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SOURCE: ASEAN WORLD 24 - SOUTHEAST ASIA NETWORK
Notes: Lembah Bujang situated in the modern state of Kedah, northwest peninsular Malaysia represents the richest archaeological zone in Malaysia. It’s importance in early communication between Southeast Asia and West Countries is directly related to its location. From the outset it appears to have functioned primarily as a coastal trading post which, over time, developed to become the most extensive entrepôt complex on the west coast of Malay Peninsula. Part of the reason for this can be explained by its favourable bay, estuary and the height of Mount Jerai relative to its surroundings allowed merchant ships or seafarers to use the mountain as a navigational point. Another important factor was the seasonality of the monsoons, which would have required ships to layover for months at a time as they waited for the winds to change direction. From May to October the Southwest Monsoon blows across the India Ocean.
Ships leaving from Sri Lanka or South India would be blown eastwards, making landfall somewhere along the west coast of the peninsular. From October to December the Northeast Monsoon blows in the opposite direction allowing ships from China to utilise it on their journeys to Southeast Asia and beyond. The Bujang Valley was therefore one of the most natural stop off points on the west coast of the peninsula. From here, ships could moor before continuing their journeys east or west, and goods could be traded and moved across transpeninsular routes to entrepôts on the east coast of the peninsular.
There are several stone inscriptions with Sanskrit texts in a script used during the late 4th and 5th centuries have been discovered in the vicinity of the Merbok estuary in south Kedah. Three of them bear an identical ritual statement about the Buddhist law of cause and effect, or karma, which conforms to Buddhist philosophy, but has not been found in India or Sri Lanka.
One of these stones, discovered by amateur antiquarian Col. James Low in the ruins of an ancient structure on the south side of the Muda River in 1848. This piece (Photo 1), which is generally dated to the 5th century, associates a Buddhist credo formula with the representation of a stupa. It was commissioned by a certain Captain Buddhagupta, who lived in a region called Raktamṛttika [Red Earth Land], as an ex-voto to earn divine protection for his travels on the sea.
Transliteration:
Line 1: ajñānāc= cīyate karmma janmanaḥ karmma kāraṇa[m] jñānān=na cīyate [karmma karmmābhāvān= na jāyate]
Line 2: mahānāvikabuddhaguptasya raktamṛittikavās [tavyasya?]
Line 3: sarvveṇa prakāreṇa sarvvasmin sarvvathā sa[r ]vva… siddhayāt[r]ā [ḥ] santu
(B. Ch. Chhabra 1935: 16-20)
Translation:
Line 1: Through ignorance, karma is accumulated. The cause of birth is karma. Through knowledge karma is not accumulated. Through absence of karma one is not reborn
Line 2 & 3: Of the great sea-captain Buddhagupta, a resident (?) of Raktamṛttika… by all means, in all, in all respects… all…, be [they] successful in their voyage!
(B. Ch. Chhabra 1935: 16-20)
The same text about karma and the stupa image are also carved on another stone found in 1979 at the nearby site of the Kampung Sungai Emas (Photo 2). This 4th- 6th century inscription is made of a local stone, is not as expertly carved as the Buddhagupta inscription, and lacks Buddhagupta’s prayer.
Transliteration:
Line 1: ajñānāc=(c)īyate karmma janmanaḥ karmma kāra(ṇaṃ)
Line 2: janmanaḥ karmma kāra(ṇaṃ) karmmā bhā(van na ja)ya te
(Nasha Rodziadi Khaw 2015)
Translation:
Line 1: Through ignorance karma is accumulated. The cause of birth is karma.
Line 2: Through knowledge karma is not accumulated. Through absence of karma, one is not reborn.
(Wisseman Christie 1988/89: 42)
Col. Low found another 4th - 5th century inscription at Bukit Meriam, while excavating the ruins of a brick structure which he described as being 10 feet (3 meters) square. It bears the text of the Theory of Dependent Origin, plus the Buddhist Credo, or ye dharmā formula.
Transliteration:
ye dharmmā hetu prabhavā (hetum teṣam) tathāgato (uvāca)
teṣam cayo nirodho evamvādi maha(śra)maṇaḥ
Ajñānāc=ciyate karm(ma) janmana(ḥ) (karmma kāra)ṇam
Jñānān=na ciyate karmma karmma bhāvān jāyat(e)
(Nasha Rodziadi Khaw 2015)
Translation:
The Buddha has told the causes of all things which spring from a cause, and also how things cease to be; this is what the great monk proclaims.
Through ignorance karma is accumulated. The cause of birth is karma.
Through knowledge karma is not accumulated. Through absence of karma, one is not reborn.
(B. Ch. Chhabra 1935: 16-20)
There is another one inscription, located about 40 metres to the right bank of the Sungai Bujang River, discovered within the site’s laterite foundations. It bears three stanzas of a Mahayana Buddhist text known as Questions of Sagaramati. It is dated from 4th – 9th century.
Transliteration:
balāni daśa catvāri ◊ vaiśāradyāni yāni ca
aṣṭādaśa ca buddhānāṃ ◊ dharmmā āveṇikā hi ye
ye pratītya samut=panna ◊ na te kecit=svābhātaḥ
ye svabhāvāna vidyante ◊ na teṣāṃ saṃbhavaḥ kvacit
jānite ya imāṃ koṭi ◊ ma koṭi<ˉñ>=jāgatas=samā
tasya koṭī gataṃ jñānaṃ ◊ sarvva dharmeṣu vartate |||||
balāni daśa catvāri ◊ vaiśāradyāni yāni ca
aṣṭādaśa ca buddhānāṃ ◊ dharmmā āveṇikā hi ye
(Nasha Rodziadi Khaw 2015)
Translation:
There are ten balas (powers), four vaiśaradyas (assurances, extraordinary skills) and eighteen dharma āveṇīkas (independent qualities) of the Buddhas. The dharmas (moments of consciousness) which arise from co-operating circumstances have in no case real existence; there can nowhere [be] any (dharmas) which do not exist in a state of unreality.
Who knows this summit of the universe to be at the same time no summit - his knowledge, having reached the summit, extends over all dharmas.
(Wales 1940: 8-9)
The ye dharmā, the karma formula, and images of stupas were also carved several times on a boulder on a tributary of the Kapuas River, west Borneo; it was carved not once but several times, along with the karma formula, and images of stupas similar to those found in Lembah Bujang. A stone fragment bearing the same karma formula has been found in Brunei. The ye dharmā credo comes from the Buddhist text Saddharmmapundarika, popularly known as the Lotus Sutra. The karma formula is, however, unusual. It may have formed a part of a local form of Buddhism popular in western Indonesia during the fifth through seventh centuries.
References:
Miksic, John N. & Goh, Geok Yan (2017), Ancient Southeast Asia, published by Routledge, London & New York
Stephen A. Murphy (2017), Revisiting the Bujang Valley: A Southeast Asian entrepôt complex on the maritime trade route. JRAS, Series 3, page 1 of 35
PRASASTI SUNGAI MAS I: SATU TINJAUAN SEMULA, History and Archaeology of Bujang Valley, 25 November 2015
Dua Mantra Buddha di Lembah Bujang, History and Archaeology of Bujang Valley, 23 November 2015
Nasha Rodziadi Khaw, Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, Nazarudin Zainun & Mohd Mokhtar Saidin. Prasasti Sungai Mas II: Satu tinjauan paleografi. Prosiding Seminar Kebangsaan Penanda Arasan Penyelidikan Arkeologi di UKM. Bangi: Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu. pg. 215-226
Jacq-Hergoualc'h, Michel (2002), The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road (100 BC-1300 AD). Brill, South East Asia, Asian Studies
Christie, Jan Wisseman (1988-9), “The Sanskrit inscription Recently Discovered in Kedah, Malaysia” dalam G. J. Bartstra dan W. A. Casparie (Ed), Modern Quartenary Research in South East Asia
Lamb, Alastair (1961), “Miscellaneous Papers on Ancient Hindu and Buddhist Settlement in Northern Malay and Southern Thailand”, Federation Museums Journal, VI (New Series)
Quaritch-Wales (1940), H. G. “Archaeological Research on Ancient Indian Colonization in Malaya”, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Studies, XVIII, 1
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