Indian component of Malay culture -- Sabri Zain

Indian component of Malay Culture

FORWARDED MAIL -------
From: asabri@pc.jaring.my
Date: 13 Nov 97
Originally To: "M.G.G. Pillai"
Re: Sanskrit and the Malay cultural ethos (fwd)

I am writing in response to MGG's excellent posting on the above. The
attempts by various parties to blot out the Indianised component of
Malay culture, I believe, is tantamount to destroying my rich cultural
heritage and turning Malays into third-rate Arabs. It is tue that islam
is a large component of our culture - but Malay culture is a rich
melting pot of many other cultures - Indian, Chinese, Thai, Javanese,
Minangkabau, Portuguese, even a pagan past when we were closest to our
roots in nature.

Historians tell us much about the political greatness and fame of the
Hindunized Malay Empires of Sri Vijaya and Majapahit. These two empires
controlled the destiny of the greater part of Malaysia. But how deep adn
widespread was `Indian' influence in Malaysia?

To begin with, Hindu influence was synonymous with Indian trade. This
trade was maritime and riverine, that is, confined to the coastal and
riverine areas of malaysia. The centres of Indian trade were places such
as Pasai, Indragiri, Melayu and Jambi in Sumatra; Malacca; Kuala Muda in
Kedah; and Surabaya in Java. The bulk of the people living inland of
these areas remained untouched by the religious by the religious,
economic and political influence of India. The Jakuns, Semangs and
Sakais of the Peninsular Malaysia, most of the original inhabitants of
the Borneo territories, of the Celebes, of Sumatra and the other bigger
islands of the Malay Archipelago were never converted to Hinduism. It
was only later, when communications inland were improved, that they were
converted to either Islam or Christianity. Smaller islands with central
zones never too far away from the coast were more thoroughly covered by
Indian traders. One such island was Bali, which has retained its Hindu
heritage up to the present day, despite the later onslaughts of Islam
and the West.

Then there was the next stage in the spread of Hinduism. Initially, it
came from traders from India, particularly South India. Later, the
centres of trade became powerful centres of political influence and
expansion.

First, there was the great Empire of Srivijaya in Sumatra, followed in
the 14th century A.D. by its conqueror and successor, the Empire of
Majapahit in Java. The political expansion of these two Empires meant
also the theological expansion of Hinduism in Malaysia but even then,
Hinduism did not spread to all parts of Malaysia. Sri Vijaya and
Majapahit were essentially maritime powers, and their sphere of
political, military and social influence was generally limited to the
coastal and riverine areas.

The Hindu influence was limited more or less rigidly to the upper class
of old Malay society - the royalty. Malay royalty was essentially Hindu
royalty descended, according to the Malay Annals, "Sejarah Melayu", from
a legendary half-Indian and half-Greek monarch, Raja Suran, whose sons
all bearing Indian proper names, Sang Nila Utama, Krishna Pandita, Nila
Pahlawan, then descended on Bukit Siguntang in Sumatra from whence Malay
royalty spread. Malay royalty was essentially Hindu royalty because the
spread of Hinduism was not the result of any organised missionary
movement. Indian merchants by virtue merely of their financial and
cultural superiority drew converts from the ruling and trading classes
of the races with which they traded. If Hinduism was accepted, it was
because of a desire for a better standard of living rather than because
of an understanding and appreciation of a superior religious system.

Hinduism spread also through marriage. The petty princes of the
Malaysian coastal trading centres were glad to marry off their sons and
daughters to the financially superior Indian merchants or their
children. As for those who lived on the outskirts of the trading
centre: as money was not the basis of their economy, there was no
incentive to accepts Hinduism. Among them, the Hindu influence was to
come much later and in gradual stages. It is true that the common
people followed the religious faith of their rulers, for they were used
in such matters to take directions from above. But there was always an
undercurrent of fear, lest they should evoke the wrath of their
animistic deities. So, at best among the common people Hinduism was
assimilated only with a lot of local theological "spice" retained (the
same happened with the later adoption of Islam).

If such was the case, how do we explain the fact that old Malay
literature is almost completely derived from Hindu epics, from the
Ramayana and the Mahabaratha; and the fact that at least 30% of Malay
vocabulary is made up of Sanskrit words? Does not this prove that Hindu
influence was very much more intensive than I have suggested?

But it is often misleading to draw evidence solely from old Malay
literature to assess the relative position of Hinduism in the religious
beliefs and practices of the people at large. Old Malay literature, it
must be remembered, was exclusively Court literature. This literature
was made up of stories and legends of kings and princes, queens and
princesses, and of people connected with royalty. As Malay royalty was
basically Hindu royalty, Malay court literature had to be Hindu
literature. It is plain, then, that the Hindu element in old Malay
literature cannot be taken to represent the general pattern of life of
the common Malay people.

But the influence of India has been marked on the Malay language and
also in the sphere of religion.

Today, when a Malay speaks a sentence of ten words, at least three or
four of them will be Sanskrit words, three Arabic and the remaining
either of English, Chinese, Persian or of some other origin. One expert
has even suggested that there are only four words in the Malay
vocabulary which are genuinely Malay. The are "api" or fire, "besi" or
iron. "padi" or rice, and "nasi" or cooked rice. This is rather a
sweeping claim, but no one will deny that AT LEAST a third of Malay
vocabulary has originated from Indian tongues.

Words such as putera, puteri, asmara, samudra, belantra, kenchana,
sukma, and literally thousands of other words are all Sanscrit words,
either in original or in modified form.

What of the influence of India on the religious developments of the
Malaysian peoples? Malay folk-lore and Malay literature show that
during the period before the coming of Islam, about the 14th century
A.D., the greater gods of the Malay pantheon were really borrowed Hindu
divinities. They were, in some respect, modified by Malay ideas, but
only the lesser gods and spirits were actually native to the Malay
religious system. It is true these native gods and spirits can be
identified with the great powers of nature, such as the spirit of the
Wind (Mambang Angin), the spirit of the Waters (Hantu Ayer) and the
spirit of the Sun (Mambang Kuning). But none of them appears to have
the status of the chief gods of the Hindu system. Both by land and
water, the terrible Shiva and Batara Guru or Kala, are supreme.

In Malay folk-lore we find Vishnu, the preserver, Brahma the creator,
Batara Guru (Kala) and S'ri all invoked by Malays, especially by Malay
magicians. Of all the greater deities of the Hindu system, Batara Guru
is unquestionably the greatest. In Hikayat Sang Sembah , Batara Guru
appears as a supreme god with Brahma and Vishnu and some subordinate
deities. It is Batara Guru who alone has the "water of life", the
elixir of life, which can restore life to dead humans and animals. To
the Malays of old, then, and to the Malay bomohs even of the present day
in whom are preserved these notions, "tok Batara Guru" or any one of the
corruptions which his name now bears, was the all-powerful god who held
the place of Allah before the advent of Islam, and was a spirit so
powerful that he could restore the dead to life. All prayers were
addressed to him.

Of the lesser deities of Hinduism, the most notable who have remained in
Malay superstition and folklore are the "gergasi", half-human forest
spirits of Hindu mythology represented in Malay folk-lore as tusked
orgres that feed on human flesh. Then there is the raksaksa, a race of
cannibal giants ruled, according to the Indian Puranas, by Ravana. A
tribe of raksaksa is mentioned in the Kedah annals, HIKAYAT MARONG MAHA
WANGSA, which tell of a giant king, Maroung Maha Wangsa, who led a tribe
of giants and founded the present state of Kedah which they called
LANGKASUKA (as I had mentioned in an earlier posting, the real Langasuka
was more probably in Pattani, Thailand)

All in all, that a form of Hinduism was the accepted religion of the
Malays prior to the advent of Islam is certain, and it is a fact amply
proved by Malay folk-lore and superstition, Malay literature, Malay
customs and various archaeological inscriptions.

Muslim religious teachers in Malaysia today still preach the Islamic
concept of heaven in a terminology which is neither Malay nor Arabic,
but Hindu. The sanskrit word "syurga" is always used in connection with
the Islamic concept of paradise. The proper Arabic word for this is
actually "al-jannah". In the same way, the Hindu religious term "neraka"
or hell is used by Muslim Malays to explain the Islamic concept of
hell. The Arabic word for hell is "al-nar: or the place of fire. Then
the Muslim fast, the annual religious abstention from food and drink, is
known by the Sanskrit term "puasa". A Muslim religious teacher is often
called "guru, another Hindu religious term , in fact the name of a Hindu
deity, Batara Guru. The Muslim prayer is among the Malays, called
"sembahyang". "Sembah" in Sanskrit means to pray, and "yang" is a
Sanskrit term meaning divinity or conjuring respect, as in Sang Yang
Tunggal", the most divine one, and "Yang Dipertuan ". There are many
other Hindu religious terms that have lost their original meaning and
are being freely and unconsciously used by Muslim Malays in connection
with the religion of Islam. This shows that Hinduism exerted a profound
influence on Malay culture before the coming of Islam to Malaysia. And
this influence has survived, despite the strict monotheistic
restrictions of the Islamic faith, to the present day. So, in religion
as well as in other aspects of Malaysian culture, we cannot treat the
influence of India as something belonging to the past.
The political influence of old India which was climaxed by the great
Empires of "Sri Vijaya" and "Majapahit" is today at an end, but the
cultural influence of India which began at the beginning of the
Christian era is still very much alive, and it will be alive for many,
many centuries to come because it has become part of the life of the
Malays. And even politics is not going to change that.