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The Light of Dharma July 2021 – June 2022 53

the Mahayana statues in Java; and votive stone Prasadas of Cambodia, for those
tablets of unfired clay, hidden in such that were built for Buddhist monasteries
places as caves, can still be found in and nearly all of Mahayanatype.) Only
great numbers in the provinces of Naga- when Siam came under the power of the
ra Sri Dharmaraja, Trang and Pattalung. It Cambodian king did the Mahayana spread
may be surmised that the votive tablets its influence over this country. As for the
were made by missionaries and hidden Brahmanical religions, it may be assumed
in the hope that persons who discovered they began to flourish in Siam at same
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them in the future might be attracted to period . This came about because some
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the faith and propagate it to others . rulers of Cambodia were adherents of
Though the Mahayana flourished in Brahmanism, and some were adherents

the Malay Peninsular at that period, it did of both, as appears from their inscrip-
not spread to the area farther north , tions. This is the period when the Ma-
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which continued to adhere to the Thera- hayana reached its greatest prosperity in
vada, or the Sthavira school as it is called Siam, and Sanskrit supplanted Pali in the
in Sanskrit. Image of the Buddha and the religious inscriptions.
Bodhisattvas made in the Mahayana style
did not spread to Nagara Pathama . Third period: the Hinayana of Pagan
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It appears from stone inscriptions In B.E. 1600 (1057 A.D.) King Anurud-
that around B.E. 1550 (say 1000 A.D.), a dha of Burma, whose capital was at Pa-
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king belonging to the dynasty of Srivijaya gan, conquered Ramannadesa and ex-
came from Nagara Sri Dharmaraja and tended his authority over Lan Na (our
made himself ruler of Labapuri. His son northwestern provinces) and all the way
became ruler of Cambodia, so Siam and to Labapuri and Dvaravati . Anuruddha,
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Cambodia fell under the sway of the a staunch supporter of the Buddhist re-
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same dynasty . From then on Siam was ligion, established it wherever he estab-
ruled by the kings of Cambodia for long lished his authority.
periods, during which Khmer religion and By this time Buddhism in India was
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art exerted a strong influence on Siam. almost extinct . Like the people of Siam,
A stone inscription of the period the people of Pagan had first received
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shows that there were monks of both the the Theravada form of the Hinayana from
Sthavira and the Mahayana sects at La- Magadha; but later on, when they lost
bapuri at the same time. It may be sur- contact with India, they developed their
mised that the Sthavira sect, which had own form Hinayana . This was the form
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been introduced from Magadha first, was of Buddhism that Anuruddha implanted
highly venerated in Siam. As for the Ma- in Northern Siam when he conquered it .
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hayana, it was already flourishing in There are no images of Bodhisattvas
Cambodia. (This may be seen from the there such as we find in the south; that