SHRI SAI LEELA - Under Construction

SHRI SAI LEELA – APRIL 1986seen at Pagan, standing in the midst of numerous Buddhistmonuments of about the same period. A Tamil inscription found atMyin pagon records the dedication of a Mandapa to a "Vishnu templefor the use of those coming from various countries". The astrologersat the court of king Kayanzittha (1084-1112) and most of the artisanspresent at Pagan at that period were Vaishnavas. Vaishnavism inPagan seems to have been the religion of a floating mercantilepopulation. Canesh too seems to have been a popular deity at theroyal courts and among a large section of the Buddhists of Burma,upto even the last century and later. The deity is known in Burma asMaha-Binne (Vinayaka), and a great festival was annually held in hishonour. About this time the rulers of Pagan extended their sway overthe whole of Burma. By the end of the eleventh century theBrahmanical religion that had dominated Pagan and elsewhere inBurma began yielding to Buddhism which became all dominant in thewhole of Burma, a position it continues to hold to our day. Burma thusprovided a welcome home to the creed of the Buddha which wasalmost rejected by the country of its origin, India.One of the earliest references to Indians settling in Malaya is found inChinese annals of the sixth century. They state that an Indiankingdom existed in the Kedah region five hundred years before thechronicles were composed i.e. during the first century of the Christianera. The Malay region was a half way house on the sea-route fromIndia to Indo-China and South China along the gulf of Tonkin andsome of the Indian traders that used these routes set up factories inMalaya even as later European trading interests did in India and allover South-east Asia in a later age. These merchants were mostly14WWW.SAILEELAS.ORG