Champa

< c ^

CO > UJ

Ejg OU_1 60088 >[g

^ CQ

CHAMPA

A Short Sketch of Her Historical Evolution
Based on Architectural Ruins

BY
SWAMI SADANANDA

Published by
Suhrid Kumar Mitra,
15, Shama Char an DC
Calcutta.

Printed by

J. C. Sarkhel, Esqr. at the

Calcutta Oriental Press Ltd.,

9, Panchanan Ghose Lane,

Calcutta.

GANKSHA

Bv the courtesy of Ecolc Franfaise d'Extreme Orient

A BAS-RELIEF

By the courtesy of Ecole Franpaise d' Extreme Orient

FOREWORD

Swami Sadananda, the learned author of this interest-
ing study of Champa, has earned competence to write
on this subject not only by his painstaking investigations
into the history of Greater India but also by his several
visits to its various constituent parts, like Annam,
Cambodia, Sumatra, Java, Bali etc. He was thus able
to study the monuments of these lands first hand with
an appreciative and at the same time a critical eye.
His numerous articles on allied subjects in news papers
and periodicals have shown that he has derived the
fullest advantages from his long and intimate contact
with these countries and his present publication on
Champa is a further indication of his earnestness. Dr.
R. C. Mazumdar's works on the same subject, published
more than a decade ago, treated the various problems
connected with it with a great wealth of details and
scholarship. But to those who will not be able to go
through that scholarly volume and to many others this
handy little book on Champa will be of immense value
for knowing a good deal about this ancient land.

Champa 'roughly corresponds to the present province
of Annam <excluding Ton*Kin and French Cochin^
China) with the exception of the three northern districts,
Thana Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh'. This tract was
originally inhabited by the Chams who belonged to

Austronesian Stock. It is probable that its population
originally contained some Chinese elements/ but if there
were any, these were completely submerged by a newer
element which the Chams derived from their important
neighbour on the west the great land of Bharatavarsa.
India played a glorious part in extending hercultural
influence over this country through successive batches
of some intrepid colonists, who from the second or the
third century A. D. to the fifteenth century A. D. when
the land was conquered by the Annamites, played the
most dominant role in her political and cultural history.
The Indians were not, however, birds of passage and
they did not go there merely to exploit the country for
their own gain. They settled there, thoroughly identified
themselves with the children of the soil and cast in their
lot with that of the previous settlers. The latter too
gladly surrendered to their alien masters and were tho-
roughly Hinduised. It is, thus, not so much the cultural
history of the original Chams that we have to study in
the land of Champa as the civilisation and culture of
India in a new and favourable setting. We do not fail
to recognise there the manners, customs, language and
religion of the Indians which were given a little orienta-
tion in the course of their being acclimatised on a foreign
soil. Thus if we take stock of a few details concerned
with the above, we cannot but be struck with the great
resemblance between the Hinduised Cham culture and
its parent. The dress of the people about which
we get an idea from the various extant monuments in
the country shows that like the generality of the Indians,

in

the Chams used to cover the portion of their body
below the waist line with tastefully designed clothing
and like the Indians again they used to decorate the
upper part of their body with beautiful ornaments.
Marriage among them -specially among those that were
highly placed in society' was held as a sacred inviolable
bond as in India / the details of this ceremony as record-
ed in relevant ancient Chinese texts strongly remind us
of the same in an Indian one. The practice of Sati was
in vogue among the higher classes as in India. A good
many of the Hindu rites and festivals were observed at
Champa. Different methods of disposal of the dead
such as cremation, the practice of the exposure of the
dead body, were known there and the funeral ceremo-
nies are dimly reminiscent of the Indian ones. Cultured
people there used Sanskrit language and as the epigra-
phic records uptil the tenth century fully prove that
classical Sanskrit literature was particularly studied by
many among the higher classes. In fact what literature
was there was in Sanskrit and we are not aware of the
existence of any indigenous literature if there were any
at all from any source.

Brahmanical sectarian religions of India like Saivism,
Vaishnavism and Buddhism introduced by the Indian
colonists found a ready recognition among the children
of the soil / not only Brahma, Vishnu and Siva the
orthodox Brahmanical triad were objects of high
veneration among them, but also the minor Hindu divi-
nities like Indra, Yama, Chandra and a host of others
were held in high esteem.

IV

Swami Sadananda has treated many of these details
with a zeal and earnestness which would recommend his
work to every one. He got much valuable assistance
in the pursuit of his work from such eminent French
savants like Dr. Goloubew and Mons. J. T. Claeys,
who helped him in studying the ruins of Champa and
seeing over the museums, for which he is much thankful
to them. He offers also his utmost good wishes to the
Indian residents of Champa the Sindhis and the Chetti^
yars whose unfailing hospitality stood him in such good
stead during his peregrinations in this country. Lastly
his cordial thanks are due to two other gentlemen for
the great help they rendered him in publishing his work.
Mr. K. C. De, as he had done while the author's
Suvarnadwipa was being sent to the press, had kindly
helped him by carefully revising the manuscript and
making it ready for the press / while Mr. Prafulla Kumar
Das has taken great trouble in reading the proofs.

Calcutta Umversity j Jitcndra Nath Banerjea

SIVA

By the courtesy of M. Paul Mas

AV A LOK ITES VARA

By the courtesy of Ecole Fran^aise ^Extreme Orient

CHAMPA

Definite proofs cannot be adduced but from an analy*
tical study of the somatic and linguistic affinities of
diverse races in different parts of the globe, ethnogra-
phists conclude that the prehistoric man had always
been on the move. Whenever he found a better and a
more secured prospect of satisfying his physiological and
economic needs, he quitted his old habitat without regret
and marched with his group to a new region, The idea of
nationalism or territorial patriotism has been the outcome
of a much later epoch in socio-political evolution, when
duties incumbent on him began to include the preserva*
tion of race^culture. A cynical disregard for the exist*
ing rights of another group specially if the latter were
less^armed and worse^placed in the method of self*
defence, was evinced by the early man in the very same
manner as his civilised descendants often betray in their
programme of ambitious aggrandisement. Thus many are
the instances where the weak were butchered in toto,
chased out of their occupation, forced to fly into moun*
tainous recesses or swallowed up by intermarriage.
This last alternative, i.e., fusion was only possible for
those who had certain similarities, whether in speech,
method of living or in the form of worship. If it was a

CHAMPA

mere physical attraction, only women were allowed to
live, while the male population was decimated. In any
case the conquering group imposed its manners and
customs and more often than not built up its glory and
tradition on the remnants of what they pillaged.

If this be the ethnographic sketch of any land, we find
that it fits in admirably with the ancient and mediaeval
days of Champa or Annam. This double denomination is
in itself suggestive. To-day the map of the eastern part
of French Indo-China only indicates Annam, but there
is no means of pointing out that on the same soil for a
space of five or six centuries, was founded, governed and
finally lost a glorious empire a people whose descen^
dants now live mostly in South Annam and who are
called the Chams.

Ethnically speaking, the Chams like the Annamites
originated from the Ocenians, who comprised diverse
types of humanity hailing at different periods from all
quarters of the earth, They migrated through Egypt
and Mesopotamia, halted in the Indus valley and finally
swarmed to countries and islands on the Pacific board.
They sponsored some five thousand years ago a civilisa-
tion, the relics of which abound in the mausoleums of
the Pharaohs and in the cities which once stood on the
environment of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Those who
stuck to the mainland of Asia earned the appellation of
the Indonesians. That a branch of the latter was to be
found near Tonkin in the neolithic age has been definitely

Page two

CHAMPA

established by the discoveries at BaoSon. During their
southward trek they encountered the Thais, a band
of Southern Mongoloids who occupied the Yang^tse
valley originally, but moved to further south along the
coast. These won the generic nomenclature 'Indo-
Chinese', of whom the Annamites kept to the border
territories of the south of China, the Chams to the mari*
time districts, the Cambodian^Khmers to the grassy
plane in the centre, while an offshoot, ethnically more
complex, penetrated into the south^easternmost penin*
sula of Asia.

Negroid irruptions were not infrequent, for the fertile
deltas of the Menam, the Mekong and the Song^Kai
attracted the island-hordes from Polynesia. Some of
them interbred with the Thais and retained their phonetic
peculiarities / some others were under the sway of
Champa in her palmy days and still display a marked
influx of Cham vocabulary in their tongue / the rest were
dispossessed of their fertile land and driven to mountain
fastnesses / where they maintain even now their primitive
habits. These savages are known as Mois in Annam.

Linguistically the Chams are unlike the Annamites.
They are more akin to the Cambodian-Khmers and the
Malayas, whereas the Annamite dialect has been derived
from the same source as the Thai~Tibeto-Burman
Siamese group. Probably the Chams were more vigorous
than their sister-tribes when they fused with the Thais.
They only took the daughters of the Thais which account

Page three

CHAMPA

for the Mongolia features of the Chams, but the
Annamites gave their women to the conquerors, whose
idioms they borrowed in exchange.

For their religion, the Chams shared with the Anna-
mites their devotion to spirits, which they inherited from
their Indonesian fore-fathers. To this they added the
Thaic reverence for ancestors. The starting point in
both these cults must have been the outcome of a search
for the primordial cause of all. It was traced in one
case to the fecundity of the soil and in the other to
human parents. From the soil, a step ahead led them
to the latent power which produced its fertility. To
satisfy a crude mind some graphic representation was
needed and the stone being more durable than the clay
was commandered as its emblem. The Mongol mind
worked in a similar groove and the departed spirit of a
beloved forbear filled the place of the Authority behind,
which soon developed into an osseous symbol.
Whether the Linga creed of a much later epoch exercised
a similar effect on Cham mentality or not will be
discussed later on, but suffice it to say that inspite of
ethnic affinity and religious bond we find the Chams
and Annamites, were constantly at war with one
another for economic reasons. Of any prehistoric
alliance between them we can say nothing, but within
the memory of history we have only one instance
when both these races buried their private feuds and
presented a united front to their common enemy. It

Page four

CHAMPA

was when they jointly crushed the five battalions of
Koublai Khan.

To an entirely strange set of people the Chams and
most of their affiliated tribes owe their cultural evolu-
tion. These men were dissimilar to them racially and
mentally / yet they wielded a tremendous influence on
all the south-eastern inhabitants of Asia. They flooded
with their civilisation all those benighted people who
lived in the tract that lay between the Bay of Bengal
and the Gulf of Tonkin, including the islands of the
Indian Archipelago and transformed them into glorious
nations, whose architectural evidences still display them-
selves significantly through the corridor of time as some
of the most admirable creations of man. Brahma,
Syama, Malaya, Javadvipa, Bali, Sumatra, Kamboja
and Champa might have been eponyms given by these
people, whose intellectual movement radiated from the
Aryavarta to the Dakshinapatha and from there to all
these territories. It was the Sanskritic adventurers of
Bharatabarsha, who were responsible for the spiritual,
intellectual and moral uplift of their neighbours as much
as for the latter's material prosperity. The Indo- Aryans
attempted no physical subjugation of any race / their
colonisation was not synonymous with the exploitation
of indigenous resources which would prove in the long
run detrimental to the inferior race. Theirs was no
sanguinary march of a victorious Alexander, who
devastated everything but constructed nothing in its

Page five

CHAMPA

wake. On the contrary theirs was a triumphant march
of a massive intellect whose guiding philosophy was to
impart knowledge to the backward. Thus their chasten-
ed vehicle of expression, their incomparable literature
both sacred and secular and their progressive science
became eventually the mainstay of the advancement of
the countries of their adoption. They taught their subor-
dinate folks the art of government, the science of archi-
tecture and the improved method of agriculture. It was
under Hindu tutelage that some of the maritime people
learned the technic of navigation/ it was under their aegis
that the coastal people developed to such an extent the
sea borne trade that the peninsula of Malaya found a
new denomination, namely 'Golden Chersonese 7 from
the ancient Europeans. If the Hindus could lend their
scripts to the Eastern Islanders and if they could stretch
their cultural influence through Micronesia and Guatemala
to the Mayas of the New Hemisphere, we can easily
imagine how deeply must they have affected the social
structures of those who lived next door to them. Their
missionary activities were of a peaceful nature. They
used no sword to effect conversion to their creeds and
military aggrandisement was never associated with their
religious domination. It was based on the sympathetic
acceptance of a superior intelligence for the betterment of
the race. Sheer brute force was avoided and conciliatory
gesture was employed or a small body of pioneers
like Agastya and his disciples who voyaged to distant

Page six

CHAMPA

lands would have been crushed and their attempts forgot^
ten instead of being reverently cherished to this day.

Historically, the first Hindu monument in Champa
is the pillar of Vo^canh which was discovered near
Nah^trang in the South. The inscription takes us back to
the second century A.D., but there must have been some
earlier tokens of Indian civilisation which have perished.
The eminent French palaeographer Mons. J. Y. Claeys
is of opinion that of 250 architectural remains in Annam
to-day, there are only a few which will assist the histori*
an to reconstruct the annals of Hindu Champa. The rest
offer too little material, crumbling to dust as they are, to
be of any use. Hence there is nothing against our
assumption that the Hindu influence in Champa must
have commenced at least by the time of Asoka, if not
earlier. In 137 A.D., we gather from the Chinese records,
the Champites organized armed attacks on the military
post on the frontiers of China. They stormed the station,
killed the officer^in^charge and burnt down all the strong*
holds. It perturbed the Mongol Emperor so much that
he sent his famous general Ma^Vin to reorganize the
southern defence. The Chinese commander won his
laurels in his fight against the Trung sisters but found the
subjugation of the Champites a tougher problem. He
was kept busy in repulsing the systematic bombardment
of his frontier at Je^Nan and these skirmishes only
ceased after 55 years when the whole province was
annexed to the kingdom of Champa under Lien. It is

Page seven

CHAMPA

not possible from the Sino-Annamese phonetics to
deduce if the name Lam*ap or Lien was of a Sanskritic
origin, or whether it formed the part of the ruler's title.
After the addition of this new province of Nahtnam
<or Je^nan) in the north, Champa extended the whole
littoral from Porte d' Annam <or the Annam Gate) to the
Cape of Panduranga in the south. Their outpost must
have included the fort of Kisu^Sou the ruins of which are
still seen near Hue. The Sanskritic names of the southern
districts, Vijaya Kauthara and Amaravati suggest that the
Hinduised monarchs thought it safe to shift their political
centre of gravity away from the Annamites if not from
the Chinese. Hence Simhapura <which historians identi*
fy with Tara*Kieu> was made the capital of the kingdom,
on account of its central position.

In a Chinese traveller's diary we meet with an
account of this ancient capital of Champa in the eighth
century. It stood on the bend of a river which served it
as its commercial highway and gave it an appearance of
a port^town. The periphery was eight odd lis, which
was marked by a brick^wall with built-in gateways
opening on the strand. What struck our diarist as odd
was the absence of a gate in the south, a practice con*
trary to the Chinese conventions of city-building. There
were several assembly^halls and palaces, all made of
bricks. The town had, besides, ridge^like terraces with
overhanging turrets which seemed to the Buddhistic tra-
veller as pagoda pradakshinapathas. The town had eight

Page eight

CHAMPA

important places of worship which contained images of
gold and silver. Knowing as we do of the broad toler^
ance the Hindus displayed towards other cults, we are
tempted to surmise that of these eight temples at least a
few were devoted to Sakti*worship. <This is also borne
out by the images of the ten^handed Durgamurti and
Lima). The town had to be well-protected, for the
Annamites were ever^ready to swoop down upon it for
pillage. The Chams were not less ready to retaliate ;
they too, used every opportunity to march up to the
Annamite capital for spoliation.

This constant tension led to the demolition of Simha-
pura by the Annamites beyond recognition. Inspite of
the Chinese description and the pillar-inscription found
at Mi-son, it taxed all the ingenuity of scholars of
world-wide reputation, like Louis Finot and J. Y. Claeys,
to establish beyond doubt the identity of Simhapura
with the excavated site near Tra-Kieu, and to finally
clear away the mystery connected with the Dong-Duong
pedestal which claimed Indrapura as its Capital. The
ancient Champa had to remove her capital at least
three times/ once in 446, again in 605 and perhaps for
the last time in 982 A.D. Simhapura like our Delhi
might have had a previous counterpart at Naht-Nam,
where the Chinese military post was burnt down in the
second century A.D. But she had to give way to Indra-
pura, which again had to be replaced by Vijaya, near
modern Binh-Dinh.

Page nine

CHAMPA

Near the last mentioned town we have one of the
last strongholds of old Champa. In an excavation
carried in 1934 A.D., Mons. J. Y. Claeys has after a
herculean effort, discovered near Cha-ban <or Binh-Dinh)
huge sandstone blocks of the middle period of Cham
architecture. Perhaps the construction of the monument,
of which these blocks are relics, began when Vijaya had
already been selected as the capital of Champa. For
Jayavarman VII of Camboja <Cambodia> wished to
punish the king of the Chams and inaugurated a thirty-
year Khmer government at Vijaya, which continued to
be the seat of the Cham rule, to the last.

Indian inspiration in all branches of art can be easily
traced in the relics of Cham culture which adorn the
various museums of Annam to-day. It was however
never followed, rigidly a trait which shows the flexibility
of Cham temperament. It strove to create something
new and mostly succeeded in producing gorgeous objects
of art. In architecture the Hindu canons were followed
in broad outlines but the Khmer and the Chinese tech-
nics were imitated in a manner suitable to their own
national style. The evidences in brick and mortar can
still be viewed / but except a few gold and silver wares
here and there, we have to satisfy ourselves with the
Hsts of gifts donated by rulers, inscribed on the gateways
to temples.

Justice can hardly be done to the progress of the
Chams during their ascendency, unless we are prepared

Page ten

CHAMPA

to take into account the troublesome days through which
they carried on their programme of national awakening
and culture. From the fifth to the tenth centuries they
must have been busy in laying the foundation of their
artistic works and in accumulating wealth through
commercial pursuits. The next four hundred years, they
were occupied with putting their own house in order.
Never were they free from sporadic invasions which
their accumulated treasure invited. Thrice had they
to rebuild their capitals and re-arrange their defences.
They must have had enormous recuperative power or
they would have long ago vanished from the face of the
earth. If the Annamites kept them busy in the north,
the Cambodians were always on the alert to pounce
upon the unguarded territories in the south. These
skirmishes on the frontiers naturally weakened the state
and provincial revolts against the central authority were
not also infrequent. For all these, the Chams had to
thank themselves. Their quality as fighters need not be
doubted nor their seamanship. But in diplomacy they
were bankrupts. Their generals spoiled the success of
their arms by not following a crushing victory to its
conclusion while the Cham monarch impaired their
foreign relations by a most short-sighted policy. Instead
of entering into a defensive alliance with China against
the Annamites, they often would imprison the Imperial
envoys to their Court or add fresh insults by sending
as tributes the spoils of their high-sea robbery. It

Page eleven

CHAMPA

was too late when the idea of defensive alliance with
China dawned on Cham statesmen. It is surmised that
the Celestial Emperor was half-hearted in his attempt to
save Champa while she was in her last throes before the
Annamite conqueror. It was natural for a munificent
overlord like the Chinese Emperor to desire for one less
undesirable among his vassals, who never appreciated the
kind and benign treatment of their grand seigneur.

To this we may add the follies which kings like
Simhavarman committed. At the beginning of the 14th
century this monarch, getting tired of his Malayan
consort, sought the hands of a beautiful Annamese
princess, the 'Pearly Jet'. For marrying her Simhavar^
man readily parted with two rich provinces of Champa,
The king soon died and the Annamese princess like
Marie Louise after the downfall of the first Napoleon,
returned to her father's court, who however kept a tight
grip over the ceded territory.

The last ruler to sit on the throne of Champa was
Le-thanh-ton. In 1471 A.D. he had to pay the penalty
his predecessor Che-bong-ga had incurred. The latter-
had carried the war into the Annamite capital, destroyed
its citadel and died fighting on his war-vessel, on the eve
of his victory. The Annamites now retaliated by taking
Le-thanh-ton prisoner at Vijaya. They massacred the
Chams. Thousands of the conquered were expatriated
to the sparsely populated districts of north Annam. The
rest fled for protection to the extreme south and a few

Page twelve

CHAMPA

saved themselves by crossing the Cambodian frontiers.
Cities were foraged/ temples and repositories looted/
valuable archives burnt down, works of art destroyed or
transferred to the seat of the conqueror/ magnificent
buildings pulled down to supply materials for Annamite
structures/ what more, women and Indian priests were
marched as chained gangs of malefactors to the capital
of the Annamese. Thus ended a glorious kingdom and
also a people who are to-day found in motely crowds
and to whom the stories of their past reach to-day in a
garbled Islamic version.

Climatic conditions contribute a good deal to the
cultural efflorescence of a country but ultimately help
the decay of its achievements. Champa, as she lay
within the monsoon area beneath a tropical sky, with
an extensive seaboard intended with fertile deltas to the
east and a cord of high hills to the west, soon became
a suitable receptacle of the advanced ideas of the
Hindus. But her very prosperity rendered her a cons-
tant battle ground between her people and the Anna-
mites. Were her people politically as capable as they
were artistically developed, they would have still
retained the possession of Champa and her traditions.

What with the vandalism of her conqueror and what
with the prolific growth of nature around her the re-cons-
truction of her past glory has become an extremely
difficult task. It is a great credit to the learned
members of Ecole Frangaise d'Extreme-Orient that

Page thirteen.

CHAMPA

they have taken all the troubles of penetrating into
dense jungles infested with poisonous insects and
reptiles, to restitute to the Chams their cultural at-
tempts. In those days they used a vegetable liquid
for cementing the brick structure of their temples and
palaces and these have aided the growth of towering
trees the thick cord- like roots of which have clawed
into cracked masonry work. Probably these buildings
were already stormed by invaders and shattered to
pieces, which have been reduced to crumbling mass by
the ravages of time. Besides the Chams extensively
employed burnt bricks in their artistic creations, which
naturally fail to stand the inclemency of weather as
much as the standstone pillars with which they built the
entrance to these temples or palaces. These burnt-bricks
were of a large size called mandarins and were employed
along with baked clay for the bulk of masonry work as
they were more pliable to chisels. But idols, corner-
angles and pedestals were made of grit-stone which
allowed sharp profiles. The Khmer architect origi-
nally built wholly with bricks : later on, they, used hard
stones like blue sand-stone, but eventually took to
laterite only. The only point of grace has been that
most of their inscriptions were engraved on rocky
materials and therefore were more enduring. To rebuild
these remains is tedious at its best : it requires dexterity
as well as a thorough knowledge of the Chams 7 now-
lost science of erection, let alone the artistic tempera-

Page fourteen

CHAMPA

ment without which the task of reconstruction cannot
be brought to a fruitful issue. Hence we cannot but
admire the phalanx of savants like MM. Louis Finot,
Aurousseau, Claeys, Golubew, Mus and others to
whom the world is indebted for the light thrown on the
vanished civilisation of a decadent race.

These pioneers had to brave the dangers of over-
grown tropical countrysides, away from the world of
civilisation with no possible conveyance : at any moment
they might be cut off from the world outside : they
risked contracting unknown infection and incurring the
displeasure of unsympathetic tribes. Thus Carpeux
died of an undiagnosed disease, while Odend'hal and
Commaille fell at the hands of assasins. Yet men like
Finot and Lajonquiere trudged for four months the
distance between Saigon and Hanoi for archaeological
survey. The whole project is perforce expensive as it
includes a mobile unit of paraphernalia required for
scientific examination of relics in detail.

Indigenous sources such as anecdotes and legends
have to be critically studied and can be accepted with
great caution. The Annamites of the fifteenth century
were not satisfied with pulling down public places and
institutions : they set fire to priceless archives containing
literature which would have to-day served us invaluable
documents for our inquiry into the social organization of
the Champites. And what escaped, very little written
if at all, degenerated during these centuries into folklores

Page fifteen

CHAMPA

garbled with anachronism and imaginary events. To
extricate authentic incidents from the accumulated mass
of myths requires the patience of a Job if not the energy
of a Hercules. What has still more complicated the
task of people like Father Cadiere is that the Cham
traditions after their trek to the South have been buried
owing to their conversion to Islamism, under a garbage of
Arabian misfits.

The next source of materials from which the history
of the old Champa may be reconstituted is of Annamite
origin, which has to be minutely checked as it contains
the violent denunciation of the conquered or the extra-
vagant praise of the conquerors. It should be collated
with what may be obtained from the Chinese records,
but none of them can claim an intimate knowledge of the
everyday life of Champa and can only shed oblique light
on matters arising out of political and commercial rela-
tions. The Chinese can be relied upon so far as they deal
with the Champa-Annamite struggle, but where they are
themselves concerned we should admit their version with
a grain of salt. Then again their hieroglyphs require
concurrent accounts for their proper transliteration.
Save and except some cursory remarks of a traveller or
a trader we have hardly any definite premises to base
our socio*religious deductions regarding Champa archi-
tectural findings.

In face of these obstacles, the personnel of the Ecole
Frangaise d'Extreme-Orient must be congratulated for

Page sixteen

w
jj <

Ck O

Si

> <

3

r

a,
H

2
X

T

CHAMPA

their stupendous results which required not only a facile
pen but the clever handling of a spade as well. The
French Government have taken Curzonian strides to-
wards the proper conservation of old monuments by for-
bidding their removal until a body of experts under the
guidance of the Ecole Director has examined them. Any
fresh finding has to be immediately reported and their
export without a Government permit is banned. The
authorities have spared funds as well, for, the whole
of Indo-China is dotted to-day with beautiful museums
that have become now the classified repositories and
archives of all relics. Out of 250 groups of ruins only
a few have been made to tell their stories and these too
would have remained silent were it not for the labour
of the savants attached to the Ecole. Nor do these
scholars limit their activities within the boundary of the
French possessions in Asia but often they visit other
lands where similar work is being carried on. Only seven
years ago MM. Finot and Goloubew found their way
to Ceylon for studying at first hand the archaeological
technics of the Singhalese. In return they invited persons
of kindred science to their libraries and museums.

It must, however, be pointed out in this connection, a
fundamental limit to these researches, which in our
opinion is natural and not intentional. One will agree
with us that the study of the internal evolution, social
or religious, of any race cannot be sufficiently accurate
unless it is interpreted from the view point of the people

Page seventeen

CHAMPA

that constitute the race. Megasthenes was on a political
mission to the Court of Chandragupta and he could only
lay stress on the state affairs of the Mauryan Emperor.
Fa-Hien was primarily a Buddhist scholar who interested
himself only in the magnificence of the creed he pro-
fessed. It would not be possible for either of them to
speak authoritatively and without bias on the mysticism
of the contemporary Hindu Cult or the intricacy of social
customs, prevailing then. In dim reflections of Champa's
past it is naturally difficult to the exteme for scholars
whose formative years have been spent in an environ-
ment upholding the ethic standards of ancient Judea to
enter intimately into the esoterism of the Phallic doctrine
introduced by the Hindu Saivites into this ancient
kingdom. Inspite of its superficial resemblance to the
osseous symbols of spirit or ancestor-worship of the pre-
Hindu Champa the Linga-creed of the Indians had no
other likeness. Those who have probed beneath the
surface of any school of religious teaching founded by
the Indians, have been surprised to discover that often a
gross emblem has been concocted to hide their deep
reverence for the Supreme Being. We need not enter
into the details of the worship of the Lord Siva in the
form of a Linga, but it would be sufficient for our
purpose to hint at the central theme of this doctrine,
namely, that the eternal cycle of destruction and creation
is a manifest phase of the Ultimate Authority and that it
has nothing of that crudeness of procreation which may

Page eighteen

CHAMPA

be associated with the Spirit of Soil theory as suggested
by M. Paul Mus. Further, the religious psychology of
the Indians would deem its profanity and irreverence to
identify a holy image with its royal donor. It is
probable that the present Chams would explain that the
idol in any of the extant temples is really a stone figure
of its royal founder of the by-gone days, but they would
be mistaken. The name of the temple-builder is men-
tioned as a devotee of the Lord that is to be worshipped
there. Thus Indreswara Siva would mean Siva who
was the master of a king called Indra. Still oftner would
we come across the Lord <or the Lady, if a goddess) of
a place as the style of the image in the place of devotion
by the person endowing it signified that the god or
goddess was perforce the protector of the people living
in that region. A similar mistake would occur, if the
Statute of 'Our Saviour' or of the 'Blessed Virgin 7 is con-
fused with the donor. Lastly, the love of mysticism
has often led the Aryans to use words of double-
entendre in their scriptures and literature. The story of
Cham edition of the Aryan Indra or the Roman Jupiter
has been primarily derived from an ambiguous phrase
like "Ahalyajaraindra, 77 where the Ahalyajara signified
''the slayer of the night/ 7 Indra being synonymous with
Surya or the Sun in the Vedas. These discrepancies
can be removed only by systematic interpretations from
the Sastric point of view and would enable a historian to
grasp the true reason for the intellectual domination by

Page nineteen

CHAMPA

the Hindus over the Chams. And the prayer to the
blessed goddess of Kauthara could be only inspired by
the teachings of such spiritual master-minds.

Regarding the social history of old Champa we
must therefore fall back upon architectural evidences
chiefly. The existing stone figures and rock engravings
display well-proportioned features though seldom we
come across any mascularly developed athletic body.
At the same time obese types of humanity are rare.
The only corpulent figures are those of the dvar^palas
<gate-keepers> and of Siva who always wears a sacred
thread. His elephant-headed son has also the same
distinctive decoration of a Brahmana (e.g., the seated
image now preserved in the Tourane Museum). The
standing images show that the Champaites were never
very tall, but as there are only a few amusing pygmies,
we are led to believe that men and women were
generally of medium height. Mostly clean-shaven
faces are seen, but a pair of trimmed moustaches <e.g.,
the disloged head of Siva at Mi-Son) or a pointed
Assyrian beard <e.g., the double idol of Po-Nraup> can
be occasionally detected. Women had a lothesome
but graceful body but never prone to fatness. They
wore, as did men, ear-rings, necklaces, armlets, bracelets
and girdles. Men however, did not adorn their legs
like women with anklets and toe-bells, but both sexes
do not appear to use any footwear. Headgears were
various and coiffures had different technics of their own.

Page twenty

CHAMPA

None of the male figures carry any weapon <except
religious emblems like conches, lotuses, wheels, tridents,
amulets etc.). That the people had a carefree
temperament can be guessed from the optimistic <not
the enigmatic smile of Buddha) smile on all statue faces.
They were a gay race who loved to dance to the tune
of a flute and who could execute most of the classical
poses. The Nataraja murti is not wanting either.

From the dedicatory prefaces we learn that Siva
was the most prominent of the Aryan trinity. Brahma
and Vishnu are also mentioned but are rare like their
stony representations. Mostly we find them occupy-
ing subservient positions to the Lord of the Lords,
whose divine spouse Parvati, and sons Ganesha and
Kartikeya had temples built in their honour. The
elephant-head of Lambodara is executed with, minute
details and in his standing position his legs have a
swollen appearance. Kartikeya has his divine peacock
but Garudas are discovered <not as a carrier) in Siva-
temples instead of the usual bull. Brahma in one case
<as in the Lingamukham of Trach^pho) is seated on a
lotus and a bird, perhaps an imitation of the divine
Swan, is seen flying over him. Vishnu in the same
group is seated on a Varaha with his chakra, lotus and
mace flying about. Whether the Varaha refers to his
incarnation as in the case of his Kurmavatara image/
we are left to guess, but the theme of depiction is that
these two gods are surprised at the appearance of Siva

Page twenty-one

CHAMPA

in his Agnirupam. Whether the Lord of Preservation
along with the Lord of Creation are praying to the
Lord of Destruction to envelop himself doubly so that
the world may be spared from the devastating flame
we leave the readers to judge for themselves.

Of the different attributes which naturally accom-
pany these divinities we seldom notice any deviation
from the Hindu conceptions. The Brahmanic yajnopavita
in some instances is composed of entwined serpents and
instead of the customary bow and arrows Skanda is
shown with a thunderbolt. The third eye of yogic
knowledge is also seen so often that we would like to
identify in its absence the double idol of Po^Nraup
<mentioned above) leaning against a half^cleft Linga^
mukham as Brahma who generally has more than one
head. For the same reason we hesitate to identify the
negro^lipped flat^nosed two-handed bejewelled fiture
of Dong^Duong with Lord Siva. It has neither the
sacred thread nor has the jata^like (matted locks)
coiffure of other Siva^images. The absence of these
emblems are also noticed in the seated Siva of the same
place preserved in the Tourane Museum. Sivamurtis
on the whole have kindred features to Maheswara
images of present Bengal.

It is really marvellous to think that the people of
Champa could adapt themselves to the Hindu religious
ideals so closely yet preserve their race identity. In
none of their murtis anything grotesque or idealistic has

Page twenty -two

CHAMPA

been attempted but on the contrary most of them
faithfully adhere to human anatomy in details. Very
few we find among these Cham statues who are nude.
Most of them are draped in folds of embroidered cloth
secured to the waist with bejewelled girdles. All these
technics are derived from the Aryan inspiration but all
of them have distinct Cham style stamped on them.

Quite a number of animals drew the attention of the
Cham artist. Those with whom he was familiar
received a faithful representation. Thus elephant and
horses, for instance, have been sculptured with minute
details. The former often have appeared as the heads
of Ganesha as well as wholly, but mostly without
tusks. The Tourane museum elephant has a diadem
of intricate design to denote its royal patronage and its
poise is one of the best craftmanship of Champa. The
equestrian figures are taken from a bas-relief on a partU
tion^wall at Da^Han. They represent a couple of youth**
ful Champaites on beautifully caparisoned horses who
appear welMooked^after. They too seem enjoying with
their masters a game akin to our modern polo. The
riders, <the foremost is of tender age and his innocent
smile is really captivating) have one hand free probably
for reins, the other holding a stick similar to one with
which we play hockey. The saddles are placed on a
frilled support tied to the carefully^groomed tails of the
beasts whose manes are also trimmed.

Perhaps the Cham sculpture never had the chance of

Page twenty-three

CHAMPA

inspecting a peacock or a lion at close quarters. The

bird's outspread tail towers high above Kartikeya and its

talons are too griffin4ike to be natural. The head of the

bird is broken, but the portion of the neck which is

preserved is rather that of an oversized peacock. The

angry lion of Tra-Kieu is more drawn from imagination

than sketched from nature. The bird which is seen

under Vishnu in the Linga^mukham of Trach*Pho is

natural like the bird that flies at the right-hand top over

Brahma but lack the usual fineness of the Cham sculptor.

Apsaras are quite noble and majestic wherever they

appear in temple bases. Of fabulous or Puranic animals

the Gajasimhamurti and Makara <excavated at Binh-Dinh

recently) have a complicated look. The Makara belongs

to a period when the Chinese dragon was making its

influence felt in Champa. Garuda, another of the

mythical creatures of the Hindus, has also been attempt*

ed by the Cham but like its counterpart in the Indian

archipelago has been associated with Siva and not with

Vishnu. Another animal sculptured by the Cham artist

is a monkey which along with an archer strongly reminds

us of the epic character of Hanumana before his divine

master Ramchandra. Serpents are rare as a motif which

abounds in the Khmer country. A very few Sivamurtis

have coils of these reptiles in the matted locks, or as

armlets and yajnopavitas.

The multiplicity of limbs in seen in a large number of
images. The Nataraia image we saw at the niche

Page twenty -four

DOUBLE IDOL OF PO-NRAUP

By the courtesy of M. Paul Mas

LOKKSVARA
By the courtesy'\of ^h^olc^ Fran^aise d'Ext%me Orient

CHAMPA

above the archway to the temple Chuk Ba Thap near
Phan Rang <Skt. Panduranga) had six arms. Two of
the emblems we could not distinguish from below/
perhaps they were folded in yogic mudra, the rest were
Trisula, Kharga, Patra and Padma. There is a Durga-
murti with ten hands, but the figure of Uma now in Khai
Dinh museum has a mother's divine grace. There are
no extra physical members and one of her palms as well
the tip of her nose is broken. The remaining hand holds
a lotus bud probably. Her eyes are closed in a trance
and she is seated in a yogic ashana. Possibly she had
ornaments in upper and lower arms but only traces are
left. She wears a necklace which might well have been
lotus plant entwined. Both her headgear and ear^pen*
dants are too massive / perhaps the outer-ring of her
mukuta was meant for heavenly lusture or jyoti. The
bronze figure of Lakshmi we found elsewhere hailed from
South India and the Yaksha ladies from Muthura and
Sanchi. Like the gigantic Buddha murti of which the
model still rests in the museum of Madras, these figures
might have been the part of the spoils of Champa pirates.
In this connection we shall do well to remember that the*
Dakshinapatha did not alone influence the architecture but
even Nepal had her share in the Somasutra discovered
in one of the Buddhist shrines. This has been conclusive-
ly proved by M. Claeys and Dr. Goloubew.

It is suggested that the doctrine of Lord Tathagata
preceded the Linga^cult of the saivites which became the

Page twenty-five

CHAMPA

religion of Champa's sovereigns. There are shrines erect>
ed at Dung^Duong, My^Due and Di*Huu in honour of
Buddha. The first of these had a beautiful Pradakshina*
patha with profuse illustrations in stones from the Jatakas.
The names at least of the Indian Bhikkus who expounded
doctrine of Gautama Siddhartha can still be ascertained
with accuracy and we often come across the images of
Avalokitesvara and Dhyani Amitava. The object of
our rickshaw ride over a distance of 4 kilometres by the
beautiful river strand from Hue was to visit the gigantic
Buddhamurti in the pagoda of Limmu, where we were
surprised to discover a trident in the hand of the Lord of
the Buddhists. Perhaps Buddhism which ran contem-
poraneously with Saivism borrowed some of its emblems.
At Nah^trang we have found the image of Sakyamuni
hiding the idol of Sri Bhagavati Kautharesvari, but one
thing which we could not fail to notice was the absence
of the linguistic influence of Pali.

It is suggested that the Linga creed which eventually
became the religion of Champa's sovereigns was intro^
duced after Buddhism had captured the mass. Did then
the language of the Tripitakas pale before the splendour
of Sanskrit which continued to be the court speech till the
twelfth century? Or, did the Indian monks preach the
esoterics of Nirvana in the tongue of the land ? All the
eight petrographs of Po^Nagar covering a period from
739 to 1153 A. D, were in the chastened idiom of the
Indo* Aryans, under the aegis of which the Cham verna-

Page twenty -six

CHAMPA

cular received a polished diction and grammatical forms
as early as the ninth century to be employed for detailing
the gifts to a temple, the names and social ranks of their
donors. There is evidence of the great influence the
Hindu epopees exerted on the Cham mind, for a poem
on the Kaviguru's first outburst in slokas has been dis-
covered. It does not therefore require a long stretch of
imagination to conceive that the Cham literature drew
largely upon Sanskrit dramas and Kavyas for its inspi*
ration. We know the rituals were conducted later on in
an adapted form and to put it to test, we asked a Hindu
villager near Phan Rang to recite some mantras. There
were Swahas and Swadhas certainly but the rest we
could not catch for our ignorance of the Cham tongue.

For the past of Champa the inscriptions of Mi^Son
would be of enormous importance. Surrounded by lofty
wooded hill, the Champa people thought that their glori*
OLIS effort of Mi-Son would be safe from the spoliation of
foreign foes, the only access to the place being the river
Song Thu-bon. Perhaps it was only a summer residence
of the monarch and not a temple. But their Hinduised
notion could not tolerate that any of their activities
should be exclusively materialistic in purpose. Beautiful
brick carvings adorned its walls, where every niche was
made a receptacle for an image in prayerful attitude. It
was gorgeous conception and some of its relics preserved
in the Louis-Finot museum display an exquisite taste of
the builder.

Page twenty-seven

CHAMPA

We cannot but say a few words on the last attempt
of Champa in way of architecture. The excavations
carried at Cha^ban which served as a stronghold for
the final seat of the monarchs from the llth to the
15th century have brought to light things of great
interest, one of which is the Gajasimha murti mentioned
above. Huge blocks of laterite bear witness to its being
copiously utilised. The remains of towers demolished
long ago by the Annamites indicate that stone
dvarapalas kept guard side by side with armed Cham
infantry. The peculiarity of these figures is that they are
all painted in gaudy colours and we can imagine how the
Annamese lacquer dye industry must have prospered
when these images received their coats.

If the Chams ever revive their ancient culture, they
will have to thank the French whose artistic tempera*
ment is equel to their zeal for reconstruction. What
earned our admiration besides their efforts for piecing
together a lost history out of laterite and brick debris, is
their incomparable courtesy. Not only we had doors of
museums and libraries open to us owing to the hospitable
nature of the scholars like Dr. Goloubew, but we also
received the kind attention of a Colonel without whose
assistance our tour round the picturesque ruins round
Nah^trang would have been impossible.

Om Namah Sivaya

Page twenty-eight