Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Panini, Abhinavagupta, etc.

[N. Ganesan]

<<<
I think this mode of movement is costlier than even
the transport by horse (high costs of building a ship).
Mostly this transport was used for business and occasionally
for invasions. Use of this mode for mass scale cultural
diffusion is rare.
>>>

   Not really. The Sangam Tamil text, Pattinappaalai, atleast
2000 years old, describes many products being moved across
oceans very beautifully.

The Lotus sutra, probably composed in the South in 2nd century AD,
describes Avalokitezvara saving sea passengers from pirates,
ship wrecks, weather hazards, etc. Nagarajuna, a Southerner,
tells in his Suhrllekha to his friend, SatakarNi king to
worship Avalokitezvara.

  Satavahanas issued coins decpicting ships.

  CilappatikAram and Manimekalai, gret Tamil epics, talk
  of MaNimekalA teyvam saving sea-borne travellors.

  We have Tamil sounding names in distant Funan
  forming kingdoms in third/fourth century AD

  and so on.

<<<
The absense of mahAyAna in Sri lanka and Southeast Asia
perhaps illustrates this, whereas Tibet  practically
has all the shades of mahAyAna eventhough the land route
is difficult.
>>>

  Not really. There was good Mahayana in Sri Lanka.
 We see several Avalokitezvara images in 7-8th centuries AD
 in Sri Lanka. They are in the mode of Pallava sculpture
 (cf. D. Kevorkian's works). Mahayana flourished in
 Abhayagiri monastery and eventually was stamped by Hinayanists.
 Mahayana in Sri Lanka mirrors the Bhakti movement across
 the sea strait, only 18 miles wide. We can see Kannaki
 statues, sometimes wrongly named as ArdhnArizvara
 from Mahayana pantheon in Abhayagiri vihAra etc.,
 Anyone can clarly say it is Kannaki from 8th century AD
 of Sri Lanka. It cannot be Ardhnaari - Siva has Uma
 to his left, Here there is right breast. CilappatikAram
 says the Kannaki cut off her left breast. It is so
 in Sri Lankan bronzes of Kannaki (wrongly named as ArdhanAri).
 Kannaki has dishevelled hair, ArdhanAri does not and there
 are several more pointers that they are Kannaki rather than
 ArdhanAri.

 Mahayana was stamped out of Sri lanka. around 10th century.
 Called "vaidula" heresy, abahayagiri etc., Hindu Gods
 like Skanda-Murukan entered Sri Lankan Buddhism via
 Mahayana.

Regards
N. Ganesan


At 03:31 PM 1/11/99 -1000, you wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Jan 1999, DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA wrote:
>
>> Let us be clear about some general commonsense points.
>>
>> 1. Because of the poor means of communication in the old days,
normally
>>    any thing that travels to tamilnadu has to go either through
>>    Andhra or Maharashtra. This means that whether it is mahAyAna or
>>    mahAbhAshyA, normally it will be communicated to tamilnadu after
it
>>    has been established in these two regions. The chances of a jump
>>    right from north to tamilnadu is very very unlikely. Remember
>>    there were no aeroplanes in those days and travel was by foot or
>>    at the most by horse drawn carriage and very few people could
afford
>>    the latter.
>
>However, sea travel was well-established
>even in ancient days -- which means that
>people could possibly have gone
>directly between north and south India
>without making an extended transit of
>middle India.  A well-known example:
>the Sinhalas of Sri Lanka are said to
>have arrived -- by ship -- either from
>Orissa, or from Gujarat, or possibly both.
>
>Regards,
>
>
>Raja.
>
>



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