Indian sandstone pointing: Pointing and Sealing Indian Stone

Narrow Jointed
Pointing (3-7 mm)

Yes

No

No

Standard Jointed
Pointing (8-14 mm)

Yes

Yes

No

Wide Jointed
Pointing (15-25 mm)

Not Recommended

Not Recommended

Yes

• A foreigner on a horse, circa 115 BC, stupa no. 2.

• Foreign devotees and musicians at the North Gate of Stupa I, circa 100 B.C. E.

• Detail of foreigners in Greek dress playing the carnyx and the aolus flute.

• Foreign Riders, South Gate of Stupa 3.

• A foreigner with a bandage on his head fights a makara. Torana of stupa 3 in Sanchi.

• A hero with a bandage on his head fights Makara.
  9 Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and the Archeology of Religious and Social Change, C. 3rd century BC to 5th century AD, Julia Shaw, Left Coast Press, 2013 pp.



Federal Agency for Subsoil Use : NEWS : 150 years since the birth of Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitsky

The main work of the geologist Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitsky was the study of the life of the continents of the distant past. He opened for science a huge and diverse animal world, buried in the continental deposits of the Permian era on the territory of Russia. In these deposits, previously considered “mute”, “dead” and “lifeless”, he found the remains of fossil animals and plants that struck the whole world. Their collection, collected by V.P. Amalitsky, made up the “North Dvina Gallery” of the Paleontological Museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences – a true treasure of science about the past of the Earth. V.P. Amalitsky proved the generality of the development of the terrestrial organic world of the southern and northern continents in the era of Perm.

Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitsky was born on July 13, 1860 in the village of Stariki, Volyn province. V.P. Amalitsky’s father died early, when the boy was only 3 years old, and his mother, after the death of her husband, was left almost without a livelihood. Her brother, the St. Petersburg doctor Polubinsky, took an active part in the fate of little Vladimir. Nine-year-old Vladimir Amalitsky was moved to St. Petersburg to his uncle’s family and entered the gymnasium. From childhood, V.P. Amalitsky was distinguished by his love for nature and interest in the natural sciences, although he did not particularly stand out for success in the gymnasium.

After graduating from the gymnasium, V.P.Amalitsky entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, which at that time united all the natural sciences. Already in his second year, he chose geology as his specialty, headed at the university by two prominent scientists – V.V. Dokuchaev and A.A. Inostrantsev. Dokuchaev drew attention to a lively, very hardworking young student. In the third year, he even entrusted V.P. Amalitsky to conduct practical classes in crystallography.

In 1883, V.P.Amalitsky graduated from the university with a PhD degree and was left at the department. At the same time, he received an offer from V.V. Dokuchaev to participate in a large expedition led by him to explore the lands of the Nizhny Novgorod province. This long expedition led by V.V. Dokuchaev was a very serious school of field geological research for the young geologists who participated in it. She had a great influence on the formation of a number of outstanding figures in Russian geology.

At the time of V.P. Amalitsky, this feature of the distribution of fossil animal remains in continental rocks was not known. The absence of fossils was explained by the fact that these rocks were allegedly deposited in conditions unsuitable for life – in deserts, in dead lakes, etc. Continental strata were called “dead”, “lifeless”, “silent”. The absence of fossil animals made it impossible for the geologist to determine the age of continental rocks, nor to determine the conditions under which these sediments formed. Geologists usually avoided studying continental deposits, finding them uninteresting, not promising important scientific data, although their mystery in terms of origin and age has repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers.

The wide distribution of continental Permian rocks in the north-east of European Russia amazed the young VP Amalitsky. His mind could not reconcile himself with the established opinion about the dead, lifeless nature of the formation of sediments over such large spaces, although the famous founder of the Permian system Murchison himself, after him Keyserling and others, could not find fossils here. V.P. Amalitsky found many shells of freshwater mollusks – anthracosides, related to modern river toothless. “Silent”, “dead” deposits “spoke”.

VP Amalitsky turns from a geologist into a paleontologist. He subjects the remains he found to a detailed study, compares them with finds described earlier in other countries. Based on the fauna processed by him, he establishes the age of the “silent” variegated rocks, attributing them to the Permian system. The material collected by V.P. Amalitsky during the expedition gradually took shape in a major work “Deposits of the Permian system of the Oka-Volga basin” – his master’s thesis.

In 1887, VP Amalitsky became a master of geology and curator of the Geological Cabinet of St. Petersburg University. In 1889He began his many years of teaching activity by giving a course in paleontology at the same university. The next year, V.P. Amalitsky received the chair of geology at the University of Warsaw. With his usual energy, he reorganized the geological study, introduced as a rule constant excursions with students in the vicinity of Warsaw to practically illustrate his lectures, created a scientific circle, and revived the activities of the Warsaw Society of Naturalists. In the very first year, the young professor became a favorite of students, popular in the scientific community of Warsaw.

VP Amalitsky did not stop his research work. He made a trip to the Vologda and Olonets provinces to expand his previous research in the Nizhny Novgorod province; continues the study of fossil mollusks – anthracoside. V.P. Amalitsky discovered a remarkable feature of the development of flora and fauna in the Permian era on the territory of Russia. In the Lower Permian deposits, the remains of animals and plants are of an ancient nature and come directly from the forms of the previous era – the Carboniferous. This ancient organic world is generally the same for all of Europe and also for North America, and represents one and the same geographical province.

In 1892, V.P.Amalitsky defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Geognosy “Materials for the knowledge of the fauna of the Permian system of Russia” at St. Petersburg University. In it, he pointed out that the knowledge of our Upper Permian fossil fauna can be completed only by comparison with the fauna of the southern continents, and not with the remains from the deposits of European countries. To accomplish this task, V.P. Amalitsky in 1894 left for England. There he worked extensively at the British Museum, studying the fossil fauna of the continental deposits of Karroo (South Africa) and Gondwana (India).

VP Amalitsky predicted that the Upper Permian deposits of Russia should also contain remains of animal-like reptiles similar to South African ones. It is necessary to undertake a systematic search, and then the complete identity of the past life on the territory of Russia and South Africa will be proved.

VP Amalitsky’s statements seemed fantastic to his contemporaries. They represented the complete opposite of the established opinion about the sharp difference between animals and plants on the northern and southern continents in the era of Perm. It seemed unbelievable that far to the north, in the center of the northern Permian continental region, suddenly there would be fauna and flora typical of the southern hemisphere.

V.P.Amalitsky drew up a program of his research, presented it to the Warsaw Society of Naturalists and immediately began to implement it at his own expense. Starting from 1895 to 1898, V.P. Amalitsky sailed along the rivers Sukhona, Sev. Dvina and Vytegra, carefully examining all outcrops of Permian rocks. He published the results of summer observations annually under the general title “Geological Excursion to the North of Russia”.

The year 1895 did not bring decisive evidence to V.P. Sukhona. Returning from his expedition at the end of the summer of 1895, V.P. Amalitsky unexpectedly discovered that, in addition to pebbles, sandstone also contains dense rolled bone fragments of the same dark brown color as pebbles. Diligent searches gave an encouraging result: several vertebrae, fragments of skulls and teeth were collected. The remains turned out to be similar to special representatives of animal-like reptiles – dicynodonts, very common in the Permian of South Africa. This discovery greatly encouraged V.P. Amalitsky. He returned to Warsaw and eagerly awaited the following summer, in order to once again set off in search of the precious remnants of ancient life, lost in the masses of “silent” variegated rocks on the banks of the rivers of the North.

He decided to devote himself entirely to the study of continental deposits. In 1896, V.P. Amalitsky found new paleontological remains on the Sukhona River and at the confluence of the Yug and Northern Dvina rivers – imprints of leaves of true glossopteris, anthracosid shells and bone fragments of reptiles of the South African theromorph type.

By the next year, the number of finds of the Permian fauna increased. On the Northern Dvina, V.P. Amalitsky discovered among the variegated clays huge lenses of loose sands containing hard sandstone concretions, the so-called concretions. In search of fauna, V.P. Amalitsky killed so many nodules that, in his words, “the resulting rubble would be enough for a large section of a good highway.” However, in several concretions there were imprints of leaves of excellent preservation. These leaves belonged to a glossopteris, quite indistinguishable from those found in abundance in South Africa.

At the International Geological Congress in St. Petersburg in 1897, V.P. Amalitsky made a report on his work and presented the remains of flora and reptile bones found by him. Among the foreign delegates who arrived were prominent researchers of the Permian fauna of South Africa (Seeley, Seward, Peyler), who recognized the correctness of V.P. Amalitsky and supported his ideas.

In 1898, V.P.Amalitsky found in concretions the largest lens of the Sokolki sands on the Malaya Northern Dvina, near the village of Efimovskaya, near the mountains. Kotlas, many excellent impressions of glossopteris leaves, and the jaw of an animal-like reptile with well-preserved teeth. The animal turned out to be a large herbivorous reptile – a pareiasaur. Until now, pareiasaurs were known only from the Permian deposits of South Africa and were considered the most typical representatives of the South African Permian fauna.

At a meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, V.P. Amalitsky demonstrated his findings and immediately submitted a memorandum on the need for excavations in the Sokolka lens. The attitude of scientists to the ideas of V.P. Amalitsky immediately changed. The necessary funds were allocated for the excavations.

In 1899, V.P.Amalitsky came across a large concretion containing a complete pareiasaurus skull, followed by a number of concretions. It turned out that in this place, densely cemented sandstone enveloped a whole skeleton about 4 meters long, lying on its back. In the meantime, and in the middle part of the lens, excavations reached the center of the lens, where several complete skeletons were found, lying close to each other. First, three skeletons were opened that belonged to large predatory reptiles – gorgonopsians, and under them three more skeletons of herbivorous pareiasaurs. In total, 5 solid skeletons, 5 less complete skeletons, and many accumulations of concretions with bones and skulls belonging to both reptiles and ancient amphibians – stegocephals were found. The total weight of the extracted concretions with bones was 1200 pounds.

The unprecedented success of V.P.Amalitsky’s excavations amazed scientists all over the world. Together with excavations, preparation and study of his collections, V.P. Amalitsky continued geological observations on the Malaya Northern Dvina and discovered several more localities of terrestrial vertebrates (Zavrazhye, Boltyanskaya, Empty, Savvatia, Aristov, Kuzevo, Golodaevo, etc. ). Meanwhile, the administrative and social work of the scientist also increased. In the period 1905-1908. V.P. Amalitsky was the chairman of the commission for the organization of higher educational institutions, he was engaged in the organization of the Saratov University and the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute.

In 1908 he was elected director of the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute. In the same year, V.P. Amalitsky decided to transfer all geological collections to the Academy of Sciences, having previously achieved an agreement between the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists and the Academy of Sciences. Under this agreement, the Academy was supposed to accept and transport all collections to its Geological Museum and take over the continuation of excavations, the manufacture of display cases for skeletons, and also provide the necessary premises for the exhibition.

Continuation of work, storage and scientific processing of the collections should have been entrusted to V. P. Amalitsky, who was transferred to work at the Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, the matter of transportation and transfer of the collections dragged on for four years. The war, which began in 1914, stopped the implementation of all the plans of V.P. Amalitsky. Excavations and scientific processing of the collections stopped. V.P. Amalitsky had to deal with the evacuation of his laboratory with collections from Warsaw to the east, as well as the Warsaw University and the Polytechnic Institute.

VP Amalitsky tried to set up the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute in Moscow, but failed. Then he moved with the institute and with all his collections to Nizhny Novgorod, where in 1916 he tried to establish scientific and pedagogical work. However, V.P. Amalitsky fell seriously ill and was sent to Kislovodsk for treatment.

December 28, 1917 Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitsky died in Kislovodsk at the age of 57. So early ended the life of Vladimir Prokhorovich Amalitsky, full of work, multifaceted activity on new paths for science.

Rosnedra Press Service

Gwalior Castle, fort and principality in India

There is a beautiful legend about the origin of Gwalior. The sage Gwalipa lived on one of the hills, and one day Prince Suraj Sen came to the same hill.

The sage Gwalipa met the prince and offered the traveler water from the reservoir. After drinking the water, the prince was miraculously cured of leprosy and promised the sage to fulfill any of his requests.

The sage did not want anything for himself, but only asked to save the source of miraculous water. Surge Sen kept his word and on 9A handsome fort grew up on a 0-meter hill, which was given the name Gwalior, and today the source is still protected by the old walls of the fort.

The sage Gwalipa said that the power will be in the hands of this dynasty until the next prince calls his heir Pal. All this happened eighty-three times, but the next ruler gave the child a different name. Thus, power, together with the principality, was lost to this dynasty forever.

History

Gwalior Fort

Gwalior has always played an important role in the history of North India as the political center of the historical region of Malwa. Gwalior was originally called the fortress, which was built in the middle of the 10th century. The existence of this fortress at the crossroads of the most important trade routes was known as early as the 6th century.

In 1232, after a long siege that lasted almost a year, the fortress was captured by the Delhi sultan Shams ad-Din. The Rajputs defending the fortress committed collective suicide with women and children.

In 1398, Gwalior became the capital of the Rajput Tomar dynasty, most of the fortress and palaces were built in those days.

1518 and again a siege for a year. The fortress was captured by the Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. After there were the Great Mughals, and during the collapse of the Empire, the Maratha family of Sindhia felt comfortable here.

All this continued until the coming of the British, after this momentous event the Maharajas of Gwalior became their vassals.

The Principality was abolished only in 1948 and Gwalior became the capital of the state of Madhya Bharat, and since 1956 the regional center of the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Outside the walls of the fortress, in good condition, you can find six palaces, six temples, a mosque, eight pools and monuments of Indian architecture of the XI century.

At the western walls of the fortress in the 15th century, giant Jain statues were carved into the rock, reaching 18 meters in height. It is for the sake of the fort that tourists come here.

According to the 2011 India Census, the population of Gwalior was 1,053,505. The city is large, noisy, dusty and uncomfortable, but all these shortcomings cannot overshadow the sights of Gwalior.

Gwalior attractions on the map

Gwalior attractions on the map

Detailed Google map is here.

Gwalior is not as complicated for a tourist as it seems. If you do not have much time, then you have a chance to see a lot in Gwalior.

All the main attractions of Gwalior are concentrated near the fort or in it. Judge for yourself, if you are going to inspect the fort, whether you like it or not, you will have to walk from the city to the fort, which is located on a hundred-meter hill. But the difficulties of climbing are fully compensated, because along the way you yourself, without knowing it, see some of the sights.

If you go up from the western entrance to the fort, you will see stone sculptures of 24 Jain gurus. If your path to the fort lies on the east side, then you will pass through a cascade of gates, which in themselves are monuments of medieval architecture, if you wish, you can immediately visit the Archaeological Museum, you will also see a whole string of small temples and all this on the way to the fort .

Having risen to the fort, the first thing worth seeing is the Man Mandir Palace, it is for the sake of it that many tourists go to Gwalior. Next to the motley palace, there are simpler palaces and other ruins that are of historical value only for professionals. In the depths of the fort there are several very interesting monuments and a functioning Sikh temple, see the map for more details, I tried to mark everything on it.

Paphos Jai Vilas Palace, built using prisoner slave labor, with a silver railroad laid on the dining table and other kitsch, you can see in the immediate vicinity of the fort, but it will not be close on foot, take a rickshaw.

Gwalior Fort

The fortress can be entered from two sides, the Eastern gate is colorful and ornate, and huge Jain statues adorn your path from the western side.

East gate to the fort

East gate to Gwalior Fort

If you want to see how the Middle Ages looks like, then head to Gwalior Fort exclusively through the east gate. Guidebooks say different things, but what you see will fascinate and amaze you. It is not for nothing that Gwalior Fort is considered one of the most beautiful forts in modern India.

Arriving by any means of transport at the first gate to the fort, make sure that the driver brought you exactly where you asked, my experience shows that often tourists are taken by default to the western entrance to the fort. The place you’re supposed to be taken to is dirty, noisy, and nothing special other than a string of auto rickshaws waiting to work. In the photo, it is the rickshaw parking in front of the entrance.

The very first gate to Gwalior Fort is called the Gwalior Gate (or Alamgiri Gate) built around 1660. There is no special beauty in them, so feel free to go inside to the third gate.

Why third? Yes, because the second gate exists exclusively in history and once had the beautiful name Bansur (Bansur, Archer’s Gate).

Once in a small square in front of the third gate with the name Badalgarh (Badalgarh), they are named after Badal Singh, uncle
Man Singh. Do not rush to go further, but take a good look around. On the right are the domes of the Gujari Mahal Palace, today it houses the State Archaeological Museum.

In this place, time seems to have stopped, the general shabby buildings, a parked human-drawn cart, local residents in clothes that are not very modern and long-tailed peacocks walking on the roof add surrealism.

Surprisingly, peacocks can fly, otherwise how did they get so high.

Going further, there will be a gate of Ganesh, built in the 15th century. Behind them is Kabutar Khan and not very interesting long-destroyed niches with Jain sculptures. You will also see a small Hindu temple with four pillars, dedicated to the hermit Gwalipa, after whom the fort and the city are named.
You will pass the 9th century Vishnu temple known as Chatarbhuj Mandir and all this on the way to the most impressive gate called Hathi Naur (Elephant Gate, 15th-16th centuries).

If you are not an expert on the history of the Gwalior fort, then the probability of passing by all the marked buildings that are located after the gate of Ganesh is very high, this is exactly what happened to me. Buildings on the sides of the road, you take for granted and no longer pay much attention, all attention is switched to the imposing walls of the Man Mandir palace.

In fact, the Elephant Gate is the last, but once there was a sixth gate, the HawaGate, it no longer exists and you have the entrance to the Gwalior Fort. There is a theory of the origin of the name Elephant Gate, a long time ago stone elephants guarded the entrance, the size of which was exactly the size of living elephants, but today elephants are present there only on tiles.

From the Elephant Gate, a beautiful view of the colorful city blocks opens up, the view will be even better if you walk along the fortress wall of the fort.

Huge Palace Man Mandir is impressive. Despite its impregnable appearance, the palace is decorated with bright tiles like a Christmas tree, and therefore its appearance is not formidable at all.

You can enter the fort only through a small gate in the gate. The door is really small, for comparison, a local resident either got caught too tall, or the height of the doorway is no more than a meter.

Here we are, the Man Mandir Palace in the rays of the setting sun, meets us with its yellow ducks and other living creatures on the facade.

Looking back, you can clearly see how long the climb is, but thanks to the sights scattered along the way, the road is passed quickly.

Western gate and sculptures of Jains

Western gates and sculptures of Jains

At the station square I catch a rickshaw and for 50 rupees it rushes to the Gwalior fort. My mistake was that I did not indicate which gate I needed to be taken to, but the western entrance to the fort, to which I arrived, is also beautiful in its own way.

Having made his way through all the traffic jams and traffic jams, the driver proudly said “fort there”, pointing to a winding road going up the hill. Having bought some water, I wandered up the mountain. The road winded and was fresh, when suddenly, behind one of the turns, Jain sculptures began to appear in bulk in the rocks.

Sculptures depict 24 holy teachers of the Jain religion, the time of the creation of these ears dates back to the seventh – twelfth centuries of our era. The largest statue is 19 meters high.

Jainism as a religion was founded by Sri Mahavira (twenty-fourth Tirtankara) around 599 to 527 BC. The philosophy of Jainism is aimed at self-improvement of the soul, as a result of which one can achieve omnipotence, eternal bliss, eternal freedom and other non-material benefits.

Religion is based on five ethical principles: do no harm to any living being, be sincere and pious, neither steal, nor commit adultery, nor acquire. Since all Jains cannot engage in fishing (outright killing), agriculture (you can harm living organisms that are in the ground) and cattle breeding, the most common occupations for Jains are trade, usury and jewelry.

In 1527, Muslim admirers of other forms in sculpture, under the leadership of Babur, beat off the faces and some other protruding parts of the bodies of most of the sculptures, but in our time some sculptures have been restored, the faces have been restored, and the fact that they have not become lower may not be the time yet .

The leader of the Muslim raid of 1527, Babur, even made notes in his diary about the Jain sculptures of Gwalior: “They worked hard rock and carved idols from it, the size of about 20 gas (13 meters). These figures are completely naked, they do not even have a bandage covering the organs of reproduction.

The road led up the hill, the sculptures ended and the gate to the Gwalior fort is already visible.

For everyone who enters the Gwalior Fort from the west side, the picture is something like the following, you are brought to the lower gate, which is called Urvai and indicates the direction of movement. On the winding and rather steep road, you are met by Jain giants, carved into the rock as far back as the fifth century.

Passing through the Jain sculptures, you see another gate and the inner fort wall.

The construction of the fort was started by Suraj Sen, there is even a beautiful legend about it. Over time, different rulers completed the construction of palaces, courtyards, balconies, underground chambers, temples decorated with sculptures, mosques, gardens, fountains, wells and reservoirs. The architecture and sculpture of the fort contains elements brought by the Hindus, Jains, Muslims and the British, which are scattered throughout the fort. Fort Gwalior constantly changed hands – first from the Rajputs to the Mughals, then to the British, and then to the Maratha family of Sindhia, who ruled here until recently.

Once inside, the ascent to the hill continues and seems to be forever. This is not surprising, the Gwalior fort is over three kilometers long, and in its widest part it has almost a kilometer. But after passing through a narrow passage along the walls immersed in greenery in front of you is a crossroads and a choice of several paths. If you go straight, then on your way there will be a local village, and immediately behind it is a cluster of palaces and temples.

Entering a special gate, it protects the old palaces from penetration into the territory of sacred animals, on the left hand side there is a small Hindu temple of the 16th century Vikram Mandir with open walls, which was destroyed during the First World War.

Sculptures and other artefacts are publicly displayed in the courtyard of the temple, but the temple itself looks very modest. In the same place, among the ruins, you can find the two-story palace of Karan, near the old prison. A little further on are the Jehangir Mahal (not to be confused with the beautiful Jehangir Mahal in Orchha) and the Shah Jahan Mahal. Lake Jaukhar Kund is located nearby.

The road leading to the colorful palace of Man Mandir offers to test local snacks, at the same time you will find out how strong your stomach is. The food in the fort is not very good, I did not find restaurants and full-fledged cafes, but there are tents that sell tea and cookies.

Man Mandir Palace is perhaps the most memorable object in Gwalior Fort, it is surrounded by other palaces, temples, wells and other structures without which no fort in India can do.

Man Mandir Palace in Gwalior

Man Mandir Palace in Gwalior

The true highlight of the old fort in Gwalior, which attracts tourists from all over the world, is the majestic Man Mandir Palace. The time of construction of the palace is in the interval from 1486 to 1517. The palace is the most magnificent building in the fort complex and one of the most beautiful and best preserved in all of India.

Like something out of a children’s fairy tale, the palace looks more like a jewelry box than a defensive structure. Walls lined with tiles, on which ducks, crocodiles and other animals are colorfully depicted, evoke childhood memories of oriental tales.

Man Mandir Palace is built in the form of semicircular domes and towers, they harmoniously merge into part of the fort wall and are a continuation of the hill on which the fort stands.

The first Mughal Emperor Babur, who visited the Man Mandir Palace 20 years after its construction, made notes about it. He wrote that the stone walls of the palace were entirely covered with white plaster, the domes of gilded copper shone in the sun, and the outer walls were inlaid with painted tiles.

The stone slabs of the cladding are intricately carved in the form of several ribbons that stretch along the walls, wrap around the columns, and then descend as flower pendants from the consoles and ceiling. Today the sandstone is devoid of the white plaster that Babur spoke of, but the colored tiles still shine in all their splendor, as if they were made only yesterday.

Inside the palace, everything is quite ascetic, but there are several rooms with beautiful carved window bars, behind which women from the harem gathered to listen to the court musicians.

Two roads lead to the palace, the first is straight through the Elephant Gate, through which the Maharajas on elephants were heading out of the fort. Near the gate, a unique covered gazebo has been preserved, from which they walked on the back of an elephant. The second road stretches through the entire fort and descends into the city through the western gate of Urvai.

Man Mandir Palace has several underground floors, during the Mughal times, the underground floors were used as a prison for their unfortunate relatives. It was there that Emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned his brother, whom he later executed here.

But this is not the only horror story about Man Mandir. The Maharaja, who already had a large harem, spotted a girl on a hunt, who, with her fearlessness (according to the legend, she fought a tiger alone in front of the Maharaja) won the heart of the ruler. But on the offer to join his harem, she refused.

Surprised by such impudence, the Maharaja insisted on his own, but the girl put forward a number of conditions. Firstly, she agrees to enter the palace exclusively as a wife, and secondly, she always wanted to be with him and one more small wish of a modest village girl. All that was required was to build a palace for her with a pool filled with lake water from her village.

All conditions were met, but happiness did not last long. In the next military campaign in which the forces were clearly unequal and the outcome of the confrontation was known in advance. In order not to be captured, the women from the harem performed the Jokhar rite. The wives entered their favorite round room of the palace for the last time and lit a huge fire at the bottom of the empty pool, in which they ended their earthly journey. You can see the very place the legend says today, but the pool in the center of the room is now covered with metal bars.

And the ambitious village girl, who always wanted to be with her master, was with him in the last moments of his life. Maharaja fulfilled his promise, always and everywhere they were together. She, weapons in hand, shoulder to shoulder, fought alongside her beloved. This is how they met their death. I believe that this legend in its tragedy is in no way inferior to the one about Mumtaz and the Taj Mahal.

In India, every fort has stories that make the blood run cold, but this makes visiting such places even more exciting and interesting.

Moving further north through the fort, the palaces and ancient buildings continue. The state of most of them is sad, but quite suitable for inspection.

Everywhere there are signs saying that this building was protected as being of historical value, but there are few signs that would tell about the building itself and its history.

Walls of palaces blackened by time, deserted courtyards and silence bring a mystical mood of the walk.

There are buildings for different purposes and, accordingly, of different beauty, some are elegant, others are more like a barn or barracks.

An amazing architectural solution was used by the builders of the palace, two gates, but for whom is this door no more than half a meter high?

The interior decoration of the palaces is simple and functional, in the courtyards of many palaces there is always a well or a pond. With reservoirs near the Gwalior Fort, there is a separate story.

In the palace I saw an altar with a Shiva Lingam, but why are there Tibetan flags above the altar?

Gwalior Fort, does not immediately open its best views, sometimes it is worth walking several times along the same path and each time the picture changes, the setting sun may be to blame, decorating the ancient walls in warm colors.

If you continue to explore the fort in a southeasterly direction, you will definitely come across the Suraj Kund reservoir. In the 8th century, the leader of the Rajputs was healed of leprosy by water from this reservoir, and from that very moment the history of the Gwalior Fort began.

On the same road, a little further on, is the gurudwara Data Bandhi Chod. The majestic white marble temple was erected in honor of the famous sixth guru Har Gobind, imprisoned for two years by Emperor Jahangir.

Sikh Temple

Sikh Temple

The temple is modern and was built in modern times in honor of the sixth Sikh guru named Har Gobind, who was imprisoned in Man Singh’s palace from 1617 to 1619.

Lined rows of palm trees lead to the entrance to the Data Bandhi Chod gurudwara. Everyone can visit the temple of white marble, observing simple rules: the head of the person who enters must be covered (if suddenly you don’t have a turban, then there are baskets with scarves in front of the temple :)), feet must be without shoes, before entering the territory of the temple, you want it or no, you will wash them, because next to the steps leading to the territory, a reservoir with running water has been built, in order to enter inside it must be overcome.

I have been to several Sikh temples and everywhere was very clean, despite the presence of crowds of tourists and parishioners, the temple in Gwalior fort also pleased me with cleanliness and order.

If you have free time, look here, especially since it is located fifty meters from the famous reservoir Suraj Kund, according to legend, the water from which is healing.

If you walk along the fortress wall from the Man Mandir Palace towards the western gate, then the probability of finding Sasbahu temples is high. Sasbahu temples are two Hindu temples dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva.

Sasbahu Temple

Sasbahu Temple

Everything that arouses human interest in India has its own legend. About the temples of Sasbahu, the legend says the following, the local maharaja had a family. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law worshiped different gods (this is not uncommon in India), family happiness was hindered by conflicts on religious grounds between women. The wise maharaja acted like a king, he ordered each of them to build their own temple. After the construction of the temples, peace and tranquility reigned in the family.

Approximate time of construction of temples dates back to IX-XI centuries AD. The larger and more beautiful temple is the Mother-in-Law Temple, dedicated to the god Vishnu. The “Temple of the Mother-in-Law” is multi-level, covered with several rows of friezes and sculptures on the outside, the inside of the temple is also beautiful – carved columns and ceilings, images of gods and mythical creatures cover every centimeter of stone.

The smaller temple is the “Temple of the Daughter-in-Law”, dedicated to Shiva. It looks neater and has a well-preserved pyramidal roof, but the inside is poor, unlike the Mother-in-Law Temple.

Walk along the fortress wall

Walk along the fortress wall

If you have time, be sure to climb the fortress wall and go around the fort.

The Old Fort of Gwalior offers old palaces, mysterious temples and amazing water reservoirs. But the most amazing and memorable in Gwalior is an independent tour, for which a guide is not required at all.

The best views and maximum freedom you will find if you head away from the paved hiking trails towards the walls of the Gwalior fort. Drive away embarrassment and climb into the first hole in the fence that caught your eye, because behind it is something that the guide will not show, behind it is not a sightseeing trail and a sea of ​​​​emotions. Feel free to climb the “designer” steps, which are at least 500 years old.

Gwalior is the second largest fort in India, the length of its walls exceeds 14 kilometers, 14 kilometers, which can tell you everything they saw.

If you have never walked along the fortress wall of a medieval fort, located in the very center of a modern city with a population of under a million, then you will remember this walk for a long time.

As in the Middle Ages, the walls still protect today, today you can not hear the city noise behind them and you can enjoy the silence and watch with curiosity how the eagles soar above your head.

But the walls of the fort have also seen turbulent times, this is evidenced by the gaps in the wall that appear from time to time, through which the cacophony of the city flows at you, but after walking a few meters, you are again under the reliable protection of old stones.

Walking along the very top of the wall is comfortable and a sense of calmness is the feeling that stone walls give several centuries thick, and far below there is a city with an ancient history and modern problems.

The views of Gwalior from a height of a hundred meters are fascinating, its temples, palaces, tombs and slums are visible at a glance, such a picture was here long before your visit and will exist for many years after you.

Walking along the wall from the east side, you see all the sights around the fort, to be more precise, all the sights are concentrated either in the fort itself or on the east side of it.

At the very foot of the hill, Gujari Mahal is perfectly visible, this palace was built by Raja Man Singh for his wife at the end of the 15th century, now the Indians use it as an archaeological museum, which contains everything that was once located within the walls of the palaces of the fort. Next to it is a mosque, its minarets are visible from afar.

A little further away, from the height of the walls of the fort, one can distinguish the Alamgiri Gate and the magnificent Badalgarh Gate, named after Badal Singh, Man Singh’s uncle. The time of construction of which dates back to the end of the 15th century.

And looking into the distance, you will see modern buildings that run like a motley carpet over the horizon.

After walking a little more, palaces will begin to appear in front of you, one after another.

The most significant bonus that you can get from walking along the eastern part of the wall is a fabulous view of the fabulous Man Mandir Palace. Words are powerless here, it must be seen.

The next section of the fortress wall, suitable for walking, offers a bewitching view of the Hindu temples of Sasbahu, which are often called “Temples of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law”.

From the western side of the fort, the views are simpler, but there are no people there, as they say, everything is at your disposal and you can safely observe the life below.

Through the stone sight | Publications

On both sides of the road, the typical landscape of the South West of England: gloomy peat bogs, monotonous rolling countryside. And fog, whitish everywhere, even lilac fog dense, like cotton wool, wet and viscous. Everything seems familiar, although this is my first time here. Where does it come from, the feeling that it has already happened to me? Maybe Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles? He recalled that Dr. Watson wrote to Holmes about this place: “The longer you live here, the more and more the gloom of these swamps begins to eat into your soul … As soon as I go out to them, I feel that modern England remains somewhere behind, and instead of it you see around only traces of the habitation and labors of prehistoric man. This long-vanished tribe reminds of itself everywhere there are caves, here are graves, here are huge boulders left where, apparently, their temples were.

Ahead is a cluster of giant rocks. Some stand alone, as if stuck by some giant, others in the form of the letter P, some are tilted, fell. One stones? Having paid a few pence, we wander towards them through some barely noticeable trenches, ramparts that barely rise above the ground. All of these are Stonehenge I, and there are Stonehenge II and III. Entire studies have been written about each of them. Each hole, shaft, trench is described, measured. All stones are numbered.

I wander between the rickety monoliths and listen to the whistle of the wind in the stone labyrinth in the middle of the plain. The fog dispersed. Everything is like a thousand years ago.

Stonehenge is so ancient that its history has been forgotten since antiquity. Neither Greek nor Roman authors write anything about him. Probably, the Romans were not impressed at all by these stones, because they saw the ancient Egyptian pyramids, and they themselves built majestic temples.

Today it is no longer possible to establish who was the first biographer of Stonehenge. Already by the XII century, all information about its origin was dissolved in myths.

Who built it?
An old manuscript of the Book of Conquest mentions three waves of early arrivals, the Fomorians, the sons of Portolan, and the Nemedians. The first were “gloomy sea giants”, and yet they built towers. Maybe they? The Fomorians acquired their skills as builders in Africa. Two other peoples came from Europe and “brought with them the art of politics.”

Following them (although God only knows how long these “followings” lasted!) appeared the “fir bolg” people, hard-working skilful farmers. “Fir bolg” is translated as “leather bags” on them they sailed to Ireland. There were also the Tuatha de Danann, the Milesians, the Dravidians from India. This is all that we managed to extract from those traditions that miraculously survived, despite the attempts of the Romans to impose their ideas about the past on the local tribes.

Anyway, the population of Britain was small in those distant centuries. Starting around 3000 BC, a new wave of farmers from the continent appeared on the islands – the so-called Windmillhill people – after the name of the hill near Stonehenge. It is thanks to them that the Salisbury Plain, along which we have traveled for so long, has become the center of handicraft and cattle breeding. After 2000, beakers appeared here. Their arrival coincided with the onset of the Bronze Age in the British Isles. And after 300 years Wessex, lovers of distant trading expeditions. It is in their graves that objects from all corners of the then ecumene are especially often found – faience from Egypt, amber from the Baltic, straighteners for arrows from Mycenae, pins of the Germans … Nothing remains of all of them that could shed light on their involvement in ” large block construction. We can only guess which of them?

It was built between 1900 and 1600 BC and took as long to build as a Gothic cathedral, almost a century. The latter served only as a place of worship to God and monuments of the Christian faith. Stonehenge was something else. How?

Having read the legends, you forget to ask the question how did they get here, these giant stones? In the name of what are such incredible efforts, such a blatant discrepancy between fragile human strength and multi-ton monoliths? However, similar questions arise when examining the Egyptian pyramids, and the stone idols of Easter Island, and the Cyclopean buildings of Zimbabwe. And in general, all the megalithic centers scattered along the coasts of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean. And yet, from where? Maybe the almighty Merlin put them here forever? Or, after all, the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles were not at all primitive savages, capable only of dancing, hunting and painting their bodies blue, but skillful builders, enterprising people, and most importantly, wise with rich experience …

The stones are different to the touch: millennia have not been able to “comb” them, so the rocks were different? Indeed, the main building material of monoliths is dolerite, but there is also volcanic lava (rhyolite), and volcanic tuff, and sandstone, and calcareous tuff. Three species dolerite, rhyolite and volcanic tuff are found in only one place in Wales, in the Preselli mountains, near the coast of Bristol Bay. Only there! “Now there is no doubt,” writes Stonehenge researcher R. Atkinson, “that the blue stones were taken to Stonehenge from this very limited area.” The distance in a straight line is 210 kilometers. Three hours of slow bus ride. But they were transported on skating rinks and on water, and this distance is 380 kilometers. 80 stones weigh in total up to 400 tons. Who else in ancient Europe made such an extraordinary raid? Perhaps no one. Scientists traced the possible path of the builders and found out that most of it passed through the water – about 350 kilometers. Some large stones were taken along the way.

They were transported on wooden sledges along logs, which were substituted instead of wheels. They pulled with ropes twisted from leather belts, harnessed in groups. Most likely, the wheel was not yet known here, although it had long been known in Egypt. But after all, skating rinks were also used in Egypt.

An “investigative experiment” carried out by scientists at one time helped to find out that 24 people are able to drag a load weighing one ton a kilometer and a half a day in this way. On the water, the situation was simpler: several wooden canoes connected by boards could withstand huge weights and were easily controlled.

But what about the heavier stones, sarsens? Their deposit was discovered much closer to Stonehenge, “only” 30 kilometers away. The weight of the largest “gray sheep” (as these blocks were called) reaches 50 tons. It is estimated that a thousand people delivered them to the construction site in seven years.

The ancient craftsmen skillfully processed the blocks even before taking them to the construction site of the complex, using the technique of impact and working with fire and cold. After a crack was outlined on the stone, a fire was laid out on it, and then cold water was poured. And beaten with stone hammers. And after rough processing and delivery of the block to the place, more subtle work followed. The stones were polished very cleanly, just jewelry. However, it is impossible to evaluate the technique today water and wind have done their job.

Scientists had to figure out how the giants were installed. It turned out that at first they dug holes, the length of which was equal to the length of that part of the stone that was supposed to be buried. The length and width of the hole was 90 centimeters larger than the stone. Three walls of the hole were made sheer, writes the English astronomer J. Hawkins, who published an interesting book on Stonehenge, and the fourth was given a slope of 45 degrees – that was the receiving ramp. Before placing a stone, the wall of the hole was lined with thick wooden stakes. The stone slid over it without breaking the ground. Then the colossus was placed vertically with the help of ropes and ropes. Quickly, quickly while those who held it had enough strength filled up the free space around, so long as the stone did not collapse! Having tamped, they left it alone for months, until the soil sags and compresses.

An important detail: the lower ends of the vertical stones were beaten with a blunt cone so that after they were lowered into the hole, the stones could be turned and set more precisely.

I trample under the canopy of giants, hiding behind rough boulders from the sun, shining un-spring hot. I look up and try to figure out how they ended up there, high above, multi-ton beams. They were not lifted there by helicopters. Although the thought of mysterious aliens, I confess, stubbornly does not leave me. But even an almighty druid was clearly unable to lift such a colossus using telekinesis … Maybe along earthen embankments? After all, it was this method that was proposed as a working hypothesis back in 1730 by the early explorer of Stonehenge S. Wallis. But the construction and dismantling of such an embankment for all 35 beams would require gigantic labor more than the work spent on the entire complex. In addition, the remains of earth embankments were not found, this version was left . ..

What if they operated by the method of throwing with the help of piles of logs? Approximately like this: a stone crossbar was laid on the ground at the foot of its future supports, and then a layer of logs was laid perpendicular to it, it was rolled onto logs, and a double layer of logs was already laid in the place where it lay before, but already parallel and perpendicular . Back and forth, back and forth. And here is the stone roof at the very top.

The last task was to transfer it to the prepared place and so that all its nests lay on the spikes of the support. It has been calculated: such a tower of longitudinal and transverse layers of wood would require 15 kilometers of logs with pre-cut grooves. And they also calculated: the construction of Stonehenge took three hundred years of work and thousands of workers, in total, one and a half million man-days of physical labor were spent.

Now the last and main question what was all this for?

On the day of the summer solstice, crowds of people gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise over the Heel Stone. The spectacle is truly impressive. Through the lilac fog that usually swirls in the valley at such an early hour, a bright beam suddenly breaks through and just above the top of the Heel Stone! The full disk of the Sun rises above it with such precision that leads to truly mystical reflections on the knowledge and abilities of our distant ancestors. The direction in which you need to look is determined by the stones so precisely, as if someone’s invisible powerful hand directs you to a certain point: look from here and you will see! Accurately fixed rays of vision, according to astronomers, forced the observer to look at a strictly defined section of the sky, set the directions where the expected phenomena occurred. The computer confirmed this the main, often repeated directions of Stonehenge pointed to the Sun and the Moon.

Why did the ancients need it? Well, for sure, to predict the start time of sowing. Then the priests could arrange theatrical performances at the rising and setting of the sun and moon. And more for math exercises. J. Hawkins, on the pages of Nature magazine, hypothesized about another cosmic purpose of Stonehenge. He suggested that the 56 so-called Aubrey holes in the ancient complex served to predict eclipses. “I noticed,” he wrote, “that these holes are located along a regular circle at an equal distance from each other. The holes, about one and a half meters deep, were dug in the chalk soil and then filled again with crushed chalk. The priests could predict the year of the eclipse of, say, the winter moon, shifting pebbles from hole to hole in a circle, one hole a year. They also had other devices for such forecasts.

…Stonehenge’s megaliths were slowly fading into the gray haze that had once again enveloped the valley, and I suddenly thought: five of the seven wonders of the world the Egyptian pyramids, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the lighthouse of Alexandria on the island of Pharos were made of stone. But nowhere, perhaps, has stone been used so skillfully for the intellectual search of the ancients as here in southwestern England, on the Salisbury Plain.

London

N. Nepomniachtchi our specialist. corr.

SOUTH EAST ASIA CIVILIZATION | Encyclopedia Around the World

Contents of the article

• ORIGIN OF THE HINDUIST-BUDDHIAN CIVILIZATION
• The most ancient culture of Southeast Asia.
• The origin of the peoples of Southeast Asia.
• Material culture.
• Religion.
• Penetration of Indian culture.
• EARLY INDUIZED STATES
• Funan.
• Tyampa (Champa).
• States in the Malay Peninsula.
• Early Indonesian states.
• Inscriptions in Myanmar and Thailand.
• The rise of the state of Srivijaya.
• THE ERA OF THE TEMPLE BUILDERS
• Javanese kingdoms.
• Khmer and Angkor Cambodia.
• Creation of the state.
• Pre-Indian roots of the cult of the god-king.
• Khmer conquests.
• Jayavarman VII, the last of the Great Builders.
• Pagan: Mon-Burmese synthesis.
• The rise of Pagan.
• Mon influence.
• SOUTH-EAST ASIA AFTER THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
• Thai conquests.
• Burmese and Mon states.
• Indonesia: sunset of Singasari and rise of Majapahit.
• Monuments of Majapahit.
• Bali.
• The spread of Islam in Malaya and Indonesia.
• The spread of Hinayana Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia.
• Socio-economic conditions of the Hindu-Buddhist civilization.
• Indigenous cultures of Southeast Asia.

SOUTH EAST ASIA CIVILIZATION. South of China and east of India lies the peninsular and insular region of Southeast Asia, comprising Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam), Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Brunei and Singapore. In this territory, in the first centuries of the new era, an original civilization grew up, giving rise to large cities, giant temples, complex irrigation systems, as well as vast powerful states. The most famous of them is the power created by the Khmers on the lands of Cambodia with its capital in the heart of the jungle, in the Angkor region.

The civilization of Southeast Asia owes its origin and to a large extent its main features to the influence of India, in particular to Hinduism and Buddhism. Their impact was so strong that modern scholars call this civilization “Hindu-Buddhist.” See also HINDUISM; BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.

ORIGIN OF THE HINDU-BUDDHI CIVILIZATION

History of Southeast Asia up to the 2nd c. AD remains a blind spot in science. The earliest information about it is contained in the Chinese written sources of that time and the finds of archaeologists. In Chinese dynastic chronicles, states are mentioned whose rulers bore Indian names in Sanskrit, and the clergy were representatives of the highest caste – the Brahmins. Buddha images of the same style as at Amaravati on the Krishna River in South India, characteristic of the period between 150 and 250 AD, have been found in Thailand, Cambodia and Annam (Central Vietnam), and on the islands of Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi.

The earliest texts – in Sanskrit – have been found in West Java, East Kalimantan, northern Malaya and Cambodia. These inscriptions are written in an ancient alphabet from the time of the Pallavas, a Tamil dynasty that ruled from the 3rd to the 8th century. in Kanchipuram, southeast India. More recent times include evidence reflecting cultural influences from other parts of India. From the northeast came one of the branches of Buddhism – the Mahayana. It bore the imprint of the mystical, Hindu-influenced doctrine of Tantrism, which originated in the Buddhist monastery of Nalanda in Bihar. From the 11th century the authority of the Ceylon (Lankan) branch of Buddhism begins to affect. This branch of Buddhism – Hinayana (Theravada) – gradually replaced the Mahayana and Hinduism from Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. See also TANTRAS.

The most ancient culture of Southeast Asia.

The origin of the peoples of Southeast Asia.

Little is known about the genesis and early migration of peoples who developed their own cultures under the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism. Today, the most civilized peoples inhabit the plains, especially the river valleys and deltaic lowlands, as well as the sea coasts. Economically relatively backward peoples lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the mountains and other elevated areas. The cultures of the Neolithic, as well as the Bronze and Iron Ages, were brought to Southeast Asia by the Malay tribes from Southwest China, which are subdivided into Proto-Malay and Pre-Malay respectively. They became the ethnic substratum of the current population of the region. Both of these groups probably migrated down the river valleys towards the deltaic and coastal regions. The South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and the Java Sea formed a kind of inland basin, contributing to the commonality of cultures of the peoples living on the coast and the banks of the rivers flowing into them.

Material culture.

The material well-being of the peoples of Southeast Asia was based on the cultivation of fruit trees, intensive cultivation of rice and fishing. Artificial irrigation systems required a relatively high population density: irrigation facilities were built with the participation of large masses of people, organized either under the rule of a strong leader, or, in some cases, within rural communities. Apparently, the appearance of pile buildings and the use of domesticated buffalo for plowing the fields date back to this time.

There was also a “boat” civilizational culture, distinguished by an amazing variety of boats of different types and sizes used. Many families spent their lives on their boats, and until recently, communication between settlements in Southeast Asia was carried out mainly by water. Especially high art of navigation was possessed by the inhabitants of the coasts, who made long-distance sea voyages.

Religion.

Religion was a mixture of three elements: animalism, ancestor worship and worship of local gods of fertility. The water gods of fertility were especially revered in the form of a naga – a mythical cobra with several human heads. For the inhabitants of Southeast Asia, the world was filled with mysterious forces and spirits, ideas about which were reflected in dramatic mysteries and in works of art that have survived to this day. The construction of megaliths was associated with the cult of ancestors, in which the remains of dead leaders were placed.

Penetration of Indian culture.

The penetration of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia, apparently, began even before the 2nd century BC. AD Hinduism was implanted by the rulers of local states, who sought to imitate the splendor of Indian courts. Buddhism was brought with them by mendicant Buddhist monks (bhiksu), who founded monasteries.

The rulers who adopted Hinduism invited Indian brahmins to perform rituals of deification of monarchs by identifying them with one of the highest Hindu gods – Shiva, Vishnu or Harihara, (a deity that combines the features of the first two). The new names of the rulers often indicated the gods with whom they were identified (Isanavarman – “Shiva’s Favorite”, Indravarman – “Indra’s Favorite” and Jayavarman – “Favorite of Victory”). The widespread use of the suffix “-varman” in names seems to have its roots in the Pallavas. At first it was a ritual suffix of the Kshatriyas – the class (varna) of warriors and leaders in Ancient India, but later it lost its class meaning and was used to designate members of the ruling class. In addition to the Brahmins, the rulers had to invite specialists in the construction of appropriate sanctuaries for the worship of the god-king.

Gradually Sanskrit became the sacred court language. Over time, the Indian script was adapted for the first literary works in local languages. Excellent examples of this are the earliest extant inscriptions in Javanese, Malay, Mon and Khmer.

To legitimize the rulers of Southeast Asia, the Brahmins used mythical images taken from the epic poems Ramayana and the Mahabharata, as well as from the Puranas (collections of religious myths and hymns) and other texts containing the mythical genealogy of the royal families of the Ganges region. They also promoted the system of government set forth in the Arthashastra (Treatise on Politics and State), Indian astrology and Indian calendars. The inhabitants of Southeast Asia themselves made an important contribution to this process, many of whom made a pilgrimage to India to study the sacred texts.

Early Shaivite inscriptions indicate that the state religion was based on the cult of the royal linga (phallic symbol), which, as it was believed, concentrated the magical power of the god-king, which ensured the welfare of the state. Thus, the autochthonous fertility cult was dressed in Indian clothes

EARLY INDUISE STATES

Funan.

The first royal courts under Indian influence, known to historians, appeared towards the end of the 2nd century. AD in three areas: a) in the Mekong Delta, b) on the coast of modern Vietnam, south of Hue, and c) in the north of Malaya. The name “Funan”, by which the state located in the Mekong Delta is known, is found in Chinese sources and is a derivative of the ancient Khmer word “mountain”. For the Chinese, Funan meant the country of the “king of the hill.” Chinese sources report that its ruling dynasty was founded by a Brahmin named Kaundinya, who married the leader of one of the local tribes. This legend was based on the local version of the Pallava dynastic myth, in which the founder of the clan was the princess Naga – the mythical nine-headed cobra, the goddess of water. Later, the Naga as a sacred symbol was adopted from Funan by the Khmers, and it became an indispensable attribute of the iconography of the Khmer capital of Angkor. It was believed that the prosperity of the country was supported by the nightly conjunction of the Khmer kings and the princess Naga.

In the first half of the 3rd c. Funan developed into a powerful empire under the rule of a king whose name is mentioned in Chinese chronicles as Fang Shiman. The ships of this monarch dominated the seas, and the states on the lands of the lower reaches of the Mekong up to the northern regions of the Malay Peninsula were his vassals. Fang Shiman assumed the title of maharaja, or “great ruler”, sent one embassy to the court of Murunda in India, and another to China. A certain Kang Tai, whom the Chinese emperor sent with a return embassy, ​​left the first description of Funan. Its subsequent rulers expanded the territory of the state and its overseas trade. As follows from the surviving inscriptions, one of the tasks of the tsarist government was the development of irrigation. Large-scale works on the creation of irrigation systems were often associated with sanctuaries where traces of Vishnu were kept.

Like Rome in Europe, Funan left many elements of its culture as a legacy to the states that succeeded it, but in the middle of the 6th century. under the pressure of the Khmers gaining strength, the influence of Funan itself is waning. The Chinese called the Khmer state Chenla and reported that at first it was a vassal of Funan. No explanation for this name has been found. During the century preceding the accession to the throne of the Khmer king Jayavarman II in 802, Chinese sources mention two states: Chenla of the Earth and Chenla of the Water. Until now, little is known about their history. The name “Chenla” was mentioned long after the founding of the great Khmer city of Angkor.

Thiampa (Champa).

The historical Vietnamese region of Annam is rich in archaeological sites of the people known as Cham (Cham). For the first time in history, they are mentioned as lin-i in the reports of the Chinese governor to the north of Nam Viet: a high-ranking official complained about the raids of the Chams. Until now, it remains unclear how Indian trends penetrated them. The earliest inscriptions, dated c. 400 AD, testify to the fact that their court religion was Shaivism. One of the inscriptions is related to the most ancient linga discovered in Southeast Asia.

The early history of the Chams is a continuous series of attempts to expand northward by both land and sea routes, which forced the Chinese to undertake punitive expeditions against them. The Vietnamese at that time inhabited the lands, the border of which in the south only slightly extended beyond the Tonkin region, which occupies the northern part of modern Vietnam. After the liberation from Chinese rule in 939, a long struggle began between the Vietnamese and the Chams for possession of lands south of Tonkin. Ultimately, after the fall of Tyampa in the 15th century. Vietnamese culture, which experienced a strong Chinese influence, supplanted the Hinduized Cham culture.

States in the Malay Peninsula.

Scanty information about these states is available in Chinese sources. More valuable information is contained in inscriptions made in the most ancient Pallavic script, the earliest of which date back to the end of the 4th century BC.

Early Indonesian states.

The earliest Java inscriptions known to us date back to about 450. They were made by the king of Taruma in West Java, Purnavarman, who began the construction of irrigation systems and erected a temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. In the east of Kalimantan, in the Kutei region, on the Mahakam River, dating back to the beginning of the 5th century were found. inscriptions of a certain king Mulavarman, but nothing is known about the further fate of his state. Chinese sources mention the existence of Hinduized states in Sumatra starting from the 5th century;

Inscriptions in Myanmar and Thailand.

There is evidence that from the middle of the 4th c. in Arakan, on the western coast of Burma (Myanmar), north of the delta of the Irrawaddy River, the Chandra dynasty ruled, but this information is known only from inscriptions of a later period. At Shrikshetra, near present-day Pyu (Proma), in Central Myanmar, inscriptions have been found that probably date back to 500. Shrikshetra was the capital of the state of the Pyu people, who are believed to have been the vanguard of the Burmese (Myanmar) migrating into the country. The Pyu occupied the Irrawaddy valley as far north as Khalinji, near present-day Shuebo. To the east of them, from Chaushe to present-day Molamyine in the south, and in the Irrawaddy Valley, were the states of the Mons Pegu and Thaton. The Mons also inhabited the Menama Chao Phraya Valley (Thailand). The earliest discovered Mon inscriptions date back to about 600. They were found in Phrapaton, where the oldest known capital of the Mon state of Dvaravati, located in the basin of this river, was located. Subsequently, the Mons had a strong cultural influence on their kindred Khmers, as well as on the Burmese and Tai (Siamese), about whose history little is known until the 11th century.

Rise of the state of Srivijaya.

After the fall of Funan in the 6th c. its place was taken by Srivijaya, which developed around Palembang, in the southeast of Sumatra. This vast trading empire owed its prosperity to the control of the Straits of Malacca and Sunda, as well as to the goodwill of China, where it sent numerous embassies. Srivijaya existed from the 7th to the 13th century. She did not leave behind such monumental monuments as are found in Central Java, but Palembang has long been an important center of education for the Mahayanists. In 671, in order to study Sanskrit grammar, he was visited by the Chinese Buddhist monk I Ching, who then went to India. After several years of study in Nalanda, he returned in 685 to Palembang, where he translated the Sanskrit texts into Chinese and left his description of the Buddhist religion of that time. The close ties of Srivijaya with the Indian regions of Bengal and Bihar explain the strong influence that Tantric Buddhism had on the rulers of the Indonesian states. AT 9in. Nalanda was visited by so many pilgrims from Sumatra that a special house was built for them.

THE ERA OF TEMPLE BUILDERS

In the period from 650 to 1250, wonderful works of art and architecture were created in the states of Southeast Asia, in no way inferior to the best world examples. Among the Chams, this flourishing in the artistic sphere began in the middle of the 7th century, when the Tang dynasty in China stopped the expansion of Tyampa to the north for a long time. Very little is known about significant changes in the lower Mekong region since the Khmer conquest of Funan. Sufficiently complete and reliable information on the history of this territory appears only from the time of the founding of the Khmer capital on the northern shore of Lake Sap (or Tonle Sap – “Great Lake”), founded in 802 by King Jayavarman II. But even earlier, those grandiose changes in art and architecture began, which eventually led to the creation of such masterpieces as the ensembles of Angkor. In Java, a similar process begins ca. 730 in its central regions, and on Burmese soil, in the state of Pagan, much later – approx. 1100. (However, on the site of the capital of the Pyu state Shrikshetra, the ruins of buildings of the 8th century have been preserved, which were the prototypes of the temples built later in Pagan.)

Javanese kingdoms.

The historical information we have about these kingdoms is often inaccurate. The development of the art of Central Java was associated with two local dynasties: the Mahayanist Shailendra and the Shaivite Sanjaya. Information about these dynasties until the 8th c. missing. In Sanskrit, Shailendra means “king of the mountain”, and it is possible that this indicates the connection of the dynasty with the “kings of the mountain” of Funani of an earlier period. Under Shailendra, wonderful Buddhist monuments and temple complexes were erected, of which the most impressive are the huge Borobudur ensemble and the Chandi (Hindu temple) Mendut. AT 9in. the construction of such structures in Java stops, but it begins in the state of Srivijaya. Probably, the Sanjaya dynasty prevailed in Central Java, and one of its rulers married a princess from the Shailendra dynasty. Her brother Balaputra fled to Sumatra, married a Srivijaya heiress and gave the name Shailendra to the Srivijaya dynasty.

An outstanding monument of the Sanjaya dynasty is the magnificent Shaivite temple complex Lara Jonggrang in Prambanan, built at the beginning of the 10th century.

Shortly thereafter, for unknown reasons, the center of power moves to East Java. In Central Java, the construction of monumental architectural objects is being stopped. Nothing similar was created in East Java until the 13th century. On the other hand, it was an important period in the development of original Javanese literature. The Sanskrit epic Mahabharata had a strong influence on Javanese literature and the wayang shadow theater, as well as on the sculptural reliefs that began to decorate East Javanese temples of a later period. One of the most famous works of ancient Javanese literature Arjunavivaha ( Arjuna’s Marriage ) is based on the story of the ascetic Arjuna in Mahabharata . This poem was written by the court poet Mpu Kanwa in honor of the marriage of the most revered of the East Javanese kings Erlang (r. 1019-1049), presenting the king’s life in allegorical form. The heyday of the Erlanga kingdom falls on a short period of decline in Srivijaya, when the Sumatran state was weakened by a war with the South Indian state of the Cholas.

In the next century, during the heyday of the Eastern Javanese kingdom of Kediri, another masterpiece of Javanese literature was created – Bharathayuddha . It is also based on the Sanskrit epic, but in its spirit it is a purely Javanese work. The heyday of Kediri continued until 1222, when she became a vassal of another Javanese state – Singasari.

In the religious sphere there was a close fusion of Buddhism and Hinduism, which by that time had absorbed local magical rites and the cult of ancestors. At that time, there was a custom according to which kings after death were identified with the god Vishnu. A magnificent expression of this tradition is the sculpture of King Erlang, originally installed in his mausoleum in Belahan and now kept in the Mojokert Museum. The cult that developed around her was a variation of the Javanese ancestor cult.

Khmer and Angkor Cambodia.

Creation of the state.

In 802 Jayavarman II founded the state of Kambujadesh (in the historical literature Angkor Cambodia) in the area of ​​the lake. Sap (modern Cambodia). The choice of location was determined by a number of conditions that explained the power that the new empire achieved, which arose at the crossroads of sea and land routes. The lake abounded with fish, and the alluvial plain allowed for up to four crops a year with irrigation techniques developed by the Khmer. The richness of the forest was combined with the ability to extract sandstone and clay from the Dungrek mountain range, located to the north, necessary for the construction of gigantic architectural structures.

Jayavarman II spread the cult of the god-king among the Khmers, which formed the basis of the branched religious system developed by his successors. A linga was erected on the top of the mountain, and the brahmins, who became the high priests of the cult, through meditation began to identify the king with Shiva, and the linga became the receptacle of his sacred soul. The sanctuary, around which the capital grew, personified the mythical Hindu Mount Meru, the center of the universe, while the monarch, as the “king of the mountain”, declared himself the ruler of the universe.

Pre-Indian roots of the cult of the god-king.

Closer inspection reveals that under the cover of Hindu terminology and mythology, ideas and concepts that originated in an earlier period were hidden. So, in Cambodia, Tyampa, Java and Bali, there was a belief that the erection of a temple-image fixes the essence, or the vital principle of the immortalized person in stone. The temple was built as a future tomb-sanctuary of the king, who, laying it down, left an inscription instructing his descendants to continue this tradition, and with it to maintain the established order – “dharma”. Thus, the ruler linked himself, his ancestors and descendants together in a single cult of ancestors. A remarkable example is Borobudur, the temple-mountain of the Shailendra dynasty in Central Java. This Buddhist monument, which includes hundreds of bas-relief images, is a real textbook of the Mahayanist trend in Buddhism, which developed in Nalanda, in Bihar, at the time when Borobudur was being built. However, its full name Bhumisambarabhudhara – the mountain of accumulation of virtue on the ten steps of the bodhisattva – has another meaning, which is revealed only with the ancestor cult. Each of the ten steps, with the exception of the lowest, symbolizes one of the Shailendras, the predecessors of the creator of the temple of King Indra. The lower step was deliberately left unfinished in anticipation of the death of the monarch and his transformation into a bothisattva, the future Buddha.

Khmer conquests.

The kingdom of Jayavarman II was small. The construction of large reservoirs and a system of canals, which became the basis of the prosperity of the state, was started by Indravarman II (r. 877–889). Under him, the place of natural heights, from where the universal king showered blessings on the population of his miniature universe, is occupied by man-made temple-mountains. The first city of Angkor was founded by Yasovarman I (r. 889–900). Somewhat later, the Khmer capital was moved for a short time to Chzhok Gargyar (Kohker), northeast of Angkor, but already Rajendravarman II (years of reign 944-968) brought her back to Angkor, which from then on remained the seat of the Khmer kings until 1432, when the city was completely abandoned.

Little has been studied about the history of the Khmer conquests. The first of the Khmer wars with Tyampa was fought in the reign of Rajendravarman II, but it did not bring visible success. In the 10th century Angkorian possessions probably extended up the Mekong valley to the border of China. Suryavarman I (r. 1002-1050) expanded his lands to the west, conquering the Mon state of Dvaravati, in the Menama Valley, and part of the Malay Peninsula, which is now part of Thailand. Since that time, the Mon influence on Khmer art and architecture has been clearly traced.

By the beginning of the 12th c. Khmer civilization and statehood reached its pinnacle. Suryavarman II (r. 1113-1150), under whom Angkorwat was built, which was the culmination of the development of temple-mountains, was the most powerful monarch in Khmer history. However, his endless wars against the Mons, Tai, Vietnamese and Cham did not produce lasting results. His unsuccessful campaign in Tyampa led to several retaliatory strikes, during one of which, in 1177, the Tyams unexpectedly captured and plundered Angkor. Jayavarman VII (r. 1181–1219) in response, occupied their country in 1203 and held it until the end of his reign.

Jayavarman VII, the last of the Great Builders.

Jayavarman VII carried out the most extravagant building project in Khmer history. He redesigned the capital, making it smaller in size, but at the same time turning it into the fortified city of Angkor Thom. In the center of the city stood the temple of Bayon, and around the perimeter monumental gates were built with towers crowned with gigantic heads with four colossal faces. It was already the time of the expansion of Mahayana Buddhism: in the central temple of Angkor Thom there was an image of Buddharaja – the king as the incarnation of Buddha, and in the radially located temples there were images with the names of the highest court nobles of Jayavarman, who thus joined the process of his deification. The faces on the towers were his portraits in the form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara – “the god who looks down”, with compassion, at suffering humanity.

In Angkorwat, Suryavarman II replaced Devaraja, the Shaivite god-king of his predecessors, with Vishnuraja. In essence, there was a merging of the two cults, similar to what happened in East Java. Jayavarman VII, having approved the cult of Buddharaja, whose main temple was Bayon, took another step in this direction, just as it happened in modern Java, under the rulers of the state of Singasari. And just like in Java, Hindu and Buddhist elements intertwined with traditional Khmer magic and ancestor worship: mythology, terminology and rituals were Hindu, but expressed purely Khmer ideas about the universe. The cults were dedicated to the material prosperity of the country and the earthly salvation of people. Buddaraja’s compassion was also expressed in the construction on the roads radiating from the capital, more than 100 hotels for pilgrims and the same number of hospitals open to all subjects.

The state could not endure such a policy, which constantly demanded forced laborers and soldiers, and it ended with the death of Jayavarman. New grandiose buildings were no longer built. On the history of the Khmers in the remaining years of the 13th century. so little is known that it is difficult to judge the situation created after the death of Jayavarman VII. The Khmers had to leave Tyampu, and the lands in the upper reaches of the Menam passed to the Thai tribes. The Chinese traveler Zhou Daguan, who visited the area at the end of the century, wrote about the magnificent city and prosperous countryside. There is a new, extremely important point in his notes: Hinayana Buddhism became the religion of the people. Thus, the state religion of the god-king was to lose its significance.

Pagan: Mon-Burmese synthesis.

Rise of Pagan.

The great era of temple building among the Burmese is associated with the city of Pagan, which united them into the first state that existed from 1044 to 1287. The Burmese, who ruled in Pagan, migrated to the arid central part of the country from the Shan Highlands in the second half of the 9th century. At first they concentrated in the Chauskhe region, not far from modern Mandalay, and then settled in other lands, which they gave their name to. The earlier Mons were the first to grow rice and pulses in Myanmar. The Burmese adopted from them the technique of artificial irrigation, vital for Pagan. The foundations of the Hindu-Buddhist culture, including writing, were also adopted from the Mons.

The Pyu state Shrikshetra collapsed under the onslaught of Nanzhao, the Thai state in Yunnan, just before the arrival of the Burmese, while the Pyu people themselves gradually lost their identity and were assimilated. The Mon states of Lower Burma were subjugated by King Anorate (r. 1044–1077), the founder of Pagan. This led to an increase in Mon cultural influence in Pagan, where Hinayana Buddhism was the state religion. Pali became the canonical language, replacing Sanskrit. In essence, Pagan Buddhism was the same combination of Buddhism, Hinduism and local cults as in other places, but the official religion was Hinayana, which gradually took the leading position with the help of royal power.

Mon influence.

Mon influence in Pagan becomes predominant under King Chanzit (r. 1084–1112). Under him, the temple of Ananda was built, the first and perhaps the most beautiful of the religious buildings. Unlike Angkor, then Bagan was not the center of an extensive irrigation network.

Before the end of Pagan’s prosperity, which fell, as in the case of Angkor, in the first half of the 13th century, a change of cultures was observed, accompanied by a change in the language of inscriptions from Mon to Burmese. Much more important, however, were the shifts in local Buddhism that took place as a result of the development of ties with Ceylon (Sri Lanka). New trends were brought by Mon pilgrims who visited this island at the end of the 12th century. They culminated in a movement to purify the Hinayana according to orthodox teaching, which preached personal salvation through poverty, meditation, total detachment. Missionary monks spread this doctrine throughout the country and far beyond its borders.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA AFTER THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

The thirteenth century proved to be an important turning point in the history of the region. In Angkor and Pagan, the construction of huge temples ceased, and Hinayana Buddhism took over the minds of the people who inhabited the vassal possessions of these two centers. He was destined to gain a foothold on the religious map of the mainland of Southeast Asia. There were also major political changes. The maritime power of Srivijaya disappeared, although the available data do not give a clear picture of how this happened. After the conquest of China by Kublai Khan, the Mongols invaded Burma, Vietnam, Tyampa, and even penetrated Java. Pagan collapsed in 1287, even before the invasion of the Mongols, the same happened with the East Javanese state of Singasari in 1293.

Thai conquests.

By the end of the 13th c. outside the islands, the Thai peoples come to the fore. The Shans, one of them, sought to establish control over Upper Burma, and the state of Sukhothai, founded by King Ramkhamhaeng (r. 1283–1317), subjugated the Mon-Khmer tribes inhabiting the western outskirts of Angkor Cambodia and adopted the Hinayana.

Thai expansion decisively changed the balance of power in the region. In 1350, Ayutthaya was founded, which marked the beginning of modern Thailand, and already in 1378 she conquered Sukhothai. Three years later, the state of Lan Xang arose in the middle and upper reaches of the Mekong. After 1350, under the pressure of the Thai tribes, the Khmer state quickly disintegrated. In 1431 they ravaged Angkor Thom, which as a result ceased to be the capital the following year. The Khmers moved the capital to the south, to Phnom Penh, but their state did not manage to revive its former power. In 1471, the Vietnamese captured Thiampa, and its Hindu-Buddhist culture gradually disappeared as the Vietnamese penetrated further south, into the Mekong Delta.

Burmese and Mon states.

In Burma, the struggle between the Burmese and Thai tribes continued until the middle of the 16th century. and ended with a decisive victory for the Burmese. During this confrontation, Burmese culture took a big step forward. Ava, founded in 1364, became its center. To the south, the settled Mons, who gained freedom after the fall of Pagan, created their independent state of Pegu, which existed until 1539. Its capital was the city of the same name, and the ports of Syriam, Martaban and Bassein became centers of international trade. Pegu made an important contribution to the development of Burmese Buddhism through extensive reforms carried out by the Mon king Dammazedi (1472–1492). Once again, Ceylon was the initiator of change. In 1472 the king sent a mission of monks and novices to the island to the Mahavihara monastery on the Kelani river. Upon their return, they consecrated the ordination center in Pegu, where all the monks were invited to undergo the rite in accordance with the Sri Lankan Hinayana rules. Dissent among the monks was strongly condemned, and orthodoxy was enforced everywhere.

Indonesia: sunset of Singasari and rise of Majapahit.

The Singasari state in East Java, which collapsed on the eve of the Mongol invasion in 1293, completed the process of religious unification. Kertanagara (r. 1268-1292), one of the most controversial figures in Indonesian history, introduced the cult of Shiva-Buddha, a mixture of local magic and Tantrism, which developed the demonic aspects of the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time). For this cult, his followers held secret vigils. The purpose of the obscene rituals was to give the king the necessary magical abilities to fight the demonic forces threatening the kingdom: an internal schism and an external threat. Kertanagara tried to create a confederation of the Indonesian islands under his leadership to organize a rebuff to the Mongol invasion, the threat of which turned out to be real for Southeast Asia after the aggressive campaigns launched by Kublai Khan in 1264. The challenge thrown by Kertanagara did not go unanswered, and in 1293 against him was directed by the Mongol armada. But even before her invasion of Java, one of the vassals of Kertanagara rebelled, who captured the capital, and killed the king himself when he, along with a group of close associates, performed secret tantric rituals. The confederation, or “holy alliance” as it was called, broke up. But the Mongol army, having defeated the forces of the usurper after its landing on the island, fell into the trap set by the direct heir of Kertanagara, Prince Vijaya, and was able to avoid defeat only by abandoning the intended goal and returning to their homeland. After that, Vijaya was crowned under the name of King Kertarajas.

Under Kertarajas, whose policy was a continuation of the expansionist line of Kertanagara, Majapahit became the new capital of the East Javanese kingdom. However, for many years the state was torn apart by civil strife. Majapahit owes its rise to the talent of the chief minister, Gaja Mada, who held this post from 1330 until the end of his life in 1364. Scholars disagree about how far Majapahit’s conquests extended beyond Java. His power was undoubtedly recognized by the neighboring islands of Madura and Bali, but it is unlikely that Majapahit’s possessions extended to the entire territory, which in the first half of the 20th century. constituted the Netherlands Indies. The decline of the kingdom began shortly before the end of the 14th century, although in the next century it still maintains a dominant position in Java. However, with the strengthening of the Islamic Sultanate on the Malay Peninsula and the penetration of Islam into the northern regions of Java, the territory of Majapahit decreased. In the end, the state disappeared from the political arena in the first half of the 16th century, and its history in the 15th century. so vague that it gave rise to a lot of guesses about the reasons for the death of the state.

Monuments of Majapahit.

While the reliefs on buildings in Central Java are realistic, in the reliefs of East Java the heroes and their servants are depicted in the bizarre form of wayang puppets, as if they belong to the world of ancestral spirits. Most of Java’s monuments are known as “chandi”. This name, applied to temple-sanctuaries related to the dead, is derived from one of the names of the Hindu goddess of death, Durga. In Javanese folk tradition, however, these temples have taken on a slightly different meaning. They were Hindu-Buddhist only in outward appearance, and they were seen more as places of spirit release and resurrection, which clearly goes back to the local ancestor cult.

Bali.

The conquest of Bali by Chief Minister Gaja Mada was a major milestone in the cultural life of the island. For hundreds of years, there was a form of Hindu-Buddhist culture, which later became completely Javanese. Among other things, Old Javanese literature had a strong influence on Balinese literature, into which it was incorporated. At present, it is Bali that remains the repository of Javanese literary works of the Hindu-Buddhist period, since in Java itself much of the historical heritage was lost as a result of subsequent Islamization.

The spread of Islam in Malaya and Indonesia.

At the end of the 13th c. in Southeast Asia, the results of the activities of Islamic preachers began to be felt. Marco Polo, who visited the Sumatran port of Perelak in 1292, noted that its population had already been converted to the religion of the Prophet. Under the influence of North Sumatra, the monarch of Malacca converted to Islam, with the strengthening of its power in the 15th century. Islam was adopted by the Malacca vassals in the mainland and in Sumatra. Trade relations of Malacca contributed to the penetration of Islam into the northern ports of Java and Brunei, on Kalimantan, whose rulers joined the ranks of supporters of the new faith. Just before the conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511, the rulers of the Spice Islands (Moluccas) followed suit. By the end of the 16th century Most of the Indonesian rulers were already adherents of Islam, but in East Java the struggle between the defenders of the old faith in the old state of Pajajaran and the Muslim elite of the new state of Mataram continued into the 17th century. Bali has withstood all attempts at conversion and has retained its Hindu-Buddhist culture to the present day.

However, the adoption of Islam by the rulers did not mean the extension of this process to their subjects. The situation that was observed in former times, when Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced at the royal courts, was repeated with Islam. The adoption of Islam did not violate the integrity of the cultural history of Indonesia. Social relations were still determined by local “adat” (customary law). There were no mass conversions, there was no break in cultural life either. It’s just that the Indonesian and Malay civilizations absorbed elements of Islam over the centuries, just as they absorbed elements of Hinduism and Buddhism earlier, and later – the beginnings of Western culture. See also ISLAM.

Spread of Hinayana Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia.

In this territory, where the leading position was taken by the Hinayana, in particular in Arakan, Burma, Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, Laos, a long process of interaction of cultures was also taking place. At the same time, their early traditional forms of religion showed amazing vitality, and Buddhism showed a magnificent spirit of tolerance. It is noteworthy that neither Islam nor Christianity left a noticeable mark on the peoples who professed the Hinayana. The most peculiar feature of this process of acculturation is not just a tolerant attitude towards animism, but actually its inclusion in Buddhist mythology. Pagoda festivals and national celebrations are excellent examples of this. Among these are the New Year (tinjan or Water Festival) in April, the First Furrow ceremony in May, the Festival of Lights (tarinjut), usually in October, and the Swing Festival, celebrated in December or January, at harvest time. The New Year’s Water Festival in these Buddhist countries marks the annual return of the king of spirits (among the Burmese “Taja Min”, among the Thai “Phra In”) to Earth, and the very moment of this return is determined by the Brahmins. Young boys and girls solemnly sprinkle water on the images of the Buddha. The Festival of Lights, which marks the end of the Buddhist Lent (and the monsoon season), is an even greater mixture of Buddhism, animism, and remnants of Hinduism. At this time, ritual meals are organized for the monks, who are given new robes. Buildings are decorated with illuminations and fireworks are arranged.

In Burma, the process of mixing beliefs took on an extreme form of celebration in the context of the legend of how Gautama Buddha ascended into the land of spirits to explain to his mother, who became their queen, the commandments of the teaching he created.

Orthodox Hinayana is essentially an atheistic teaching that denies the existence of the world of spirits. Nevertheless, in all the Hinayana-dominated countries of Southeast Asia, every phase of a person’s life, from birth to death, from plowing to harvesting, is accompanied by rites of propitiation for the spirits. Everywhere there are numerous cult objects, where fresh offerings come. On the territory of the Shwezigon stupa, in Pagan, famous for its Buddhist relics, there are temples of the Thirty-seven nats (spirits), which testify to their respect for shrines.

Socio-economic conditions of the Hindu-Buddhist civilization.

Information about the socio-economic conditions of life during the existence of the Hindu-Buddhist civilization is extremely fragmentary. This is due to the fact that only buildings made of brick and stone have survived to this day, while all dwellings, starting with the royal ones, built of wood, have long disappeared from the face of the earth. Inscriptions, a valuable potential source for the study of social relations, have not been studied enough. The latest methods of archaeological excavation and aerial photography can greatly help specialists, but so far the only successful attempt to analyze the economic system that gave rise to the boom in temple building has been undertaken by Bernard P. Groslier in Angkor. He described the city in detail as the center of a powerful system of reservoirs and canals, which provided constant irrigation and intensive cultivation of vast rice fields, but at the same time required a strictly centralized management of the life of a close-knit community. The Khmer created a government apparatus to suit their own needs, but the administrative structures of all the other leading states in the region were also based on the cult of water and fertility. Thus, the god-king among the Khmers, Chams, Burmese, Mons or Indonesians performed almost the same function everywhere, and their cities were most closely connected with the areas of irrigated rice cultivation. Even Pagan, located in the arid zone of Burma, owed its existence to the Chaushe irrigation network and was so located on the Ayeyarwaddy River to control the irrigation facilities downstream. Its fall at the end of the 13th century. was mainly due to the loss of control over Chauskh, and the fall of Angkor in the 15th century. was due to the destruction of its waterworks during the Siamese invasions.

Cities have not, however, turned into purely urban settlements. Aerial photographs show that Angkor was cut by channels and included cultivated land. It was a real garden city, in the center of which stood the palace city, the administrative heart of the country. A special quarter was assigned to merchants, and representatives of various countries had their own farmsteads. Around the city, along the banks of canals and rivers, there are villages, fields and plantations of fruit trees.

Local cultures of Southeast Asia.

Throughout their early history, the various peoples of Southeast Asia developed highly individually. This is especially clearly seen in the patterns of fabrics, for example, on batiks – both made in Malaya and imported from India. The importer had to have an excellent idea of ​​the specific needs of the population of different regions, since what sold well in one of them might not be in demand in another.

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