The historical and cultural connections between India and Thailand

As part of his visit to Thailand for the Joint India-Thailand commission meeting, Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Jaisankar Thursday visited Devasthan in Bangkok. Devasthan is the office of the Brahmin kingdom from the Thai royal court and is the official center of Hinduism in Thailand. “Prayer (Thursday) this morning at Devasthana Bangkok. Receive the blessing of Phra Maharajaguru Vidhi. Underline our religious and cultural traditions together, “he tweeted, when he emphasized the long history of cultural contact between India and Thailand.

Making ‘big India’ in Southeast Asia

India and Southeast Asia shared a long history of cultural and commercial relations. Sanskrit texts and classical pali from India brought regional references using various names such as Kathakosha, Suvarnabhumi (Land of God) or Suvarnadvipa (gold island), which showed that this was an area that attracted Indian traders. Spice trading -Rempah, aromatic wood and most importantly gold is known to have developed.

In a newer time, European and Indian scholars call Southeast Asia as ‘further India’, ‘greater India’, or ‘Hinduization or Indianization countries’.

The first person to conduct an in -depth study of the process of ‘Indianization’ in Southeast Asian countries was a French scholar named George Coedes. He created the term ‘India further’ to refer to countries that experienced “Indian civilization activities”. Geographically, this refers to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Malay countries.

Sanskrit, Buddhist, and Jain texts show that the interaction between the two regions returned more than two thousand years ago, especially through sea and trade trips played an important role. Historian Karmveer Singh, in a research paper entitled, ‘Cultural Dimension of Indian Relations Indian: Historical Perspective’ (2022), noted that traders carry them with them “Religion, Culture, Tradition, and Indian philosophy with them at the Southeast Asian coast” . “They were also accompanied by Brahmin priests, Buddhist monks, scholars and adventurers and all of them played an important role in the transmission of Indian culture to native Southeast Asia. Some priests of traders and Brahmins married local girls and are often employed by local rulers, “Singh wrote.

Coedes, in his 1968 book “The Indianized State of Southeast Asia”, wrote that since the beginning of the general era, this relationship resulted in the formation of the Kingdom of India. He warned, however, that India’s expansion to Southeast Asia could not be compared to European colonialism because Indians were not foreigners with the Southeast Asian population and had previous trade relations.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Indian nationalist historians often refer to the kingdom of ancient India in Southeast Asia as a ‘colony’. Historian RC Majumdar, for example, notes that “Hindu invaders carry all their cultural frameworks and civilizations and this is transplanted as a whole among people who have not yet emerged from their primitive barbarism”.

However, recently, the theory of colonization has been rejected on the grounds that there is very little evidence of conquest or direct political influence in the Kingdom of Ancient Southeast Asia.

The first Indian kingdom that appeared in Southeast Asia was financial, which was a modern Cambodian and Lin-Yi predecessor in South Vietnam, both of whom appeared in the second century M.

The contemporary Southeast Asian society brings some evidence of the cultural impact of this interaction. Many local languages ​​in this region, including Thai, Malay, and Javanese, contain words of Sanskrit, PALI and Dravidian origin in a significant proportion. Thai is written in a manuscript originating from the South Indian Pallava alphabet.

Perhaps the most important influence of India in Southeast Asia is in the fields of religion and how Shivaism, Vaishnavism, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and then Sinhala Buddhism is practiced in the region. “Institutions and political and administrative ideas, especially the concepts of divine and king’s authority, are largely formed by Indian practices. For example, the King of Thailand is considered an incarnation of Vishnu, “Singh wrote.

The episode of Ramayana and Mahabharata regularly displayed in doll performances and theater events. In terms of architecture, monuments -monuments such as Borobodur Stupa in Java, Angkor Vat Temple in Cambodia, my men’s temple in Vietnam are some of the best examples of Indian influence in the region.

In the early centuries of the general era, Thailand, which was historically known as Siam, was under the government of the Funan Empire. Following the decline in the Funan Empire in the sixth century, it was under the rule of the Dvaravati Buddhist kingdom. In the 10th century, this region was under the Khmer government, which was also known to have a relationship with India.

Singh in his article wrote how archeological evidence, epigraphy, and others showed the penetration of Indian culture to Thailand from the early centuries of the general or even earlier era. “A Tamil inscription found in Takua-Pa testifies trade relations between the Pallava region in South India and South Thailand. A South Indian trafficking corporation named Manikarramam has established settlements here and built its own temples and tanks, and lived as ‘independent’ colonies, “he wrote.

It is important to note that Brahmanism and Buddhism existed with one another in Thailand in the 13th century pre-Sukhothai period. Mon Kings of Dvaravati and Khmers have protected Buddhism and built several Buddhist buildings, but at the same time also adopted Brahmanis habits and practices. The coexistence that developed from these two religions was evident from the fact that while Thailand today is a majority Buddhist country, there are many temples in the country where Buddhist and Brahmanis gods are kept side by side. Apart from the popular Brahamanik gods in Ganesha, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, those who are not mostly in Indian social-religious landscapes, such as the senses are also worshiped in Thailand.

Author S N Desai, in his book ‘Hinduism in Thai Life’ (2005), noted that there was no Hindu origin that more influenced the tone of Thai life than Epic Ramayana. Ramayana – known in Thailand as Ramakriti (Rama’s glory) or Ramakien (Rama account) – has provided cultural expression outlets in Thailand for elites and ordinary people. The episode of the epic is painted on the walls of the Buddhist temple and is applied in drama and ballet.

Although there is no archeological evidence of the story of Rama in Thailand, certain cities in the country have a legend related to Rama’s life connected to them. For example, Ayutthaya in Central Thailand, which appeared in the 10th century AD, came from Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Rama. Desai wrote that “from the 13th century and so on, several Thai kings took the title of Rama, who had become down -generation during the current dynasty.”