INDIA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA : CULTURAL DISCOURSES Edited by Anna L. Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese The K R Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai 2017 ISBN 978-93-81324-12-7 Published by : Dr Mrs Nawaz B Mody for the K R Cama Oriental Institute, 136, Bombay Samachar Marg, Mumbai 400 023. Tel : 91-22-22843893 Email : krcamaoi123@gmail.com thekrcamaoi@gmail.com Website : www.krcama.org Printed by : Pramit Prints, Mumbai 400 057. Published in : 2017 The views and opinions expressed by the authors of this volume are not necessarily those of the Trustees of the K R Cama Oriental Institute. All rights reserved. The copyright of this publication is vested solely with the Trustees of the Institute. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publishers. Contents Preface and Acknowledgements 005 List of Abbreviations 008 List of Illustrations 009 GENERAL THEMES 1. Dialogues Between Southeast Asia and India : A Necessary Reappraisal Pierre-Yves Manguin 023 2. The Trouble with Convergence Robert L. Brown 037 3. India and China on the Eastern Seaboard of Mainland Southeast Asia : Links and Changes, 1100-1600 John K. Whitmore 051 SYNCRETIC TRADITIONS AND CROSS-CULTURAL INFLUENCES 4. Bringing India to Cambodia : Two Examples of Bridges Ang Choulean 071 5. Cows in Ancient Cambodia : A Relection on Indians and Indian Tradition in Khmer Society Siyonn Sophearith 083 6. Image and Text in Eleventh-Century Burma Hiram Woodward 097 7. Hiding the Female Sex : A Sustained Cultural Dialogue between India and Southeast Asia Ashley Thompson 125 8. The Politics of Complex Religious Space : Connected Cases from Fourteenth-Century Gampola and Sukhothai Philip Friedrich 145 ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHAEOLOGY : SACRED AND URBAN SPACES 9. Settlement in Cambodia : A Relection on the Indian Concepts of Urbanisation Im Sokrithy 10. Understanding Heritage and Management : Case Studies in the Field of Historic Preservation in Cambodia Swapna A. Kothari 163 177 India And Southeast Asia : 4 Cultural Discourses 11. Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo Swati Chemburkar 197 12. The Missing Images of Banteay Srei Olivier Cunin 223 SCULPTURE AND ICONOGRAPHY 13. The ‘Monument Visnuite’ at the Musée Guimet and the Luminous Pillar Vasudha Narayanan 245 14. From Gandhara to Java? A Comparative Study of Bhadrasana Buddhas and their Related Bodhisattva Attendants in South and Southeast Asia Nicolas Revire 279 15. Negotiating Cultures, Transcending Boundaries : Brahmanical Iconography in Early Medieval South India and Sri Lanka R. Mahalakshmi 305 16. From Tranquil to Terrifying : Durga and her Manifestations in Indonesia Natasha Reichle 327 17. Circulation of Buddhist Rituals and Iconography : Connecting Eastern India and Southeast Asia through Clay Tablets and Miniature Images Suchandra Ghosh 345 NON-INDIC LITERATURE, PERFORMING ARTS AND LIFESTYLE 18. Knowledge Networks, Literary Adaptations, and the ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’ in Fifteenth Century Java Kenneth R. Hall 361 19. The ‘Localisation’ of Indic Hindu Culture into Javanese and Balinese Gamelan Performance Practices and Aesthetics Jaclyn Wappel 387 20. Indic Model and Javanese Adaptation : The Evolution of Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Theatre in Indonesia from ‘Pre-history’ until the Sixteenth Century Ilicia J. Sprey 405 21. Symbols of Power in Indonesia Helen Ibbitson Jessup 421 22. Metal Money in Mainland Southeast Asia : Exploring the Indian Connection Susmita Basu Majumdar 433 JOURNEYS THROUGH COTTON AND SILK 23. Patterns of Use and Re-use : South Indian Trade Textiles and Burmese Wall Paintings Alexandra Green 459 24. The Cotton Cloth Trade in the Bay of Bengal in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Radhika Seshan 485 Contributors 495 Preface and Acknowledgements In January 2015 a seminar entitled ‘Cultural Dialogues between India and Southeast Asia from the 7th to the 16th Centuries’ was held at the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai. This volume is the outcome of that stimulating seminar in which many eminent scholars on Southeast Asia participated. The present collection, consisting of twenty-four papers, includes not only those presented at this seminar but also others especially commissioned. Their topics focus on various countries of South and South East Asia as well as on a wide range of themes. For the sake of convenience the essays have been arranged into six broad groups : General Themes; Syncretic Traditions and Cross-Cultural Influences; Architecture and Archaeology; Sculpture and Iconography; Non-Indic Literature, Performing Arts and Lifestyle; and Journeys through Cotton and Silk. However, these groupings are not strictly deined and there is much overlap between them. In the irst group of general essays there are three papers. The irst two, namely those by Pierre-Yves Manguin and Robert Brown, address the issues that have been raised in the ongoing debate among scholars about the ‘Indianisation’ process in Southeast Asia. While Manguin throws new light on this subject, Brown addresses one speciic theory relating to the development of similar themes and ideas in India and Southeast Asia, namely that of ‘Convergence’, explaining the problems associated with it. In the third, John Whitmore convincingly demonstrates how on the eastern seaboard of mainland Southeast Asia the inluences came both from India and from China. The next group has essays that touch on the cross-cultural exchanges between India and contemporary cultures in Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Ang Choulean highlights how the concepts of the ‘Neak Ta’ and brah ling, which are indigenous to Khmer culture, were the bridges for the adoption of the Indic linga into the Angkor region. The paper by Siyonn Sophearith examines how the role of the bull, the cow and the use of cow products rose to importance at a particular stage in Khmer history, and explores the role of Brahmins, some of whom had come from India, in the rituals connected with these. Hiram Woodward, in his exhaustive paper on “Image and Text in Eleventh-Century Burma”, traces developments in temples, temple statuary, murals, Pali texts etc. at speciic sites, such as the Nagayon and the Abeyadana, in Burma during this century tracing their connections with Pala India and other areas of contemporary Southeast Asia. Ashley Thompson’s paper once again focuses on Cambodia discussing as it does the form, function and legends associated with the ritual candle-holder known as babil and other India And Southeast Asia : 6 Cultural Discourses objects that are related to it. The last paper in this group, namely that of Philip Friedrich, considers how changes to the social and political proile of Buddhist monks and patrons at the hinterlandcourt of Gampola in fourteenth-century Sri Lanka link with royal courts, Buddhist temples, and ‘Brahmin’ shrines at Sukhothai in present-day Thailand and the inluences that were derived from ‘Indian’ cultural forms. In the section on Archaeology and Architecture, the irst two papers are related to archaeology and the latter two to architecture. The irst paper in this group, namely the one by Im Sokrithy, studies urban settlements along the ‘Royal Road’ that radiated from the Angkor capital to provinces of the ancient Khmer Empire, analysing how far they it in within the Indian concepts of urbanisation. Swapna Kothari does a case-study of the Archaeological Survey of India’s interventions in the preservation of certain ancient Angkorian monuments within the context of ‘heritage’ and ‘heritage management’; she also compares and contrasts the views and methods of the Indian and Cambodian teams engaged in heritage preservation in Cambodia. Swati Chemburkar compares and draws parallels between three Buddhist monuments, namely Kesariya in Bihar (India), Borobudur in Java (Indonesia) and Tabo in the Indian-Tibetan zone of the Spiti valley (India); she demonstrates how these three great monuments are mandalic in nature. The last paper, by Olivier Cunin, discusses three missing images from the famous temple of Banteay Srei, Cambodia, whose existence is known from an inscription on this temple and it tries to reconstruct what they must have looked like and hypothesises on where they could be today. As the paper is on missing sculptural pieces that were once located within an architectural context in an exquisite Angkorian period temple, it has been included in this section, even though it deals with sculptures and tries to reconstruct the iconography of these three missing images. The irst paper in the section on Sculpture and Iconography, by Vasudha Narayanan, engages in an in-depth analysis of the ‘Monument Visnuite’, originally from Cambodia which takes the pride of place in the Musée Guimet, Paris. The author conclusively proves that while this magniicent sculpture can be compared to certain types of images in India and elsewhere, there is none in India that is quite like it. Nicolas Revire in the next paper traces the links of the bhadrasana images of Buddha of Java with Gandhara, Ajanta etc. Next, R. Mahalakshmi does a comparative study of Brahmanical imagery in early medieval Sri Lanka with those of Chola South India. Following this, Natasha Reichle explains the origins and describes the imagery of Rangda of Indonesia and compares this ierce female form with images of Durga found both in India and in Indonesia. Suchandra Ghosh’s paper discusses votive clay tablets and miniature bronzes found in certain sites in Southeast Asia and she traces the origin and inspiration for these to Pala sites in Bihar, India, and the Chittagong area of present-day Bangladesh respectively. In the ifth group we have the detailed paper by Kenneth Hall on knowledge networks and literary adaptations in ifteenth-century Java, with particular focus on the kakawin which drew inspiration from Indian epics, especially the Mahabharata; he examines how far the idea of the ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’ can be used to explain the spread and popularity of these literary forms. Jaclyn Wappel’s paper explores the Indic roots of the gamelan and other musical Preface and Acknowledgements 7 performances which were and continue to be very popular in Java and Bali. Ilicia Sprey’s paper on the wayang kulit shadow theatre of Indonesia analyses not only the importance of this form of performance in Indonesian culture, but also explores its possible Indic roots. Helen Jessup describes some of the important symbols of power in Indonesia and their deep emotional impact on the rulers and their subjects. Susmita Basu Majumdar’s paper on coinage highlights the origins and changes in early coinage of the region, with special reference to Burma and Thailand, tracing the roots of the symbols found on these coins to early coinage of India. In the last group are two papers relating to textiles. Alexandra Green explores the use of Indian textile designs and motifs, with adaptations and changes, in Burmese wall paintings. The last paper, namely by Radhika Seshan, is on cotton trade and its importance in the Bay of Bengal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This volume, which contains papers covering a wide range of topics related to a number of countries of this region, would be a valuable addition to the corpus of works on South and Southeast Asia. It includes papers by very senior and eminent scholars of Southeast Asian studies as well as by younger researchers. Diacritics have not been used in this volume, except when these occur in the title of books or papers and in quotations. The main reason for this is the fact that we are dealing with a large region with many indigenous languages as well as Sanskrit and Indic languages and to adopt a common system of diacritic marks that would cover all these would have been dificult. Besides that, this volume is aimed not just at the specialists, but also at the interested general reader. Spellings as per the system followed in the United Kingdom (and India) have been used. We acknowledge with gratitude all those who have made this volume. Firstly, thanks are due to the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai, for organising this seminar and for taking up the publication of this volume, especially to Mr. Muncherji Cama, President, and Dr. Nawaz Mody, Joint Honorary Secretary, of the Institute. The seminar would not have been possible but for the generous sponsorship extended by the Luigi and Laura Dallapiccola Foundation, Edinburgh, U.K. The organisers of the seminar and the editors of this volume are deeply grateful to them. We also acknowledge with gratitude the generous sponsorship of the Luigi and Laura Dallapiccola Foundation for the publication of this volume. We would also like to express our appreciation of Mr. Ajay Bhatt and his team from Pramit Prints for the eficient and speedy production of this volume and our thanks to Dr. Shireen Vakil for the careful copy-editing. Anna L. Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese April 2017 List of Abbreviations AM : Asia Maior APSARA : Authority for the Protection and Management of the Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap ARASC : Annual Report, Archaeological Survey of Ceylon ARSIE : Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy ASI : Archaeological Survey of India BEFEO : Bulletin de l'École française d'ExtremeOrient BTLV : Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde BKI : Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde/Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia BSOAS : Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies CRAI : Centre De Recherche En Architecture Et Ingénierie EFEO : École française d'Extrême-Orient ICSBA : International Centre for Study of Bengal Art ISEAS : Institute for South Asian Studies, Singapore Is.I.A.O : Istituto Italiano di Studi per l'Africa e l'Oriente JASB : Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal JBRS : Journal of the Burma Research Society JCBRAS : Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society JRAS : Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland JESHO : Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient JMBRAS : Journal of Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society JSEAS : Journal of Southeast Asian Studies JSS : Journal of the Siam Society KITLV : Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde KNAW : Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen RFSG : Records of Fort St. George SDPS : Sarvadurgatiparishodhana SII : South Indian Inscriptions SPAFA : SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation) Project in Archaeology and Fine Arts STTS : Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha TAASA : The Asian Art Society of Australia TBG : Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde TT : Đại Viִêt S̉ Ký Toàn Thư VOC : Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) 11 Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo Swati Chemburkar Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo Introduction There were occasions for the direct transfer of Southeast Asian Buddhist developments to India, and there is evidence of at least two speciic moments when this occurred. Both instances provide opportunities for a range of interpretative analyses.1 Hiram Woodward, in his Esoteric Buddhism in Southeast Asia in the Light of Recent Scholarship, singles out the moment when Balaputra, an exiled scion of Shailendra dynasty, the builders of Borobudur in central Java, established a monastery at Nalanda, Bihar in 850 or 860 CE.2 A verse inscribed on a small stupa at this monastery is taken from the Bhadracharipranidhana (Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra). The same text forms the basis of the ninth century reliefs of the topmost gallery at Borobudur.3 To Woodward, this suggests that either the verse found in Nalanda indicates the concepts embodied in the great stupa in Central Java were well known in Nalanda, or that Balaputra’s monastery brought to Nalanda new emphasis from abroad. Deciding between these possibilities is not easy. The new emphasis in design that one sees at Borobudur is the arrangement of deities in a circular mandalic fashion with certain numerological conigurations of life size Buddha igures in the external niches of the monument. The circular arrangement of deities on the upper Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 199 three terraces of Borobudur is a characteristic of the yogini-tantras that developed at Nalanda in the late eighth early ninth centuries.4 The stupa is remarkable for its intriguing architectural design and iconographic conception that achieves a paradigm shift from stupa to mandala. Borobudur’s distinctive architecture has still been debated. It appears novel, for other massive stupa structures of similar or earlier date are in ruin or unexcavated. Scholars have often looked at Indian prototypes in the ruined stupa of Nandangarh5 and the partially excavated stupa of Kesariya6 in Bihar. Yet recent restoration underway at Kesariya suggests a stronger architectural linkage between northern India and Java and thus tends towards the irst Woodward hypothesis that the key concepts embodied in Borobudur possibly had some earlier currency in Bihar. The second historical moment of immediate contact between Southeast Asian Buddhism and India, that Woodward alludes to, came two centuries later. In 1012 CE, the Indian Buddhist monk Atisha went to live in ‘Shrivijaya’ to study Buddhism under Dharmakirti. He was born in Bengal as Chandragarbha and was given the Buddhist name Dipamkarasrijana when he entered the sangha. After initiation into yogini-tantras he was renamed as Atisha. He studied for twelve years in the maritime federation known as ‘Shrivijaya’ and then carried up to Tibet the oldest surviving ‘Shrivijayan’ Buddhist commentary Durbodhaloka (Illuminating the Unfathomable), composed by his teacher Dharmakirti.7 This text, extant only in its Tibetan translation, says that it was written “in the city of Srivijaya in Suvarṇadvipa” under the patronage of the Shailendra monarch Chudamanivarman.8 Besides this text, certain concepts regarding inner and outer mandalas were picked up by Atisha during his ‘Shrivijayan’ sojourn and possibly carried to Tibet.9 In the surviving Buddhist temples of India, Tabo in Himachal displays a complete sculptural mandala of life size clay igures of the Vajradhatu mandala deities. Atisha visited Tabo in 1042 CE when the monastery was undergoing major renovation.10 An exactly contemporaneous set of Vajradhatu mandala bronzes survive from East Java11 and gold sheets of an earlier century inscribing the deities of the mandala were found at the Sumatran site of Muara Jambi.12 The murals of Tabo and Borobudur both illustrate the wanderings of the pilgrim Sudhana in the Gandhavyuhasutra and the sacred space of the two monuments is arranged on similar principles. This paper therefore analyses the architectural space of Kesariya in east Champaran, Bihar, India (c. seventh-eighth century CE), Borobudur in Central Java, Indonesia (c. eighth-ninth century CE) and the main temple of Tabo monastery (founded in 996 CE) in the Indo-Tibetan sphere, Spiti valley, India. It addresses the question of similarities between the three monuments and relects on whether a particular type of architectural form, which had its origin in the eighth century, was promulgated by the crosscultural exchanges of religious teachers? Visits to the three monuments have uncovered evidence not only of parallel developments but also exchanges of architectural ideas. These linkages suggest a need for a scholarship to examine the architectural and compositional interactions between South and Southeast Asia and comparative analysis of architectural models that have common textual and ritual basis. India And Southeast Asia : 200 Cultural Discourses Comparing Kesariya and Borobudur The aerial photographs of the huge brick structure at Kesariya have a distinct, almost circular mandala form resembling the more squared terraces of Borobudur (Figs. 11.1 and 11.2). Kesariya’s terraces, with large external Buddhas in niches, have no known precedent and are a marked departure from the smooth hemispherical stupas of Sanchi, Bharut and Amaravati. Kesariya’s six half-excavated concentric terraces, beneath what was originally a high and bulbous stupa, are built on a natural hill, like Borobudur. The four lower terraces of Kesariya are more circular than those of Borobudur, but close examination reveals the upper two terraces to be square – resembling an inverted combination of square and circular terraces found on Borobudur. Like Borobudur, Kesariya’s design combines three elements : natural hill, stupa and mandala. Both monuments present themselves to the viewer as horizontally somewhat lattened. Anyone standing at the base of either monument cannot see the crowning stupa on top. Much like the stupa of Borobudur, Kesariya has rows of chambers on each terrace at regular intervals holding a life size Buddha statue (Figs. 11.3 and 11.4). Above the ifth terrace rises the stupa to a height of 9.38 metres and 22 metres in diameter. The exposed terraced structure of the monument measures 123 metres in diameter and 37.5 in height.13 The length and height of Borobudur are almost the same. On the top ifth terrace of Kesariya, just below the stupa, there is a single brick chamber facing each cardinal direction that establishes a fourfold structure of the monument.14 The highest excavated chamber on the eastern side contains an image in bhumisparshamudra of Akshobhya Buddha. We await further excavation to discover which images faced the other cardinal directions. The highest level of Borobudur, top three circular terraces, houses seventy-two Buddhas (in combination of 16+24+32) in small latticed stupas displaying dharmachakramudra of Vairochana. The fourth terrace of Kesariya has triple chambers facing the cardinal directions and the lower three terraces in addition have triple brick chambers facing the sub-cardinal directions. All the chambers have a raised platform to house a Buddha image. The entire monument from the ifth terrace to the lowermost terrace would have housed (4+4+8+8+8 = 32) brick chambers and would have once contained (4x1+4x3+8x3+8x3+8x3 = 88) Buddha statues.15 Figure 11.5 shows the Buddhas from the top level of the monument to the bottom level, based on the ASI report of 1999-2000. It assumes symmetry in the unexcavated sections. The excavated chambers at Kesariya show a combination of statues in bhumisparsha (of Akshobya) and dhyani mudra (of Amitabha) on the same side, whereas Borobudur houses four Jina Buddhas, displaying their respective mudras on the four sides of the monument. The total number of Buddhas in the niches at Borobudur is of course much higher than at Kesariya but both monuments generate a certain number grid and circular arrangement of Buddha igures in their architecture indicating the new emphasis in the design of a stupa. The upper two terraces of Kesariya are connected by an 80 centimetres wide staircase in the southwest corner that is concealed within the polygonal designs between the chambers. 16 Since the excavations are not yet complete, it is dificult to determine the number and exact nature of the staircase(s). Borobudur is connected from the ground level to the topmost stupa by Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 201 Fig. 11.1 : Aerial view of Kesariya stupa (Courtesy Yves Guichand) Fig. 11.2 : Model of Borobudur stupa kept at the site museum India And Southeast Asia : 202 Cultural Discourses a set of four staircases, rising from the middle of each side. The circumambulatory paths on all the terraces at Kesariya are today devoid of reliefs but there is enough space to have housed them. Whether there were any narratives in stucco, plaster or paint is impossible to determine from the present archaeological evidence. Borobudur is of course renowned for its kilometres of carved stone reliefs, which were originally inely plastered and presumably painted. Fig. 11.3 : Kesariya east elevation with brick niches housing life size Amitabha and Akshobya Buddhas Fig. 11.4 : Borobudur east elevation with stone niches housing life size Akshobhya Buddhas At Kesariya there are three brick chambers on the eastern side as seen in Figure 11.5, beyond the base of the lowest terrace and rammed earth base. Due to the incomplete excavation, it is not yet possible to ascertain whether they were part of the stupa structure, but their alignment and size suggests they were. They seem to be later additions to the main structure and may indicate another terrace below the lowermost terrace much like the hidden foot of Borobudur. This hypothesis can only be tested by further excavation. The excavators have unearthed a number of inely carved bricks with geometrical patterns and kirtimukhas (faces of glory), tiles, vases and many small red earthenware ritual pots with lids, spouts and sprinkler heads that are presumed to have been used in consecrations. The scale of Kesariya seems to imply that it was part of a large ceremonial centre, but its relationship to a dynastic centre is so far unknown. The ruined structures around Kesariya suggest it Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 203 Fig. 11.5 : Kesariya stupa : probable arrangement of Buddhas in the exposed and restored brick chambers. Only basic dimensions are provided in the drawing. was part of a vihara or a temple monastery,17 where senior monks would have performed their daily rituals. Beginning of a new style in stupa architecture Borobudur is aligned with a small ire ritual temple called Chandi Pawon and the regal Chandi Mendut, forming a state ceremonial centre of the Shailendra kingdom extended over three kilometres and presumably at the centre of a large city.18 Archaeological inds made in a ive-kilometre radius of Borobudur, indicate a large monastic complex.19 begun. The structure that is only partly visible Dating the Kesariya monument has hardly today, suggests there were various stages of construction and the sheer size implies that it was funded by royal resources at each stage.20 The small Licchavi stupa of Kesariya mentioned in the Chinese records was possibly expanded by King Harsha.21 He patronised several monastic buildings along with thousand stupas, each over India And Southeast Asia : 204 Cultural Discourses 100 feet high.22 Gupta and late Gupta period bricks from the seventh century were found on the slopes of the stupa.23 The site remained active in later centuries : The recent excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India at this site have discovered a Pala period stupa dating from the eighth century. The excavations have revealed the terraces of the stupa, with Pradakshina Path, which follows the pattern of those reported from Paharpur in East Bengal and Nandangarh [in east Champaran]. The stupa has been found with several [life size] stucco igures of Lord Buddha in bhumisparsa posture in the cells provided all over the terraces.24 A late Pala period structure was added to the stupa summit in the eighth century but the exact nature of the construction is as yet very dificult to determine.25 The Palas inherited the territory that was previously ruled by Harsha and the later Guptas.26 Champaran, the site of Kesariya stupa, played a signiicant role during the Pala period when massive stupa sites were constructed.27 The development of a crowning stupa over four-fold symmetry at Kesariya along with the radiating chapels housing Buddha’s images is in line with the feature that was developed later during the Pala period.28 The heartland of the Palas, namely northeast India, became the most signiicant international centre of Buddhist learning and was the major source of teachers, authoritative texts and Buddhist iconography.29 The political and military ambition of the Pala king Dharmapala (reign c. 775-815 CE) was matched by unprecedented generosity to Buddhist establishments that provided a platform for generating texts, sacred art and architecture. Apart from its soteriological religious function the Buddhist temple or stupa in this period became a political statement. According to my knowledge, Kesariya, with its new stupa-mandala model, marks a crucial post-Gupta and pre-Pala shift in monumental architecture. Textual developments, mandala model and the world wide web of monks The natural place to look for an answer to the four-fold symmetry of a stupa with certain numerical conigurations of Buddha images is the Buddhist textual corpus. The earliest references to four Buddhas of the four directions occur in the sutras such as Suvarnaprabhasasutra of the ifth century.30 This scheme occurs in many more sutras over the next couple of centuries, building the iconography of the ive Jina Buddhas. The ive-Buddha family becomes the dominant organising structure in the eighth century Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha (STTS), the root text of yoga-tantra.31 Certain numerical conigurations also occur in the late eighth century text Samvarodayatantra describing the course of the moon and the sun with respect to the astronomical body and the human body. Ultimate reality, which is attained through the human body, is then identiied with the universe and the mandala deities in the text.32 The Buddha groupings (4+12+24 at Kesariya) and (16+24+36 at Borobudur) might be suggestive of this textual source. Along with these textual and architectural developments, the new political concept that emerged around the eighth to tenth centuries was samanta feudalism, where vassal kings paid homage to the king at the centre in the same Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 205 way as the directional Jina Buddhas to the central Buddha.33 The pro-Buddhist Pala dynasty came to power in the late eighth century and went on building major Buddhist monasteries in north-eastern India and Bengal. “It was the only major Buddhist state in the otherwise totally Hindu world of India at the time.”34 Pala Buddhism became a new bridge that fostered dialogue between the Chinese and Indian courts. The prominent Indian and Chinese travellers in this period played a crucial role in transmitting the new religious thoughts through texts, icons and drawings carried by them.35 The biography of the Japanese monk Ennin notes how the ive esoteric Buddha images of the Jinge monastery on mount Wutai were modelled after the Nalanda images by Amoghvajra in the eighth century.36 John Guy has traced around twenty late PalaSena period architectural models of Mahabodhi temple that were dispersed from eastern India to Nepal, Tibet, Arakan and Myanmar.37 to central Java during Shailendra period. The four-fold structure of these monasteries recalls the pentad of Jina Buddhas as described in the seminal yoga-tantra text STTS, where Vairochana is placed in the centre and four Jina Buddhas occupy cardinal directions.39 The apex of the pentad takes the form of the unifying sun Buddha Vairochana when he becomes fully awakened as Buddha. He then draws in a number of personages and consecrates them with names and positions in the mandala.40 The Vajradhatu mandala of basic thirty-seven deities described in the STTS41 found its way into the architecture as a concrete arrangement of deities, on a basic four-fold or eightfold model. Akshobhya and his attendants in the east, Ratnasambhava in the south, Amitabha in the west and Amoghasiddhi in the north made up a mandalic arrangement around Vairochana or Maha Vairochana (Fig. 11.6). This pentad and the attendant deities A strong Buddhist network of several Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Javanese monks played a crucial role in the circulation of certain concepts in the connected Buddhist world of India, China, Java and Sumatra. Monks such as Subhakarasimha (637-735), Vajrabodhi (670-741), Amoghavajra (705-774), Huikuo (746-805), Kukai (774-835), Saicho (767-822) and Bianhong were all well versed in the teachings of STTS. From their high positions in the courts it seems safe to assume that these leading monks promoted speciic texts38 and adapted them to ritual practices that required appropriate architecture. The four-fold symmetry of Kesariya that is observed in the later Pala monasteries of Vikramshila, Somapura and Mainamati, eventually travelled across southern seas Fig. 11.6 : Vajradhatu mandala of basic 37 deities according to Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha (structure adapted from the PhD dissertation of Do-Kyun Kwon, SOAS, London, 2002) India And Southeast Asia : 206 Cultural Discourses demarcating respective Buddha ields and 1000 Buddhas of Bhadrakalpa found prominent places in architecture.42 Borobudur and Buddhism of Shailendra Borobudur constructs this four-fold Buddha system along with the supreme Buddha Vairochana in its architecture. We don’t know which images were housed in the top four cardinal niches of Kesariya except Akshobhya, but it is possible that it will eventually be shown by archaeologists to embody the four-fold Buddha system. There are enough common elements in the architecture of both the monuments at present to indicate the use of a common theme (Figs. 11.7 and 11.8). Several scholars have argued about Borobudur being a mandala although no speciic mandala of deities has yet been identiied.43 In spite of Fig. 11.7 : Kesariya plan showing the overall layout of the structure the general agreement about the identity of the four directional Jinas at Borobudur, there is no mandala in which Jinas appear in multiples. A dharani with close inter-textual connections to the STTS, engraved on a foil was excavated near Borobudur.44 Borobudur deinitely houses a hierarchical organisation along with the basic elements of the Vajradhatu mandala structure in its architecture. Under the Shailendras in the eighth-ninth centuries, Javanese architecture changed rapidly to embody the mandala system. Chandi Sewu underwent an enlargement in a cruciform structure, probably to represent the Vajradhatu mandala.45 Two important architectural changes that occurred in Central Javanese temples during the Shailendra period were the transformation from a square to cruciform plan and inclusion of four separate rooms46 presumably to follow the Fig. 11.8 : Borobudur plan. Image Kern Institute collection, Leiden University Library (adapted from Marg Vol. IX, no. 4, September 1956, p 66) Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 207 four-fold structure of the Pala monuments that began at Kesariya. Some textual material derived from STTS was found serving to demarcate the ground plans of Central Javanese Buddhist monuments.47 Pala-Shailendra connections have been well established in Indian epigraphy and there is enough evidence of the impact of Pala style upon Javanese bronzes during this period.48 Based on the tenth-century Intan shipwreck cargo (ritual bronzes and many vajras), found off the Sumatran coast, John Miksic has hinted at the possibility of the Nalanda-Java-Sumatra connections.49 Just a century later we see a perfect knowledge of the yoga-tantras in Java in the Nganjuk and Surocolo bronzes (last quarter of the tenth century or later) exhibiting deities of Vajrasattva and Hevajra mandalas.50 The Vajradhatu mandala deities of Chandi Gumpung and the frequent appearance of vajra motif and reliefs of masked dancers at Padang Lawas, Sumatra, displaying many similarities with Nepal and Tibet give us some idea of the Buddhism practiced in Java/ Sumatra post Borobudur, during the time of Atisha.51 The Buddhist traditions would have lourished post Borobudur as Atisha went to Shrivijaya from India in search of certain Buddhist practices. Comparing Borobudur and Tabo Moving from these massive monuments in brick and volcanic rock to the modest mud architecture of Tabo brings no similarity in external form (Fig. 11.9). But despite the disparate geography and outward appearance, Borobudur and Tabo have much in common, for they share a common religious philosophy, a sacred geometry and fusion of the mandala with an architectural space.52 The main temple of the Tabo monastery was founded in 996 CE by King Ye-shes’-od under the religious supervision of Rin-chen-bzanpo.53 The king enjoyed launching missionary campaigns throughout the Indo-Tibetan sphere, with the help of his preceptor Rin-chen-bzan-po, commonly known as the Great Translator. The latter translated the STTS text to introduce the Vairochana mandala into the monasteries such as Tabo and Alchi. Like the three distinct vertical structural levels of Borobudur and Kesariya that comprise of square and circular terraces with a crowning stupa, the main temple (gtsug-lag-khang) of Tabo comprises of three horizontal levels : an entry hall (sgo-khang), an assembly hall (‘du-khang) housing three-dimensional Vajradhatu mandala deities54 and a cella (dri-gtsang-khang) surrounded by an ambulatory path (skor-lam). The entrances of the assembly hall of Tabo are protected by the guardian deities in the same manner as the four entrances of Borobudur by kala heads. In a mandala, humans seeking enlightenment must move symbolically from the violent and unconscious periphery towards the sacred centre. The arrangement of narrative reliefs at Borobudur is based on the ascending thematic order from ‘world of desire’ to ‘world of consciousness’ to ‘ultimate reality’, guiding the adept from the foot of the structure to the topmost central stupa of the supreme Buddha. To absorb all the doctrines, texts and concepts embedded in the reliefs, adepts had to circumambulate the monument ten times in a clockwise direction. While doing so, adepts are sanctiied by the presence of Buddha icons in the balustraded niches of the upper gallery. At Tabo too, after crossing the entry hall, a practitioner circumambulates horizontally, along India And Southeast Asia : 208 Cultural Discourses Fig. 11.9 : Tabo Monastery overall layout showing the modest mud structure in the central courtyard the narrative murals of the assembly hall and moves towards the ambulatory and cella, into the realm of fully developed Buddhas and bodhisattvas. While circumambulating, life size clay images of the Buddhas, suspended on the walls of the assembly hall around one metre height from the loor bless a practitioner. Traditionally the practitioner would circumambulate at least three times around the main Vairochana image. In Tabo he progresses through the spiritual geography of the mandala and simultaneously identifies with the spiritual pilgrimage accomplished in the narratives, first by Sudhana and then by Siddhartha, the Buddha Sakyamuni. Thus through meditation and ritual circumambulation he performs a symbolic pilgrimage, which also leads to successively higher levels of consciousness.55 While physically moving through the space of these two monuments, a practitioner literally activates the narrative and experiences the dynamic space of the mandala.56 Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 209 The square terraces of Borobudur house the Vairochana sculpture is unique in consisting directional Jina Buddhas along with the seventy- of four separate, complete and identical human two Vairochanas of the top three circular terraces, bodies seated back to back and facing the thus forming the core pentad at the heart of the cardinal directions. This aspect of the sarvavid Vajradhatu mandala.57 At Tabo, the rectangular ‘all-seeing’ Vairochana is conventionally plan of the assembly hall is an unusual shape represented with four faces above a single for a mandala, but by organising the space of body. The off-centre placement of Vairochana the hall in four directional quarters and placing is a deviation from the textual mandalas. the directional Buddhas in each quarter, the Borobudur too, with seventy-two Vairochanas, builder overcomes the lack of symmetry of the in dharmacakra or wheel-turning mudra, seated mandala (Fig. 11.10). in bell-shaped, latticed stupikas arranged around a large central stupa on three circular terraces The supreme Buddha Vairochana of the Vajradhatu Mandala at Borobudur and Tabo is utterly unique. Here the symbolic centre The central Vairochana at Tabo is placed at the an emphasis in each case on the multiple back of the assembly hall to allow for daily Vairochanas emerging from the centre and rituals and the congregation of monks. The radiating across the whole mandala. Around the of the mandala has also been shifted from the actual centre of the monument. There is also Fig. 11.10 : Tabo assembly hall plan and Borobudur plan: arrangement of sacred space (Tabo plan by Christian Luczantis; Copyright Christian Luczantis – http ://www.luczanits.net/sites/Tabo/ TaboMandalaQuarters.html; Borobudur plan adapted from an undated drawing in the Kern Institute collection, Leiden University Library, GD 14 1472) India And Southeast Asia : 210 Cultural Discourses Vairochanas, sculptures of the four directional Buddhas of the Vajradhatu mandala : Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi form the key component of the mandala in each temple (Fig. 11.11). At Tabo, the four directional Jina Buddhas are differentiated by their respective colours and slightly larger size than the other deities of the mandala. The entire assemblage makes up a coniguration of thirty-three of the thirty-seven main deities of the Vajradhatu mandala. The mandala of Borobudur, on the other hand, only incorporates the four directional Jinas, multiplied by hundred and eight life size images of each on the four sides of the pyramid. Lokesh Chandra prefers a more complex exegesis and claims the ive hundred and four Buddha igures housed on the terraces of Borobudur are not, in fact, the ive Jinas but are morphological types that represent the thousand Buddhas of the Vajradhatu mandala through their symbolic doubling (504x2=1008).58 He contends the presence of the one thousand Buddhas is the distinguishing feature of the Vajradhatu mandala among the yoga-tantras.59 The inside wall of the ambulatory at Tabo depicts the hierarchy of the bodhisattvas, Mahabodhisattvas and thousand Buddhas of Bhadrakalpa.60 Both Tabo and Borobudur went through at least two phases of construction activity but the original iconography of both the monuments were based on the Vajradhatu mandala.61 The later phase evidently expanded the original concept. Despite the differences between these monuments, Deborah Klimburg–Salter sees a signiicant parallel in theory and practice at Borobudur and Tabo : The existence of Borobudur in Java is particularly interesting from our point of view for several reasons - 1) we have the fusion of the Vajradhatu manḍala with an architectural space 2) the elements of the iconographic program are the same as those at Tabo : the Vajradhatu manḍala, and the narratives from the Gandavyuha and the life of the Buddha.62 The lack of symmetry in the Tabo assembly hall and unconventional and incomplete set of the mandala deities at both the monuments must be acknowledged. However, enough of the fundamental elements of the mandala are present to indicate a conscious choice by the patrons. Java and Spiti were well grounded in the STTS and other yoga-tantras. Fig. 11.11 : The STTS pentad of Tabo and Borobudur Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 211 Gandavyuha Sutra : Narrative programme of the two monuments The entire iconography programme of the assembly hall and cella at Tabo, including the story of the pilgrim Sudhana is from the second phase, in the eleventh century.63 Tabo and Borobudur both house the narrative stories in an identical manner between the lower and upper registers of the respective walls of the monuments. The main focus of the narratives is the Gandavyuha of the Avatamsakasutra, especially the last chapter of its sutra, the Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. At Borobudur, this text has been accorded far more space than the other narratives’ reliefs. The sutra describes Sudhana’s spiritual journey in search of the ultimate reality. The story comprises Sudhana’s journey in search of enlightenment to see a number of kalyanmitra or good friends, who offer him spiritual advice. The journey ends when Sudhana attains a vision of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra and realises that his own nature and those of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are, in fact, one and ininitely interpenetrate one another. The sutra concludes with Samantabhadra reciting verses known as Bhadrachari. Even though, at Borobudur, contrary to the text, special attention is paid to Sudhana’s encounters with the future Buddha Maitreya and the compassionate bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Samantabhadra and Manjushri play the major roles.64 In the assembly hall of Tabo, the murals are organised along the lower registers of the wall in a more or less horizontal progression clockwise from the east wall of the entrance till the western wall of the ambulatory entrance. On the other side of the entrance of the ambulatory, the west wall bears narrative murals from Lalitavistara, a text that is also important to Borobudur. The upper register of the wall depicts several Buddha realms including that of the ten directional Buddhas and their bodhisattva attendants. Several extracts from the Tibetan version of the Gandavyuha are inserted and correspond, though not precisely, with the narrative murals.65 The Gandavyuha stretches over four hundred and sixty panels of the bas-reliefs of Borobudur,66 whereas in Tabo, the spiritual journey of Sudhana is compressed in ifty-six mural panels. At both the monuments, the emphasis is on Sudhana’s encounters with Manjushri and eventually his conclusive interactions with Samantabhadra. It is Samantabhadra’s direction of the pilgrim that is accorded the place of honour on the highest level of narrative reliefs at Borobudur. The last few reliefs of the top gallery are dificult to understand but they depict Sudhana, sitting beside Samantabhadra with a halo suggesting he has reached the state of an advanced Bodhisattvahood (Fig. 11.12). At Tabo, the narrative murals continue inside the ambulatory path of the cella. Some scenes are easily recognised and some have explanatory texts, but as at Borobudur many are dificult to interpret. Christian Luczanits says of these reliefs : Principally, the ambulatory narrative is very similar to that of Sudhana, with its protagonist wearing the same dress and apparently also journeying from one teacher, commonly a Buddha or Bodhisattva, to the next. The scenes are set against cloud-like mountains or within simpliied architecture, as is also typical for the Sudhana narrative. However, the protagonist is now invariably crowned, as if Sudhana would have retained an exalted spiritual state after receiving blessings from Samantabhadra under the eyes of Vairochana in the last scene of the assembly hall narrative.67 (Fig. 11.13) India And Southeast Asia : 212 Cultural Discourses Fig 11.12 : Borobudur gallery IV-53. Samantabhadra with his three-stemmed lower is elevated to the Buddhahood as he sits on the lotus cushion and Sudhana is seen with a halo around him. The Sacred centre : Borobudur and Tabo because he is seen in Dunhuang and Ropa caves The cella of the Tabo monastery main temple with his hands in this position holding an upright houses the original images of the Buddha seated wheel of the law.69 If we accept the central on a double lotus cushion on a lion throne against Buddha as Vairochana, then an unanswered the wall. The bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara/ Padmapani and Vajrapani/Vajrasattva stand question arises about two Vairochanas, one in the cella and the other in the assembly hall. The beside the central igure on the south and north unusual presence of the two Vairochana images walls respectively (Fig. 11.14). The central Buddha in the main temple may possibly be attributed has been interpreted as both Vairochana and Amitabha. Giuseppe Tucci identiied the central igure as Amitabha because he is painted red and to the eleventh century temple renovation, which incorporated elements of the original artistic programme with the new one.70 is seated in his dhyanamudra position.68 Deborah The question of two Vairochanas arises even Klimburg-Salter however disputes this, saying it at Borobudur. The 64 Buddha images seated in is Vairochana because of the lion vehicle and the vitarkamudra on the topmost square terrace Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 213 Fig 11.13 : The protagonist offers himself to the bodhisattva. The arrangement of the story is very similar to the Borobudur narrative. Here the protagonist is depicted wearing a crown instead of a halo. Tabo ambulatory, North wall (Photo : Jaroslav Poncar – TaboA_JP84_606) balustrade have been called Vairochana71 and/or is not fully resolved.73 A small four-armed Samantabhadra.72 If these images are assumed to Avalokiteshvara bronze was found from the main be Vairochana, then like Tabo, this puts forward stupa of Borobudur and now kept in the National the question of identiication of the partly visible Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (Rijksmuseum Vairochana like images in dharmacakramudra in the Volkenkunde).74 There are unconirmed sources seventy-two perforated stupikas on the circular mentioning a gold Buddha statue from the main terraces. It is conceivable that at both Tabo and stupa of Borobudur.75 If it were the case, then Borobudur, the sixth Buddha is a representation like Tabo, Borobudur too would have possibly of Vajrasattva of the yogini-tantra, as claimed by the UNESCO restorers in panels at the base of had a bronze triad placed at the sacred centre of the monument. The presence of a triad is seen the monument. in the iconography of Chandi Mendut with the Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani accompany the Vajrapani much like that of the Tabo cella. No main Buddha in the cella at Tabo. At Borobudur, one has succeeded in determining the last few the debate of the indings from the main stupa reliefs of Borobudur’s fourth gallery central Buddha, lanked by Avalokiteshvara and India And Southeast Asia : 214 Cultural Discourses Fig. 11.14 : Tabo main cella with triad of Avalokiteshvara, Vairochana/ Amitabaha, Vajrapani In (Fig. 11.15) we see Sudhana sitting beside features and support the arguments for seeing the Samantabhadra below Amitabha’s western Vajaradhatu mandala embodied in the architecture paradise. Amitabha, sitting in dhyanamudra, is of both. unusually accompanied by Vajrapani as well as his own bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, showing an uncanny resemblance to the cella triad of Tabo. The standing bodhisattvas at Tabo display similar mudras to the bodhisattvas seated in the Borobudur panel. Experiencing a Mandala The architectural designs of Tabo and Borobudur imply that sacred art requires activation through ritual movement in order to validate their religious and political messages. The architectonic mandalas need to be experienced through spatial movement that is vertical in the case of Borobudur The sculptural and iconography programme and horizontal in the case of Tabo. Geri Malandra of Tabo and Borobudur show several common sees a mandala is a cosmic diagram in painting, Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 215 Fig. 11.15 : Borobudur gallery-IV-50 top register relief with depiction of Avalokiteshvara, Vairochana/ Amitabha, Vajrapani. Sudhana is seen with a halo besides Samantabhadra, who is not yet elevated to the Buddhahood as revealed by the absence of the lotus cushion. sculpture, or architecture that is transformed to storied caved palace resting on the top of embody supernatural power by adept movements mount Sumeru….such mandalas as these in rituals. include layers, or galleries in which reside The conception of the mandala as a diagram is extended into visualisation numerous manifestations of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other deities.76 of concrete architectural space, and Many questions remain open. Did Atisha play was transformed into actual temple any role in the iconographic program of Tabo? architecture and sculpture. The universe Did he introduce anything from Shrivijayan in the mandala is thus described and soil? Though in her exhaustive study of Tabo, represented as a palace and, at the same Deborah Klimburg-Salter argued that the Tabo time, the mandala as a whole is conceived chapel was inished before Atisha’s arrival, as being located in kutagara, a three- however, Christian Luczanits maintains that India And Southeast Asia : 216 Cultural Discourses the renovation phase of Tabo is indebted to For the Palas of north-eastern India, the STTS.77 Shailendras of Central Java and the royal Lamas This is the same commentary that is invoked as of Spiti, the mandala designated levels of hierarchy the source of Nganjuk bronzes from the same for organising the political and social landscapes the commentary of Anandagarbha on period in East Java.78 Conclusions This paper underlines a paradigm shift in architecture from stupa to mandala at the ritual centre of the royal Buddhist sphere. The mandalic architecture of Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo with central supreme deity and subordinate deities relects the political structure of samanta feudalism. The mandala model thus provided a metaphor for earthly governance in a perceived celestial order. It contributed to spiritual enlightenment as laid out in texts of their kingdoms. This comparative study of three structures presents a body of indings, in support of seeing Indian and Southeast Asian connections and the need of this type of study in understanding the travel of architectonic ideas across geographical boundaries during eighth to twelfth centuries. This brief encounter with the three key monuments of north-eastern India, Indonesia and the Himalayas, remains but a cursory attempt to paint a connected Buddhist world of maritime Asia that linked up with the Himalayas. and two-dimensional mandala paintings but While attempting to weave the scattered also employed a sacred model for realisation strands of uniform concepts loating around of political ideology.79 the connected Buddhist world, the paper leads Since many of the teachings associated with to the question of what must have been the key the Vajradhatu mandala were oral, secret and characteristics of these monuments that were not esoteric, it is dificult to determine how these contained by political boundaries nor constrained monuments were actually used in ritual. One by time for future research. possible example for our understanding is the narrative of the king Indrabhuti receiving the Acknowledgements hidden scriptures in the important commentary I owe a special word of thanks to Prof. Tadeusz of Prajnaparamita Nayasatapanchashatika (150 Line Skorupski for introducing me to Buddhism and Perfection of Insight). It provides insight into the generously sharing his breadth of knowledge, to preaching and practice of the esoteric scriptures. Dr. K. K. Muhammed for his interest in my work The narrative shows how the royal chief priest and his signiicant contributions in excavating divided up the court of princes, princesses and and restoring Kesariya. Thanks also to Christian ministers and placed each member on a mandala Luczanits for graciously providing me the layout board. This is then revealed as the physical of Tabo monastery and photos. enactment of the Vajradhatu mandala derived from the STTS by the members of the court.80 Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 217 End notes and References 1 Woodward H., “Review : Esoteric Buddhism in Southeast Asia in the Light of Recent Scholarship”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 35, no. 2, 2004, pp 346-7. 2 Sastri, H. provided the text of inscription in “The Nalanda Copper-plate of Devapaladeva”, Epigraphia Indica, 17, 1923-24, pp 310-327; and in Nalanda and Its Epigraphic Material, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Delhi, 1942, p 95. 3 Schopen, G., offered the translation of the text, “A verse from the Bhadracharipranidhana in a 10th century inscription found at Nalanda”, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 12, 1989, pp 149-157. See also Woodward, H., “The life of the Buddha in the Pala monastic environment”, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 48, 1990, pp 15-17. 4 Davidson, R., Indian Esoteric Buddhism : a Social History of the Tantric Movement, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2004, pp 118, 302. 5 For the detailed account of Nandangarh stupa, see van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, J. E., “South-East Asian Architecture and the Stupa of Nandangarh’, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 19, no. 3/4, 1956, pp 279-290. 6 Based on the overall measurements and the architecture, Voûte, C. and Long, M., have observed the similarities and differences between Kesariya and Borobudur in Borobudur : Pyramid of the cosmic Buddha, D. K. Printworld, New Delhi, 2008, pp 187-191. 7 Chattopadhyaya, A., Atīśa and Tibet : Life and works of Dipamkara Srijana in relation to the history and religion of Tibet with Tibetan sources, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1996, pp 84-95; Skilling, P., “Geographies of Intertextuality : Buddhist Literature in pre-modern Siam”, Aséanie, 19, 2007, p 94. 8 Schoterman, J. A., Indonesische Sporen in Tibet, Brill, Leiden, 2008, p 185; Skilling, P., “Dharmakirti’s Durbodhaloka and the literature of Srivijaya”, Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 85, parts 1 & 2, 1997, pp 187-194. Miksic, John, in Singapore and the Silk road of the sea 1300-1800, National University of Singapore Press, Singapore, 2013, p 110, states that Shrivijaya could be Palembang, Jambi, Chaiya or Kedah at different times in the connected maritime Malay world of the peninsula and Sumatra. 9 Wayman, A., “Relections on the theory of Barabudur as a mandala”, in Barabudur : history and signiicance of a Buddhist monument, Gomez, L. O. and Woodward, H. (Eds.), Institute of Buddhist Studies : Berkley, 1981, pp 140-142; Nihom, M., has disputed this in Studies in Indian and Indo-Indonesian Tantrism : Junjarakarnadharmakathana and the yogatantra, De Nobili Institut für Indologie der Universität Wien, Vienna, 1994, p 72, note 192. 10 Klimburg-Salter, D., and Luczanits, C., Tabo : a lamp for the kingdom, Skira, Milan, 1997, pp 91, 105. 11 The Nganjuk bronzes, discovered in 1913 and now split between the National Museum Jakarta and other collections and museums around the world belong almost entirely to the Vajradhatu mandala described in the eighth century Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha STTS and Sarvadurgatiparishodhana SDPS as well as in mandala nineteen in the later Nishpannayogavali. Chandra, Lokesh (in collaboration with Sudarashana Devi Singhal), “Identiication of the Nanjuk bronzes” and “The Buddhist bronzes of Surocolo”, in Cultural horizons of India : Studies in Tantra and Buddhism, art and archaeology, language and literature, International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, Vol. 4, 1995, pp 97-107 and 121147 respectively; Nispannayogavali of Mahapandita Abhayakaragupta, Bhattacharya, B. (Ed.), Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1972. 12 The largest concentration of Buddhist sites sprouted in Muara Jambi in eleventh century. See Miksic, J., “The Buddhist-Hindu divide in Premodern Southeast Asia”, in Nalanda-Sriwijaya working paper series no.1, 2010, p 27. The Gold foil sheets found in ritual deposit boxes in the ruins of Muara Jambi bear the names of ive Tathagatas, sixteen Vajrabodhisattvas and sixteen Vajrataras of Vajradhatu mandala. Along with the gold sheets, there were stupikas found among the ruins of Chandi Gumpung that were placed on the platform in a pentad arrangement of STTS. See Boechari, M., “Ritual deposits of Chandi Gumpung (Muara Jambi)”, in SPAFA, Final report : Consultative Workshop on Archaeological and Environmental Studies of Srivijaja, Appendix 7d, SPAFA, Bangkok, 1985, pp 229-243. India And Southeast Asia : 218 Cultural Discourses 13 Indian Archaeology : A Review 1999-2000, ASI, New Delhi, 2005, p 11. 14 Ibid., pp 17, 19. 15 The topmost level has a single chamber in all four cardinal directions, containing an image of Buddha in each chamber (4x1=4). The fourth loor terrace has four chambers facing the four cardinal directions and each chamber has three compartments, thus containing 4x3 = 12 images. The lower three terraces have eight chambers facing the cardinal and sub-cardinal directions. Each chamber has three compartments housing (8x3=) 24 images. The total number of Buddha statues is therefore 88 (4+12+24+24+24). 16 Indian Archaeology : A Review 2000-01, ASI, New Delhi, 2006, Plate no. 8. 17 See the four early reports made by Alexander Cunningham in the period 1862–1865, ASI, 1871, pp 65- 67 and Plate XXIII. 18 Van Erp was the irst person to recognize the signiicance of the alignment of the three structures, see Van Erp, T., “Eenige mededeelingen betreffende de beelden en fragmenten van Boroboedoer in 1896 geschonken aan Z. M. den Koning van Siam”, BTLV, 73, 1917, pp 285-310a. Krom believed that the three temples would have functioned as a part of a single plan, see Krom, N. J., Archaeological Description of Barabudur, The Hague, Nijhoff, Vol. 1, 1927; Paul Mus, Barabudur; esquisse d’une histoire du Bouddhisme fondée sur la critique archéologique des textes, Imprimerie d’Extrême-Orient, Hanoi, 1935, pp 418-420, talked about the ritual dependency of the three structures that Moens, J.L., “Barabudur, Mendut en Pawon en hun onderlinge samenhang”, Tijdschrift voor de Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkunkunde, (TBG), 86, 1951, pp 326-86, supported. See English translation Mark Long, “Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon and their mutual relationship”, in Tijdschrift voor de Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 2007 pp 7, 8, 67. It was also supported by Chandra, Lokesh, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”, The Southeast Asian Review, Vol. 5, no. 1 August 1980, pp 35-36 and Long, Mark, Borobudur : Pyramid of the Cosmic Buddha, D.K. Printworld, New Delhi, 2008, pp 98-99. 19 Based on Boechari, M., “Preliminary report on some archaeological inds around the Borobudur temple”, Pelita Borobudur, CC/5, 1976 (published in 1982) pp 90-95; Miksic, John, in his Borobudur : Golden Tales of the Buddhas, Periplus, Singapore, 1991, pp 34-35 argues about the monastic complex placed next to the monument. 20 The structure clearly shows two phases of construction activity – Shunga/Kushana and late Gupta period (late seventh, early eighth century) Indian Archaeology : A Review -1998-99, ASI, New Delhi, 2004, p 11. In a telephonic conversation on 16th January 2014, Dr. K.K. Muhammed stated that the slopes are strewn with late Gupta period bricks or may be even later bricks. 21 Both Faxian and Xuanzang record a stupa built at a certain distance from Vaishali, which is the exact position of Kesariya. See Watters, T., (1858), On Yuan Chwang’s travels in India, 629-645 A. D. (English translation of the French edition by Stanlisas Julien) 1905 II, pp 71-72; Reports of Cunningham, ASI, 1871, p 66; for the patronage of Kesariya see Chemburkar, S., “Borobudur’s Pala forbear? A ield note from Kesariya, Bihar, India”, in Tantric Buddhist Networks Along the Maritime Silk Routes, 7th-13th Centuries CE, Acri, A. (Ed.), ISEAS Publications, Singapore, in press. 22 Devahuti, D., The unknown Hsüan-tsang, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, p 144. 23 Based on the indings during the excavations and the size and the nature of the bricks the ASI has tentatively dated the structure to late Gupta period. Indian Archaeology : A Review 1998-99, ASI, New Delhi, 2004, p 11. 24 Chakarabarti, D., Archaeological Geography of the Ganga Plain. The Lower and the Middle Ganga, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2001, pp 203. 25 Ibid., p 206. 26 Asher, F., The Art of Eastern India : 300-800, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1980, p 69. 27 Construction of massive stupa sites of Bisa Sagar and Purnadih along with Kesariya await the excavations. 28 Huntington, S.L., and Huntington, J.C., Leaves from the Bodhi Tree : The Art of Pala India (8th-12th Centuries) and its International Legacy, Dayton Art Institute, Seattle, Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 219 Washington, 1990, pp 90-91. Claudine Bautze-Picron supports this : “As the author emphasizes, a special feature of the architecture was then the niches on the outside walls of the temple. Those niches were occupied by sculptures as we know from temple 2 at Nalanda, still adorned with stone panels, or from the Maniyar matha at Rajgir or the temple at Aphsad where stucco images used to adorn the niches” (p 283). See Bautze-Picron, Claudine, “Crying Leaves : Some Remarks on ‘The Art of Pala India (8th-12th centuries)’ and its International Legacy”, East and West, Vol. 43, nos. 1-4, 1993, pp 277-294. 29 Huntington and Huntington, Leaves from the Bodhi Tree, pp 70, 84-85. 30 Samuel, G., The Origins of Yoga and Tantra : Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, 2009, p 225. 31 Snellgrove, D., Indo-Tibetan Buddhism : Indian Buddhists and their Tibetan successors, 2 Vols., Serindia, London, 1987, pp 175, 189, 198. 32 Shinichi Tsuda, Samvarodayatantra : Selected chapters, PhD. diss. Australian National University, 1970, pp 1, 66, 231. 33 Brajdulal Chattopadhyaya sees these textual developments of the mandala in relation to the hierarchical structure of samanta feudalism. See, Chattopadhyaya, Brajdulal, The Making of Early Medieval India, Oxford University Press, 1994; see also Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, pp 71-72 34 Huntington and Huntington, Leaves from the Bodhi Tree, pp 70-71. 35 Sen notes that many Indian and Chinese monks such as Kumarjiva, Dharmarakshema, Atigupta, Gunavarman, Punyodaya, Xuangzhang and Yijing known to have travelled carrying texts and objects. Based on the Chinese source Sen mentions a painting of Maitreya drawn by Song Fazhi in India, which was later used as a blueprint for a sculpture at the Jing’ai monastery in Luoyang. See, Sen, Tansen, “In Search of Longevity and Good Karma : Chinese Diplomatic Missions to Middle India in the Seventh century”, Journal of World History, Vol. 12, no.1, 2001, p 9. 36 Ennin’s Diary : The record of a pilgrimage to China in search of the law, translated by Reischauer Edwin, Ronald Press, New York, 1955, p 253. 37 Guy, John, “The Mahabodhi temple : pilgrim souvenirs of Buddhist India”, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIII, no. 1059, 1991, pp 362-364. 38 Why else are there so many translations and explanatory texts of STTS? All the texts that were translated and transferred in the Buddhist world of India, China, Japan and Indonesia were part of STTS. Across the Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan traditions a number of variations of the Vajradhatu mandala based on STTS and its explanatory texts are known. Chandra, L., “A Comparative Study of the Tibetan, Japanese, Indonesian and Khotanese Mandala of the Tattva-samgraha”, in Amala Prajna : Aspects of Buddhist Studies : Professor P.V. Bapat Felicitation Volume, Samtani, N.H. and Prasad, H.S. (Eds.), Sri Satguru Publications, New Delhi, 1989, pp 187-200. Although Vajrabodhi had begun translating the STTS into Chinese in 723, the continuing importance of the STTS at the end of tenth century is signalled in the fact that the entire 26 chapters were translated into Chinese and re-translated in Tibetan. See Linrothe, R., Ruthless Compassion, Serindia, London, 1999, p 155. 39 Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, pp 175, 185, 198. Adrian Snodgrass proposes that stupas with ive Jina Buddhas are expressions of Vajradhatumandala; see Snodgrass, Adrian, The Symbolism of Stupa, Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi, 1992, p 135. 40 Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, pp 8, 203. 41 There are two extant Sanskrit manuscripts of Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha from Nepal. Giuseppe Tucci obtained a nineteenth century manuscript of the tantra and in 1956 David Snellgrove and John Brough discovered an Indian palm leaf manuscript that they identiied as a ninth or tenth century work from Bihar, India. David Snellgrove and Lokesh Chandra published a photographic reproduction of this manuscript (Snellgrove, David and Chandra, Lokesh, Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1981). Based on the Indian, Chinese and Tibetan commentaries on the STTS text, Do-Kyun Kwon, “Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha : compendium of all the Tathagatas, A study of its origin, structure and teachings”, PhD diss., SOAS, London, 2002, pp 22, 28, 29, and Steven Neal Weinberger, “The Signiicance of Yoga Tantra and the Compendium of Principles (Tattvasamgraha Tantra) within Tantric Buddhism in India and Tibet”, PhD diss., University India And Southeast Asia : 220 Cultural Discourses of Virginia, 2003, pp 47, 61, 62, 72, 73 have described the formation of Vajradhatu mandala in the STTS. 42 For the detail description of the mandalas, see Snodgrass, A., The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon Buddhism, 2 Vols. Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1988, p 634. For their use in the architecture of Chandi Sewu, Mendut, and Borobudur, see Chandra, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”, p 8; Bosch, F.D.K., “Buddhist Data from Balinese Texts, and Their Contribution to Archaeological Research in Java”, in his The Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology, (1929), translated into English, The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1961, p 111. 43 For some of the arguments on Borobudur, see Moens, “Barabudur, Mendut en Pawon”; Bosch, “Buddhist Data from Balinese Texts”; Chandra, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”; Klokke, M., “Borobudur : A Mandala? A Contextual Approach to the Function and Meaning of Borobudur”, in International Institute for Asian Studies Yearbook 1995, van der Velde, P. (Ed.), International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, 1996, pp 194-5; Snellgrove, D., “Borobudur : Stupa or a Mandala?”, East and West, Vol. 46, no. 3-4, 1996, pp 477-483; Woodward, H., “On Borobudur’s Upper Terraces”, Oriental Art, 45, no. 3, 1999, pp 34-43 and “Bianhong, Mastermind of Borobudur?”, Paciic World : Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, No. 11, 2009, pp 25-61; Hudaya Kandahjaya, “A Study on the origin and signiicance of Borobudur”, PhD diss., Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, 2004. 44 Grifith, A., “The Greatly ferocious spell (MaharaudraNama-Hrdaya) : A Dharani Inscribed on a LeadBronze foil Unearthed near Borobudur”, in Epigraphic Evidence in the Pre-Modern Buddhist World : Proceedings of the Eponymous Conference Held in Vienna, Tropper, K. (Ed.), Arbeitskreis für tibetische und buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 2014, pp 1-36. 45 Bosch, “Buddhist Data from Balinese Texts”, pp 109-35; Chandra, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”, pp 7, 8. 46 Dumarçay, J., (1981) Chandi Sewu dan Arsitektur Bangunan Agama Budha di jawa Tengah (Sewu and Buddhist Architecture in Central Java), in Ancient History : Indonesian Heritage Series, Miksic, J. (Ed. and trans.), KPG, Jakarta, 2007, pp 56-59. 47 Grifith, A., “Written Traces of the Buddhist Past : Mantras and Dharanis in Indonesian Inscriptions”, BSOAS, 77/1, 2014, pp 137-194. 48 Nalanda inscription of Balaputra and Leiden copper plate inscription dated to 1006 CE. See Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXII, no. 34. For the inluence on bronzes, see Scheurleer, P. and Klokke, M., Divine Bronze : Ancient Indonesian bronzes from A.D. 600 to 1600, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1988, pp 27-30. 49 Miksic, “The Buddhist-Hindu divide in Premodern Southeast Asia”, pp 20, 21. 50 Chandra in collaboration with Sudarshana Devi Singhal, “Identiication of the Nanjuk bronzes” and “The Buddhist bronzes of Surocolo”, in Cultural horizons of India, pp 97-107 and pp 121147 respectively. 51 The statuary found on this site is possibly from the same period as Atisha or just after his departure from the island. Miksic, “The Buddhist-Hindu divide in Premodern Southeast Asia”, p 28. 52 Natasha Kimmet has recently compared the sacred space of Tabo and Borobudur. “Sharing Sacred Space : A Comparative Study of Tabo and Borobudur”, in Connecting Empires and States : selected papers from the 13th International Conference of the EurASEA, Bonatz, D., Reinecke, A. and Tjoa-Bonatz, M-L. (Eds.), National University of Singapore Press, Singapore, Vol. 2, 2012, pp 93-102. 53 Based on the inscription on one side of the cella, known as renovation inscription, the temple was founded in a monkey year [996 CE] and renovated 46 years later [1042 CE] by the great nephew of the king. See Klimburg-Salter, Deborah and Luczanits, Christian, Tabo : a lamp for the kingdom, Skira, Milan, 1997, p 18. The inscription has been translated and edited by Helmut Tauscher, “The Admonitory Inscription in the Tabo Du khan”, in Petech, L. and Luczanits, C. (Eds.), Inscriptions from the Tabo Main temple. Texts and Translations, vol. LXXXIII of Serie Orientale Roma, Istituto Italiano di Studi per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Rome, 1999, pp 9-28. 54 Snellgrove, D., Buddhist Himalaya : travels and studies in quest of the origins and nature of Tibetan religion, B. Cassirer, Oxford, 1957, pp 66-7, 185; KlimburgSalter and Luczanits, Tabo : a lamp for the kingdom, Visualising the Buddhist Mandala : Kesariya, Borobudur and Tabo 221 p 203, Thakur, L.S., Buddhism in Western Himalaya : A Study of Tabo Monastery, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001, pp 98-126, Luczanits, C., Buddhist Sculpture in Clay : Early Western Himalayan Art, late 10th to early 13th centuries, Serindia Publications, Chicago, 2004, p 72. 55 Klimburg-Salter and Luczanits, Tabo : a lamp for the kingdom, p 108. 56 Ibid., pp 132-133; Klimburg-Salter and Luczanits also note that this viewing experience is similar to viewing narrative sutra scrolls in East Asia, although in this case the viewer is stationary but activates the narrative through the unfolding and viewing of the scrolls. 57 Bosch, “Buddhist Data from Balinese Texts”, pp 109-118; Chandra, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”, pp 24-5. 58 Chandra, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”, pp 24-5. 59 Ibid. 60 Luczanits, C., “In Search of the Perfection of Wisdom”, in From Turfan to Ajanta : Festschrift for Dieter Schlingloff on the occasion of his eightieth Birthday, Franco, E. and Zin, M. (Eds.), Lumbini International Research, Rupandehi, Nepal, 2010, p 573. 61 Klimburg-Salter, D., Tabo Monastery : Art and History, Vienna, Austria, 2005, p 48; Dumarçay, J., Borobudur, Oxford University Press, Singapore, Oxford, New York, 1978. 62 Klimburg-Salter and Luczanits, Tabo : a lamp for the kingdom, p 105. 63 Thakur, L.S., Buddhism in the Western Himalayas. A Study of the Tabo Monastery, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2001, p 148; Klimburg-Salter, Tabo Monastery : Art and History, p 39; Luczanits, “In Search of the Perfection of Wisdom”, p 569. 64 Miksic, Borobudur : Golden Tales of the Buddhas, p 127. 65 Steinkeller, E., A Short Guide to the Sudhana Frieze in the Temple of Ta pho, Arbeitskreis für Tibetische and Buddhistische Studien, Universitat Wien, Vienna, 1966, p 6, ig. 1. 66 Miksic, Borobudur : Golden Tales of the Buddhas, p 127. 67 Luczanits, “In Search of the Perfection of Wisdom”, pp 569-70. 68 Tucci, G., Indo-Tibetica, Vol. III, I Templi del Tibet Occidentale e il loro Simbolismo Artistico, Parte I, Spiti e Kunavar; Parte II, Tsaparanag, Reale Accademia d’ Italia : Roma, 1935, p 78; Supporting Tucci’s interpretation, Thakur, Buddhism in the Eastern Himalayas, p 115, identiies the cella triad as Avalokiteshvara-Amitabha-Mahasthamaprapta along with Kshitigarbha and Akashagarbha. 69 Klimburg-Salter and Luczanits, Tabo : a lamp for the kingdom, p 143, identiies the cella triad as Avalokiteshvara-Vairochana-Vajrapani/Vajrasattva based on similar igures from Dunhuang and Ropa. 70 Ibid., p 91. 71 Long, Mark (Eng. Trans. of Moens, “Barabudur, Mendut en Pawon”), “Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon and their mutual relationship”, p 22. 72 van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, J. E. “The Dhyani Buddhas of Borobudur”, Bijdragen to de Taal-, landen Volkenkunde, Vol. 121, no. 4, 1965, pp 408, 416; Frédéric, L., Borobudur, Abbeville Press, New York, 1996, p 184. 73 Reports about the nineteenth century discovery of a damaged and incomplete Akshobhya within the broken and looted main stupa led to claims that this was the main image of Borobudur. However, Moens thought this was an uninished reject statue. This image came to light in 1842 during the excavations by Hartmann. Thomas Rafles, H.C. Cornelius or J. Crawfurd had not seen the image, which suggests the possibility of the statue being placed in the stupa by Hartmann or one of his subordinates in good intention. Stutterheim, van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Bernet-Kempers, De Casparis and Soekmono believed its position was authentic. For the summary of all the arguments and counter arguments, see Moens, “Barabudur, Mendut en Pawon en hun onderlinge samenhang”, pp 32686; and Chutiwongs, N., “Pieces of the Borobudur Puzzle Re-Examined”, in Indonesia : the discovery of the past, Exhibition catalogue, National Museum Jakarta, Jakarta, 2005, pp 40-48. India And Southeast Asia : 222 Cultural Discourses 74 Krom N. J. and Van Erp, T., Beschrijving van Barabudur, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1920, pp 652-654. The same publisher published the English translation of the two Dutch volumes entitled, Barabudur : Archaeological Description, along with three portfolios of illustrations in 1927. 75 Chandra, “Borobudur as a Monument of Esoteric Buddhism”, p 3; Chutiwongs, “Pieces of the Borobudur Puzzle Re-Examined”, p 44. 76 Malandra, G., Unfolding a mandala : the Buddhist cave temples at Ellora, N.Y. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1993, p 18. 77 Anandagarbha is one of the fundamental commentators on the root tantra STTS, Luczanits, in Tabo, 1997, pp 108, 193-195. 78 Lim K. W., ‘Studies in Later Buddhist Iconography’, in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, land-en Volkenkunde, Vol.120, no. 3, 1964, p 337. 79 Snellgrove (Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, p 199) recognizes the structural similarities between the mandala and political systems. Davidson (Indian Esoteric Buddhism, pp 131-144) systematically develops the argument. 80 Jnanamitra’s commentary on PrajnaparamitaNayasatapancasatika is found in the imperial catalogue of the Denkar library of c. 810 CE. (Toh. 2647, fols. 272b7-294a5; cf. Davidson 2002, pp 242-244), as quoted in Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, pp 242-244.