Suvarnabhumi
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- This article is about the traditional geographical region in Southeast Asia. For Bangkok's international airport, see Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Suvarṇabhumī (Pali Suvaṇṇabhumī; Burmese: သုဝဏ္ဏဘူမိ, Burmese pronunciation: [θṵwʊ̀ɴna̰bùmḭ], Khmer: Sovannaphum, Thai: สุวรรณภูมิ, RTGS: Suwannaphum, Malay: Suwarnabumi, Indonesian: Swarnabumi ) is a Sanskrit term meaning the "Golden Land" or "Land of Gold", coined by the ancient Indians which refers broadly to Southeast Asian region across Gulf of Bengal and Eastern Indian Ocean; Lower Burma, Lower Thailand, Lower Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra. Although it seems to cover vast region in Southeast Asia, it is generally accepted that the name Suvarnabhumi was first used to refer more specifically to Lower Burma.[1]
Another term which was used by the ancient Indians is Suvarnadvipa which means the "Golden Peninsula/Island". Suvarnabhumi may have been used primarily as a vague general designation of an extensive region in Southeast Asia, but, over time, different parts of it came to be designated by the additional epithets of island, peninsula or city.[2] In contrast the ancient name for the Indian subcontinent is Jambudvipa. In ancient Indonesia, the name Suvarnadvipa is used to designate Sumatra island; as counterpart of neighboring Javadvipa or Bhumijava (Java island).
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[edit] Nomenclature and Etymology
Suvarnabhumi and Suvarnadvipa (Sanskrit). The word Suvarnabhumi may be parsed into Suvarna, meaning "having a beautiful colour", "glittering", "golden" and bhumi holding the semantic field: "earth", "soil", "territory", "country", "land". Hence, the term "Suvarnabhumi" may be rendered into English as "Golden Land". For the word Suvarnadvipa, dvipa mean a "land having water on two of its sides", which can mean "Peninsula" or "Island". Hence, the term Suvarnadvipa may be rendered into English as "Golden Peninsula" or "Golden Island".
[edit] Origin
The reference to Suvarnabhumi appear in various ancient Indian, Sri Lankan, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Chinese writings.[3] The name appear in the Ramayana text (3rd century BC) in the form of Suvarnadvipa (the Golden Peninsula/Island) or Suvarnabhumi (the Golden Land), which can be assigned with certainty to Southeast Asia.[4]
Ancient Indian texts Arthasashtra of Kautilya (c. 300 BC), mentioned that the Brahmin Sanka sailed from Varanasi to Suvarnabhumi.[5] Other ancient texts, such as the Kathakosa tells the story of Nagadutta who went to Suvarnabhumi with five hundred ships to conduct a profitable trade.[6]
The first Latin geographer who made a reference to a location in Southeast Asia is Pomponius Mela, who refer to the island of gold (Chryse) in his 'De Chorographia' (c. 45AD).[7] The Greek mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who worked in Alexandria in the 2nd century A.D. used the name Chryse Chersonesos (Golden Peninsula/Island) to refer to an area which scholar have identified as the Malay Peninsula[8] and Sumatra.[9]
While the term Suvarnadvipa (Golden Island) is usually identified with the island of Sumatra, numerous Arab writers have identified the whole Malay archipelago as the location of Suvarnabhumi.[10]
In an illustrated ancient Nepalese manuscript, a picture is entitled "Suvarnnapure Sri-Vijaya-pure Lokanatha" or (the image of) Lokanatha (AvalokiteSvara) in Sri Vijaya-pura in Suvarnnapura, which refer to the powerful Sri Vijaya kingdom located in Southeast Asia.[11]
The Amoghapasa inscription dated 1208 Saka (1286 CE) refer Sumatra as "Svarnabhumi", as counterpart of "Bhumijava" (Java).[12]
The stone inscription is known among scholars as the "Kalyani Sima" or "Kalyani Inscription". The inscription deal mainly with the reform undertaken by the king to purify Theravada Buddhism in his kingdom. According to Tibetan source Dharmapala (7th cent. CE) and Dipankara Atisa (11th Century CE) have visited Suvarnadvipa.
In 1478, King Dhammazedi from the Mon kingdom of Ramannadesa, erected ten stone inscriptions written with Mon and Pali language. The inscriptions stated that his kingdom is also known as Suvannabhumi.[13][14]
Even as late as the 16th century CE, it have been recorded that Budhagupta, a Buddhist monk, visited two islands called Suvarnadvipa located in the eastern sea of India.[15]
[edit] Suvannabhumi and Buddhism
Suvannabhumi has been mentioned in various Theravada Buddhist text such as Milindapanha, Mahaniddesa and Jatakas. In the Sri Lanka chronicle Mahavamsa (4th Century AD), it stated that after the conclusion of the Third Buddhist Council, two monk Sona and Uttara were sent to Suvannabhumi for missionary activities.[16] It is known from local inscriptions that Theravada Buddhism definitely existed in Lower Burma by the 5th century AD. Chinese sources which have been dated to around 240 A.D. have mentioned a Buddhist kingdom by the name of Lin-Yang, which scholars have identified as the ancient Pyu kingdom of Beikthano[17] which is 300 km north of Yangon, the same Chinese sources also mentioned a kingdom by the name of Chin-Lin (“Golden Wall”) located on a large bay, which some scholar have identified as the Mon kingdom of Thaton.[18]
[edit] See also
- Pyu
- Dvaravati
- History of Burma
- History of Thailand
- Third Buddhist Council
- Asoka
- Suvarnabhumi Airport
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kanai Lai Hazra, History of Theravada Buddhism in South-East Asia,Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982, page 58.
- ^ Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India' Colonies in the Far East Vol 2', Asoke Kumar Majumdar, 1937, page 46.
- ^ Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India' Colonies in the Far East Vol 2', Asoke Kumar Majumdar, 1937, page 39.
- ^ Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese',University Of Malaya Press, 1961, page 179.
- ^ Dr. Balaram Tripathy, Early Historic Cultures of Orissa, Orissa Review, India, April 2007, page 12.
- ^ Damodar.P. Singhal, India and World Civilization, Michigan State University Press, 1968, page 80-98.
- ^ Govid Chandra Pande, India’s Interaction with Southeast Asia,Project of History of Indian Science, Philosopgy, and Culture, 2006, page 89
- ^ W. J. Van Der Meulen, Suvarnadvipa and the Chryse Chersonesos, Indonesia, Vol. 18, 1974, page 1
- ^ W. J. Van Der Meulen, Suvarnadvipa and the Chryse Chersonesos, Indonesia, Vol. 18, 1974, page 4
- ^ Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India' Colonies in the Far East Vol 2', Asoke Kumar Majumdar, 1937, page 47 & 48.
- ^ Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India' Colonies in the Far East Vol 2', Asoke Kumar Majumdar, 1937, page 45.
- ^ Muljana, Slamet, 1981, Kuntala, Sriwijaya Dan Suwarnabhumi, Jakarta: Yayasan Idayu, hlm. 223.
- ^ Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India' Colonies in the Far East Vol 2', Asoke Kumar Majumdar, 1937, page 46
- ^ Aye Chan, The Nature of Land and Labour Endowments to Sasana in Medieval Burmese History, Southeast Asians Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, June 1988, page 93.
- ^ Dr. R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India' Colonies in the Far East Vol 2', Asoke Kumar Majumdar, 1937, page 48.
- ^ Translated by Wilhelm Geiger, Mahavamsa : The great chronicle of Ceylon', Pali Text Society, 1912, Page 82 and 86
- ^ Bob Hudson, The Origins of Bagan, Thesis for University of Sydney,2004, page 36.
- ^ Elizabeth Moore, Interpreting Pyu material culture: Royal chronologies and finger-marked bricks, Myanmar Historical Research Journal, No(13) June 2004, pp.1-57, page 6 & 7.
