The Kalasan inscription: a temple of Tara under the Shailendras
In 778 (Shaka 700) Maharaja Panangkaran, at the request of the gurus of the Shailendra king, founded a temple of the Buddhist goddess Tara and a monastery for monks and granted the village of Kalasa to the Buddhist community. The Kalasan inscription is one of the earliest records of the Shailendra dynasty, whose patronage made Central Java a centre of Mahayana Buddhism.
- Date
- 778year known
- Place
- Candi Kalasan in the Prambanan plaintoday: Kalasan, Sleman Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Shailendra dynasty, Panangkaran, Mataram kingdom
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Kalasan inscription; Candi Kalasan; Tara temple; Panangkaran; Kelurak inscription; Sailendravamsa; Надпись из Каласана; Чанди Каласан; Храм Тары; Панангкаран
The inscription, a Sanskrit text in a north Indian script now kept in the National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta, records that the gurus of the king who was ‘the ornament of the Shailendra dynasty’ persuaded Maharaja Panangkaran to build a sanctuary for Tara and a residence for monks, and that the king endowed it with the village of Kalasa. The temple is identified with Candi Kalasan in the Prambanan plain east of Yogyakarta. F. H. van Naerssen argued that ‘the ornament of the Shailendra dynasty’ was not Panangkaran himself but his suzerain, while other scholars count Panangkaran among the Shailendras; the Mantyasih charter of 907 lists him as the successor of Sanjaya.
George Coedès took Kalasan as the point of reference for dating the Buddhist monuments of Central Java and noted that its north Indian script, used again in the Kelurak inscription of 782 — in which a guru from Gauda (Bengal) named Kumaraghosha consecrated an image of the bodhisattva Manjushri — reflects the influence of Bengal and of the monastery of Nalanda. The coming of the Shailendras was marked by a sudden flowering of Mahayana Buddhism in Java, which produced the temples of Sari, Sewu and Borobudur.
Connections
Related events
- Kumaragupta I and the founding of the Nalanda monasterybetween 415 and 455 · South AsiaGeorge Coedès linked the north Indian script of Kalasan and Kelurak with the influence of Bengal and Nalanda
- The Canggal inscription: Sanjaya and the rise of Mataram6 October 732 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniathe Mantyasih charter of 907 names Panangkaran as the successor of Sanjaya
- Gopala becomes king: the rise of the Pala dynastybetween 750 and 756 · South Asiain 782 a guru from Gauda — the Bengal of the Palas — consecrated the Kelurak image near Kalasan
- Raiders from overseas attack Champa: Po Nagar (774) and a temple near Virapura (787)774–787 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaGeorge Coedès linked the raids with the advent of the Shailendras in Java
- Building of Borobudurc. 780 – c. 833 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaGeorge Coedès took Kalasan (778) as the fixed point for dating the Buddhist monuments of Central Java
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Roncevaux Pass15 August 778
- Saxon Wars772–804
Eastern Europe
- Volyntsevo culture: the Slavs of the Dnieper Left Bank in the Khazar agebetween 700 and 750 – between 813 and 833
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
Middle East and Egypt
- Abu Hanifa and Malik: the oldest surviving Sunni schools of lawbetween 737 and 738 – 795
Africa
- Rustamid imamate at Tahertbetween 776 and 778
Central and Northern Asia
- Trisong Detsen: the Tibetan Empire at its height and the founding of Samyebetween 755 and 756 – 797
North America
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Pueblo I: villages of surface rooms on the Colorado Plateauc. 750 – c. 900
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
Latin America
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Kalasan inscription
- Wikipedia (English): Kalasan
- Wikipedia (English): Shailendra dynasty
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 88–90.