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SHRI SAI LEELA – APRIL 1986Sumatra attracted the attention of Indian traders as it was an islandwhich yielded gold and spices as recorded by the Chinese Scholar-Traveller I—Tsing. The first arrivals from India seem to have beenHindus who established a dynasty in the island, but Buddhismdominated from the seventh century onwards. When l-Tsing firstarrived at Sribhoga (Palem-bang) in Sumatra in 671, on his way toIndia, he stayed there for six months studying Sanskrit grammer(Shabda-vidya). This means that Sanskrit had taken firm roots in theisland of Sumatra by the seventh century having been brought thereby the Hindu immigrants who had arrived much earlier. l-Tsingrecords that when he first arrived at Sribhoga he found the peoplepractising Buddhism. "Buddhism is embraced in all these countriesand mostly the system of Hinayana adopted except in Malaya(Sribhoga) where there are a few who belong to the Mahayana."Sribhoga was the capital of Sailendra dynasty under whom Buddhismprospered. I-Tsing further tells us, "In the fortified city of Bhoga(Palembang) Buddhist priests number more than 1000. Theyinvestigate and study all the subjects that exist just as in the middlekingdom (Madhya-desa, India); the rules and ceremonies are not atall different. If a Chinese priest wishes to go the West in order to hear(lectures) and read (original texts) he had better stay here one or twoyears and practise the proper rules and then proceed to Central India.The kingdom of Sri. Vijaya continued its commercial, cultural anddiplomatic contacts with the Indianized States of South-east Asia andwith the kingdom of India. Traces of a Buddhist vihara, theChudamani Varma Vihara, built by a ruler of Sri Vijaya at Nagapattamin the Chola Kingdom towards the close of the eleventh century were28WWW.SAILEELAS.ORG