Pøedmìt: [world-vedic] Ancient Vedic Indonesia Invaded East Africa Od: Vrndavan Parker Datum: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:13:07 +0100 (CET) Komu: vediculture@yahoogroups.com One thousand years ago, a massive Hindu naval invasion fleet was assembled. A 2 year campaign was waged against the Islamic regions of East Africa. As recently as 6 hundred years ago, Indonesia was comprised of many Vedic/Hindu Kingdoms. Today only the island of Bali remains as a testement to Indonesia's Vedic past. In the era before the spread of Islam, the ancient Vedic Kigndom of Wakwak, (the area of modern Java) developed long term trade relations with East Africa. As Islam rose in East Africa, the Indonesian Kingdoms lost a majority of their trade contacts in the region. In response to this, in the year 935 AD, the Kingdom of Wakwak gathered a massive fleet of a thousand ships and launched an invasion of East Africa. In the long run their effort to regain control of the East African trade routes did not succeed. However the evidence that such a massive effort was made speaks of the capabilities of the ancient Vedic/Hindu Civilizations of Indonesia. Ancient texts also reveal that the Kingdoms of Khmer in Cambodia, the Champa in Vietnam send major expeditions to Sri Lanka as well. Madagascar as well, was the location of many ancient Vedic colonies. These had been set up to coordinate Hindu trade in the Eastern African region. It is also important to note that relations between the ancient Vedic kingdoms of Asia and East Africa were mutually beneficial. War fleets were rarely assembled and, in this instance, only in an effort to regain thier traditional trade relations with Africa. Vrndavan Parker Medieval Islamic texts used the word Mihraj or similar forms like Mihrjan to describe the king of the Zabag (Sumatra Area) empire in the East Indies. Mihraj may be a corruption of the Indian Maharaja "Great King." Writers of the time described the Mihraj's influence as extending over vast territories from the Indies to East Africa. Some of these claims are substantiated by physical evidence such as the written records of the kingdoms of Champa and Cambodia, and land grants in South and East India. According to the texts, Zabag and its southern neighbor Wakwak (Java) competed for the highly lucrative East African trade.......... Indeed both Wakwak and Zabag faced problems with their ancient East African spice routes due to the expansion of Islam. Wakwak for its part decided on massive military action. An expedition in the 10th century of fleet of one thousand ships was sent to the African Zanj coast and to Qanbalu, which by this time was nearly completely in Muslim hands. Arab merchants from Oman were taking over the trade. Ibn Lakis has imparted to me some extraordinary pieces of information concerning them. It is thus that in 334 AH (945-6 CE) they came upon Qanbalu in a thousand ships and fought them with the utmost vigor, without however achieving their end, as Qanbalu is surrounded by a strong defensive wall around which stretches the water-filled estuary of the sea, so that Qanbalu is at the center of this estuary, like a fortified citadel." -- Kitab aja'ib al-Hind of Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (955 CE) The vast Wakwak fleet traveled for one year to attack Qanbalu, Sofala and other Zanj settlements that were then dominated by Muslim traders. Such a costly expedition demonstrates the gravity of the situation to the Wakwak rulers. Certainly the Mihraj must have felt the same way. However, our thesis is that the Mihraj practiced a policy of attraction. His military might at the time was spent in protecting his home kingdom from Wakwak. He sent ambassadors to India and Tibet, made grants for temples there and some Zabag (Suvarnadvipa) kings are even said to have personally traveled to South Asia. Further west in Europe, the overtures of the Mihraj may be seen in the letters and ambassadors of "Prester John." There was nothing unusual in the Mihraj patronizing at the same time Buddhism, Christianity (Nestorianism), Hinduism, Jainism, animism, etc. This was not an uncommon practice among the medieval kings of the Indies. Later, Lusung continued this policy of attraction when the Portuguese arrived on the scene. By this time the ancient eastern routes in Africa had been lost, but Lusung still managed to monopolize the restricted trade with China. And it was still an important source of gold. http://sambali.blogspot.com/2006/02/glossary-mihraj.html he presence of Melayu in western Indonesian Ocean began to decline from the 8th century under the pressure of the emerging Muslim competition. However, by the 10th century, the Malays tried to reconquer the African coasts with an enormous expedition (Arabic texts talk about a thousand ships) but without success.[10] Since then, they had ceased to frequent the region [10] MAUNY, Raymond. "The Wakwakand the Indonesian invasion in East Africa in 945 A.D.", Studia (Lisboa), 1965, 15, pp.7-16. MOLLAT, Michel. "Les contacts historiques de l'Afrique et de Madagascar avec l'Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est: le rôle de l'Océan Indien", Archipel, 21, 1981: 35-53. .....centuries ago, the Indonesian mariners who came across the Indian ocean and settled Madagascar (this is not disputed) ALSO settled in AFRICA, and that there grew up a mixed race of Africans and Indonesians — an Afro/Indonesian, or Afro/Malagasy race, if you like. For much of the 1st millennium AD, in 'pre-Swahili' times, these people, many of whom must have been fine seamen, maintained contacts between Africa and Madagascar across the Mozambique Channel . . . .until the Arab/Shirazi expansion down the coast of Africa drove a wedge between the Great Island and the Mainland communities. From A letter from the author of The Phantom Voyagers Robert Dick-Read [e-mail: robert.dread@ntlworld.com] http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/post/zimbabwe/art/greatzim/dickread1.html Currently reading : Worshiping Siva and Buddha: The Temple Art of East Java By Ann Rasmussen Kinney