The Indianized States of Southeast Asia

George Coedès was one of the major historians of Southeast Asia. Due to his stature in the field and importance in the study of Cambodia and Srivijaya, reading The Indianized States of Southeast Asia felt like a requirement. And despite being somewhat outdated and reflecting an older worldview and approach to historical research, Coedès wrote a very reasonable survey of Southeast Asian history based on contemporary scholarship. Of course, it was almost inevitable that the legacy of European colonialism shaped how Coedès conceived of Indianization. Although Indians did not conquer and found states in Southeast Asia, local elites adopted aspects of Indian culture or intermarried with Indians through a process unfortunately little known or understood. Nonetheless, Coedès viewed this as Indians civilizing Southeast Asians, who would have otherwise been as unknown historically as New Guinea and Australian Aboriginal populations. Hindu and Buddhist civilization, Indian-derived scripts, mandalas and the laws of Manu provided the basis for the efflorescence of various Southeast Asian states from Funan and Lin-yi to Siam and Majapahit. 

Somehow, despite his own evidence to the contrary, the author wants us to believe Southeast Asia never made any major contribution to the world and actually declined as Indianization was replaced by Islam or weakened by local cultures (the latter particularly fueled by Theravada Buddhism). This stance is definitely counter to that of more recent scholarship, which stresses local agency in the adoption of Indian culture and the role of Southeast Asians in promoting and facilitating trade in the Indian Ocean. In some respects, it reminds us of the debates on the Swahili culture of East Africa or even the kingdoms and states of Sudanic Africa and trans-Saharan trade. Colonial scholars of both Southeast Asia and Sudanic Africa sometimes approached the peoples of the two regions as empty receptacles for the "advanced" cultures and civilizations of other regions. Southeast Asia, however, was undeniably important in "Old World" exchange before most of sub-Saharan Africa. Nonetheless, we cannot help but think of the occasional parallels between both regions in their relations with the better-known civilizations to their north, the centers that allegedly "civilized" them (Islamic civilization of the Middle East and North Africa, India and China in the case of Southeast Asia). 

As a basic synthesis of about 1500 years of SE Asian history, this work is a readable summary of the known knowledge on the subject. Much of it relies on inscriptions and references from Chinese annals or later local chronicles, so it is very much a history of royal courts, elites, and Hinduism and Buddhism at the aristocratic or political elite domain. It was undoubtedly adapted to meet local needs, and was often consistent or could be consistent with local animistic traditions and beliefs in spirits residing in mountains, ancestors, and deified kings (devaraja). That said, the numerous gaps in our knowledge and the struggle to piece together a coherent narrative out of the sources then available made for sometimes speculative interpretations by Coedès. So much is unknown or guesswork based on what some inscriptions implied or how Chinese sources, which were not always reconcilable with local inscriptions or names, referred to such and such king or polity. The confused genealogies of kings, the role of matrilineal inheritance, and other factors also obscure royal genealogies and chronologies. That said, however, Southeast Asia's brilliant civilizations, such as Cambodia under the Khmer or Srivijiaya and the Sailendras at their zenith, bequeathed a glorious legacy to posterity through temples, monuments, canals, artificial lakes, and the arts, Coedès draws on the study of sculpture, literature, religious texts, and the other arts to supplement the other sources in a way that is admirable. One only wishes that the author had taken a bit more seriously the allegedly non-civilized masses or subjects and the hill peoples in the analysis for a fuller picture of how these states actually operated and integrated "Indianized" elites and commoners who may have not been influenced by Indianization until the spread of Theravada Buddism.