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Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia CONCEPTIONS OF STATE AND KINGSHIP IN SOUTHEAST ASIA CONCEPTIONS OF STATE AND KINGSHIP IN SOUTHEAST ASIA (Revised version of an article published in THE FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY Vol. 2, pp. 15-30, November 1942) by Robert Heine-Geldern Data Paper: Number 18 Southeast Asia Program Publications 640 Stewart Avenue Ithaca, New York 14850 April, 1956 C Southeast Asia Program, 1956 ISBN 0-87727-018-X Ninth Printing April 2004 FOREWORD Professor Robert Heine-Geldern of the University of Vienna is clearly the doyen of all anthropologists specializing in the whole region to which he himself has helped attach the label of "Southeast Asia." His broad anthropological training, his acute scholarship, and his deep humanistic interests have been devoted almost entirely to this area for forty very productive years. The section on "Sudostasian", almost three hundred pages in length, which he contributed in 1923 to the second volume of Georg Buschan's Illustrierte Volkerkunde is still, in spite of much outdating, the best avai·lable detailed account of the prehistoric and historic physical, linguistic, and cultural types of this anthropologically significant but complex part of Asia. His early definition of the Southeast Asian culture area as extending from Assam eastwards to include aboriginal Taiwan and from Southern China southwards through the Indian archipelago stands among anthropologists today. For the island world he adopted the Greek term "Indonesia", first advanced in the l860's by the German anthropologist Bastian, later incorporated into the Malaya-Polynesian languages of the East Indies (although its use there was forbidden by the Dutch), and now the name of the sixth most populous nation of the world. This recognition of ethnographic Indonesia as a part of Southeast Asia has helped anthro­ pologists understand some of the basic cultural similarities which existed in the region before it was influenced by Chinese, Indic, Moslem and North Atlantic civilizations. The present paper by Dr. Heine-Geldern is an interesting contribution to an aspect of the political development of this region under influences coming particularly from or through India. The paper has been used at Cornell University as an assigned reading in courses on Southeast Asia since its first publication in The Far Eastern Quarterly. Now with the very kind editorial permission of the Far Eastern Association and of Dr. Heine-Geldern, and with a few minor changes incorporated at the suggestion of the author, the paper is issued by the Cornell Southeast Asia Program in the hope that it may be found useful in the increasing number of courses being given on this area in academic institutions. This forewardeisewritten with a special sense of gratitude by the undersigned, who began his anthropological studies of Southeast Asia in Vienna in 1930 under Dr. Heine-Geldern's able guidance. To a fine scholar and teacher who has done so much for Southeast Asian studies in America as elsewhere, sincere personal and professional thanks are offered. Lauriston Sharp, Director Southeast Asia Program Department of Far Eastern Studies Cornell University Ithaca, New York Apri1, 1956 V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Macrocosmos and Microcosmos .............. • • • • • 1 Relation Between State and Universe ............ • • • 2 The Capital as the Magic Center of Empire ....... • • • • • 3 The Lay-Out of Angkor Thom • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4 The Capital of Burma • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5 Cosmic Roles of King, Court and Government • • • • • • • • • • • 6 Influence on Coronation Ritual • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 7 The Cosmic State and the Divine King • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 8 Survival of Traditions • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 14 A FEW BOOKS AND ARTICLES PERTAINING TO THE SUBJECT .. • • • . 17 Vl CONCEPTIONS OF STATE AND KINGSHIP IN SOUTHEAST ASIA At a time when the whole political system of Southeast Asia seems to be in a new cycle of development, dominated by native forces, an inquiry into the ideological foundations of native government will not be out of place and, perhaps, will even be of more than purely theoretical interest. What were the religious and philosophical conceptions which underlay and shaped the states of Southeast Asia? Are they still living forces with which we have to count or are they dead and gone? Is it possible to inoculate new ideas into old traditions, thereby avoiding a complete break with the past, a dangerous uprooting of oriental thought and culture? In view of the limited space I shall confine myself to a discussion of some fundamental conceptions of state and kingship in those parts of South­ east Asia where Hindu-Buddhist civilization prevailed. Macrocosmos and Microcosmos The primary notion with which we shall have to deal is the belief in the parallelism between Macrocosmos and Microcosmos, between the universe and the world of men. According to this belief humanity is constantly under the influence of forces emanating from the directions of the compass and from stars and planets. These forces may produce welfare and prosperity or work havoc, according to whether or not individuals and social groups, above all the state, succeed in bringing their lives and activities in harmony with the universe. Individuals may attain such harmony by following the indica­ tions offered by astrology, the lore of lucky and unlucky days and many other minor rules. Harmony between the empire and the universe is achieved by organizing the former as an image of the latter, as a universe on a smaller scale. It is well known that this astrological or cosmo-magic principle, as we may call it, originated somewhere in the Near East. It was well established in Babylonia in the 3rd millennium B.C. and there are indications that it may go back there at least as far as the middle of the 4th millennium, and possibly farther. Again, we have indications that it existed in Northwest India in the second half of the 3rd millennium. It influenced Europe in various ways and at various times, specially during the periods of Hellenism and of the Roman empire and in the Middle Ages. It is difficult to tell l 2 when it first reached China. Anyway it had developed there into a highly specialized system during the Chou and Han periods. It came to Southeast Asia by way of India as well as of China, and this double influence may account for its prominence there and for the strong hold it had on the minds of the peoples of Farther India and Indonesia. Its long life-span and its spread over vast regions with divergent cultures, and even more so the fact that it had to adapt itself to the locally dominant religions, to various fonns of paganism as well as Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, and occasionally even to Christianity and to Islam, naturally resulted in the development of numerous variants with often widely differing traits. It is with the special aspect of the cosmo-magic principle as expressed in the organization of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in Southeast Asia {and to some extent in their Mohammedan successors in Malaya and Indonesia), that we are here concerned. Relation Between State and Universe Whereas speculation pertaining to the relation between state and universe formed an important subject of ancient Chinese literature, we would look in vain for a theoretical treatise on this topic in various 1 the literatures of Southeast Asia. Yet, there is overwhelming evidence of the cosmological basis of state and kingship in this area. This evidence is found in numerous passages in literature and inscriptions, in the titles of kings, queens and officials, in the "cosmic" numbers of queens, ministers, court priests, provinces, etc., in rites and customs, in works of art, in the lay­ out and structure of capital cities, palaces, and temples. One need only put these various items together to obtain a relatively clear picture. This picture will be more complete in continental Southeast Asia, where the old fonns of Buddhist state and kingship survived into very recent times. It will be hazier in the Archipelago as a result of Mohanmedan and European influences. According to Brahmanic doctrine the world consists of a circular central continent, Jambudv1pa, surroundedebyseven annular oceans and seven annular continents. Beyond the last of the seven oceans the world is closed by an enormous mountain range. In the center of Jambudvipa, and thus in the center of the world, rises Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain around which sun, moon l. However, it must be taken into account that Burmese, Mon and Thai literatures are still very imperfectly known. 3 and stars revolve. On its summit lies the city of gods surrounded by the abodes of the eight Lokapalas or guardian gods of the world. In the Buddhist system, too, Mount Meru fonns the center of the universe. It is surrounded by seven mountain ranges separated from each other by seven annular seas. Beyond the last of these mountain chains extends the ocean and in it lie four continents, one in each of the cardinal directions. The continent south of Mount Meru is Jambudvipa, the abode of men. Here, too, the universe is surrounded by an enonnous wall of rocks, the Chakravala Range. On the slopes of Mount Meru lies the lowest of the para­ dises, that of the four Great Kings or guardians of the world, on its summit the second paradise, that of the thirty-three gods with Sudarsana, the city of the gods, where Indra reigns as king. Above Mount Meru tower one above the other the rest of the heavenly abodes.2 It will be seen that the Brahman and the Buddhist systems, in spite of differences in detail, agree in fundamental traits: their circular fonn and the arrangement in concentric zones around Mount Meru. An abbreviated image of either of them thus has the same symbolic meaning for devotees of both faiths. The Capital as the Magic Center of Empire In Southeast Asia, even more than in Europe, the capital stood for the whole country.
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