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Pulind Samant

29 November 2025 at 1:07:15 pm

A Civilisation of Shared Gods

Across Southeast Asia, Hinduism and Buddhism did not clash for supremacy but intertwined across empires and scriptures to forge a uniquely unified civilisational ethos. Troluwan Ruins of Majapahit Kingdom. History knows for sure as to when the Buddhist thought entered Southeast Asia, which was when the great Mauryan Emperor Ashoka sent messengers Sona and Uttara into then known ‘Suvarnabhumi’ consisting of Burma and Thailand, to preach Buddha’s message there. Ashoka’s effort did certainly...

A Civilisation of Shared Gods

Across Southeast Asia, Hinduism and Buddhism did not clash for supremacy but intertwined across empires and scriptures to forge a uniquely unified civilisational ethos. Troluwan Ruins of Majapahit Kingdom. History knows for sure as to when the Buddhist thought entered Southeast Asia, which was when the great Mauryan Emperor Ashoka sent messengers Sona and Uttara into then known ‘Suvarnabhumi’ consisting of Burma and Thailand, to preach Buddha’s message there. Ashoka’s effort did certainly bear fruit especially in neighbouring Burma, where the reputed Buddhist kingdom of Shri-kshetra was formed as early as in the 2nd century CE. The Buddhist thought as such, however, does not seem to have spread evenly or at a steady pace throughout the entire region. The evidence lies in the fact that it had to wait for three more centuries before getting introduced in the Indonesian archipelago. There is no such record available of the entry of the Hindu thought in the Southeast Asian region. But that can be speculated to have preceded that of the Buddhist by the sheer logic of its uninterrupted existence before Buddhism was born in mother country India. Shared Sovereignty The speculation of an earlier Hindu entry in Southeast Asia is proved by the existence of a vast and prosperous Hindu empire of Funan, based in much farther Cambodia in the same, that is, 2nd century. Theologically speaking, both Mahayana and Theravada branches of Buddhist thought spread in the region, and got rooted in different territories depending on their compatibility with the respective local soil. In the case of Hinduism, its major branches of Shaivism and Vaishnavism flourished in different eras, in the order of the latter following the former, but not necessarily replacing it. Interestingly, a less known fact is about the Vedic stream of the Hindu pantheon, which, along with its yajna system, did exist in fewer pockets like that of Kalimantan Island of Indonesia, in the 4th century CE. Although there may have been a healthy competition between them with regard to attracting followers, both these streams of thought – Hindu and Buddhist – appear to have existed in almost all of the Southeast Asian territories simultaneously and peacefully throughout, except until their existence was challenged by the Islamic and Christian proselytization around mid-second millennium in the maritime sub-region. Their peaceful co-existence before that phase has been vouched for by most of the world historians. Although a minority among the Western historians doubted it, and from their strictly binary lenses imagined territorial competition between the two, their speculations could never be proved on the test of evidence. Sacred Kinship This peaceful co-existence of theirs is underlined by the royal recognition of their equal status, highlighted in case of mighty polities. The example in the mainland was the Cambodia-based Khmer empire – 11th-12th centuries’ Angkor, including its preceding as well succeeding polities of its heritage, whereas in the maritime domain it was the Indonesia-based 13th-15th centuries’ Majapahit empire. Elsewhere, the mental unification reflected in intertwining of things apparently coming from two different sources, as it happened in case of the 6th-11th centuries’ Dvaravati kingdoms, spread from southern Burma, northern and central Thailand and parts of Laos, which were Buddhist; but the name Dvaravati was fashioned on Dvarakavati or Dvaraka of Mahabharata’s Krishna, an incarnation of Hindu deity of Vishnu. Similarly, Kyanzittha, an avowedly Buddhist king of the 11th-13th centuries’ Pagan empire of Burma, had considered himself an incarnation of Vishnu. This background may have supported the current tradition of the Thai royal court, where the reigning Buddhist king is titled as Rama, another incarnation of Vishnu. While this religio-spiritual unification had the sanction of the ruling class, the societal integration of the thought was at scriptural as well as at the rituals level.  The 10th century Buddhist text of Indonesia called Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan refers to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the trinity of the Hindu pantheon, as the emanations of Vairochana, the meditating Buddha. One of the famous heritage literatures of Indonesia is 14th century Suta-soma, which is another Buddhist text, which treats Shiva and Buddha as equals or even identical with each other. While both the above texts originated in the Java island of the archipelago, the Bali islanders took the spiritual proximity between Shiva and Buddha to the level of establishing familial relationship between them – according to a 19th century historian’s discovery, Buddha was treated as an younger brother of Shiva by the Balinese, a situation that was found to have been made more intimate in the 20th century where Buddha had become Shiva’s son. This legacy of spiritual unification is found to have been followed by the natives of the profoundly Hindu Bali even today, where the publicly performed religious rituals involve participation by Hindu as well as Buddhist priests. Cynics may smell a division and paint a picture that suggests one-upmanship between the Hindu and Buddhist ideas, where comparatively higher or lower status may have been assigned to either of them in this process. That, however, is not likely to stand, taking into account the sheer sincerity of purpose and effort that shines through this historical process of unification taking place in that region across centuries. Having presented this picture, it may not be out of place to point out that this effort at Hindu-Buddhist unification was attempted even in India, speculated to have taken place in 11th-12th centuries, which treated Buddha as the ninth out of ten incarnations of Vishnu. This Indian move can rather be viewed as a trigger for a similar process in Southeast Asia that started taking a serious shape in later centuries. (The writer is a research scholar in international relations. Views personal.)

Warriors of Night

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

We name our daughters Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati; we worship the divine feminine power in the temples but oppress, repress and even attack the feminine power amidst us. That is the irony in the way India sees its women.

After the safety of the daylight fades, women are seen as easy prey by the predators of the night.

We mark the nine nights of Navratri, the festival of the goddess, by celebrating the dedication and valour of nine real-life women who brave the challenges of the night to pursue their dreams.


Part - 4


Never felt unsafe

The singer says there has been a generational change over the last two decades

Never felt unsafe

Work has no timings for Aisha Sayed. Sometimes, she begins her studio recording at 12 AM and finishes by 5 AM; at other times, concerts and live shows start at 9 AM and she’s done by midnight. In her field of work as a performer and singer, Sayed is used to not getting a night’s sleep and often returning home when most of the city is set to wake up. “I have been travelling at night but I have never, ever, felt unsafe in Mumbai,” says the singer-performer who began her career at the age of 13 years. Her father spotted her talent for music and took her to meet a sound engineer who was their neighbour in Bandra. The family helped her get opportunities and from there, her career began.

Being among the top contenders in Indian Idol, season 3, in 2007 catapulted her to fame and it opened up a world of new performance opportunities across the country. “I was just 20 years then and I was travelling the world, performing at the most lavish weddings, staying at the most luxurious hotels and performing at big corporate gigs,” she says. Safety, while on work, is has never been an issue for her for the organizers arrange a security detail for the performers. “They escort us until we reach the room. And since we travel with our team in a big group, there is always safety in numbers,” says Sayed, who sings in 10 languages. Her peers have faced instances of audience members being rowdy. “Once in Delhi, a group of drunk men followed my colleague to her room and kept banging on her door late into the night. But I have been fortunate,” she says.

Work assignments have taken to varied places, from the most luxurious international destinations to far-off venues in the hinterland of India where she’s travelled through dark, dense forested areas. “I have driven through areas where the only light is that of your car’s headlights. Turn around and you see pitch darkness,” says Sayed. She’s always got a little prayer on her lips when travelling through these remote areas for miles together. She recalls a show in Chattisgarh where she had to travel for nine hours at a stretch through remote and forested areas. “No place in our country is as safe as Mumbai,” she stresses. She would know, considering her extensive travels. She advises women to travel in groups while in places that are unfamiliar or unknown and never to venture out at night alone. “Keep your family informed of your whereabouts,” she says.

While her agreements state that proper security at all times, Sayed says that she drives her own car if she’s out at night for parties or personal work but insists that the people of Mumbai are largely helpful and cooperative. A rickshaw driver who once drove to home in the wee hours of the night, after a recording, waited at her gate until the watchman let her in. Friends and colleagues have dropped her home several times.

Mumbai, she feels, has changed—and it’s for the better, in the past two decades. “Earlier, on buses and trains, men would use the crowd as an excuse to touch women inappropriately. That has gone down. There is a generational change that I see,” says Sayed. She used to take the BEST buses and trains to her training classes and for recordings in the early days of her career.

Her timings are inconsistent and her shows take her to various cities and towns. But the Mumbai-bred girl emphasizes that her city is very safe for women, despite the various incidents of violence. “Mumbai is the only place where a woman can wear what she wants, wear bright red lipstick, leave her hair open and look glamorous and still be safe.”

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