20. A Kalingga in Java (Indonesia)...A South Indian folk in the South-East ..
20. A Kalingga in Java (Indonesia)...
A South Indian folk in the South-East ..
(Poem Crazy Muthumani)
Dear friends.....
We have seen in
the previous section that a country called Kalinga was influential in the
northern part of the Central Java and its queen Sima ruled with high
moral. For many, the idea that Kalinga
was a country within India only which was associated with Odisha and Telangana
regions of India today. Was there really a country called Kalinga Desam outside
the present-day India that encompassed the coastal plains of the Jawa? If that was the case, our research mind was
itching to find out what evidence are there and share the with you. Here, let's
analyse literature, records of other countries and history. Come along without
confusion.
The names of the
countries Angam, Vangam (Bengal), Kalingam, Videgam are mentioned in the
Mahabharata itself. The capital of Anga Desa is the city called as 'Samba'.
Bhagalpur of today's Bihar is also believed to be the Champa Nagar of that
time. History has it that the sea traders of this city made many trips to
present-day Sumatra, which was called Suvarnabhumi, so that Samba became a
prosperous city. Fa-Hien, who travelled to India in the 4th century to bring
Original Buddhist texts into Chinese, refers to the city of Champa as Chanpo. If anyone wanted to travel between China and
India, don't forget that the bridges in between are Sumatra and Java of
present-day Indonesia. It is said that the city of Chamba in India was named
after the sea traders of today's 'Champah' of Vietnam, who established
trading settlements. Let's not forget here that the Samba-Khmer kingdoms, like
Indonesia, embraced the Hindu Saivism-Vaishnava religion.
This is all
right. What does Tamil say about this news?
Mahakavi
Bharathi,
He has sung in
one place that the Bharath’s languages are eighteen. Infact it is not ONLY
eighteen languages in vogue in India. Was Bharathi not aware that there are
more than 18 languages? Then where does this 18 come from in his mind.? Senthan
Divagaram (சேந்தன் திவாகரம்) says that Tamil says that the lands are 18.
Angam Bengalam Kalingam Kaushikam
Indus Sonakam Dravida Sinhala
Magadam Kosalam Marathaam Konkanam
Tuluvam Savagam Chinese Kamposam and
Parunapam Param altogether Eighteen lands
In this, ‘Dravidian’ is a combination of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The custom of summing up as eighteen languages is found in Tolkappiyam and Sangha (Sagam Period) books, so it can be known that Tamils knew all these countries even during the Tolkappiya’s period.
Kalingam (which may have been present-day Orissa or may also refer to the northern part of Java) in this hymn.
PEKALONGAN is a town in Central Java known for its traditional BATIK clothing.
This area was the first capital city of Javanese Kalinga Kingdom. PE-KALINGA-AN
(PE-KALINGA-AN) should be changed to PEKALONGAN. Apart from hearsay, only
the Chinese records of the 6th-7th centuries testify to this Kalinga nation.
The TANG DYNASTY
ruled China from AD 618 to AD 907 and traded all over the world. The Golden Age
of Buddhism in China is the legacy of the Tang Dynasty. It was during their
reign that a Tantric Buddhist monk named VAJRABODHI was brought to China from
Kanchipuram of Tamil Nadu in the year 742. Why?.. To bring rain to Tang kingdom
and to avoid famine through tantric rituals.... If we go behind this story, we
cannot reach the Kalinga of Jawa now. So let's trail 'Vajra Bodhi', on
some other day later. Now let us see the timeline of Kalinga.
During the
period of Harshavardana (606~647 AD) in northern India, Indian sugar was
in high demand in the Tang kingdom. There was a lot of material wastage in
transporting sugar from India to China in large quantities. So, a delegation from Harsha's country took
two sugar experts to China and trained the Chinese Farmers in the cultivation
of sugarcane and seeded China's sugar production. Then, later we imported from
them the Chinese the Crystal Sugar (With Rough Edges) , is an example of the
Chinese's ability to copy anything they see.
These Tang Dynasty merchant groups have left many records in history. Chinese evidence helps us to know the history of East and Southeast Asia with some authentic sources. “The Old Book of Tang” was revised in 1044 AD by the Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty as the “New Book of Tang”. It was a tradition there to write and publish notes about the old royal lineage to show their superiority and reliability to the world when the government tradition changed, and a new royal dynasty took over. That is why the records of the Chinese are verified as the source of many historical events of Asian countries. This new book took 17 years to complete...
There is a
reference to the Kalinga (Kalinga of Java) in ‘Book 222’ of ‘Tang's new anthology’.
Stay with patience for a while to see what hints are there in the history about the 'Kalinga' which was named as ‘HO-LING’ in Chinese... We will meet in the next episode....
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