Written by  London Swaminathan
swami_48@yahoo.com

Date: 14 OCTOBER 2019
British Summer Time uploaded in London – 21-35
Post No. 7096

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Hindu temples in Vietnam can be broadly classified into two groups. They are modern and ancient. The modern temples are constructed by the migrant business community in the last few hundred years. The ancient temples were constructed when the Hindu rule began in Vietnam about 2000- years ago.

In the modern temples we see continuous worship and in the ancient temples only occasional worship. Most of the ancient temples are dilapidated. Many of the statues decorate the museums around the world. In the olden days Vietnam was called Champa. Hindus ruled several South East Asian countries for 1500 years from the first century of modern era. Hindu influence is found more in South and Central Vietnam. Northern part has more Chinese influence.

The names of towns and regions are in Sanskrit –

Indrapura

Amaravati

Vijaya

Panduranga

Kauthara – Kedar nath

The river name is Ma Ganga –Mekong

Let us look at two important temples now:-

Latest excavations in two places have given lot of new information. The statues and artefacts collected from these sites are displayed in Danang Museum. Old statues were taken to Paris and stored in Guimet Museum in Paris. So one has to see all the statues and inscriptions in all the museums to piece together the history of Viet Nam. The oldest Sanskrit Inscription of South East Asia, known as Vo Canh Inscription  is in the History Museum in Hanoi. ( I have identified the King Sri Maran in the inscription as Tamil Pandya King).

My son Temple

The ancient Cham temple is in My Son which is 70 kilometers from Da Nang. It is dated to 4^th century of modern era.  The materials displayed in the Da Nang museum will throw some light on the historical places. (At the same time Mula Vraman’s Yupa Sanskrit inscription is found in the remote forest of Borneo! This shows the spread of Sanskrit and Hindu religion from Vietnam to Indonesia)

Da Nang museum has

52 objects from Tra Kieu

30 objects from My Son

17 objects from Chan Lo.

But there are 43 Cham sites.

My Son was the most sacred place of the Champa kingdom with over 70 structures of brick and stone. Epigraphic evidence indicates that construction began around 4^th century. In 2012 the staff at My Son discovered an Eka mukha linga.

The My Son temple pedestal is the most written about Cham piece  of art. 1500 years ago this place was called Deva devalaya, meaning abode of god of gods, that is Lord Shiva.  Since king Bhadravarman constructed it , the Shivalinga there was called Bhadreswara . The king has t donated almost the entire valley for the upkeep of the temple.

Next comes the Tra Kieu site which is 50 kilometres from  Da Nang. There are three shrines one each for Shiva, Kubera and Poet Valmiki . King Prakasa dharman and Vikranta varman constructed them . The shrines were called pujasthana.

Later inscriptions used many Sanskrit terms in the temple inscriptions.

Tra Kieu temple

We find a big pedestal for Shiva linga here. On the pedestal beautiful scenes from Ramayana and Bhagavatam are portrayed . Wedding scenes of Sita and Rama are beautifully sculpted.