How an Indian Merchant Became Cambodia's First King: a Story of Indianiz...

[Arjun Purohit]

FYI,
The first king of Cambodia from Kalinga ?
Arjun Purohit

https://youtu.be/kpTUOhyFyvw


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[Arjun Purohit]

Dear Manoj,

Thanks for the background info on Koundinya. Exciting. In 2008, I spent about two months in Kualalumpur,Malaysia during which I visited Cambodia(Siamreip  where Angkor Wat and Angor Thom are located),Bali,Thailand(including its old capital Ayodhya) and of course Perth,Australia where I did my Ph.D. as a Commonwealth  scholar. The memory of this trip is etched in my brain, and continues to be a source of great pleasure. Someday, I may write about it. My interest in Buddhist teachings was rewarded handsomely when I saw penetration of of Sanatan and Buddhism into the whole area in Southeast Asia. To my regret I could not visit Borobudur in Java and Laos where I was told there were many unexplored Buddhist sites as magnificent as in Siamreip. 

Just a couple of observations. In Malaysia I met many of  Odishan ancestry,mostly from Ganjam area. A leading member of this community thinks that number would be around 10,000. Most of them descendent a of fifth generation. Brits had brought them as indentured labourers to work in rubber plantation. More recently my friend Amiya Mohanty who before he died spent some time in KL as Fulbright scholar  also met some of them. Folks from  Ganjam seem to venture into different lands and settle there. My friend from Myanmar tells me that a huge population who are descendents of Odias from Ganjam  can be found settled in that country. 

My general impression is that it is wrong to equate heartland of ancient kalinga with heartland of modern Odisha. Ganjam and northern part of Andhra can claim to be the heartland of ancient Kalinga with the northern extension  including Puri extending up to Mahanadi. Apparently, there is an stone carving of ship arriving in Java in Borobudur temple with inscription in Vengi script saying that a prince called Aditya from Kalinga established a kingdom there. After all, Kainganagar one of the ancient capitals of Kalinga is in undivided Andhra Pradesh !Incidentally,folks of Indian origin,mostly Tamils and Andhra  are called Kling or Keling in a derogatory way. Ancient Kalingans are perceived by the locals as colonizers who destroyed their indigenous culture and established their own.

An interesting episode during my travels in that region. When I checked into resort in Ubud in Bali, the young man at the desk asked me where I was from. To impress him I told him that I was from Kalinga the land of his ancestors hoping for a smile in response. In stead he sternly told me,”Sir, I am a Javanese, not a Keling “. Later, Rajesari, a young lady of Ganjam in Malaysia origin told me that the word Kling or Keling was a despised term used by Javanese and Malayees !

Incidentally,I did not see any major evidence of Jagannath temples in the whole area except in Dempsar in Bali which was built in fifties by Sukarno in appreciation  of his friend Biju Patnaik, who helped him escape from house arrest during independence movement against Dutch. In stead, Ramayan legends are ubiquitous.That suggests that the history of Jagannath cult in Odisha is not as ancient as Skanda Purana  suggests ! Oops! Did not mean to stray into a sensitive area !

Lovingly

Arjun Purohit

On Sat, Aug 6, 2022 at 10:29 AM Manoj Panda <panda...@hotmail.com> wrote:

NamaskAr Arjun Mausa!

Interesting information.

Kaundinya is  a gotra of a group of Brahmins who lived on the eastern coastline of India especially along the Odisha-Andhra-Tamil coastline.

The legend goes that Maharishi Atri had many sons. Agastya was born to Rishi Atri on a Sravana Sukla Panchami, i.e. Naga Panchami day, in Varanasi. While being born he along with his twin, inadvertantly got slipped into the anthill where naga serpents were residing. The birth place is still known as Agastya Kund in Benaras. Agstya was known as Kundin, was elder brother of his twin Vashistha

मित्रावरूणयोश्चैव कुण्डिनो ये परिश्रुता | एकार्षेयास्यथैवान्यै वशिष्ठानामविश्रुता | एते पक्षा वशिषठानाम् स्मृता एकादशैव तु |  Vayu PurANa

It is said that descendants born in the lineage of Rishi Maitravarun (also known as Agastya) are called as Kundin or Kaundinya. Most of them are in South India.

It is believed that Hanuman was born in Kaundinya Gotra.

Some also link to an arhat named Kaundinya who prophesied Siddhartha becoming Buddha to Shuddhodana , Siddhartha’s father in KapiLAvastu and became Buddha’s disciple. But this doesn’t make much sense.

Now continuing the original thread, this corresponds to the ancient Kalinga region (now modern Odisha) considering the early Indian mariners were trading from this region as evident from their ancient maritime history around 3rd century BC and the port of Palur (near Ganjam) which was referred to by Ptolemy as a prominent international port during the 2nd century CE.

The links with Kalinga are also noted from the copper plate land grants given by the rulers of Kalinga to Kaundinya Brahmins who lived in the Mahendragiri region of Ganjam with the most notable one being the Ragolu inscription copper plate grant issued by the ruler Nandaprabhanjanavarman of the Pitrbhakta dynasty,  the Shaivite customs mentioned in the Chinese work History of the Southern Dynasties during the reign of Kaundinya's descendant Jayavarman Kaundinya with regards to Mount Mo-tan in Funan, bearing affinity with the early Saivism and its relation to Mahendragiri mountain which was the prevalent religion during the reign of different dynasties of Kalinga.

Also the diplomatic relations between Funan and the Murunda dynasty of northern Kalinga during 3rd cen CE, when King Dhamadamadhara (Dharmatamadharasya) of Murunda received envoy Su-Wu representing King Fan Chan of Funan (225-250 CE).

The above information provides strong belief that Kaundinya is from Kalinga and to the Palur area which is now in Ganjam district.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 6, 2022, at 7:48 AM, Arjun Purohit <apuroh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> FYI,

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