Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

I NDRA
inscriptions describing the ecstasy of the initiates occasioned
by the aroma of burning corpses, and the demonic
laughter that they are inspired to emit.
Buddhism continued to be practiced in Sumatra into
the fourteenth century. A huge Bhairava image over
four meters tall, found at Padang Reco in West Sumatra,
depicts an initiate with sacrificial skull bowl and
knife, standing on a corpse resting on a pile of skulls.
A major Buddhist center named Jago was erected
around 1280 C.E. in an east Javanese kingdom named
Singasari. The walls of the sanctuary base were embellished
with reliefs of mixed Hindu and Buddhist
character. Its interior was equipped with an elaborate
system for lustrating statues. These include some of the
most beautiful images ever created in Java, including
a beautiful Sudanakumara and an impressively ugly
Hayagrva. The main statue was probably an Amoghapaśa,
of which several copies were made. One of these
copies was found in Sumatra, probably sent there as a
token of Singasari’s conquest of Malayu, the Sumatran
successor to Śrvijaya.
Another triumph of Javanese Buddhist art was created
either in the last years of Singasari, or in the early
phase of its successor kingdom, Majapahit. This image,
of Prajñaparamita, was found at the site of Singasari’s
capital. Similar statues were also carved around
the same time, one of which was also found at Malayu’s
capital, Muara Jambi. Inscriptions show that a Majapahit
queen personally identified with this deity.
See also: Cave Sanctuaries; Folk Religion, Southeast
Asia; Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula; Monastic
Architecture; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in
Bibliography
Bernet Kempers, August Johan. Ancient Indonesian Art.
Amsterdam: C. P. J. van der Peet; Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1959.
Dumarçay, Jacques. The Temples of Java, tr. Michael Smithies.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Fontein, Jan, ed. The Sculpture of Indonesia. New York: Abrams,
1990.
Lunsingh Scheurleer, Pauline, and Klokke, Marijke J. Ancient
Indonesian Bronzes: A Catalogue of the Exhibition in the
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1988.
Miksic, John N., ed. Indonesian Heritage, Vol. 1: Ancient History.
Singapore: Archipelago Press, 1996.
Satyawati Suleiman. The Archaeology and History of West Sumatra.
Jakarta, Indonesia: Berita Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional
Number 12, 1977.
Schnitger, F. M. Forgotten Kingdoms in Sumatra. Leiden,
Netherlands: Brill, 1964.
Subhadradis Diskul, M. C., ed. The Art of Śrlvijaya. Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, and New York: Oxford University Press,
1980.
INDRA
JOHN N. MIKSIC
Indra, also known as Sakka (Pali) and Śakra (Sanskrit),
is initially the Vedic lord of the heavens. Indra is incorporated
into Buddhism in several ways. He is said
to have been converted and to have attained the first
stage of realization on the path (stream winner) in the
Group of Long Discourses (Pali, Dlghanikaya) (II. 288).
He is typically portrayed as a guardian of the religion
and the chief deity in the heaven of the thirty-three
gods. In some versions of the Buddha’s life story, Indra
receives the infant Buddha as he emerges from his
mother’s side and then bathes him. Likewise, when the
recently enlightened Buddha is reluctant to share his
insight with the world, it is Indra (along with Brahma)
who convinces him to teach. Indra also accompanies
the Buddha to the heaven of the thirty-three gods to
preach to his mother, and it is Indra who provides the
ladder on which the Buddha descends. Iconographically,
Indra is often depicted as subservient to the
Buddha. In Gandharan sculpture, for instance, he is
sometimes depicted, along with Brahma, worshipping
the Buddha, sometimes holding an umbrella to shade
him from the sun, or sometimes holding the Buddha’s
alms bowl.
The image of Indra’s net, which stretches infinitely
across the heavens, becomes important in the MA-
HAYANA tradition—particularly in the HUAYAN SCHOOL
and its text, the HUAYAN JING (Sanskrit, Avatam saka
Su tra; Flower Garland Su tra)—as a metaphor for the
interconnectedness of all beings. This image has been
frequently adopted by modern Buddhist activists. Indra
continues to be an important deity in a number
of Southeast Asian countries, both as the model ruler
and active force. In legend, he frequently appears as a
deus ex machina, sometimes in disguise to test the
BODHISATTVA, more frequently to assist devotees in
their merit-making. He is venerated at the end of the
year as Thagya Min in Myanmar (Burma). Elsewhere,
Indra is invoked to protect those gathered at festivals
and important ceremonies.
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