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The Light of Dharma July 2021 – June 2022 51

Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (sitting topmost) while surveying at the stone Prasadas of Phimai,
Nakhon Rajsima

it appears that the kingdom of Dvaravati Mahayana in Burma and among the Mons
was at the height of its power. Antiquities all the way to Dvaravati, but the teaching
like those found at Nagara Pathama have was not accepted by these peoples.
also been discovered in the provinces of There is no evidence of its diffusion
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Rajapuri, Subarnapuri, Labapuri (Lopburi), among them at that time .
and Nagara Rajasima (Korat). It is possible Around B.E. 1300 (say 750 A.D.) a
that the kingdom of Dvaravati extended powerful of King Srivijaya in Sumatra ex-
as far as Nagara Rajasima. tended his dominion over the Malay
Peninsular (from Surastradhani right down
Second period: the Mahayana school of Pattani). The Srivijayans, being adher-
When the Mahayana became wide- ents of the Mahayana, taught their faith
spread in India, the Indians propagated it in the provinces which they occupied.
in the countries of this area, just as they Mahayana Buddhist monuments built
had done before with the Theravada. there by the Srivijayans still exist, such as
First they introduced it in Sumatra, then the Mahadhatu (Great Relic) at Jaiya and
in Java and Cambodia. There may have the original Mahadhatu at Nagara Sridhar-
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been another group of Indians from maraja . There are bronze images of the
Magadha who tried to propagate the Buddha and of Bodhisattvas, much like