Bali - The Great Hindu Kingdoms of Indonesia
Indonesia, October 8, 2003: This interesting article on the history of Hinduism in Indonesia ("source" above) begins, "Over 400 years ago most of East Java was exactly like Bali is today. Prior to 1815 Bali had a greater population density than Java, suggesting its Hindu-Balinese civilization was even more successful than Java's. When Sir Stamford Raffles wrote his History Of Java in the early 19th century, he had to turn to Bali for what remained of the once-great literature of classical Java. Even today Bali provides scholars with clues about India's past religious life, clues which long ago vanished in India itself.
"Bali first came under the influence of Indic Javanese kings in the 6th to 8th centuries. The island was conquered by the first documented King of Central Java, Sanjaya, in 732; stone and copper inscriptions in Old Balinese have been found that date from 882 CE. From the 10th to the 12th centuries, the Balinese Warmadewa family established a dynastic link with Java. Court decrees were thereafter issued in the Old Javanese language of Kawi and Balinese sculpture, bronzes, and other artistic styles, bathing places, and rock-cut temples began to resemble those in East Java.
The Sanur pillar (914 CE), partly written in Sanskrit, supports the theory that portions of the island were already Indianized in the 10th century. Bali's way of life was well defined by the early part of the 10th century. By then, the Balinese were engaged in sophisticated wet- rice cultivation, livestock breeding, stone- and woodcarving, metalworking, roof thatching, canoe building, even cockfighting. The Balinese of the time were locked into feudal genealogical and territorial bondage. They were subjects of a Hinduized ruler -- one of a number of regional Balinese princes -- who himself acknowledged the sovereignty of a Javanese overlord..."
(source: The Great Hindu Kingdoms of Indonesia)
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