śivabhakti. See B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 933-950. Harivarman III abdicated in 1080 and gave himself up to contemplation and devotion to Śiva.]

[Footnote 353: See B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 912 ff. and esp. p. 970. I have seen a kosha which is still in use in the neighbourhood of Badami. It is kept in a village called Nandikeśvara, but on certain festivals it is put on a linga at the temple of Mahakut. It is about 2 feet high and 10 inches broad; a silver case with a rounded and ornamented top. On one side is a single face in bold embossed work and bearing fine moustaches exactly as in the mukhalingas of Champa. In the tank of the temple of Mahakut is a half submerged shrine, from which rises a stone linga on which are carved four faces bearing moustaches. There is said to be a gold kosha set with jewels at Śringeri. See J. Mythic. Society (Bangalore), vol. VIII. p. 27. According to Gopinatha Rao, Indian Iconography, vol. II. p. 63, the oldest known lingas have figures carved on them.]

[Footnote 354: Corpus, II. pp. 229, 230.]

[Footnote 355: B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 959, 960.]

[Footnote 356: See for an account of same B.E.F.E.O. 1901, p. 18.]

[Footnote 357: Corpus, II. p. 282.]

[Footnote 358: In several passages Hsüan Chuang notes that there were Pâśupatas or other Śivaites in the same towns of India where Sammitiyas were found. See Watters, Yüan Chwang, I. 331, 333; II. 47, 242, 256, 258, 259.]

[Footnote 359: Maspéro, T'oung Pao, 1910, p. 514.]

[Footnote 360: At Yang Kur. See Corpus, II. pp. 237-241.]

[Footnote 361: For his views see his inscriptions in B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 85 ff. But kings who are not known to have been Buddhists also speak of Dharma. B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 922, 945.]

[Footnote 362: Apparently special forms of deities such as Śrîśânabhadreśvara or Lakshmînda Lokeśvara were regarded as to some extent separate existences. Thus the former is called a portion of Śiva, B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 973.]

[Footnote 363: Presumably in the form of vessels.]

[Footnote 364: B.E.F.E.O. 1904, pp. 973-975.]

[Footnote 365: B.E.F.E.O. 1904, p. 975.]

[Footnote 366: Ib. 1901, p. 23, and Parmentier, Inventaire des Monuments Chams, p. 542.]

[Footnote 367: Gabriel de San Antonio, Breve y verdadera relation de los successes de Reyno de Camboxa, 1604.]

[Footnote 368: See for the modern Chams the article "Chams" in E.R.E. and Ethics, and Durand, "Les Chams Bani," B.E.F.E.O. 1903, and "Notes sur les Chams," ib. 1905-7.]

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