Reading Review~ Acri, A. (2018)

“The Place of Nusantara in the Sanskritic Buddhist Cosmopolis,”: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia

Introduction

Dr. Andrea Acri is a well-established religious scholar who’ve had engaged with multiple international academic institutions; he’s currently an assistant professor at EPHE, PSL University and a contracted researcher at EFEO, Paris. He has have published extensively on issues covering comparative religious history, cultures, and area studies of Southeast Asia and Oceania. His main research interests include Śaiva/Buddhist Tantric traditions, yoga studies, and emphasises on the connected cultural and historical dynamics of intra-Asian maritime transfers (Acri, 2021). The subject of this reading review is his 2018 article in peer-reviewed International Journals, “The Place of Nusantara in the Sanskritic Buddhist Cosmopolis,” published in TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia.

The authors’ main argument is that the spread of Sanskrit-Buddhism in Asia must be embraced from a multi-directional & dynamic perspective; he contests the previous understandings of the unidirectional & diffusionist model. The article discusses the role of maritime connectivity to the expansion of Buddhism and the intrinsic contribution of Nusantara to the formation and transmission of Sanskrit-Buddhism across Asia. By linking research publications based on newly discovered historical evidence such as archaeological remnants, artifacts, and historical relics in Jawa, Sumatra and Malay Peninsula; Acri claims that India isn’t necessarily the centre/core and Nusantara isn’t the periphery for Sanskritic-Buddhism. He finds that Nusantara may be an influential actor rather than a passive recipient of Sanskrit-Buddhist ideas and practices as it played a constitutive role in Buddhists religious & cultural elements since the common era (139).

Argument Discussion

Acri shows how the previous understanding of pre-modern cultural interactions, of Sanskritic-Buddhism wasn’t accurate as it often emphasised on transmission via overland routes/northern pathways known as Silk-Roads rather than the movement of people, goods, and ideas via trans-Asian maritime networks/southern pathways known as Maritime Silk-Roads. Central Asia was identified as the region which influence ideas and belief systems in South & East Asia however by shifting perspectives and understandings of the premodern intra-Asian connectivity influenced by maritime routes, Acri shows the cross-cultural interactions, transformation, reverse travel and spreading of different forms of Sanskrit-Buddhism in Asia (145).

He brings the argument about how the long-distance transfer and expansion of Buddhism from north-eastern India to Southern regions of Asia occurred via maritime routes, by citing the radical expansion of southern commercial sea-based routes and Buddhist monasteries built during Common Era located near port areas connecting to nearby entrepôts such as ‘Nusantara’ and Sri Lanka (142). The author addresses the problematic outcome of the centre-periphery idea by stating that the creative & constitutive force of SEA agents and socio-cultural context in the modification and movement of people, sources, and relics haven’t played much role in the study of pan-Asian Buddhism. This may be the case due to previous scholarly materials that were biased towards the notion of constructed manifestation of Sanskritic-Buddhism or may have perceived that Nusantara was a passive recipient rather than a key-actor in genesis and transformation of Sanskritic-Buddhism (146).

Evidence such as Buddhist vestiges, manuscripts, monuments, and textual epigraphic along other historical relics retrieved from the Indian Subcontinent regions to Indonesian Archipelago shows the presence of prevalent and perpetual multi-directional Sanskritic-Buddhism exchanges among interconnected junctions linking East to West Asia. Acri puts forth the idea that, multi-directional interrelation existing between Buddhist centres across Asia, were interwoven with overlapping networks of religious, political, economic, and diplomatic relations (142). Many religious monks who travelled by the sea routes visited SEA region to shape Buddhist paradigm in Nusantara however, they also stirred up new developments in China, Tibet, and Indian Subcontinent based on knowledge and experience gathered in Java, Sumatra, or Malay Peninsula.

Acri notes, Yijing’s remark on the importance of Palembang as a centre for Buddhist studies where scholars come to study Buddhist scriptures before heading to India; also, Yijing praised the higher level of Buddhist scholarship found in Sumatra which shows that Nusantara’s contribution to the expansion of Sanskritic-Buddhism (151). The notion of “Five Indias” in Yijing’s report shows that rather than having the idea of one centralized core India, Buddhist monks/scholars have referred to a multi-centric approach, where they identify 5 distributed centers of influential Buddhist circles in Asia, connected by maritime routes. Unlike the current understanding of identity and belonging from a centralized “nation-state” perspective, the Malay World had a much larger conception and understanding of identity that’s not based on hierarchical order or centre of origin but centre of influence and exchange (156).

Nusantara’s influences can be observed in the iconographical, architectural, textual materials that have influenced the formation of Buddhist cults. For example, Java was receiving Buddhist teachings while also producing scriptures and monuments that had Javanese influences which would be transmitted back to India and incorporate into key Mahayana scriptures (159). This shows that the flow of belief systems is reciprocal, multi- directional and multi-centric rather than stemming from India only.

Conclusion

The notion that the flow of ideas, religious beliefs and people occur in a single direction from a dominant role takes away agency from other geographical areas that have also transmitted and influenced these faiths. Due to different interpretation and cultural understanding of Buddhism, the people residing in Nusantara imparted their own cultures, traditions, and history into Sanskritic-Buddhism which resulted in a new, syncretic faith / hybrid cultures. The spread of religion and ideas is ultimately an interaction between coexisting cultures, regional groups, in which influences are introduced, developed, interweaved organically from the contributions of each.

The author provides insights on transmission of maritime Sanskritic-Buddhism in Nusantara by focusing the movement of ideas, agents, and role of exchange processes. This article is an informative and valuable piece as it questions the nature of ideas about civilizational / racial hierarchy and goes beyond the notion of singular flows of ideas, beliefs systems & cultures from centre to periphery by replacing the conceptual framework to network-based approach and dynamic processes of exchange (142). It aids the readers to better understand the complexity of the Malay World as it suggests that it may have an influential role in Buddhist culture.