Cultural amplification sans military conquest

On a flying visit to Colombo last week, I gave the inaugural keynote address at an international conference on the cultural footprint of India across South and South-East Asia.

- Pavan K Varma

In the annals of world history, there must be no other example of this kind of sanskritic vistaarvaad or cultural amplification, which continued over a millennium and a half — from roughly the 6th century BCE to the 12th century CE.

The remarkable thing is that this spread took place without military conquest. There are many examples in history — particularly so during colonial hegemony — of alien cultures being imposed after armed invasion. But in India, with the emergence of Buddhism around the 6th century BCE, an unprecedented philosophical export took place over most of Asia. In parallel, beginning with the Amravati period in the 2nd century BCE, through the Gupta, Pallava, Pala, and Chola empires — right up to the 12th century CE — there was the diffusion of Hindu thought and culture. Evidence of this can clearly be seen in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and beyond.

In Thailand, I have witnessed the enactment of the local Ramayana, and there are immensely popular indigenous variations of the Mahabharata too in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. The largest Hindu temple in the world, and one of only two dedicated to Brahma, is at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The Champa dynasty, which ruled for a thou-