Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/20

12 Java. The fixing any date for the first introduction of Buddhism into Java must perhaps mainly depend upon that of the expulsion of the Buddhists from the peninsula of India by Brahminical persecution; without we entertain the supposition that this religion was in the first place introduced and taught by the early Buddhist traders from India or Siam, and afterwards established by the subsequent colonizations of the refugees. To the later settlers may be ascribed the erection of temples and idols to Buddha and the formation of a regular priesthood. The Javans we know, date the commencement of their era (A. D. 75) from the arrival in Java of a personage named Adi-Saka or rather Saca, which according to Sir Win. Jones is a name for Buddha, and at all events is the title, according to Major Wilford, of the six glorious monarchs, who gave rise to six subordinate periods, into which the Caliyuga is divided. The third of these, Salivahana Saca was born at S’aleya Dha’ra in the Deccan, and established an era nearly corresponding to that of the Javanese Saca, and which is used by the Buddhists and natives of Southern India to this day. In a chronological work of the Javans, said to be written by Aji Jáya Báya, we are told that in the 10th year of the Javan era 20,000 families were sent to Java by the prince of Kaling (or Kalinga) who prospered and multiplied. Most of the Buddhist temples in Java appear to have been built between the 11th and 14th centuries, corresponding with that ascribed to the final expulsion of Buddhism from India. From Java it may be traced eastward to the now Brahminical island of Bali. From those of Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores and Timor to the confines of New Guinea little is known. The vast unexplored island of Borneo is said to contain ruins of temples, in which are found inscriptions in characters unknown both to the natives of the island, the Chinese, and the Malays. In Celebes is said to exist an ancient and recondite language, like the Páli of the Siamese, or the Káwi of the Javans. Many of the best informed Pugis assert their Hindu origin, and their language bears evident traces of Sanscrit or Páli.

Whether it ever reached the Philippines is matter of doubt—the Spanish missionaries on the islands have, it is said, taken great pains to extirpate all the ancient records of the Tagála races, in which the history of their religion and the deeds of their heroes were celebrated in poems and songs.

Malay Peninsula. South of the Siamese provinces, few indications are found on the Malay peninsula of the Hinduism which is supposed by many intelligent Malays to have formed the religion of its chief princes, prior to the introduction of Islam, from which the commencement of the authentic history of the Malayan nation can alone be