So far we have discussed the contiributino of Brahmin to the early
transmission of Indian culture to southeast Asia. Buddhist monks,
however, were at least as important in this respect. Two characteristic
features of Buddhism enabled it to make a specific impact on southeast
Asia, First Buddhist were imbued with a atrong missionary zeal, and
second, they ignored the caste system and did not emphasize the idea of
ritual purity. By his teaching as well as by the orginzation of his
monastic order (Sangha) Gautama Buddha had given rise to this missionary
zeal, which had then been fostered by Ashoka's dispatch of Buddhist
missionaries to Western Asia, Greece, Central Asia, Sri lanka and Burma.
Buddhism's freedom from ritual restrictions and the spirit of the unity
of all adherents enabled Buddhist monsk to establish contacts with
people abroad, as well as to welcome them in India when they came to
visit the sacred places of Buddhism, Chinese sources record 162 visits
to India of Chinese of Buddhist monsk for the period from the 5th to the
eigth century AD. Many more may have trvelled without having left a
trace in such official records. This was an amazing international
scholarly exchange programme for that day and age.
In the early centuries AD the center of Buddhist scholarship was the
University of Taxila (near the present city of Islamabad),but in the
fifth century AD when the University of Nalanda was founded not far from
Bodh Gaya, Bihar the center of Buddhist scholarship shifted to eastern
India. This university always had a large contingent of students from
southeast Asia. There they spent many years close the holy places of
Buddhism, copying and translating texts before returing home. Nalanda
was a cenre of Mahayana Buddhism, which became of increasing importance
of Southeast Asia. We mentioned above that King Balaputa of Shrivijaya
established a monastery for students of his realm at Nalanda around 860
AD which was then endowed with land grants by King Devepala of Bengal.
But the Sumatran empire of Shrivijaya had acquired a good reputation in
tis own right among Buddhist scholars and from the late seventh century
AD attracted resident Chinese and Indian monks. The Chinese monk I-tsing
stopped over at Shrivijaya capital (present day Palembang) for six
months in 671 AD in order to learn Sanskrit Grammer. He then proceeded
to India, where he spent 14 years, and on his retun journey he stayed
another four years at Palembang so that he could translate the many
texts which he had collected. In this period he went to China for a few
months in 689 AD to recruit assistance for his great translation project
(completed only 695 AD). On his return to China he explicitly
recommended that other chiense Buddhists proceeding to India break
journey in Shrivijaya, where a thousand monks lived by the same rulers
as those prevailing in India. In subsequent years many Chinese
Buddhists conscientitously followed this advice.
Prominent Indian Buddhists Scholars similarly made a point to visit
Shrivijaya. Towards the end of Seventh century AD Dharmapala of Nalanda
is supposed to have visited Suvarnadvipa (Java and Sumattra). In the
beginning of the eighth century AD the south Indian monk Vajrabodhi
spent five months in Shrivijaya on his way to China. He and his disciple
Amoghvajra, whom he met in Java, are credited with having indroduced
Buddhist Tantrism to China. Atisha, who later became know as the great
reformer of Tibeta Buddhism, is said to have studied for twelve years in
Survarnadvipa in the early eleventh century AD. The high standard of
Buddhist learning which prevailed in Indonasia for many centuries was
one of the important precodition for that great work of art, the
Borobudur, whose many reliefs are a pictorial compendium the Buddhist
lore, a tribute both to the craftsman ship of Indonasia artists and to
the knowledge of Indonasia Buddhist Scholars.
