Hinduism in Southeast Asia (Hinduism)

Introduction

In the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE, Southeast Asia was at the hub of land and sea routes connecting Han China (206 BCE–220 CE) and the Roman Empire (27 BCE– 476 CE). In wealthy Southeast Asian ports and centers where traders gathered, elites sought to establish a new kind of political order that superseded clan loyalties. The adoption of political and religious concepts of India enabled ambitious leaders to forge cosmopolitan polities based on the claim that they ruled in accord with universal moral principles represented in the Buddhist concepts of the dharmaraja and chakravartin (Pali cakkavatti), or as the representative of a Hindu deity who was king of the gods. The epic traditions of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa gave legitimacy to a ruler identified with a god who battled the demonic forces that threaten the ethical order of the world. Worship of Shiva (Skt. Śiva) ensured the prosperity of the kingdom dependent on the rains and the fertility of the land. In Southeast Asia, as in India, local ancestor and spirit worship traditions were blended with Hindu and Buddhist conceptions. In particular, the worship of Shiva and Vishnu (Skt. Viṣṇu) was combined with ancestor worship, so that Khmer, Javanese, and Cham rulers claimed semidivine status as descendants of a god (or as consecrated by a deity). Hinduism and Buddhism apparently were not clearly differentiated, as rulers often patronized both religions. However, Brahmins from India with knowledge of Sanskrit appear to have played a key role in sacralizing rulers through Brahmanic rituals. In the 8th century CE, powerful, more centralized kingdoms emerged in Java, Sumatra, Cambodia, Burma, and along the central and south coasts of Vietnam. The Śailendras (Sailendras) of Java and Śrīvijaya (Srivijaya; Sriwijaya) were identified with Mahayana Buddhism, as was Pagan. The rulers of Cham kingdoms in coastal Vietnam, and rulers in Cambodia, Java, and later Bali predominantly identified with Hindu deities, most often Shiva. Despite the wealth of scholarship on these kingdoms, much is uncertain. Scholars debate whether it was Indian merchants or Southeast Asian mariner-merchants who played a central role in bringing Indian religious conceptions to Southeast Asia. Not until the 1960s was the idea that Indians had “colonized” Southeast Asia rejected, as the pendulum swung to emphasizing the agency of Southeast Asian rulers. The history of early Southeast Asia is still highly contested. Early theories that had become dogma are being challenged by new archaeological finds and the reinterpretation of Chinese sources and Southeast Asian inscriptions. The political cultures of Java, Cambodia, Burma, and Thailand today still reflect the heritage of early kingdoms in which Indian religious concepts were welded to local traditions, and Brahmin priests played a central role in royal rituals. A very different Indian heritage was brought to the British colonial possessions in Southeast Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Laborers from South India imported to work on the rubber estates and docks of Malaya brought their village Amman goddess and various guardian and clan deities, most notably Murugan, the son of Shiva and Parvati (Pārvatī), who is worshipped on Thaipusam (Tai Pūcam). The Chettiar caste of moneylenders also made their way to Burma and Malaya. Today, people of Indian origin form a significant minority group in Malaysia and Singapore.

“Indianization” in Southeast Asia

Early scholarship on Southeast Asia emphasized the role of Indian colonizers in bringing Hinduism to the region, reflecting the ideology that justified European colonization as a civilizing force. Since the 1960s, scholars have placed more emphasis on the agency of Southeast Asian mariners and local rulers who selectively adopted and adapted Indian religious conceptions to enhance their prestige. In his trailblazing work Majumdar 1927–1937, R. C. Majumdar argues that early in the 1st millennium CE, Indians colonized Southeast Asia. Cœdès 1968 provides the historical framework that still undergirds our understanding of early Southeast Asia. Initially, Cœdès referred to Southeast Asia as “Further India.” Oliver Wolters was among the first to challenge this view of “Indianization,” in Early Indonesian Commerce: A Study of the Origins of Sriwijaya (1967). As factors that had been neglected in earlier theories of “Indianization,” Wolters pointed to the expertise of early Southeast Asian mariners and the ambitions of local rulers who appropriated Indian political and religious concepts to enhance their status. Wheatley 1983 explores the relationship between trade and the rise of cities in Southeast Asia, laying out the conditions under which Hindu and Buddhist political concepts were adopted and adapted by Southeast Asian chiefs. Casparis and Mabbett 1992 is a summary of the scholarly consensus on the history of religion in early Southeast Asia. Manguin, et al. 2011 draws together the most recent archaeological findings on the prehistory and early history of Southeast Asia, including relations with India. Pollock 1996 describes how, for more than a millennium (300–1300 CE), Sanskrit was used in what the author calls the “Sanskrit Cosmopolis,” that is, southern India and Southeast Asia. Images of Hindu deities and monuments can be found at ARTstor.

ARTstor Digital Library.
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ARTstor is a collection of images that can be searched by geographical area or topic. It contains many images of Hindu deities and monuments from early Southeast Asia, with short essays providing context for the object.
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Casparis, J. G. de, and I. W. Mabbett. “Religion and Popular Beliefs of Southeast Asia before c. 1500.” In The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Vol. 1, From Early Times to c. 1800. Edited by Nicholas Tarling, 276–339. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press, 1992.
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Discusses the sources for the study of religion in early Southeast Asia and the way in which local traditions were fused with Indian religions. Argues that Brahmins played a central role in Southeast Asian courts. There is information on the role of Shiva and Vishnu in royal cults throughout the region.
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Cœdès, George. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Edited by Water F. Vella. Translated by Susan Brown Cowing. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1968.
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A translation of the third edition of Les Etats hindouisés d’Indochine et d’Indonésie (1964). Scholars still rely on this essential study of Southeast Asian history prior to 1500 CE. It develops a chronological framework, based on Sanskrit inscriptions and Chinese sources, that unifies Southeast Asia.
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Majumdar, R. C. Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East. 2 vols. Lahore, Pakistan: Punjab Sanskrit Book Depot, 1927–1937.
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Volume 1 on Champa is divided into two books. Book I is a history of Champa; Book II focuses on religion in Champa. Volume 2, Suvarnadvipa (Land of Gold), consists of four books: “The Dawn of Hindu Colonisation,” “The Sailendra Empire,” “Rise and Fall of the Indo-Javanese Empire,” and “Downfall of Hindu Kingdoms in Suvarnadvipa.”
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Manguin, Pierre-Yves, A. Mani, and Geoff Wade, eds. Early Interactions between South and Southeast Asia: Reflections on Cross-Cultural Exchange. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011.
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Twenty-three specialized essays summarize new archaeological findings. In the 1st millennium CE the prosperity and exchange of ideas associated with trade provided the basis for the selective adoption and local adaptation of Indian artistic, linguistic, and religious traditions by elites in the urbanized polities of Southeast Asia.
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Pollock, Sheldon. “The Sanskrit Cosmopolis, 300–1300: Transculturation, Vernacularization, and the Question of Ideology.” In Ideology and Status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the History of the Sanskrit Language. Edited by Jan E. M. Houben, 197–247. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1996.
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Describes how Sanskrit was transformed from a religious language into a means of political and literary expression and used by rulers to make claims to a form of semidivine, universal authority.
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Wheatley, Paul. Nāgara and Commandery: Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Traditions. Research Paper 207–208. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography, 1983.
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An account of the rise of cities in Southeast Asia in relationship to trade with China and the Mediterranean World. Wheatley identifies the conditions under which Hindu and Buddhist political concepts were adopted and adapted by Southeast Asian chiefs.
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The Malay Peninsula and Borneo

The earliest Southeast Asian sources for history are Sanskrit inscriptions found on the central coast of Vietnam near Nha Trang and on the northwest coast of Borneo at Kutai (late 4th century). The Vo Canh inscription from Vietnam, undated but thought to be the earliest Sanskrit inscription, proclaims the conquest of neighboring groups by a local chief who had taken a Hindu name, Śrī Māra. The Kutai inscriptions incised on seven sacrificial posts (yūpa) commemorate donations made by a ruler named Mūlavarman to the “twice-born,” generally understood to be Brahmins. One inscription compares Mūlavarman to Yudhiṣţhira. After the collapse of the Han dynasty (220 CE), China was divided into three warring kingdoms, and the Wu dynasty, which ruled south of the Yangtze River, was cut off from the Silk Road of Central Asia. The Wu court turned its attention to maritime trade routes across the South China Sea. A 3rd-century report to the Wu emperor, known from later Chinese histories, describes a polity called Tun-sun on the Gulf of Thailand, where there were said to be many Brahmins. Wheatley 1961 painstakingly explores Chinese, Western, Indian, and Arabic sources to identify early Southeast Asian ports. Casparis 1986 discusses the Kutai inscription. Jacq-Hergoualc’h 2002 is a detailed account of archaeological findings on the Malay Peninsula and in coastal Thailand, documenting contact with India and China from the late 1st millennium BCE to the 13th century CE. O’Connor 1972 describes Vishnu images found in peninsular Thailand and Funan. Building on the work of O’Connor, Lavy 2004 extends the study of mitered Vishnus to Cambodia, Java, and South Sumatra. Lavy argues that Vishnu and Shiva embodied two different conceptions of sovereignty, which were combined in the pre-Angkorian period and represented by images of Harihara.

Casparis, J. G. de. “Some Notes on the Oldest Inscriptions in Indonesia.” In A Man of Indonesian Letters: Essays in Honor of Professor A. Teeuw. Edited by C. M. S. Hellwig and S. O. Robson, 242–256. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Foris, 1986.
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Looks at the Sanskrit inscriptions on seven stone posts found in 1879 by Dutch colonial officials in East Kalimantan, and first published in 1881. The inscriptions refer to three generations of chiefs, spanning the change from local names to the adoption of Hindu ones.
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Jacq-Hergoualc’h, Michel. The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road. Translated by Victoria Hobson. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002.
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Each section begins with a useful overview of the situation in China, South Asia, and the Middle East to account for shifts in trade patterns affecting local polities. The author argues that a transpeninsula land route did not play a significant role in the exchange between India and Hindu/Buddhist ports on the Gulf of Thailand.
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Lavy, Paul A. “Viṣṇu and Harihara in the Art and Politics of Early Historic Southeast Asia.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2004.
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A study of sculptures of the mitered Vishnu, the most common anthropomorphic stone sculpture in the 6th–9th centuries found in sites on the Thai/Malay Peninsula, western Java, Funan, and the southern part of pre-Angkor Cambodia.
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O’Connor, Stanley J. Hindu Gods of Peninsular Siam. Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1972.
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An art-historical study of Vishnu images found in peninsular Thailand, based on the author’s PhD dissertation for Cornell University (1965). The author revises the previous dating of Boisselier.
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Wheatley, Paul. The Golden Khersonese: Studies in the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula before AD 1500. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of Malaya Press, 1961.
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An account of the early historical geography of the Malay Peninsula based on original sources in Greek, Latin, Chinese (with original text), Arabic, and Indian sources in translation. This work is the foundation for all later studies of the early Indianized communities of the Thai/Malay Peninsula.
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Funan

Funan, where archaeologists have found gold coins with images of the Roman emperors Antonius Pius (152 CE) and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 CE); jewelry of Mediterranean and Indian origin or inspiration; a Chinese mirror; Persian coins; and seals inscribed with Indian script (late 1st–2nd century CE), was located in the delta of the Mekong River on the South China Sea. It is one of the earliest sites in Southeast Asia to evidence the adoption of Hindu and Buddhist conceptions. Funan disappeared from Chinese records by the 6th century CE, its decline apparently due to a change in the primary maritime trade route. The findings of French archaeologists working in the Mekong Delta in the 1930s and early 1940s appear primarily in the Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient. Aerial photographs taken during World War II suggest that the delta was laced with canals built during the mid-first millennium. However, bombing during the Vietnam War, and subsequently the expansion of rice cultivation in the Vietnamese part of the delta, has significantly altered the landscape so that many remains have disappeared. Western archaeologists, most notably Miriam Stark, are working on the Cambodian side of the border. Stark’s research focuses on Angkor Borei, thought to have been the capital city, which was linked by a canal to the port of Óc Eo (Oc Eo). The publications of Vietnamese archaeologists identifying Funan as the Óc Eo culture are not included here, as they are difficult to access. Khoo 2003 reviews significant archaeological findings. Vickery 2003 dismisses the origin story for Funan found in Chinese sources as a folktale widespread in Southeast Asia and also found in southern India. He also takes a critical approach to Chinese sources used by Cœdès to outline a history of Funan on the grounds that the Wu envoys would have received secondhand information about many things and translated this information into Chinese conceptions. Vickery notes that as inscriptions found in Funan are all in Sanskrit, the language of the inhabitants is unknown. He argues that the people of Funan were Khmer or proto-Khmer rather than Austronesian speakers.

Khoo, James C. M., ed. Art and Archaeology of Fu Nan: Pre-Khmer Kingdom of the Lower Mekong Valley. Bangkok: Orchid, 2003.
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John Miksic provides an overview of what is known about the development of Funan, Miriam Stark reviews findings from recent archaeological work on Angkor Borei, and Vo Si Khai reviews work by Vietnamese archaeologists. Khoo has an essay on the sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities associated with Funan.
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Vickery, Michael. “Funan Reviewed: Deconstructing the Ancient.” Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 90–91 (2003): 101–143.
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Vickery argues that Funan was most likely not a unified polity, but rather a group of allied ports, and that (contra Chinese sources) there was clear continuity from the ruling elite of Funan to the rulers of Chenla, with an inland capital at Īśanapura (Sambor Prei Kuk). The connection continued through to later Angkorian rulers.
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Burma (Myanmar)

The Pyu cities of Beikthano (Burmese, Viṣṇu), Halin, and Srikestra (4th–6th centuries CE) were located on important land trade routes linking China and India. Pyu sites contain thousands of terra cotta cremation urns, many with inscriptions in Pyu, a language that has not been deciphered, written in a script from southeast India dated to the 5th or 6th century. Inscriptions with Sanskrit names terminating in –vikrāma have enabled scholars to identify a dynasty that ruled in Srikestra in the 7th and 8th centuries. The most spectacular Pyu find is a silver reliquary containing gold leaves inscribed with passages from the Pali canon, the oldest surviving Pali texts (mid-5th to mid-6th centuries). Other Pyu finds include silver coins with a śrīvatsa, stone sculptures of the Buddha, bodhisattvas, and Vishnu. An interesting artifact is a stone relief of three men holding a club and standards with a cakra and bird (perhaps a Garuda), with an empty throne on the reverse side. The date and significance of this relief is the subject of scholarly debate. The decline of the Pyu cities has been attributed to attacks by Nanzhao (Nanchao), a kingdom that emerged in Yunnan in the 8th century. Nanzhou forces were composed of Burmese who spoke a language related to Pyu, and the archaeological record shows no break between Pyu and Burmese occupation. The conversion to Buddhism of the Burmese king Anawratha (r. 1044–1077) is credited by tradition to a Mon monk. The Burmese incorporated nat spirit worship into Buddhism; Hindu influence is apparent, as the thirty-seven official Mahagiri nat are ruled over by Sakka (Indra). Anawratha’s successor, Kyanzittha, proclaimed himself an avatar of Vishnu and a Buddhist cakravartin and dharmaraja. World War II brought scholarly work to an end. After Burmese independence, further archaeological work was limited by the isolationism and xenophobia of the regime. Only recently have Western scholars working with Burmese colleagues begun to further explore the pre-Pagan Pyu cultures. Luce 1969–1970 was the first major work on Burma. Ray 1998 focuses on evidence of worship of Hindu deities. Strachan 1990 is an introduction to the art and architecture of Pagan that includes later periods not covered by Luce. Gutman 1999 and Gutman 2008 focus on images of Vishnu and Shiva in Burma. Moore 2007 provides an overview of the most recent archaeological findings.

Gutman, Pamela. “Vishnu in Burma.” In The Art of Burma: New Studies. Edited by Donald M. Stadtner. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1999.
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The author argues that Vishnu was the object of a royal cult in the Pyu city of Beikthano-myo (6th century). After the establishment of Pagan as a Theravada Buddhist realm (11th century), Vishnu shrines served Indian traders and court Brahmins. In Arakan, however, Vishnu was associated with a royal cult within a Buddhist framework as late as the 16th century.
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Gutman, Pamela. “Siva in Burma.” In Interpreting Southeast Asia’s Past: Monument, Image, and Text; Selected Papers from the 10th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists. Vol. 2. Edited by Elisabeth A. Bacus, Ian C. Glover, and Peter D. Sharrock, 135–141. Singapore: NUS, 2008.
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Notes that there is little evidence of Śaivism in Burma, where Vaiṣṇava and Buddhist monuments predominate. Śaivism was apparently restricted to Indian merchant communities and to coastal sites in Arakan and the Gulf of Martaban.
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Luce, G. H. Old Burma-Early Pagan. 3 vols. Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1969–1970.
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An encyclopedic pioneering study of early Burma, including detailed analysis of Pagan’s history, iconography, and architecture up to the mid-12th century. All serious scholarship on Pagan begins with this work.
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Moore, Elizabeth H. Early Landscapes of Myanmar. Bangkok: River Books, 2007.
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Reviews archaeological findings on the prehistory and early history of Burma. Approximately one-half of the book concerns the emergence of walled Hindu-Buddhist cities (predominantly Buddhist) in the second half of the first millennium.
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Ray, Niharranjan. Brahmanical Gods in Burma: A Chapter of Indian Art and Iconography. Singapore: Myanmar Rare Book Publications, 1998.
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Based on research conducted in 1927–1929, and originally published in 1932 in Calcutta, this monograph was the first study of Brahmanic images found in Burma. It includes material on Hindu deities from inscriptions at various Buddhist monuments. There is a chapter on Vishnu, one on Shiva, and one on Brahma and other minor deities.
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Strachan, Paul. Imperial Pagan: Art and Architecture of Burma. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990.
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The place of Hindu deities in the Buddhist art of Pagan is described. Brahma and Indra flank the Buddha in depictions of the Buddha’s descent from Tavatimsa. Ganesh and Shiva were also known. A Vishnu temple at Pagan was most probably the temple of Indian merchants.
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Thailand

On the plain of the Chao Phraya River, archaeologists have identified a culture known as Dvāravatī (6th–9th centuries) from the name used in Chinese sources (To-lo-po-ti) and a Sanskrit inscription on silver medallions in an offering buried beneath a Buddhist chaitya hall. Little is known about the Mon culture of Dvāravatī. There are no dated objects and few inscriptions. Dvāravatī appears to have been a series of city-states. Numerous liṅga and Vishnu images have been found dating from early in the first millennium, particularly on the Malay Peninsula and Gulf of Thailand, but also in the central states of Dvāravatī, Sri Thep, and Muang Phra Rot; the most plentiful remains, however, are Buddhist. Amulets are most common. Some were stamped with Gaja-Lakşmī or Kubera, suggesting that they belonged to merchants. In the late 1st millennium, Tai speakers (a branch of the Tai-Kadai language family, which includes Thai, Lao, and Shan) began migrating onto the Korat Plateau, which was ruled by the Khmer Empire. After the death of Jayavarman VII in 1219, Khmer rulers could no longer maintain authority over provincial parts of their empire. Encouraged by Mongol rulers in China, Tai chiefs seized control of Khmer administrative centers and established Tai states—Sukhothai (1238–1378), Lan Na, Lan Xang, and Ayutthaya (1350–1767)—in areas inhabited by Mon peoples and formerly ruled by Khmer officials. The Tai worshipped the spirits of their ancestors (phi thaen) and spirits of the land (phi muang). Tai rulers soon adopted the title of dhammaraja and turned to Theravada Buddhism. From 1350 to roughly 1550, Ayutthaya was an imperial power. Sukhothai in the north was forced to acknowledge the authority of Ayutthaya in 1378, and Angkor was sacked by Ayutthaya forces in 1431. Some scholars believe that Brahmanic Khmer court rituals were introduced into the Ayutthaya court after the conquest of Angkor, but there is evidence that Brahmins played an important role in earlier Thai kingdoms. Thai courts had Brahmanic temples with images of Phra Nārāyaṇa (Vishnu) and Phra Iśvara (Shiva). Brahmins performed central roles (with monks) in various court rituals, including coronation, the First Plowing, and the Swinging Festival. They regulated the calendar, cast horoscopes, and advised the king. Brahmins also are prominent in the jātakas. Particularly infamous is the greedy Brahmin hermit Jūjaka in the Vessantara-jātaka.

Archaeological and Art-Historical Studies

Dupont 1959 establishes a preliminary chronology for Dvāravatī art, based on an analysis of motifs and the evolution of styles. Subhadradis Diskul 1990 discusses Hindu images from Sukhothai. Dofflemyer 1999 builds on the work of scholars associated with the École Française d’Extrême-Orient in a discussion of the political significance of Vishnu images. Woodward 2003, the standard art-historical work on Thailand, has many references to Hindu deities and rituals. Gosling 2004 is a beautifully illustrated history of Thai art. Krairiksh 2012 uses an innovative approach to the art history of Thailand, emphasizing different historical schools of thought that are reflected in the art, rather than analyzing the artwork in terms of historical periodization.

Dofflemyer, Virginia. “Vishnu Images from Ancient Thailand and the Concept of Kingship.” In Art from Thailand. Edited by Robert L. Brown, 34–48. Mumbai: Marg, 1999.
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Building on the work of Pierre Dupont, Jean Boisselier, and Stanley O’Connor, the author focuses on the Vishnu images of northern Thailand, where the Thai kingdom of Sukhothai was established in the 13th century. She argues that Vaishnava rituals were incorporated into a cult of kingship (rajadharma) based on a hierarchical Buddhist moral order (dharmaraja).
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Dupont, Pierre. L’Archéologie mône de Dvāravatī. 2 vols. Publications de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 41. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1959.
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An art-historical analysis of Dvāravatī art that establishes a chronology based on artistic style and the evolution of motifs.
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Gosling, Betty. Origins of Thai Art. Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2004.
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A beautifully illustrated overview of Thai art and architecture through the 13th century that draws on the scholarship of Brown, Woodward, and Piriya Krairiksh. The work includes many references to Hindu deities.
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Krairiksh, Piriya. The Roots of Thai Art. Translated by Narisa Chakrabongse. Bangkok: River Books, 2012.
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The first chapter, which covers the period from the mid-5th to the 9th centuries, is a study of the art of Mon polities and settlements on the Malay Peninsula. The second chapter, covering the mid-9th century to the end of the 13th century, deals with art reflecting the influence of Khmer civilization. Both chapters have a separate section on Brahmanic art.
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Subhadradis Diskul, M. C. Hindu Gods at Sukhodaya. Bangkok: White Lotus, 1990.
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An English translation of Devarūpa samṛddhi samaya Sukhodaya, translated by the author and A. B. Griswold. An art-historical exercise in dating Hindu images from Sukhothai.
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Woodward, Hiram W. The Art and Architecture of Thailand: From Prehistoric Times through the Thirteenth Century. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2003.
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A comprehensive survey of Thai art and architecture through the 13th century. Abundant references to Vaishnava and Saiva practices and Brahmanic gods appear throughout the work.
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History and Religion

When the Thai conquered the Khmer kingdom at Angkor in the 14th century, they brought large numbers of court officials, including Brahmins, back to their capital. The Brahmins were incorporated into the court as ritual specialists who enhanced the stature of the king. Wales 1931 is an early source on Brahmanic rituals of the Thai court. Tambiah 1976, a major study of the role of Buddhism in legitimating Thai kingship, includes a chapter on “The Brahmanical Theory of Society and Kingship.” Skilling 2007 describes how ideals of kingship held by the monastic order and Brahmanic Hinduism were fused through the hierarchical, court-based sakdinā system.

Skilling, Peter. “King, Sangha and Brahmans: Ideology, Ritual and Power in Pre-modern Siam.” In Buddhism, Power and Political Order. Edited by Ian Harris, 182–215. London: Routledge, 2007.
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One of the foremost scholars of Thai Buddhism argues that the king, sangha, and Brahmins were partners in a complex organism of state protection and state welfare. The argument is supported with a wealth of historical and literary detail.
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Tambiah, S. J. World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511558184Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses Hindu influence in the cultures of Southeast Asia, and more particularly Thailand, in several places, quoting with approval Casparis’s view that “Indian influence in Indonesia was not so much the result of an Indian effort to expand their culture as rather of Indonesian initiative in assimilating those elements of Indian culture to which they felt attracted” (p. 76).
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Wales, H. G. Quaritch. Siamese State Ceremonies: Their History and Function. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1931.
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A description of royal ceremonies of the Thai court, including a royal cremation, an accession, and a coronation, which are seen to be Brahmanic with Buddhist permutations.
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Cham Kingdoms of Coastal Vietnam

In the 8th century, Cham kingdoms on the central coast of Vietnam emerged as powerful and wealthy centers of trade. A 5th-century inscription at My Son (Mỹ So’n) in the Tu Bon River Valley records the dedication by King Bhadravarman of a temple with a Shiva liṅga. The name “Champa,” taken from a city in Bengal, first appears in the 7th century in two Sanskrit inscriptions. Scholars now agree that this name did not apply to a unified kingdom, but rather to polities that coexisted independently and in competition with each other. The vibrant sculpture and temple reliefs produced by the Cham make it clear that the entire mythic corpus of Hinduism was familiar to Cham artisans. While Shiva was the primary deity, Vishnu and Brahma were worshipped, along with Umā and Ganesh (Gaṇeśa). When Buddhism prospered under the Tang dynasty in China (618–907), Indravarman II (r. 875–899) built at Indrapura a royal temple dedicated to Lakshmindralokeshvara, a name combining Hindu and Buddhist elements. Indravarman identified with Lokeshvara, the compassionate world-ruling bodhisattva, and as the patron of the Shiva liṅga, Bhadreshvara. Other deities represented in his temple include Indra, Brahma, Vishnu, Varuna, Agni, the Sun and Moon, and ascetics (ṛṣi). In the 15th century, when the Sultanate of Malacca was at the height of its power, the Cham began to convert to Islam, the religion of most Cham today.

Archaeological and Art-Historical Studies

The monuments of the Cham principalities of coastal Vietnam were first brought to the attention of the world by Charles Lemire in 1894. Until the 1990s, our understanding of the predominantly Saivite Cham kingdoms rested on the work of French scholars—H. Parmentier, G. Maspero, P. Mus, L. Finot, G. Cœdès, P. Stern, and E. Guillon—published primarily by the École Française d’Extrême-Orient. During the Vietnam War, some of the most important Cham monuments were destroyed. Beginning in the 1980s, however, a new generation of scholars—Vietnamese, British, American, French, and Japanese—began to uncover new sites and revise the picture of Champa presented in the work of colonial scholars. Publications in Vietnamese by Vietnamese scholars have not been included here, as they are difficult to access. Parmentier 1909–1918 provides an account of the earliest scholarship on Cham monuments. Stern 1942 establishes a chronology for Cham monuments based on art-historical analysis. Boisselier 1963 refines and extends the analysis of Stern. The work of compiling a comprehensive catalogue of Cham sculpture was undertaken by Boisselier and completed by Guillon on the death of Boisselier. Guillon 2000 is the first major work in English on Cham art. Ngo 2002 provides information on recent archaeological finds by Vietnamese scholars.

Boisselier, Jean. La Statuaire du Champa: Recherches sur les Cultes et l’Iconographie. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1963.
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A study of the Cham from Lin Yi to the 15th century, illustrated with 257 plates and nine pages of drawings comparing cultural motifs. Includes the findings from excavations at Tra Kieu in 1927–1928 and 1934.
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Guillon, Emmanuel. Hindu-Buddhist Art of Vietnam: Treasures from Champa. Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2000.
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This work (also published as Cham Art: Treasures from the Da Nẵng Museum, Vietnam by Thames and Hudson, 2001) is an English translation of Le Musée de Sculpture Çam de Ða Nẵng (1997). The volume includes a history of the Cham kingdoms, an overview of Cham art, and a catalogue of Cham works in the Danang Museum. There are 178 color plates of sculptures and monuments.
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Ngo, Van Doanh. Champa Ancient Towers: Reality and Legend. Hanoi, Vietnam: The Gioi, 2002.
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Briefly describes the destruction of Cham monuments during the Vietnam War; then surveys the condition of the monuments, reviewing French scholarship and noting recent finds. Although the English is awkward, this is an important source for identifying the sites and content of new finds.
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Parmentier, Henri. Inventaire descriptif des monuments chams de l’Annam. 2 vols. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1909–1918.
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The first account of the Cham monuments, establishing the basis for subsequent studies.
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Stern, Philippe. L’art du Champa (ancien Annam) et son évolution. Paris: Musée Guimet, 1942.
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An art-historical study that established a chronology for Cham monuments. There are sixty-four pages of black-and-white plates illustrating the significant characteristics of different styles.
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History and Religion

All the Cham coastal kingdoms were referred to as Champa in Chinese sources, leading to confusion by scholars in understanding Cham history. The history of the Cham that has been reconstructed is a centuries-long chronology of alliances and hostilities among different Cham kingdoms and with the Vietnamese, the Khmer, and the Chinese. When Vietnam was finally established as an independent state in the 10th century, the Cham attacked the southern border. The Vietnamese responded with raids on Indrapura in 1044, and the Cham were forced to cede territory. In the late 12th century, the Cham apparently attacked the Khmer; this was followed by the Khmer conquest of the Cham kingdom of Vijaya, perhaps in alliance with another Cham kingdom. Unsuccessful Mongol invasions in 1278 and 1285 further weakened the Cham kingdoms, but in the 14th century the Cham managed to launch a series of successful attacks against the Vietnamese that carried into the heartland of the Red River delta. These victories were short-lived. In 1471 the Vietnamese captured Vijaya (Quy Nhon) and razed it. Maspero 2002 is the second revised version of Maspero’s seminal history of Champa, based primarily on Chinese and Vietnamese sources. Mus 1975 is a translation by I. W. Mabbett of “Cultes Indiens et Indigenes au Champa” originally published in the Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Vol. 30 (1933). Vickery 2005 updates Maspero’s conclusions regarding the origin of the Cham, based on recent archaeological and linguistic scholarship. He then goes on to reassess the archaeological evidence, references to Champa in Chinese and Vietnamese sources, and Cham and Cambodian inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cham, in order to challenge the view of the Cham kingdoms put forth by Maspero and adopted by Cœdès 1968 (cited under “Indianization” in Southeast Asia). Tr̀ân and Lockhart 2011 provide an overview of the present state of Cham studies.

Maspero, Georges. The Champa Kingdom: The History of an Extinct Vietnamese Culture. Translated by Walter E. J. Tips. Bangkok: White Lotus, 2002.
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An English translation of Royaume de Champa (Paris et Bruxelles: G. van Oest, 1928). This first study of the Cham states was based on inscriptions on Cham stelae, early Chinese sources, and some knowledge of contemporary Cham culture.
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Mus, Paul. India Seen from the East: Indian and Indigenous Cults in Champa. Clayton, Australia: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1975.
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Mus accounts for the adoption of Indian religious traditions, particularly worship of the Shiva liṅga (lingga) in Champa, by emphasizing shared cultural ideas about ancestors and locality among the early peoples of India and Southeast Asia. Vedic Hinduism was adopted as rituals that blended with indigenous religious ideas. Originally published in 1933.
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Tr̀ân, Kỳ Phương, and Bruce M. Lockhart, eds. The Cham of Vietnam: History, Society and Art. Singapore: NUS, 2011.
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The first essay by Bruce Lockhart is a very helpful discussion of the historiography of Cham studies. The following chapters survey the most recent archaeological findings and evidence from newly identified Chinese sources on the relation of Cham kingdoms to China and Vietnam.
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Vickery, Michael. Champa Revised. Working Paper Series 37. Singapore: Asia Research Institute, 2005.
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The first major critical revision of Cham history published since the work of Maspero.
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Cambodia

The great Khmer civilization (802–1431 CE) first became known in the West through the account of Henri Mouhot, who saw the ruins of Angkor Wat in 1860. In 1863, Cambodia became a French protectorate. French expeditions brought back sculpture and casts of sculpture, establishing the first museum collections of Khmer art and inspiring great interest in Khmer civilization. Unlike earlier Indianized polities of Southeast Asia, Khmer cities were not primarily centers of trade. The wealth of the Khmer kingdom was derived from agriculture and an inexhaustible supply of fish from the great inland lake Tonle Sap. The Khmer capital, Angkor Thom, has given its name to this civilization. The name Angkor is derived from Sanskrit nagara. Angkorian civilization is famous for its monumental architecture—great temple-mountains that were residences of the gods, exquisite bas-relief carvings depicting the epic stories of the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa as well as vibrant scenes of daily life, superb sculptures of the gods in bronze and stone, and vast reservoirs (baray).

Inscriptions

More than 1,200 inscriptions in Sanskrit and Old Khmer have been found. Sanskrit inscriptions are generally in the form of poems that eulogize the builder of a monument, most frequently a king, or the donor of gifts to a sanctuary. Often the poem was composed on the death of a ruler. These inscriptions have enabled scholars to establish a chronology for Khmer rulers; they also contain information about religious ideas and practices. Generally, the Old Khmer inscriptions are inventories listing temple possessions, such as land, servants (slaves), and livestock, which were the gift of a king or the temple founder. They provide information about society and economy. Cœdès first published a translation of an ancient Cambodian inscription in 1904. Cœdès 1937–1966 is a compendium of his work over more than six decades. Bhattacharya 2009 translates five of the most important inscriptions into English.

Bhattacharya, Kamaleswar, ed. A Selection of Sanskrit Inscriptions from Cambodia. In collaboration with Karl-Heinz Golzio. Siem Reap, Cambodia: Center for Khmer Studies, 2009.
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An English translation of important Sanskrit inscriptions with comments on the translation by Cœdès from later scholars.
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Cœdès, George. Inscriptions du Cambodge. 8 vols. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1937–1966.
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Each inscription is identified by location, date of discovery, and cultural context. The inscription is given in transcription, followed by a French translation. Where possible, more context is given in introducing the inscription. Volume 8 includes a chronology and index of the inscriptions.
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Archaeological and Art-Historical Studies

An archaeological commission for Indochina was set up by the French government in 1898; this became the École Française d’Extrême-Orient in 1900. With the signing of the Franco-Siamese Treaty in 1907, Commander Lunet de Lajonquière was sent to complete his Inventaire des monuments du Cambodge, begun in 1900. This inaugurated archaeological study of Angkorian monuments. The most prominent French scholars of Angkor include Louis Finot, the first director of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient; George Cœdès, who followed Finot in that position; Henri Marchal, conservator of the monuments at Angkor, who was succeeded by Maurice Glaize; Jean Boisselier, conservator of the National Museum at Phnom Penh; the last French conservator of Angkor, Bernard-Philippe Groslier; the archaeologist Victor Goloubew; and the art historians George Groslier, Philippe Stern, and Pierre Dupont. Following the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk in 1970 and the occupation of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, all work on the Khmer monuments ceased. In 1986 the Khmer government signed an agreement with the Archaeological Survey of India to begin work again. The Comité International de Coordination pour la sauvegarde des monuments d’Angkor, co-chaired by France and Japan, was established in 1993 under the auspices of UNESCO. The Khmer government established the Autorité pour la Protection du Site et l’Aménagement de la Région d’Angkor in 1995 to protect the monuments and develop tourism. Several different archaeological research projects are ongoing. Groslier 1925 is the first book written on the subject of Khmer sculpture. Stern 1927 brought order to Khmer art history with a comparative analysis of ornament, costume, and techniques that enabled him to identify styles and a stylistic evolution. This became the basis for a chronology of Khmer sculpture and relief. Dupont 1955 used this method to challenge and revise some of Stern’s dating, focusing on pre-Angkorian art. Boisselier 1955 resurveyed the entire corpus of Khmer art, establishing what came to be the scholarly accepted chronology. Boisselier 2008 is a translation into English of ten of the author’s major articles on Khmer art, selected by the author. Benisti 2003 is an English translation of the author’s major publications in French on Khmer art. Mannikka 1996 focuses on a single monument, Angkor Wat, proposing that its design reflects Hindu calendrical cycles and numerological/symbolic representations of significant dates for the reign of Suryavarman II. Roveda 1997 includes a discussion of the myths depicted in reliefs, with a consideration of why certain episodes were chosen. Jessup and Zéphir 1997 is an exquisitely illustrated (117 plates) catalogue of an exhibit of Khmer Art, accompanied by essays by leading experts in the field.

Benisti, Mireille. Stylistics of Early Khmer Art. 2 vols. New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2003.
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This work, using Stern’s method, focuses on the relationship between early Khmer and Indian art of the 7th and 8th centuries. The author develops her own stylistic analysis of motifs and iconography for the period. Volume 1 contains text; Volume 2 includes 533 black-and-white plates. Originally published between 1952 and 1975.
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Boisselier, Jean. La Statuaire Khmère et son évolution. 2 vols. Saigon: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1955.
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The author presents his chronology of Khmer art using the method developed by Stern and his student and collaborator Coral Rémusat, tracing the evolution of Khmer art by analyzing details of costume, ornament, and technique. Line drawings and photographs illustrate his analysis.
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Boisselier, Jean. Studies on the Art of Ancient Cambodia: Ten Articles by Jean Boisselier. Translated and edited by Natasha Eilenberg and Robert L. Brown. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Reyum, 2008.
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Only two works by this influential art historian have been translated into English, Tendances de L’Art Khmèr (1956) and this collection of essays. These essays demonstrate the expertise and method used in dating Khmer (and Cham) sculpture and monuments.
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Dupont, Pierre. La statuaire préangkorienne. Artibus Asiae Supplementum 15. Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1955.
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An art-historical study of the pre-Angkorian monuments that establishes a chronology based on artistic style and the evolution of ornament. All subsequent scholarship builds on the work of Dupont.
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Groslier, George. La Sculpture khmère ancienne. Paris: Les Éditions G. Crès, 1925.
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An evocative description of the temples of Angkor by an artist-scholar who wrote the first serious study of the monuments. Illustrated with 155 black-and-white plates.
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Jessup, Helen Ibbitson, and Thierry Zéphir, eds. Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1997.
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The most important overview of Khmer art since Boisselier (1955). This work includes an essay by Zéphir on the chronology of Khmer art, an essay on “The Religions of the Ancient Cambodia” by Kamaleswar Bhattacharya, and an essay on “Nandin and His Avatars” by Ang Choulean.
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Mannikka, Eleanor. Angkor Wat: Time, Space, and Kingship. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1996.
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A unique study of Angkor Wat, the temple built by Suryavarman II (r. 1113–1145/50). Argues that Angkor Wat was designed according to numerical references to lunar, solstice, and directional symbolism, while also representing the cosmic order of the gods and dates significant to the ruler’s reign.
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Roveda, Vittorio. Khmer Mythology. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
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A beautifully illustrated survey of Hindu and Buddhist myths depicted in reliefs on the monuments of Angkor. The introductory essay provides an overview of Angkorian religion.
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Stern, Philippe. Le Bayon d’Angkor et l’évolution de l’art khmer. Annales du Musée Guimet Bibliotheque de Vulgarisation 47. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1927.
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An art-historical analysis of motifs that developed a stylistic chronology of Khmer art; the basis of all subsequent scholarship on Khmer art and architecture.
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History and Religion

Two issues in the study of Khmer civilization have been hotly debated by scholars. One question is whether the first goal should be the establishment of a chronological framework for further work, the view of Cœdès, or whether Khmer civilization should be analyzed in terms of social and economic organization, the view of Michael Vickery. The second is whether Angkorian religion was truly “Hindu,” or if Hinduism was merely “a thin and flaking glaze” (van Leur, p. 95) or “Indic façade” (Vickery, p. 141). Briggs 1951, the first study of Khmer civilization in English, draws from the work of Cœdès and French scholars published in the Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient. Bhattacharya 1961 argues that an inscription at Sambὁr Prei Kŭk (627 CE) is evidence of the presence of Pāśupata Brahmins in Cambodia. Groslier and Arthaud 1966 is meant for the general public, but it is based on the most recent archaeological scholarship. Wolters 1979 draws attention to epigraphic records of ascetic practices undertaken by Khmer rulers as a way of sharing in the gods’ spiritual potency. Mabbett and Chandler 1995 is an excellent introduction to Angkorian civilization. Vickery 1998 criticizes earlier scholarship using Sanskrit inscriptions for overemphasizing the influence of Indian religious traditions. Vickery argues that Indic features were a façade upon older local beliefs, and that Khmer religion should not be treated as Hindu. This work has strengthened a tendency among recent scholars to stress indigenous elements over Indian ideas. The epigraphist Claude Jacques, a student of Cœdès, has been a major critic of the way in which colonial scholars uncritically used Chinese sources to construct a chronology for Cambodian history. Jacques 1999 reconstructs political events leading up to the foundation of the city of Angkor around 900, and traces developments to its decline in the 13th century. Jacques and Lafond 2007 expands on Jacques 1999.

Bhattacharya, Kamaleswar. Les religions Brahmaniques dans l’ancien Cambodge: D’après l’épigraphie et l’iconographie. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1961.
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The first chapter is on Saivism; the second on Vaishnava worship; the third on minor Brahmanic deities; and the fourth on the cult of the sacred fire and vestiges of Vedic Hinduism in Angkorian religion.
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Briggs, Lawrence Palmer. The Ancient Khmer Empire. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 41.1. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1951.
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The author was appointed American consul at Saigon in 1914. Although not a professional historian, he produced the first scholarly study of Khmer civilization in English.
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Groslier, Bernard, and Jacques Arthaud. Angkor: Art and Civilization. New York: Praeger, 1966.
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Originally published as Angkor: Art et civilization (1957), this illustrated volume is translated from the French by Eric Ernshaw Smith. The volume has six plates in color and more than one hundred black-and-white illustrations.
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Jacques, Claude. Angkor. In collaboration with René Dumont. Photography by Luc Ionesco, Jacqueline Nafilyan, and Guy Nafilyan. Cologne: Konemann Verlagsgesellschaft, 1999.
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Originally published in French in 1990, this work is by the epigraphist and historian Claude Jacques. Another work by the same author, with photographs by Suzanne Held, is Angkor: vision de palais divins (Paris: Editions Hermé, 1997).
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Jacques, Claude, and Philippe Lafond. The Khmer Empire: Cities and Sanctuaries, Fifth to the Thirteenth Centuries. Bangkok: River Books, 2007.
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An English version of L’Empire Khmer: Cités et sanctuaries Ve–XIIIe siècles (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2004). This beautifully illustrated volume expands on Angkor (Jacques 1999), but, like that work, it lacks the scholarly apparatus of footnotes and an adequate bibliography.
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Mabbett, Ian, and David Chandler. The Khmers. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995.
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An excellent account of how the royal cults of Shiva and Vishnu rested on and blended with indigenous spirit beliefs and ancestor worship.
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Vickery, Michael. Society, Economics, and Politics in Pre-Angkor Cambodia: The 7th–8th Centuries. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for UNESCO, 1998.
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A historical-materialist study of pre-Angkorian society and economy based on inscriptions in Old Khmer. Chapter 5, “The Cult Component,” suggests that references to “old and young gods” in inscriptions reflect local Khmer deities, which were gradually Sanskritized.
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Wolters, O. W. “Khmer ‘Hinduism’ in the Seventh Century.” In Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History and Historical Geography. Edited by R. B. Smith and W. Watson, 427–442. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
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An account of Saiva devotionalism among the Khmer elite in the 7th century. Wolters follows Bhattacharya in arguing that Pāśupata Brahmins brought devotional practices to Cambodia.
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Devarāja

The term devarāja (god-king, or king of the gods) was used only in Cambodia. The Sdok Kak Thom inscription (1050), in which the term first appears, describes a ritual in the 9th century “bearing the name of Devarāja for the sake of increase in the prosperity of the world” and to render it “impossible for this country of Kambujas [to owe] any allegiance to Java, so that it made possible the existence of an absolutely unique king, who should be a cakravartin.” This inscription has been the source of much scholarly debate. There is no agreement about the identity of “Java,” although there is a general consensus that it does not refer to the island of Java or a Javanese kingdom, as originally thought. In another related inscription (879) Indravarman proclaims, “By the same rite, by which Mahendra was consecrated by Svayambhu on his elevation to kingship over the gods, Sri Indravarman, possessed of virtue, of irresistible heroism, received an anointing that is not unique.” Scholars have debated how to interpret the devarāja ritual. Cœdès believed that the devarāja was a ritual conducted when a ruler ascended the throne in which a liṅga (lingga) bearing his name with the suffix ῑśvara was consecrated. Mabbett 1969 argues that just as one god was king of the gods, of whom there were many, one king duly invested by the ritual of the devarāja was sovereign over all lesser kings. Kulke 1978 argues that the consecration of a liṅga associated with the ruler was different from the devaraja ritual of Jayavarman IV, which had tantric origins. According to Aeusrivongse 1976, devarāja referred to the king of the gods and also to the chief ancestor who had power over all the ancestral spirits. Woodward 2001, a review of Angkor: Cities and Temples (1997) by Claude Jacques and Michael Freeman, argues that the devarāja ritual was the Agnihotra ritual.

Aeusrivongse, Nidhi. “The Devarāja Cult and Khmer Kingship at Angkor.” In Explorations in Early Southeast Asian History: The Origins of Southeast Asian Statecraft. Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia 11. Edited by Kenneth R. Hall and John K. Whitmore, 107–148. Ann Arbor: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1976.
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Points out that the Khmer elite and the masses shared a belief in ancestor spirits. Pre-Angkorian kings were said to go upon death to the abode of Shiva (Śivapura), which was identified with the mountain realm of the ancestors.
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Kulke, Hermann. The Devarāja Cult. Data Paper, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 108. Translated from the German by I. W. Mabott. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1978.
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Translation of Der Devarāja-Kult (Heidelberg: Südasien-Institut der Universität Heidelberg, 1974). Kulke reviews the arguments of other scholars on the devarāja and suggests that the meaning of the term changed over time, distinguishing between the cult of the devarāja as a tantric ritual used by Jayavarman IV to unify Cambodia under his rule and the cult of a royal liṅga housed in a temple-mountain.
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Mabbett, Ian. “Devarāja.” Journal of Southeast Asian History 10.2 (1969): 202–223.
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Mabbett considers four kinds of evidence for a cult of the devarāja—the occurrence of “devarāja” in inscriptions, monuments built by Khmer rulers that symbolize Mt. Meru, statuary commemorating royal figures in the form of gods, and poetry dedicated to a king that represents him as a god.
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Woodward, Hiram W., Jr. “Practice and Belief in Ancient Cambodia: Claude Jacques’ Angkor and the Devarāja Question.” Journal of Southeast Asian History 32.2 (2001): 249–261.
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Develops an observation of Kulke drawn from the Kok Rosei inscription of Jayavarman V (c. 968–1000) that connects the cult of the devarāja with a sacred fire and the Agnihotra of Brahmanic Hinduism.
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Java and Sumatra

One of the earliest kingdoms to evidence the influence of Indian models of kingship was Tārumā, located in West Java (mid-4th–mid-7th centuries). A 5th-century inscription tells us that the ruler Pūrṇavarman identified with the god Vishnu. The 8th century saw the rise of the Śailendras in Central Java and the emergence of the maritime power Śrīwijaya in southern Sumatra, both predominantly Buddhist. Tārumā was apparently sent into decline by an attack from Śrīwijaya. The Hindu Sañjaya dynasty (8th–10th centuries), rivals of the Śailendras, first appears in an inscription dated 732 that proclaims that King Sanna erected a Shiva liṅga. The Sañjayas displaced the Śailendras in Central Java and extended their center of power into East Java. The oldest Hindu temples in Java (7th–8th centuries), found on the Dieng Plateau, are small shrines dedicated to deified ancestors and to Shiva. Today they bear imaginative names, such as Chandi Bima and Chandi Srikandi, but these are modern names to enable guides to distinguish among the temples. Gedong Songo, dated 730–780, is another complex of nine temple shrines in Central Java dedicated to Shiva. The Sañjaya ruler Rakai Pikatan was the builder of a complex of Hindu temples now known as Prambanan (10th century). It comprises 237 temples/shrines devoted to Vishnu and Brahma, with Shiva at the center. The reliefs on the Vishnu Temple tell the story of Krishna, while those on the Shiva and Brahma temples narrate the Rāmāyaṇa. The best-known temple, Lara Jonggrang, is dedicated to Durga, represented as Mahiśāsuramardini. In the mid-10th century, the Sañjayas moved their capital to East Java. Historical materials for the 10th and 11th centuries are scarce; all we know is that Mataram was attacked in 1016, perhaps by Śrīwijayan forces. The king was killed, but a prince escaped to the forest. This was the hero Airlangga (b. 991–d. 1049), the son of a Javanese princess and a Balinese king, who founded the kingdom of Kahuripan in 1019. Airlangga’s reign initiates a Javanese synthesis of Hindu/Buddhist conceptions. He inaugurated a state cult devoted to Vishnu, but also patronized the worship of Shiva, Mahayana Buddhism, and ascetic rishis (ṛṣiṣ I). The later East Javanese kingdoms of Kadiri (11th–13th centuries), Singhasari (Singosari; 13th century) and Majapahit (1293–c. 1527) developed royal cults combining ancestor worship, the worship of Hindu deities, predominantly Shiva, ṛishis, and Buddhism.

Inscriptions

Only a few more than 250 Sanskrit inscriptions have been found in Java, dating from the 5th to the 9th century, when inscriptions were written in Old Javanese. Casparis 1956 provides an English translation of inscriptions found in Java and Sumatra. Gonda 1973 is a monumental study of Sanskrit loan words in Malay, Javanese, and other Indonesian languages, with a discussion of the influence of texts written in Sanskrit on the development of Javanese and Malay literature.

Casparis, J. G. de. Prasasti Indonesia. Vol. 2, Selected Inscriptions from the Seventh to the Ninth Century AD. Bandung: Dinas Purbakala Republic Indonesia, 1956.
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Parts I through VII cover inscriptions from South Sumatra and Java with a Buddhist content. Parts VIII through XI cover inscriptions that address or refer to Shiva.
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Gonda, J. Sanskrit in Indonesia. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1973.
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Chapter 3 includes a discussion of Sanskrit words related to Indian gods, religious conceptions, and rituals adopted in Indonesian languages.
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Archaeological and Art-Historical Studies

Scholarly work on the Hindu and Buddhist monuments of Java began with the establishment of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen in 1778. The publication of Sir Thomas S. Raffles’ History of Java in 1817 led to increased interest in the monuments of ancient Java. J. Crawford was a British colonial administrator in Malaya who accompanied the British expedition that in 1811 took Java, where he lived as an administrator for six years. Crawford 1993 (first published in 1820) is a description of the culture, history, and society of the Malay world, comprising Malaya and the Netherland Indies, particularly Java, and Bali. The Koninklyk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië (KITLV) was founded in 1854. Among the most noted Dutch scholars of Java are J. L. A. Brandes, who led the Bataviaasch Genootschap and later the Commissie in Nederlandsch-Indië, which was established as an official archaeological mission in 1901; N. J. Krom, who followed as head of the Commissie in 1910; and F. D. K. Bosch, who conducted a new inventory of archaeological monuments in 1915. This work was fundamental to Krom 1926, which described the major monuments in Java. Funds for research were limited in the 1930s, and research resumed only after World War II under A. J. Bernet Kempers, who was head of the archaeological mission (Oudheidkundige Dienst), renamed Dinas Purbakala Republik Indonesia, from 1947 to 1953. R. Soekmono followed Bernet Kempers as head of the Dinas Purbakala, but there was little funding available for research. Preservation of Borobudur was the first priority for the Dinas, which in 1975 split into two institutes, one for research and one for the preservation of Indonesia’s historical heritage. Bernet Kempers 1959 was, until recently, the standard text on ancient Indonesian art. Sedyawati 1994 is an art-historical study of images of Ganesh found in eastern Java. After completing his study of Borobudur, the architect Jacques Dumarçay was commissioned to write an introduction to the Hindu temples of Java (see Dumarçay 1986). Claire Holt, a student of Stutterheim in the 1930s, extended the study of the arts in Indonesia to the performing arts (Holt 1967). Fontein 1990, the catalogue of an exhibition of Indonesian art organized in association with the Festival of Indonesia, contains essays by the most noted art historians of Indonesia, including R. Soekmono. Klokke 1993 is a study of reliefs depicting stories from the Indian Pañcatantra on two groups of temples, Prambanan in Central Java (9th century) and temples of East Java (14th–15th centuries).

Bernet Kempers, A. J.. Ancient Indonesian Art. Amsterdam: Van der Peet, 1959.
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The first overview in English of archaeological sites and the art of Indonesia.
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Crawford, John. History of the Indian Archipelago: Containing an Account of the Manners, Arts, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of Its Inhabitants. 3 vols. Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1993.
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First published in 1820. The second volume includes a chapter on the language and literature of Java; a chapter on the monuments of Java with comments on the religious traditions deduced from those monuments and the author’s observations; and a chapter on the religion of Bali. The last, based on personal observation, includes a description of satī by a 17th-century Dutch traveler.
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Dumarçay, Jacques. The Temples of Java. Translated and edited by Michael Smithies. Singapore and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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This slim volume is an excellent introduction for students to the architecture of classical Java by a scholar from the École Française d’Extrême Orient. Dumarçay draws on the work of Dutch scholars and provides cultural and historical context for the temples.
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Fontein, Jan, ed. The Sculpture of Indonesia. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1990.
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Catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1 July–4 November 1990. There are essays on monuments and art by Jan Fontein, R. Soekmono, and Edi Sedyawati; much valuable information is given in the catalogue entries for 116 objects, which are all illustrated.
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Holt, Claire. Art in Indonesia: Continuities and Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967.
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An excellent introduction to the Hindu and Buddhist monuments of Indonesia and the heritage of Indian influence in the performance arts. Part 1 covers monuments and sculpture inspired by the adoption of Indian politico-religious conceptions.
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Klokke, Marijke. Tantri Reliefs on Javanese Candi. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 1993.
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Discusses the Javanese version of the Pañcatantra, known as Tantri Kāmandaka (14th century), which is traced to a Tamil adaptation of the Pañcatantra, the Tantropākhyāna. The reliefs are said to be teachings about what makes a king good or bad. There are one hundred black-and-white illustrations.
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Krom, N. J. Inleiding tot de Hindoe-Javaansche Kunst. 3 vols. s’Gravenhage, The Netherlands: M. Nijhoff, 1926.
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This early description of archaeological sites in Java from the “Hindu-Javanese period” (4th–16th centuries) is still an essential resource for scholars of Java.
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Sedyawati, Edi. Ganesa Statuary of the Kadiri and Singasari Periods: A Study of Art History. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 1994.
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This is a translation from Indonesian of a PhD dissertation, University of Indonesia, Jakarta (1985). The work includes a discussion of the Smaradahana, a Singhasari court verse narrative (kakawin) of stories about Ganesh (Gaṇeśa).
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History and Religion

Dutch scholars who worked to construct a history of Java based on inscriptions and archaeological/art-historical studies include N. J. Krom, C. J. van Leur, F. E. K. Bosch, W. H. Rassers, C. van Vollenhoven, F. H. van Naerssen, and C. C. Berg. Much of their work was published in the Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land-en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, but little has been translated into English. There is also a wealth of information in archaeological reports by Indonesian scholars (from the 1980s on), but this work is difficult to obtain outside Indonesia and has not been referenced here. Initially, merchants from India were credited with introducing Indian civilization to Java. In an essay entitled “The Problem of Hindu Colonisation of Indonesia,” Bosch rejected the view of C. C. Berg, in Hoofdlijnen der Javaansche litteratuurgeschiedenis (1929), that the Panji tales of Java provided evidence for the conquest of Java by Indians. Krom coined the term “Hindu-Javanese,” arguing that Javanese culture was “a harmonious combination of Indian and Indonesian elements.” Krom argued that Saivism came to Southeast Asia as the religion of a Brahmin elite possessed of specialized knowledge regarding power and fertility. This knowledge would have had particular appeal to local rulers. The view that Indian merchants were the agents of “Indianization” was definitively rejected with the publication of J. C. van Leur’s Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Economic and Social History (1955). Krom 1931 was the first attempt to establish a chronology for Javanese history. Sastri 1932 provides evidence of Tamil merchant guilds active in Sumatra in the 11th century. Bosch 1961 explores what Indian religious conceptions meant in a Javanese context. Pigeaud 1960–1963 is a study of the Majapahit court and the culture of 14th-century Java through translation of and commentary on the Nāgara-Kĕrtāgama, also known as the Deśawarnana, a 14th-century court history of Majapahit’s greatest rulers. This work provides a picture of Hindu rituals conducted in the last Hindu/Buddhist state in Java. The Robson translation of Prapanca’s Deśawarnana (Prapanca 1955) is a more fluid and readable introduction to this classical work suitable for use in the classroom. Miksic and Soekatno 1995 is the catalogue of an exhibition of art from Majapanit at the National Museum of Singapore, with essays by notable Indonesian scholars. Kinney 2003 is the first extensive overview of the art and culture of the East Javanese period (10th–15th centuries). Creese 2004 explores how Hindu traditions shaped gender construction in Java and Bali.

Bosch, F. D. K. Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1961.
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The book includes a detailed study of the old Javanese bathing-place Jalatunda, and shorter essays on related topics. The author concludes with an essay on the concept of brahman.
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Creese, Helen. Women of the Kakawin World: Marriage and Sexuality in the Indic Courts of Java and Bali. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004.
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This study traces gender construction in the kakawin literature of Javanese and Balinese courts to the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata and other Indian sources. It includes a review of episodes of satī in kakawin literature and the practice of satī in a Balinese context.
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Kinney, Ann R., with Marijke J. Klokke, and Lydia Kieven. Worshiping Siva and Buddha: The Temple Art of East Java. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003.
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The material is organized historically into periods: East Java, 929–1222; Singasari, 1222–1292; and Majapahit, 1293–1519. Special attention is paid to temple reliefs illustrating Old Javanese versions of Indian epics. The introductory essay on Hinduism and Buddhism in Indonesia is by Klokke.
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Krom, N. J. Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis. s’Gravenhage, The Netherlands: M. Nijhoff, 1931.
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The standard work on the history of Indonesia during the Hindu-Buddhist period from the 5th to 15th centuries, based on inscriptions and archaeology. The author subsequently expanded on this work in a series of articles in the Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land-en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië. Originally published in 1926.
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Miksic, John N., and Endang Sri Hardiati Soekatno, eds. The Legacy of Majapahit. Singapore: National Heritage Board, 1995.
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Catalogue of an exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore, 10 November 1994–26 March 1995. The volume includes an introduction by John Miksic and essays by Indonesian scholars on Majapahit society and history. Particularly interesting are the essays by Hariani Santiko, “Early Research on Sivaitic Hinduism during the Majapahit Era” and by Kwa Chong Guan, “Shraddha Sri Rajapatni: An Exploration of Majapahit Mortuary Ritual.”
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Pigeaud, Theodore G. Th, ed. and trans. Java in the Fourteenth Century: A Study in Cultural History—The Nāgara-Kĕrtāgama by Rakawi Prapañca of Majapahit, 1365 A.D. 5 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1960–1963.
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Volume 1 provides the Javanese text in transcription; Volume 2 consists of notes on the text and translations; Volume 3 is the translation of the text; Volume 4 consists of commentaries; and Volume 5 is a glossary and index.
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Prapanca, Mpu. Deśawarnana: (Nāgarakrtāgama). Translated by Stuart Robson. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 1955.
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This translation was prompted by the discovery of previously unknown manuscripts of the Deśawarnana in Bali. The translation in English is supplemented by an introduction to this 14th-century kakawin and a comprehensive commentary on the translation that provides historical context.
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Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta. “A Tamil Merchant Guild in Sumatra.” Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- and Volkendunde 72 (1932): 314–327.
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This article describes a Tamil inscription found in Sumatra dated 1088 CE during the reign of the Cōļa (Chola) ruler Kulōttunga I. The author provides background on Tamil merchant guilds that were established in Southeast Asia.
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Bali

The earliest evidence of the adoption of Indian religious traditions in Bali is a 9th-century inscription in Old Balinese written in Indian script that is contemporary with Borobudur. In the 10th century, Airlangga (Erlangga in Bali) incorporated Bali into his East Javanese realm, but the Balinese reasserted their independence after his death. In 1284, Kertanagara claimed Bali by right of conquest, but once more the Balinese managed to shake off the Javanese overlord. In 1343, Majapahit invaded Bali for a third time and succeeded in establishing its authority there. When the remnants of Majapahit fell to Demak between 1513 and 1528, court officials fled from Java to Bali. On the slopes of the Mt. Agung volcano, they built Pura Besakih, known as the Mother Temple of Bali. In an adaptation of the Varna system of Brahmanic Hinduism, the Majapahit elite established themselves as the high caste triwangsa (three peoples)—Brahmana ritual specialists and Satria and Weisia nobility. The Balinese were considered Sudra agriculturalists, but caste does not determine people’s occupations in Bali as it does in India, nor are there rigid rules about purity and the contagion of pollution. Sacred water is a purifying agent in all situations. Bali has more than twenty thousand temples (pura)—walled compounds with small shrines and a space for festivals (odalan), to which the gods and ancestors are invited and entertained with shadow puppet and dance-drama performances to a gamelan accompaniment. Despite the suicidal end of the last kings of Bali in 1906, the Balinese have preserved a unique form of Hinduism that provides ritual means of reordering society after devastating events, including volcanic eruptions, the mass slaughter of people with ties to the Indonesian Communist Party (1965–1966), and a terrorist bombing of a nightclub in 2002. The literature on Balinese Hinduism is extensive and rich. The first study, The Civilization and Culture of Bali, by the Indologist F. Friedrich, dates to 1847. Dutch scholars who studied Balinese society and religion include P. Wirz, W. F. Stutterheim, C. C. Berg, F. D. K. Bosch, C. J. Grader, J. L. Swellenbregel, V. E. Korn, R. E. Goris, and C. Hooykaas, to mention only some of the best known.

Archaeological and Art-Historical Studies

Dating monuments in Bali is notoriously difficult. Serious archaeological research began only in the 1920s. At that time it was thought that Balinese Hinduism derived directly from Majapahit. It is now generally agreed that Balinese Hinduism dates back to the 8th or 9th century. Stutterheim 1935 is an introduction to the Indian heritage of Balinese culture. Bernet Kempers 1991 is the standard source on Bali, based on archaeological findings by European scholars, particularly Dutch working with the Indonesian Archaeological Survey before World War II, and the Indonesian archaeologist R. P. Soejono in the 1960s. Phalgunadi 1991 is a very speculative interpretation of Indian sources on Hindu influence in Bali, and it contains information not found elsewhere.

Bernet Kempers, A. J.. Monumental Bali: Introduction to Balinese Archaeology and Guide to the Monuments. Singapore: Periplus Editions, 1991.
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Part 1 is a history of Bali. Part 2 consists of three chapters on the monuments of Bali, organized geographically.
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Phalgunadi, I Gusti Putu. Evolution of Hindu Culture in Bali: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1991.
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Despite the speculative interpretations of Indian sources, this work is valuable for interesting information not available elsewhere, and for unusual sources referenced in footnotes.
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Stutterheim, Willem F. Indian Influences in Old-Balinese Art. Translated by Claire Holt. London: The India Society, 1935.
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In lieu of documentary sources (which do not exist), old Balinese art is surveyed. There are twenty-three black-and-white plates, some illustrating unusual and interesting sculptures.
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History and Religion

In the Balinese Hindu worldview, there is an endless struggle between the gods and demonic forces. One of the most dramatic rituals is the night-long ritual drama, the Chalonarang, a staging of the confrontation between Rangda the witch, a personification of malevolent evil derived from Kali, and Barong, a benevolent, sacred, semi-beast-like animal, resembling the dragon in Chinese dragon dances. Rangda (whose name means “widow”) is a horrific creature with long tangled hair, bulging eyes, and a gaping mouth with tusks and a long tongue, which hangs down to her belly. Belo 1949 is a classic study of the Chalonarang. Hooykaas 1964, which the author describes as a study of priestly ritual, includes studies of different aspects of Balinese Hinduism. Hooykaas 1966, based on Balinese religious texts, is an example of this scholar’s extremely detailed study of Balinese ritual. Geertz 1980 is an influential study that famously describes Bali as a “theater state.” Geertz argues that the palace of a Balinese king was a temple and a stage for religious ceremonies and spectacles addressed to the Hindu gods Batara Siwa (Śiva, Shiva), Wisnu (Viṣṇu, Vishnu), and Brahma, and deified ancestor spirits (Dewa Hyang or Bhatara Hyang). Rituals such as royal cremations, involving hundreds or even thousands of people, served to dramatize the semidivine status of the king. One criticism of the “theater state” interpretation of Hindu royal cults in Southeast Asia is that the model is static and does not account for change over time or development in political institutions. Bakker 1993 is an overview of changes in Balinese Hinduism from the 19th century to the 20th century, leading to the establishment of the Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia in 1958, when Balinese Hinduism was accorded official recognition by the government. Wiener 1995 is a history of the Dutch conquest of Bali that describes how Balinese Hinduism was transformed from a political organizing system to a religious practice under colonial rule. Stuart-Fox 2002 is an ethnography of Balinese Hinduism centered on Bali’s paramount temple, Pura Besakih, based on the author’s doctoral thesis at Australian National University. Reichle 2010 is the catalogue for an exhibition of Balinese ritual arts at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Bakker, Frederik L. The Struggle of the Hindu Balinese Intellectuals: Developments in Modern Hindu Thinking in Independent Indonesia. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1993.
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A study of Balinese intellectuals instrumental in forming the semigovernmental organization Parisada Hindu Dharma in the 1950s. This led to Hindu Dharma being recognized as an official religion by the government of Indonesia, and a program of religious reform emphasizing classical Indian scriptures but retaining Balinese features and resisting global Hindu movements founded by charismatic gurus.
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Belo, Jane. Rangda and Barong. Monographs of the American Ethnological Society 16. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1949.
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Identifies Rangda as derived from Durga and analyzes the psychological tensions and symbolic ideas represented by Rangda and Barong.
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Geertz, Clifford. Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
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In a Weberian analysis of the Balinese worldview, Geertz describes the Balinese state—as exemplified in rituals, ceremonies, royal spectacles, and a system of social stratification—as a “theater state,” as distinguished from an administrative tool for the execution of policy or a mechanism for extracting surpluses from the peasantry.
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Hooykaas, Christiaan. Āgama Tirtha: Five Studies in Hindu-Balinese Religion. Verhandelingen KAW, Afd. L. Nieuwe Reeks 70.4. Amsterdam: Nooerd-Hoolandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1964.
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Includes essays on “Sarasvati, the Goddess of Learning,” “Yama-Raja, the Lord of Judgment,” “Padmasana, the Throne of God,” “Siva Linga, the Mark of the Lord,” and “Siva-Ratri, the Night of Worship.”
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Hooykaas, Christiaan. Surya-Sevana: The Way to God of a Balinese Siva Priest. Verhandelingen KAW, Afd. L. Nieuwe Reeks 72.3. Amsterdam: Nooerd-Hoolandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1966.
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A detailed description and transcription of the ritual of the high priests of Shiva (pandanda) in Bali, which concludes with a brief comparison of Saiva rituals in South India and Bali.
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Reichle, Natasha, ed. Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum—Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, 2010.
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Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Asian Art Museum—Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, San Francisco, California, 25 February–11 September 2011. Includes essays on ritual and ritual arts in Bali by Natasha Reichle, David J. Stuart-Fox, Garret Cam, and Francine Brinkgreve. The catalogue entries are extensively documented with reference to earlier scholarship, and there is a valuable bibliography of studies of Balinese ritual.
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Stuart-Fox, David J. Pura Besakih: Temple, Religion and Society in Bali. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 2002.
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Five chapters describe the relationship of Pura Besakih to village temples, descent group temples, and regional temples. Four chapters focus on the ritual life of Pura Besakih. The final chapter compares the relationship of Pura Besakih to the traditional courts of Bali with the role of the temple in 20th century Bali.
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Wiener, Margaret J. Visible and Invisible Realms: Power, Magic, and Colonial Conquest in Bali. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
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The author criticizes Geertz’s conception of a “theater state” (see Geertz 1980), arguing that the emphasis on ritual display in Bali was a consequence of the way in which the power of Balinese rulers was circumscribed and conceived by colonial authorities, not the preconquest nature of power in Bali.
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Widow-Burning: Suttee (Skt. Satī)

In Bali the practice of following one’s lord into death at his funeral was not limited to royal widows. Both court slaves/servants and concubines also took their lives in this way. This was considered to be the noblest expression of loyalty (mesatia). Dutch colonial authorities only gradually succeeded in suppressing the tradition of royal widows, royal concubines, and court servants throwing themselves into a cremation fire at the funeral of a member of the royal family. The last documented case occurred in 1903. Van der Kraan 1985 presents five eyewitness accounts by early Europeans, the first dating from 1633 and the last from 1847. Weinberger-Thomas 1999 is an English translation of Centres d’immortalité: la cremation des veuves en Inde (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1996) that interprets the multiple meanings of suttee. Hiltebeitel 1999 further explores the meanings and practice of suttee.

Hiltebeitel, Alfred. “Fathers of the Bride, Fathers of Sati, Myths, Rites, and Scholarly Practices.” Thamyris: Mythmaking from Past to Present 6.1 (1999): 65–94.
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This essay is an extensive discussion of suttee in Indian myths written in response to Weinberger-Thomas’s treatment of widow-burning (see Weinberger-Thomas 1999). In a discussion of the Balinese term bela, a distinction is made between the Brahmanical origins of the suttee of a royal widow and a folk practice of widow-burning associated with bela. The myth of Bela is related.
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van der Kraan, Alfons. “Human Sacrifice in Bali: Sources, Notes, and Commentary.” Indonesia 40 (1985): 89–121.
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Fascinating descriptions by early European witnesses of the ritual suicide of women of a Balinese court at the funeral of a member of the royal family.
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Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine. Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India. Translated by Jeffrey Mehlman and David Gordon White. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
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Primarily treats satī in India, but opens with a royal Balinese cremation in 1829 at which two women of the court committed suttee. In Bali a woman consecrated in this way is called bela. The extraordinary elaboration of the ritual in Bali is commented on, but there is no discussion of how the Balinese tradition of bela differs from Indian suttee.
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Literature

The Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, the Harivaṃśa, and the puranas reached Southeast Asia in the first millennium of the Common Era. The epic traditions of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa gave legitimacy to a ruler identified with a god who battled the demonic forces that threaten the ethical order of the world. For example, a 12th-century Javanese poem, the Hariwangsa, proclaimed that Wisnu was incarnated in King Jayabhaya as “protector of the world.” In Southeast Asia the Indian epics were elaborated in unique ways, as episodes were situated in local landscapes and new elements were added from local folklore. Versions of the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, which have been told and retold in shadow puppet performances, dance-dramas, and literary works, have sustained an ethical worldview in which the divine order of the universe is always under threat from demonic forces.

The Rāmāyaṇa (Ramayana)

The Rāmāyaṇa appears to have been known in Southeast Asia by the second half of the first millennium, as evidenced by its depiction in temple reliefs, most notably on early Cham monuments and at Prambanan in Central Java (9th century). The oldest literary version is an Old-Javanese kakawin (court poetry) Rāmāyaṇa, which dates from the 9th century. Southeast Asian versions of the Rama (Skt. Rāma) story derive from both the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and Tamil versions. Everywhere in Southeast Asia the story was embellished with local color and adapted to local culture.

Overview

Desai 1970 surveys versions of the Rāmāyaṇa in Asia, distinguishing between the Chinese versions, which are more closely derived from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, and Southeast Asian Rāmāyaṇas, which are closer to south Indian versions of the story. Sahai 1981 is an edited collection devoted to the Rāmāyaṇa in Southeast Asia. Singaravelu 1982 focuses on a distinctive motif in Southeast Asian Rāmāyaṇas: that Sita (Skt. Sītā) was born as Ravana’s (Skt. Rāvaṇa) daughter and destined to destroy him. Singaravelu 2004 is a useful overview of different national Rāmāyaṇa stories, with an excellent bibliography.

Desai, Santosh N. “Rāmāyaṇa—An Instrument of Historical Contact and Cultural Transmission between India and Asia.” Journal of Asian Studies 30.1 (1970): 5–20.
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Argues that Southeast Asian versions of the Rāmāyaṇa differ from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa in not stressing the concept of Hindu dharma—that is, family, caste, and personal duty—but rather follow South Indian versions of the story in focusing on the war between Rama and Ravaṇa and making Ravaṇa a more sympathetic, almost heroic, figure, rather than a demon.
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Sahai, Sachchidanand, ed. The Rāmāyaṇa in South East Asia. Gaya, India: South East Asian Review Office for the Centre for South East Asian Studies, 1981.
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Includes “The Rāmāyaṇa in Early Java” by S. O. Robson, an essay on the Khmer Rāmakerti by Saveros Pou, two essays on the Rama story in Thailand, an essay by the editor on the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam, and an essay on the Rāmāyaṇa in Burmese literature.
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Singaravelu, S. “Sitā’s Birth and Parentage in the Rāma Story.” Asian Folklore Studies 41.2 (1982): 235–243.
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In the classical Indian texts of the Rāmāyaṇa by Vālmīli and Kamban, Sita is said to have appeared miraculously from a furrow in a sacrifice by King Janaka. In a 5th-century Jain version she is said to have been born as Ravaṇa’s daughter, with the prophecy that she would destroy him and his lineage. Various versions describe differently how Sita is abandoned and later found by King Janaka. This article demonstrates that in Southeast Asian versions, Sita is most frequently said to be the daughter of Ravaṇa.
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Singaravelu, S. The Ramayana Tradition in Southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of Malaya Press, 2004.
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Gives a brief history of the Rama story in each country, followed by a summary of the chief features of the predominant version. Burmese, Indonesian, Cambodian, Lao, Malaysian, and Thai versions of the Rama stories are discussed.
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Java

Two major versions of the Rāmāyaṇa are found in Java, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa (9th century), which is based on the 7th-century Sanskrit Bhaţţikāwya, and Yasadipur’s 18th-century version, which is based on Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa. Kakawin refers to a Javanese tradition of court poetry, also found in Bali, which is derived from Indian Kāvya literature. The classical Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa consists of six books, instead of the seven books of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. In Java the Uttarakāṇḍa is a separate work with an independent identity. The first scholarly edition of the Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa (using Javanese characters) and Dutch translation by H. Kern and H. H. Juynboll (1900) was available to only the very few scholars who could read Old Javanese. Nevertheless it provided a text that was the basis of a series of studies by Dutch, Indonesian, and British scholars on the ways in which the Javanese telling of the epic differed from Indian prototypes. Other literary versions of the Rāmāyaṇa in Indonesia include the Serāt Rām, the Carīt Rāmāyaṇa, the Serāt Kāṇḍa, the Hikayat Sri Rama, and the Rāma Kling. Stutterheim 1925 is a study of the Rama story in Southeast Asia that compares the Malay Hikayat Seri Rama with Javanese versions. Hooykaas 1955 is a comparison of the Old-Javanese Rāmāyaṇa with the Bhaţţikāwya and other kakawins; it reviews the opinions of previous scholars, especially those of Poerbatjaraka. Noorduyn 1971 discusses a manuscript found in the Central Museum in Jakarta, identifying a distinctive Sundanese version of the Rāmāyaṇa. Santoso 1980 is a translation of the Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa based on Kern’s work, with corrections drawn from other manuscripts and commentary in the notes. Phalgunadi 1999 argues that although derived from Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa and possibly influenced by the Bhaţţikāvya, the Uttarakāṇḍa is an original work, not merely a translation of the Sanskrit original. Saran and Khanna 2004, which surveys the role of the Rāmāyaṇa in Indonesia, includes an extensive bibliography of sources on the Indonesian Rāmāyaṇa. Acri, et al. 2011 is a collection of essays on the Rāmāyaṇa in the literature and visual arts of Indonesia.

Acri, Andrea, Helen Creese, and Arlo Griffiths, eds. From Laṅkā Eastwards: The Rāmāyaṇa in the Literature and Visual Arts of Indonesia. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 2011.
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This collection of essays derives from a workshop on the Rāmāyaṇa in Jakarta in 2009 sponsored by the Australia-Netherlands Research Collaboration. It includes four essays on Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa, four essays on Rāmāyaṇa reliefs on temples in Java, and two essays on the Rāmāyaṇa in Bali. The bibliography of scholarly work on the Rāmāyaṇa in Indonesia is extensive.
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Hooykaas, C. The Old-Javanese Rāmāyaṇa kakawin, with special reference to the problem of interpolation in kakawins. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 16. ‘s-Gravenhage, The Netherlands: M. Nijhoff, 1955.
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Supports the argument of the Indian scholar Manomohan Ghosh that the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa was a translation of the Bhaţţikāwya, with new elements added by the Javanese author.
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Noorduyn, J. “Traces of an Old Sundanese Ramayana Tradition.” Indonesia 12 (1971): 151–157.
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The Sundanese version introduces the story of Mandodarī, the wife of Ravaṇa, who gives birth to Manabaya, a posthumous son of Ravaṇa. Manabaya brings his brother and his father’s warriors back to life and launches an attack on the city of Rama. The end of the manuscript is missing, leaving the end of this war unknown. This version makes Sita the daughter of Ravaṇa and her children cousins of their enemies. The story is described in the introduction as the “tale of the children of Rāvaṇa.”
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Phalgunadi, I Gusti Puru. Indonesian Rāmāyaṇa: The Uttarakāṇḍa. New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1999.
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The text is given in Old Javanese (Roman script), with English translation on the facing page. Illustrations of the Uttarakāṇḍa from Balinese murals are included.
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Santoso, Soewito, trans. and ed. Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin. 3 vols. Śata-Piţaka Series. 251. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1980.
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In the introduction the author (also known as Soewito S. Wiryonagoro) engages with other scholars about the relationship of the Javanese Rāmāyaṇa to Indian sources. The Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin is translated verse by verse in Roman script, followed by an English translation. Copublished by the International Academy of Indian Culture, New Delhi.
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Saran, Malini, and Vinod C. Khanna. The Rāmāyaṇa in Indonesia. Delhi: Ravi Dayal, 2004.
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Chapter 3 is devoted to the reliefs of the Rama story on Prambanan; chapter 4 to the Rāmāyaṇa kakawin; and chapter 5 to the Rāmāyaṇa in the arts of the courts of East Java. The remaining chapters deal with the Rama story in Islamic Java and Hindu Bali.
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Stutterheim, Willem. Rama Legends and Rama Reliefs in Indonesia. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1925.
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The author rejects the earlier hypothesis of Rassers that the Javanese Rāmāyaṇa differed from Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa due to the influence of pre-Hindu Javanese culture. He then discusses the Rama reliefs at Prambanan. The book includes 230 plates illustrating Rama reliefs on Indonesian temples. Reprinted in 1989 (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts).
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Cambodia

The Rāmāyaṇa was known in Cambodia from early times, as demonstrated by temple reliefs depicting episodes from the epic. However, we have no written documents from before the 14th century. The text of the Rāmakerti (Reamker) in Middle Khmer appears to date from the 16th or 17th century. It is not a translation from Sanskrit into Khmer but a new literary work with a Buddhist character and local flavor. Two French translations of the work appeared almost simultaneously. The translation by François Martini, La Gloire de Rāma (Rāmakerti), in the collection “Le Monde Indien,” (Paris 1978) lacks explanatory notes. Pou 1977 provides an annotated translation of Rāmakerti I (the core text without the Uttarakāṇḍa) with commentary, a scholarly study of the work, and the Khmer text. Pou 1982 is a translation of the Khmer version of the Uttarakāṇḍa (known as Rāmakerti II). Jacob and Haksrea 1986 is the first English translation of the Reamker (Rāmakerti). Bizot 1989 examines the artistic expression and meaning of the Cambodian Rāma story. Pou 1992 explores the ways in which the Khmer adapted the text to their environment, cultural attitudes, and the values of Theravada Buddhism.

Bizot, Francois. Rāmaker, ou, L’amour Symbolique de Rām et Setā. Publications de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 155 Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1989.
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Bizot proposes that the Rama story in Cambodia has been infused with a tantric interpretation that equates the character of Setā (Sītā) with the “Jewel of the Interior” or Enlightenment, thus the whole quest to rescue Setā and win her is symbolic of the quest for Enlightenment.
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Jacob, Judith, and Kuoch Haksrea, trans. Reamker (Rāmakerti): The Cambodian Version of the Rāmāyaṇa. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1986.
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A transcription of the Cambodian text is not included with this English translation of the entire Rāmakerti. There is an introductory essay by Jacob on the Rāmāyaṇa in Khmer culture. The notes on the translation refer to Pou’s translation.
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Pou, Saveros, trans. Rāmakerti (XVIle–XVIIle siècles). 3 vols. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1977.
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Although published sequentially, these three volumes are normally viewed as a single work. The first is an annotated French translation of the Rāmakerti I. The second volume comprises essays on the Middle period of Khmer literature (from the last Angkor inscription to the middle of the 19th century) and the Rāmakerti. Volume 3 is the Khmer text.
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Pou, Saveros, trans. Rāmakerti II. Publications de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 132. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1982.
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A scholarly translation of the final part of the Khmer Rāmakerti (Rāmakerti II), which freely follows Vālmīki’s Uttarakāṇḍa.
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Pou, Saveros. “Indigenization of Rāmāyaṇa in Cambodia.” Asian Folklore Studies 51.1 (1992): 89–102.
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The vehicle of Agni is changed from a ram to a rhinoceros; monkeys are given the capacity to make moral choices, while at the same time they are mocked as monkeys striving to be human; Hindu hermits (ṛṣi) are transformed into forest-dwelling monks; and Rama is made a bodhisattva who shows compassion to all creatures.
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Thailand

Reliefs from the Ayutthaya period show that the Rāmāyaṇa was known in Thailand by the 13th century. The full name of the capital, Ayutthaya Rama Thepnakhon, translates as “Rama’s divine city of Ayutthaya.” The Rāmakian (Rāmakīen), also known as the Rama Kirti, compiled under King Rama I (r. 1782–1809) is, however, the only complete literary version of the Thai Rāmāyaṇa. It is the source of other Thai versions, with the exception of the Rāmakian of King Rama VI, which takes Vālmīki as its source. Manich 1977 is an English translation of the version of the Rāmāyaṇa written by King Rama I. Bofman 1984 provides a history of the Rāmakian, identifying episodes that have been added to the Vālmīki text and noting episodes that have been changed or minimized. Singaravelu 1985 suggests that the story of Maiyarāb found in the Rāmakian, but not in literary versions of the Rāmāyaṇa, may be derived from Tamil folk versions of the story.

Bofman, Theodora Helene. The Poetics of the Ramakian. Monograph Series on Southeast Asia 21. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1984.
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The study focuses on the version of the Ramakian produced by Rama I, which is translated into English.
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Manich, Jumsai, J. L. Thai Ramayana. Bangkok: Chalermnit, 1977.
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King Rama I’s Ramakian was written in verse to be performed in the traditional Thai masked drama (khoon).
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Singaravelu, S. “The Episode of Maiyarāb in the Thai Rāmakīen and Its Possible Relationship to Tamil Folklore.” Asian Folklore Studies 44.2 (1985): 269–279.
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In the Maiyarāb episode, Rama is kidnapped by Maiyarāb and taken to the nether world to be killed. Hanumān pursues Maiyarāb and rescues Rama, killing Maiyarāb. This story is related to the Tamil folk version of the Mayilirāvanan.
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Laos

There are two literary versions of the Rāmāyaṇa in Laos, the Phra Lăk Phra Lām (Braḥ Lăk Braḥ Lām) and the Gvāy Dvóṟaḥbḥī. The first is better known. There are also folk versions of the Rama story. Tinh 1972 is a translation into French of two Lao folk versions of the Rama story. Sahai 1976 is a translation into English of the Gvāy Dvóṟaḥbḥī. Sahai 1996 is an English translation of the Phra Lăk Phra Lām.

Sahai, Sachchidanand. Rāmāyaṇa in Laos: A Study in the Gvāy Dvóṟaḥbḥī. Delhi: B. R. Publishing, 1976.
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In this Lao version of the Rama story, Sita is the daughter of Ravaṇa. The Lao text is given, translated into English, and compared to Indian versions. There are also thirty-three black-and-white plates illustrating the mural of the Lao Rama story at Vat Oup-Moung.
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Sahai, Sachchidanand. The Rama Jataka in Laos: A Study in the Phra Lak Phra Lam. 2 vols. Delhi: B. R. Publishing, 1996.
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In this Lao version of the Rama story, Rama is treated as a bodhisattva and the story differs radically from Indian versions.
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Tinh, Vo Thu. Phra Lak Phra Lam: Le Rāmāyaṇa Lao. Vientiane, Laos: Vithagna, 1972.
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The first version of the Rama story presented is a folk version illustrated at Vat Kang Tha near Vientiane. This is compared to another folk version from a manuscript published by the École Française d’Extrême-Orient.
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Myanmar (Burma)

The Burmese version of the Rāmāyaṇa is known as the Rama Vathu. Ohno 2000 is an English translation of the Rama Vathu from a palm leaf manuscript, which is compared to versions of the Rama story from Yunnan and Laos.

Ohno, Toru. Burmese Ramayana: With an English Translation of the Original Palm Leaf Manuscript in Burmese Language in 1223 Year of Burmese Era, 1871 A.D. Delhi: B. R. Publishing, 2000.
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The author bases his discussion on eight different Burmese manuscripts. He describes how the Burmese version of the Rama story differs from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, ending with a battle in which Rama is slain by his sons.
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Malaysia

The Malay version of the Rāmāyaṇa, the Hikayat Sri Rama, appears to have come from Java. The Malay Hikayat Sri Rama was first published in 1928 as a follow-up to Stutterheim’s study of Rama legends in Java. Zieseniss 1963 argues that the Malay Hikayat Sri Rama came to Malaysia from Indonesia, where several Indian versions of the saga were fused into a single narrative. Barrett 1963 discusses the story of Siranchak, a previous incarnation of Ravaṇa, which is found in a manuscript identified earlier by Winstedt.

Barrett, E. C. G. “Further Light on Sir Richard Winstedt’s ‘Undescribed Malay Version of the Ramayana.’” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 26.3 (1963): 531–543.
DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00070294Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reviews scholarship on all manuscripts of the Malay Rāmāyaṇa and demonstrates how the story of Siranchak fits with other Malay versions of the story.
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Zieseniss, Alexander. The Rama Saga in Malaysia: Its Origin and Development. Translated by P. W. Burch. Singapore: Malaysian Sociological Research Institute, 1963.
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Originally published as Die Rāma-Sage (1928), this scholarly study is based on several different manuscripts of the Hikayat Sri Rama. These are compared with Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa and various popular Indian versions of the Rama saga.
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The Mahābhārata

The most ancient literature in Old Javanese is derived from the Mahābhārata. The Sanskrit Mahābhārata consists of eighteen books (parwa, parva). The Indonesian version apparently had fewer. Only eight have been preserved in Bali: the Ādiparva, the Virāţaparva (Wirāţaparva), the Udyogaparva, the Bhīṣmaparva, the Prasthānikaparva, the Āśramaparva, the Mośalaparva, and the Svargarohanaparva (Swargarohanaparwa). They are not a translation of the Sanskrit work, although they do quote Sanskrit śloka. They are written in kawi (kavi), the name given to a literary style of Javanese using Sanskrit meters, and appear to have been composed by different authors under the patronage of a 10th-century ruler in Java. Stories from the Mahābhārata are also the source for much of the later classical Javanese kakawin (court poetry) literature, most famously the Bhāratayuddha and the Arjunawijaya. Phalgunadi 1990 is an English translation of the Javanese kawi Ādiparva. Phalgunadi 1994 is an English translation of the Javanese kawi Udyogaparva. Phalgunadi 1995 is an English translation of the Javanese kawi Bhīṣmaparva. Phalgunadi has also produced Indonesian translations of the Ādiparva and the Udogaparwa. There are various other translations into Bahasa Indonesia. Indonesian translations of kakawin based on the Mahābhārata include The Bharatyuddha (Supomo 1993). Translations of works into Bahasa Indonesia have not been included here, as these are difficult to obtain outside Indonesia.

Phalgunadi, I Gusti Putu. The Indonesian Mahābhārata: Ādiparva—The First Book. Śata-Piţaka Series 360. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1990.
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This is a translation into English from classical Javanese Kawi, which is no longer understood by most Indonesians. The text is given in Kawi in roman script on the facing page. The translation is based on an Indonesian Ādiparva preserved in the International Academy of Indian Culture in New Delhi and J. H. Juynboll’s Ādiparva published in Leiden in 1906.
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Phalgunadi, I Gusti Putu. The Indonesian Mahābhārata: Udyogaparva. Śata-Piţaka Series 380. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1994.
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The extant text of the Indonesian Udyogaparva is incomplete. The traditional opening prayer is missing and, as compared with the Sanskrit version, some discussion in the Pāṇḍava camp is not present. The text used for the translation is in the International Academy of Indian Culture in New Delhi.
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Phalgunadi, I Gusti Putu. The Indonesian Mahābhārata: Bhīṣmparva. Śata-Piţaka Series 384. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 1995.
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This is a translation into English from classical Javanese kawi with the kawi given in roman transcription on the facing page. It is based on the manuscript preserved in the International Academy of Indian Culture in New Delhi and the printed text of the Bhīṣmparva edited by J. Gonda and published in 1936 in Bandung.
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Supomo, S. The Bhāratayuddha: An Old Javanese Poem and Its Indian Sources. Śata-Piţaka Series 373. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1993.
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A romanized text and English translation of The Bhāratayuddha, a kakawin based on the Mahābhārata, by Mpu Panuluh, who completed the work of Mpu Sĕḍah in 1057. This work rivals the Rāmāyaṇa and Arjunawiwaha in popularity, as judged by the number of existent manuscripts.
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Other Hindu Literature

The greatest number of literary texts with Hindu themes is found in Java, where the rich store of kakawin (court poetry) has not yet been fully explored by scholars. Old-Javanese literary texts on Hinduism include the Bhrahmāṇḍapurāna and Sārasamuccaya on Brahmanic Hinduism, the Hari-waṅśa, the Bhāratayuddha, the Arjunawiwāha, and the Smaradahana, as well as Saiva treatises, such as the Tattwa Sang Hyang Mahajnana, Sewa Sasana, Wṛhaspatitattwa, Bhuwanasaṅkṣepa, Agastya Parwa, and the somewhat later Śiwarātrikalpa. Only a few Old Javanese texts have been translated into a Western language, because few scholars have the required knowledge of Sanskrit and Old Javanese.

Overview

After the Islamization of Java, the Hindu/Buddhist literature produced by Javanese courts was preserved in Bali. The first translations of Old Javanese literature were the work of the great Dutch scholar of Old-Javanese, H. Kern, whose work has been the starting point for later scholars. P. J. Zoetmulder and L. Poerbatharaka, the curator of Old Javanese manuscripts at the library of the Jakarta Museum, are recognized as the foremost authorities to follow Kern. Zoetmulder 1974 is an invaluable resource for the study of classical Javanese literature. Klokke 2000 is a collection of essays on narrative reliefs on Indonesian temples, including reliefs from the Kṛṣṇāyana at Panataran, but also includes an essay on Rāmāyaṇa reliefs on the Cham Tra Kieu pedestal and a comparison of Arjuna reliefs in Indonesia and Cambodia.

Klokke, Marijke, ed. Narrative Sculpture and Literary Traditions in South and Southeast Asia. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2000.
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The essay comparing Pañcatantra reliefs in India and Indonesia responds to the editor’s earlier study, Tantri Reliefs on Javanese Candi (1993).
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Zoetmulder, P. J. Kalangwan: A Survey of Old Javanese Literature. Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkendunde: Translation Series, 16. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1974.
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The topic is introduced by a historical overview and discussion of genre. The author describes Hindu-Javanese culture as a “cult of beauty (Old Javanese kalangōn, p. 36).” The work includes a summary of the content of twenty kakawin.
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Old-Javanese Literature (Kakawin)

The creativity with which the Javanese appropriated Hindu and Buddhist themes is seen in kakawin. The most famous work, Arjuna Wiwaha, by Mpu Kanwa, is a Javanese version of the story of Arjuna that emphasizes the tension between Buddhist asceticism, which aims at liberation from the world, and Hindu asceticism, which aims at acquiring supernatural powers for virtuous action in the world. The heart of Hinduism for the Javanese was not dharma as caste duty, but a hero who gained the favor of the gods through ascetic practices so he could prevail over demonic forces and establish a moral political order. In many carvings found in cave retreats in East Java, Arjuna is identified with King Airlangga. The Deśawarnana, a Javanese poem composed by the Buddhist monk Prapanca in 1365, says that upon his death, Kertanagara was deified in three forms, as Shiva-Buddha, as Ardhanārῑśvara, and as a Jina (conqueror, one who achieves enlightenment through asceticism). In this uniquely Javanese politico-religious synthesis, the paths of Buddhist renunciation, Saivite asceticism, tantric ritual, and ancestor worship all lead ultimately to recognition of an all-powerful being: “Lord of the Mountains,” “ruler over the rulers of the world,” the Supreme Being of the world of spirits. The Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) story is depicted in reliefs on the Wisnu temple at Prambanan, so the story was known in Java by the 9th century. Teeuw 1950 is a Dutch translation of the Old-Javanese Hariwaṅśa (Hariwangśa), which tells of Krishna’s elopement with Rukmiṇī. Tantular 1977 is a translation of the Arjunawijaya of Mpu Tantular. Henry 1981 is a translation of Mpu Kanwa’s Arjunawijaya, with commentary. Santoso 1986 is a translation of the Krĕşṇāyana of Mpu Triguna. Supomo 1993 is a translation of the Bhāratayuddha of Mpu Panuluh, who completed the work of Mpu Sĕḍah. Teeuw and Robson 2005 is a translation of the Bhomāntaka, or the Death of Bhoma. Robson’s translation of the Arjunawiwāha of Mpu Kanwa (Kanwa 2008) is an excellent introduction to classical Javanese literature.

Henry, Patricia. “Text Analysis of an Old Javanese Poem: An Annotated Translation of Mpu Kanwa’s Arjuna Wiwaaha, ‘The Marriage of Arguna,’ Sargas I–XIII.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1981.
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The text used for this translation was transcribed from Old Javanese into roman script by Poerbatjaraka, who translated the work into Dutch (1926). He based his work on several manuscript versions. The English translation is accompanied by a discussion of the context of the work that includes much on Hindu and Buddhist tantra in Majapahit.
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Kanwa, Mpu. Arjunawiwāha: The Marriage of Arjuna of Mpu Kanwa. Edited and translated by Stuart Robson. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 2008.
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Mpu Kanwa’s Arjunawiwāha, which dates to around 1030 CE, is the second oldest example of kakawin. The introductory essay provides an excellent summary of the historical and cultural context of the poem.
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Santoso, Soewito. Krĕşṇāyana: The Krĕşṇa Legend in Indonesia. Śata-Piţaka Series, 345. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1986.
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Santoso believes that the Krĕşṇāyana-kakawin of Mpu Triguna dates from the beginning of the 13th century. The story is summarized and the text given in Roman script, each verse followed by an English translation.
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Supomo, S. The Bhāratayuddha: An Old Javanese Poem and Its Indian Sources. Sata Pittaka Series 373. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1993.
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A romanized text and English translation of The Bhāratayuddha, a kakawin based on the Mahābhārata, by Mpu Panuluh, who completed the work of Mpu Sĕḍah in 1057. This work rivals the Rāmāyaṇa and Arjunawiwaha in popularity, as judged by the number of existent manuscripts.
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Tantular, Mpu. Arjunawijaya: A Kakawin of Mpu Tantular. Edited and translated by S. Supomo. 2 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1977.
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Volume 1 includes a long introduction to the author, sources, and cultural context as reflected in the Arjunawijaya. The text is given in Old Javanese. Volume 2 includes the English translation and notes.
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Teeuw, A., ed. and trans. Hariwaṅśa. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Tal- Land- en Volkenkunde 9. s’Gravenhage, The Netherlands: M. Nijhoff, 1950.
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The text is given in Old-Javanese and in Dutch translation.
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Teeuw, A., and W. O. Robson, eds. and trans. Bhomāntaka: The Death of Bhoma. Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV, 2005.
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An exemplary translation and study of an epic kakawin, which tells of the romance of Sāmba, the son of Krishna, and Princess Yajñawatī, and of the defeat of the demon Naraka/Bhoma by Krishna, ruler of Dwārawatī. The introduction discusses possible Indian sources for these stories.
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Balinese Literature

In many cases it is impossible to determine whether a particular work of Old Javanese literature was written in Java or Bali. From the time of Airlangga, there were close ties between courts in Bali and Java, and strong cultural influence from Java in Bali. By the end of the 17th century all of Java was Islamic, and the old Hindu/Buddhist culture of East Java survived only in Bali, where kakawin continued to be written. Teeuw 1969 treats a 15th-century kakawin by the Javanese court poet Mpu Tanakan that tells the story of a hunter who accidently worships a hidden Shiva liṅga, resulting in a battle between Shiva and Yama for his soul. Hinzler 1981 is a study of Balinese wayang focused on the play Bima Swarga. Phalgunadi 2000 is a prose translation of a Sanskrit text, which identifies Shiva with the Parambrahma (Brahma).

Hinzler, Hedi I. R. Bima Swarga in Balinese Wayang. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 90. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1981.
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This work is based on fieldwork (1972–1976) and the study of texts. It begins with an excellent review of the literature to date on Balinese wayang. It also treats the relationship of the themes and performance of Bima Swarga to Balinese funeral rituals.
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Phalgunadi, I Gusti Puru. The Indonesian Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa: Translated from the Original Classical Kawi Text. New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 2000.
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An English translation of a 10th-century Javanese kawi work that was preserved on palm-leaves in Balinese script.
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Teeuw, A., et al. Śiwarātrikalpa of Mpu Tanakuṅ: An Old Javanese Poem, Its Indian Source and Balinese Illustrations. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1969.
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This work was preserved in Bali. This study provides the text in Javanese and English translation. Part 2 considers the Indian source of the Śiwarātrikalpa, and Part 3 is a study of Balinese illustrations of the ritual.
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Lao Literature

Little research has been done in Laos since World War II. Sahai 1987 is a rare study treating the Krishna story in Laos.

Sahai, Sachchidanand. The Kṛṣṇa Saga in Laos: A Study in the Br̲aḥ Kuʼtd Br̲aḥ Bān: Or the Story of Bāṇāsura. Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corp., 1978.
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The text of the Br̲aḥ Kuʼtd Br̲aḥ Bān (The battle between Kṛṣṇa and Bana), prepared from three manuscripts, is presented in English translation. In the introductory essay the Lao text is compared with Indian versions and the interpolation of Lao folktales noted.
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Performance

The Rāmāyaṇa and stories from the Mahābhārata have been the subject of masked dance (khon), puppet theater (wayang golek and wayang kulit), dance drama (wayang wong), and other performance modes in Southeast Asian courts and villages for centuries. The shadow puppet traditions of Southeast Asia—Java, Bali, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand—reflect the ways in which local cultures have adapted the Hindu epics by choosing particular characters and episodes for elaboration. The citations given here provide a point of entry, focusing on book-length studies with extensive bibliographic references. Brandon 1967 was the first survey of theatrical forms in Southeast Asia. Krishnan, et al. 1997 is the catalogue of an exhibit of artistic presentations of the Rāmāyaṇa at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Kam 2000, a narration of the story of Rāmāyaṇa with illustrations from the performance and other arts of India and Asian countries, was inspired by this exhibition.

Brandon, James R. Theater in Southeast Asia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
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A history of theater in Southeast Asia that describes how different genres of performance developed by incorporating foreign influences, particularly Indian religious and political ideas, and melding them with indigenous ritual performances.
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Kam, Garret. Ramayana in the Arts of Asia. Singapore: Select Books, 2000.
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A beautiful coffee-table book with more than five hundred color illustrations and an excellent bibliography. The material is presented as a telling of the Rāmāyaṇa story, based on the Thai Ramakian, but incorporating material from folk versions and narrative traditions of different parts of India and Asian countries. An appendix includes a useful list of the names of literary versions of the Rāmāyaṇa found in different parts of India and Asia.
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Krishnan, Gauri Parimoo, et al. Ramayana: A Living Tradition. Singapore: National Heritage Board, 1997.
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Richly illustrated, this volume contrasts the depiction of the Rāmāyaṇa in miniature paintings of Rajasthan with contemporary Balinese paintings, demonstrating the great variation in treatment of themes and episodes of the epic. There is a section on shadow puppet performances, and the Rāmāyaṇa reliefs of Prambanan in Java are illustrated.
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Indonesia

Indonesia has an especially rich and ancient tradition of performance arts centered on the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata. The shadow puppet theater (wayang kulit, wayang purwa) is referred to in an 11th-century Javanese poem, Arjuna Wiwaha, where Indra, in the guise of an ascetic holy man, admonishes Arjuna not to be attached to the illusions of life: “It is like someone who looks at a shadow play and weeps . . . yet he well knows that it is only carved leather made to move and speak.” In contrast, wayang wong (dance drama), as performed today, was an invention of the Yogyakarta court in the 18th century, and, reflecting the tensions between the courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, material from the Mahābhārata was favored. Court performances were an expression of the power of the sponsor. At the same time, the potency of performers who are possessed by or connected to a divine power beyond everyday social relations is manifest. Thus the traditional performance arts have always had political significance. The puppeteer (dalang, dhalang) of wayang kulit has been revered for the ways in which he may challenge the power of political authorities through clown figures (punakawan), who represent an alternative view of social relations. The power dynamics associated with these traditional performance arts also appears in performances sponsored by village elites on the occasion of life transition rituals. Today, shadow puppet performances (wayang kulit), rod-puppet performances (wayang golek), and dance drama performances (wayang wong) are staged by the government on official occasions, and also broadcast on commercial television. There is a vast variety of literature on the performance arts in Indonesian that is difficult to obtain and is not cited here. Holt 1967 introduced the performance arts of Indonesia to Western students of Indonesia. Brandon 1970, a translation of three plays (lakon)—The Reincarnation of Rama, Irawan’s Wedding, and The Death of Karna—as performed and with an introduction, is the first major monograph on wayang in English. Soedarsono 1984 is a historical study of wayang wong that argues it was created by Sultan Hamengkubuwana I (b. 1755–d. 1792) of Yogyakarta as a state ritual. Keeler 1987 is a sensitive ethnography of a traditional Javanese village and its dalang, describing the social dynamics of a wayang kulit performance and showing how Javanese conceptions of power, potency, and self are implicated in the meaning of wayang. Sears 1996 is both a historical and ethnographic treatment of wayang, which challenges earlier scholarship that viewed wayang as an expression of the deep Indic roots of Javanese culture and Islam as a thin veneer. Clark 2001 describes how Indonesian writers appropriated themes and characters from wayang and the Rāmāyaṇa to subvert and challenge the authoritarian New Order regime. Herbert 2002 is an introduction to wayang golek, with stunning photographs of puppets. Weintraub 2004 is an ethnography of the wooden rod-puppet theater (wayang golek) of the Sundanese highlands of West Java that explores the politics of the tradition under the New Order.

Brandon, James R., ed. On Thrones of Gold: Three Javanese Shadow Plays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
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The introduction describes the historical development of wayang kulit and the method of performance. Includes an annotated bibliography and photographs of performances.
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Clark, Marshall. “Shadow Boxing: Indonesian Writers and the Ramayana in the New Order.” Indonesia 72 (2001): 159–187.
DOI: 10.2307/3351485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Briefly describes how the New Order of General Suharto attempted to legitimate its authority by valorizing the feudal values of wayang (kawula-gusti), particularly loyalty to one’s superior, and then discusses literary works in which writers appropriated wayang characters to mock the New Order’s ruling elite and promote the social and political aspirations of Indonesia’s middle class.
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Herbert, Mimi with Nur Rahardjo. Voices of the Puppet Masters: The Wayang Golek Theater of Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002.
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Constructed around interviews with nine Javanese and one American dalang. It is lavishly illustrated with photos of puppets and puppeteers. Published in conjunction with the Lontar Foundation, Jakarta.
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Holt, Claire. Art in Indonesia: Continuities and Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967.
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Part 1 covers the Indian-derived heritage of Indonesia as expressed in monuments and sculpture. Part 2 covers the performing arts that are derived from that heritage, particularly dance and wayang (shadow puppet) performances.
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Keeler, Ward. Javanese Shadow Plays, Javanese Selves. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
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Argues that the meaning of wayang does not derive from the moral implications of the plot story (lakon) but rather from the complex conceptions of power, potency, and self that are enacted by the wayang characters and reflected in ordinary family relations, village politics, traditional ritual practices, and everyday speech patterns.
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Sears, Laurie J. Shadows of Empire: Colonial Discourse and Javanese Tales. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996.
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Argues that during the 18th and early 19th centuries, Sufi mysticism was blended with Hindu themes in Javanese wayang. This process was disrupted after the Java war by Dutch authorities who promoted wayang as an expression of Java’s Hindu cultural roots, undermining the authority of Islamic leaders. Javanese court intellectuals contributed to this development, and later Suharto’s New Order promoted wayang as an expression of its hierarchical, authoritarian, and self-consciously Javanese values.
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Soedarsono. Wayang Wong: The State Ritual Dance Drama in the Court of Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Gajah Mada University Press, 1984.
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A historical study of wayang wong that treats its political significance and an analysis of the text/story (lakon) Mintaraga, a Yogyakarta wayang wong. The bibliography includes Dutch, English and Indonesian sources, and there is a glossary of Javanese terms and names of wayang wong characters.
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Weintraub, Andrew N. Power Plays: Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java. Research in International Studies, Southeast Asia Series 110. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2004.
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Includes a history of wayang golek and an account of traditional performances at village rituals, such as a wedding or circumcision. The focus is changes in performances due to the creation of superstar dalangs as a consequence of New Order government attempts to control the message of a performance through sponsorship and commercialization of the tradition through television and cassette recordings.
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Malaysia

In Malaysia, shadow puppet performances are known as wayang Siam. Performances commonly take place in village settings, in contrast to court productions of wayang Java in Indonesia. Sweeney 1972 is the first in-depth study of the Malay shadow puppet tradition in Malaysia. Wright 1981 describes the impact of modernist Islam and the Islamic revival on the shadow puppet tradition in rural Kelantan.

Sweeney, P. L. Amin. The Ramayana and the Malay Shadow-Play. Kuala Lumpur: National University of Malaysia Press, 1972.
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An ethnographic study of shadow puppet performance in Kelantan. The focus of the study is the social background, training, and knowledge of the puppeteer (dalang) and performance of the Cherita Maharaja Wana (the life of Rāvaṇa), with texts in Malay.
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Wright, Barbara S. “Islam and the Malay Shadow Play.” Asian Folklore Studies 40.1 (1981): 51–63.
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Discusses the tension between Islamic teachings and Hindu-derived beliefs associated with wayang in Kelantan. Argues that rural Malays generally accept or ignore these tensions.
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Thailand

Masked dance (khon) performances of the Rāmakian were performed at the court. Both shadow puppets (nang) and bamboo rod-puppets (hun) are found in Thailand, but shadow puppet theater was never part of court culture. Rather, it is found in the Malay areas of southern Thailand. There is surprisingly little scholarship on the topic in English, but Dowsey-Magg 2005 and Chandavij and Pramualratana 2006 are noteworthy sources.

Chandavij, Natthapatra, and Promporn Pramualratana. Thai Puppets and Khon Masks. Bangkok: River Books, 2006.
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Originally published in 1998, this introduction to Thai puppets and masks is illustrated with color photographs. Includes a short history of Thai performance arts and a summary of the Rāmakian.
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Dowsey-Magg, Paul. “Popular Culture and ‘Traditional Performance’: Conflicts and Challenges in Contemporary Nang Talung.” In Dynamic Diversity in Southern Thailand. Edited by Wattana Sugunnasil, 109–147. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2005.
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Today plots are rarely taken from the Rāmāyaṇa or the Mahābhārata. Puppeteers still make traditional invocations at a performance, but they tend to take stories from local folklore or pop culture.
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Cambodia

In Cambodia, the shadow puppet theater (sbek thom) tradition was almost completely destroyed by more than twenty years of war and the policies of the Khmer Rouge. Kravel 1995 is an attempt to document the tradition and support its revival.

Kravel, Pech Tum. Sbek Thom: Khmer Shadow Theater. Translated by Sos Kem. Edited by Martin Hatch. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1995.
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An English translation of a short work in Khmer, which is also included in the publication. Includes 153 illustrations of Khmer shadow puppets and an account of a sbek thom performance in Siem Reap.
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Ethnographic Studies

In addition to overseas Indian communities in Malaysia and Singapore, a Hindu heritage has been preserved in Bali and Java. Ethnographers have also noted the influence of Hinduism in Thai Buddhism.

Bali

The cultural wealth and religious performances of Bali have attracted the attention of a long list of artists and ethnographers, including Walter Spies, Gregor Kraus, Karl With, Vicki Baum, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Colin McPhee, Jane Belo, Clifford Geertz, Hildred Geertz, and the Mexican ethnographer Miguel Covarrubias. Covarrubias 1937 is still a wonderful introduction to Balinese life and tradition. Belo 1953 is a study of the major village temple festival (odalan). Swellengrebel 1984 includes essays by R. Goris on religion in a Balinese village, the temple system, and holidays and holy days; an essay by V. E. Korn on the consecration of a priest; essays by C. J. Grader on temples; and an essay by H. J. Fraken on a temple festival. Lansing 1983, an engaging introduction to the history and culture of Bali, builds on the author’s earlier ethnography. Eiseman 1990 is a study of the Balinese understanding of material or visible reality (sekala) and the invisible or eternal realm (niskala) by an independent scholar who lived in Bali for twenty-eight years and became an authority on Balinese rituals and beliefs. Howe 2001 is a sociopolitical study of change in Balinese Hinduism, including the impact of transnational devotional movements, such as the Sathya Sai Baba movement.

Belo, Jane. Bali: Temple Festival. Monographs of the American Ethnological Society 22. Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1953.
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C. Hooykaas’s study, A Balinese Temple Festival (1977), is meant to supplement this ethnography with the text of the invocations of the priest (pemanku).
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Covarrubias, M. Island of Bali. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937.
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Part 2 consists of three chapters devoted to the beliefs and practices of Balinese Hinduism: “Rites and Festivals,” “Witchcraft,” and “Death and Cremation.”
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Eiseman, Fred B., Jr. Bali Sekala and Niskala: Essays on Religion, Ritual, and Art. 2 vols. Singapore: Periplus Editions, 1990.
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Volume 1, Niskala, is a classic study of Balinese Hinduism. The book is divided into four parts: “Religion in Bali,” “Ritual and Magic,” “Anniversaries and Temples,” and “The Performing Arts.” Volume 2 is a study of Balinese society, tradition, and craft.
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Howe, Leo. Hinduism and Hierarchy in Bali. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research, 2001.
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Traces the impact of reforms introduced by Balinese intellectuals and the establishment of devotional forms of Hinduism.
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Lansing, J. Stephen. The Three Worlds of Bali. New York: Praeger, 1983.
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Begins with a discussion of the “Indianization” of Bali. Lansing criticizes Geertz’s concept of Bali as a “theater state” (see Geertz 1980, cited under Bali: History and Religion) preferring instead the concept of a “temple society.” The work concludes with an account of the great Eka Dasa Rudra ceremony of 1973/1979. An excellent introduction to Balinese religion for students.
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Swellengrebel, J. L., ed. Bali: Studies in Life, Thought, and Ritual. Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Reprints. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Foris Publications, 1984.
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This volume first appeared in 1960. It was reissued by the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology in the Netherlands.
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Java

In the aftermath of the 1965 coup attempt that was suppressed by the Indonesian Army and General Suharto, many Javanese followers of syncretic cultural traditions who had belonged to Sukarno’s secular Indonesian Nationalist Party or the Indonesian Communist Party chose to identify with Hindu Dharma as a religion. This led to a revival of Hinduism in Java in association with Balinese Hinduism. Lyon 1980 describes the emergence of Hindu Dharma in Java in the 1970s, when all Indonesians were required to state a religious affiliation on their identity cards. Hefner 1985 is an ethnographic account of a remote group of people living in a mountainous region of East Java, who retained a religious and cultural identity as Hindu. Beatty 1999 is a study of religious diversity in Java—including Islamic piety, Hinduism, and folk tradition—set in East Java where the tradition of Mahapahit is strong. Ramstedt 2004 is a collection of essays from a conference on Hinduism in modern Indonesia organized by the International Institute for Asian Studies. Vignato 2000 is a comparison of the Hinduism of an immigrant Tamil community in Medan, Sumatra, and a Karo Batak group that claims their indigenous religious traditions are Hindu.

Beatty, Andrew. Varieties of Javanese Religion: An Anthropological Account. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511612497Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Includes a chapter on the reappropriation of Hinduism by villagers in the aftermath of the bloody suppression of “Communists” and left-leaning folk in 1965–1966, and the subsequent program of dakwah conversion launched by the government.
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Hefner, Robert W. Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
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Describes the ritual life of the village and the Tenggerese embrace of a Balinese Hindu reform movement in the face of Islamization movements.
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Lyon, Margo L. “The Hindu Revival in Java: Politics and Religious Identity.” In Indonesia: The Making of a Culture. Edited by James J. Fox, 205–220. Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1980.
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This essay, drawn from the author’s PhD dissertation research, describes the emergence of Hindu Dharma in Java in the 1970s in the aftermath of the attempted coup of 1965.
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Ramstedt, Martin, ed. Hinduism in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion between Local, National, and Global Interests. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004.
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There are four essays on Hinduism in Bali, including one on the Sai Baba movement, as well as essays on various ethnic groups in Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Eastern Indonesia who claim that their indigenous religious traditions are forms of Agama Hindu.
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Vignato, Silvia. Au nom de l’Hindouisme: Reconfigurations Ethniques chez les Tamouls et les Karo en Indonesie. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000.
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This ethnography compares an immigrant Tamil Hindu community in Medan, Sumatra, with a Karo Batak group that claims their indigenous religious traditions are Hindu so that they may be recognized as a legal religion by the Indonesian government.
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Thailand

There are Brahmanic elements in the religious practices of ordinary Thai Buddhists. Hindu deities have been adopted in the Buddhist cosmology, and Brahmanic elements are evident in astrological and curing practices. The origins of folk Brahmanism in Thailand are not clear. Kirsch 1977 distinguishes three components of Thai religion: Buddhism, a Brahmanic component, and animism. The Brahmanic elements are of two kinds: court Brahmanism and folk Brahmanism. Swearer 1983 is a useful review of references to Saivism in Thailand in historical studies of mainland Southeast Asia. Maju 1987 is an ethnographic essay on the Erawan (Brahma) shrine in Bangkok.

Kirsch, A. Thomas. “Complexity in the Thai Religious System: An Interpretation.” Journal of Asian Studies 34.2 (1977): 241–266.
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Court Brahmanism and folk Brahmanism are described, and their social functions analyzed. The author suggests that with increasing emphasis on Buddhist orthodoxy, the Brahmanic elements in the practice of Buddhism may be waning in importance.
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Maju, Trilok Chandra. Erawan Shrine and Brahma Worship in Thailand: With Reference to India and Nepal. Bangkok: Craftsman, 1987.
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A rare account of the Hindu deities and practices that have been incorporated into popular Thai Buddhism.
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Swearer, Donald. “The Lotus and the Lingam: Notes on Śaivism in Thailand.” In Experiencing Śiva: Encounters with a Hindu Deity. Edited by Fred W. Clothey and J. Bruce Long, 189–201. New Delhi: Manohar, 1983.
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Argues that Thai religion is a subtle and undifferentiated blend of animist, Hindu/Brahmanic and Buddhist elements.
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Overseas Indian Communities

Indians, predominantly Tamil, compose 7 to 8 percent of the population of Malaysia. They are the smallest and poorest ethnic group after the Malays and the Chinese. Similarly, in Singapore, Indians compose the third largest ethnic group, roughly 9 percent of the population, but Tamils are less dominant and the Indian community is divided more equally between middle-class professionals and a poor urban working class.

Comparative Studies

There are few comparative studies of overseas Indian communities. Fred Clothey is the most noted scholar in this field. Clothey 2006 is a collection of comparative ethnographic essays on the ritual practices of Tamil Hindus outside of Tamilnadu.

Clothey, Fred W. Ritualizing on the Boundaries: Continuity and Innovation in the Tamil Diaspora. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006.
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Includes chapters on “Shrines as Cultural Spaces in Singapore” and “Trance and ‘Sacred Wounding’: Interpretations of Tai Pūcam at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.” Two other chapters, “Brahmins and Their Three Shrines” and “Libations with 1,008 Pots: Ritual Rules and Changing Circumstances,” contain comparative material on Hindu ritual in Malaysia and Singapore.
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Malaysia

Approximately 85 percent of the Hindu Indians in Malaysia are the descendants of immigrants from Tamilnadu who were brought to Malaya to work as tappers on rubber plantations or on the docks of Penang. The remainder are Jaffna Tamils from Sri Lanka who were English educated and moved from clerical positions in the colonial economy into professions in an independent Malaysia, or else descendants of the Chettiars who once prospered in the colony as moneylenders. These groups are separated by both class and caste; this is reflected in their religious practices. Middle-class Hindus have attempted to reform the practices of working-class Tamils of low caste or untouchable background. Arasaratnam 1966 is an introduction to the major Hindu festivals celebrated in Malaysia. Ramasamy 1984 deals with the issue of caste in the Malaysian Hindu minority community. Lee and Rajoo 1987 provides an overview of the divisions in the Malaysian Indian community and the way in which these are reflected in religious practices and religious organizations. Lee 1988 explores the impact of the Islamic revival movement known as dakwah on religious minorities in Malaysia. Means 1995 addresses changes in the poorer sector of the Indian minority community due to migration from plantations to urban centers. Collins 1997 is an ethnography of the Hindus of Malaysia, focused on the Thaipusam (Tai Pūcam) festival. Lee and Ackerman 1997 includes a chapter analyzing changes in Hindu ritual practices in Malaysia in the 20th century. Willford 2006 is a study of the ways the Malay Preference policies of the Malaysian Government have marginalized the minority Hindu Tamil community; it includes an account of how Tamils respond through ritual practices.

Arasaratnam, Sinnappah. Indian Festivals in Malaya. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of Malaya, 1966.
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An account for outsiders of the major Hindu festivals celebrated in Malaysia. Little attention is paid to class or caste dynamics, which are considered at length in the author’s historical ethnography Indians in Malaysia and Singapore (1979).
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Collins, Elizabeth F. Pierced by Murugan’s Lance: Ritual, Power, and Moral Redemption among Malaysian Hindus. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1997.
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An ethnography of the predominantly Tamil Hindus of Malaysia, organized around a study of vow fulfillment to Murugan (Murukaṉ) on Thaipusam.
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Lee, Raymond L. M. “Patterns of Religious Tension in Malaysia.” Asian Survey 28.4 (1988): 400–418.
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The Islamic revival of the 1970s and 1980s led to two different responses among Malaysian Hindus: a movement emphasizing the adoption of a Sanskritic paradigm, and a devotional movement rooted in Tamil Saivite tradition and Saiva Siddhanta philosophy.
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Lee, Raymond L. M., and Susan Ackerman. Sacred Tensions: Modernity and Religious Transformation in Malaysia. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1997.
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The chapter on Hinduism contrasts the ritual practices of Indians of low-caste origin on rubber estates with the more Sanskritized Hinduism of urban temples controlled by upper-class Hindus. Tensions between the two groups are demonstrated by efforts to reform the practices of lower-caste Hindus and resistance to reforms by these groups. The impact of more egalitarian devotional movements originating in India is also described.
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Lee, Raymond L. M., and R. Rajoo. “Sanskritization and Indian Ethnicity in Malaysia.” Modern Asian Studies 21.2 (1987): 389–415.
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Begins with a description of lines of friction in the Hindu Indian community due to caste, class, and differences in region of origin. Describes reform movements, particularly the establishment of the Tamil Reform Association in 1931 by followers of Ramasamy Naicker, and the Malaysian Hindu Sangam established in 1965. Sanskritization has been an urban phenomenon, often resisted by working-class Tamils.
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Means, David James. Shiva’s Other Children: Religion and Social Identity amongst Overseas Indians. New Delhi and Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1995.
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A study of how the religious practices of the Tamil Indian minority of Malaysia have changed in response to the move from plantations to a more open urban social environment.
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Ramasamy, Rajakrishnan. Caste Consciousness among Indian Tamils in Malaysia. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Pelanduk Publications, 1984.
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In Malaysia, castes can be grouped into two categories: Tamilar “high” castes and Paraiyar “unclean” castes. Caste exclusivity practices are retained only in exclusively Tamil communities, as on estates. However, marriage between individuals from different caste groups is still rare.
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Willford, Andrew C. Cage of Freedom: Tamil Identity and the Ethnic Fetish in Malaysia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2006.
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This study of ethnic politics in Malaysia includes consideration of the official treatment of religion and the appeal of Hindu ecumenical reform movements, such as the Ramakrishna Mission and the Divine Life Society.
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The Satya Sai Baba Movement

The Sai Baba movement was established in Malaysia in the late 1960s and grew rapidly over the following decades. In the mid-1980s the Sathya Sai Central Council of Malaysia was formally established, with a political and religious agenda. The movement promotes personal religiosity, devotion to the Sai Baba, and an ethic of material development in an attempt to reform traditional religious practices regarded as superstitious and irrational. It also seeks a role as a political representative of the Indian community. Ackerman and Lee 1990 includes a chapter on the Sai Baba movement in Malaysia. Kent 2000 examines Chinese participation in the movement. Kent 2004 is an ethnographic study that attends to the political context and psychological appeal of the movement to middle-class Indians in Malaysia.

Ackerman, Susan, and Raymond L. M. Lee. Heaven in Transition: Non-Muslim Religious Innovation and Ethnic Identity in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Forum, 1990.
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Includes a chapter analyzing the emergence of the Sathya Sai Bab movement in the 1970s. First published in 1988 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press).
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Kent, Alexandra. “Creating Divine Unity: Chinese Recruitment in the Sathya Sai Baba Movement of Malaysia.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 15.1 (2000): 5–27.
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Argues that the Sai Baba movement succeeds in attracting both middle-class Chinese and middle-class Indians through the charisma of its leader, its embrace of modernity and success, and its political significance in bringing together two minority communities.
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Kent, Alexandra. Divinity and Diversity: A Hindu Revitalization Movement in Malaysia. Copenhagen: NIAS, 2004.
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An ethnography that explores the appeal of the Sathya Sai Baba movement in Malaysia to its predominantly middle class followers as a rationalized, modern, and universal form of Hinduism.
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Singapore

Singapore’s Indian community is more linguistically and religiously diverse than Malaysia’s, although Tamil Hindus still form the majority group. Babb 1974 is a paper on the fire-walking festival in a goddess temple in Singapore. Sinha 2005 is an ethnographic study of the rise of the low-caste guardian deity Muneeswarn (Muṉiśvaraṉ) in urban Singapore. Sinha 2011 is an innovative ethnography exploring the commodification of Hinduism in contemporary Singapore.

Babb, Lawrence A. Walking on Flowers in Singapore: A Hindu Festival Cycle. Singapore: Department of Sociology, University of Singapore, 1974.
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A short monograph analyzing a Singaporean Draupadi Festival still performed at an actively functioning Māriyamman (Māriamman) temple.
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Sinha, Vineeta. A New God in the Diaspora? Muneeswaran Worship in Contemporary Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2005.
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This ethnography explores the growing appeal of a low-caste guardian deity in urban Singapore today.
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Sinha, Vineeta. Religion and Commodification: “Merchandizing” Diasporic Hinduism. London and New York: Routledge, 2011.
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Argues that the consumerism that has penetrated markets for religious objects has not diminished or degraded the realm of the sacred.