The historical and cultural connections between India and Thailand

The historical and cultural connections between India and Thailand

Subject: Ancient History

• India and the Southeast Asia region share a long history of cultural and commercial relations.
• Devasthan
  • As part of his visit to Thailand for the ninth India-Thailand joint commission meeting, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Thursday visited the Devasthan in Bangkok.
  • The Devasthan is the Royal Brahmin Office of the Thai Royal Court and is the official centre of Hinduism in Thailand.
• Language links
  • Many local languages in the region, including Thai, Malay, and Javanese contain words of Sanskrit, Pali and Dravidian origin in significant proportions. The Thai language is written in script derived from Southern Indian Pallava alphabet.
  • The classical Sanskrit and Pali texts from India carry references of the region using various names such as Kathakosha, Suvarnabhumi (the land of god) or Suvarnadvipa (the golden island).
• India’s religious links to Thailand
  • Perhaps the most important influence of India on Southeast Asia was in the field of religion and how Shivaism, Vaishnavism, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and later Sinhalese Buddhism came to be practised in the region.
  • The episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharata are regularly featured in puppet shows and theatre events. In terms of architecture, monuments like Borobodur Stupa in Java, the Angkor Vat temple in Cambodia, My Son temple in Vietnam are some of the best examples of Indian influence in the region.
  • Thailand today is a Buddhist majority country, there are many temples in the country where Buddhist and Brahmanical Gods are kept side by side. Apart from the popular Brahamanical deities of Ganesha, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva,those that are largely absent in Indian socio-religious landscape, such as Indra are also worshiped in Thailand.
  • The Ramayana — known in Thailand as Ramakriti (the glory of Rama) or Ramakien (the account of Rama) — has provided an outlet of cultural expression in Thailand for both the elite and the common man.

• Trade Link
  • A Tamil inscription found in Takua-pa testifies trade links between the Pallava region of South India and southern Thailand.
  • A mercantile corporation of South Indians called Manikarramam had established a settlement here and built its own temple and tank, and lived as a ‘self-contained’ colony.