MELTING POT OF MANY CULTURES IN MALAYSIA

THE INDIAN INFLUENCE IN THE CULTURAL HABITS OF MALAYSIANS

To those who still live in a world not far from Nagapattinam in South India and have wives who have dropped their saries and children who have forgotten Tamil – the following information may probably be of some intelligent use.

It is tue that Islam is a large component of Malay culture - but Malay culture is a richmelting pot of many other cultures - Indian, Chinese, Thai, Javanese,Minangkabau, Portuguese, even a pagan past when we were most closest to our roots in nature.

Historians tell us much about the political greatness and fame of theHindunized Malay Empires of Sri Vijaya and Majapahit. These two empirescontrolled the destiny of the greater part of Malaysia. But how deep andwidespread was `Indian' influence in Malaysia?

To begin with, Hindu influence was synonymous with Indian trade. This trade was maritime and riverine, that is, confined to the coastal andriverine areas of Malaysia. The centres of Indian trade were places such as Pasai, Indragiri, Melayu and Jambi in Sumatra; Malacca; Kuala Muda inKedah; and Surabaya in Java. The bulk of the people living inland ofthese areas remained untouched by the religious by the religious, economic and political influence of India.

The Jakuns, Semangs and Sakais of the Peninsular Malaysia, most of the original inhabitants of the Borneo territories, of the Celebes, of Sumatra and the other bigger islands of the Malay Archipelago were never converted to Hinduism. Itwas only later, when communications inland were improved, that they wereconverted to either Islam or Christianity. Smaller islands with centralzones never too far away from the coast were more thoroughly covered byIndian traders.

One such island was Bali, which has retained its Hinduheritage up to the present day, despite the later onslaughts of Islam and the West.

Then there was the next stage in the spread of Hinduism. Initially, itcame from traders from India, particularly South India. Later, thecentres of trade became powerful centres of political influence and expansion. First, there was the great Empire of Srivijaya in Sumatra, followed inthe 14th century A.D. by its conqueror and successor, the Empire of Majapahit in Java.

The political expansion of these two Empires meant also the theological expansion of Hinduism in Malaysia but even then,Hinduism did not spread to all parts of Malaysia. Sri Vijaya and Majapahit were essentially maritime powers, and their sphere ofpolitical, military and social influence was generally limited to the coastal and riverine areas.

The Hindu influence was limited more or less rigidly to the upper classof old Malay society - the royalty. Malay royalty was essentially Hindu royalty descended, according to the Malay Annals, "Sejarah Melayu", from a legendary half-Indian and half-Greek monarch, Raja Suran, whose sons all bearing Indian proper names, Sang Nila Utama, Krishna Pandita, NilaPahlawan, then descended on Bukit Siguntang in Sumatra from whence Malay royalty spread.

Malay royalty was essentially Hindu royalty because thespread of Hinduism was not the result of any organised missionarymovement. Indian merchants by virtue merely of their financial and cultural superiority drew converts from the ruling and trading classesof the races with which they traded. If Hinduism was accepted, it was because of a desire for a better standard of living rather than because of an understanding and appreciation of a superior religious system. Hinduism spread also through marriage.

The petty princes of the Malaysian coastal trading centres were glad to marry off their sons and daughters to the financially superior Indian merchants or their children. As for those who lived on the outskirts of the trading centre: as money was not the basis of their economy, there was no incentive to accepts Hinduism. Among them, the Hindu influence was to come much later and in gradual stages. It is true that the common people followed the religious faith of their rulers, for they were used in such matters to take directions from above.

But there was always an undercurrent of fear, lest they should evoke the wrath of their animistic deities. So, at best among the common people Hinduism was assimilated only with a lot of local theological "spice" retained (the same happened with the later adoption of Islam).

If such was the case, how do we explain the fact that old Malay literature is almost completely derived from Hindu epics, from the Ramayana and the Mahabaratha; and the fact that at least 30% of Malay vocabulary is made up of Sanskrit words? Does not this prove that Hindu influence was very much more intensive than I have suggested? But it is often misleading to draw evidence solely from old Malay literature to assess the relative position of Hinduism in the religious beliefs and practices of the people at large.

Old Malay literature, it must be remembered, was exclusively Court literature. This literature was made up of stories and legends of kings and princes, queens and princesses, and of people connected with royalty. As Malay royalty was basically Hindu royalty, Malay court literature had to be Hindu literature. It is plain, then, that the Hindu element in old Malay literature cannot be taken to represent the general pattern of life of the common Malay people. But the influence of India has been marked on the Malay language and also in the sphere of religion.

Today, when a Malay speaks a sentence of ten words, at least three or four of them will be Sanskrit words, three Arabic and the remaining either of English, Chinese, Persian or of some other origin. One expert has even suggested that there are only four words in the Malay vocabulary which are genuinely Malay. The are "api" or fire, "besi" or iron. "padi" or rice, and "nasi" or cooked rice.

This is rather a sweeping claim, but no one will deny that AT LEAST a third of Malay vocabulary has originated from Indian tongues. Words such as putera, puteri, asmara, samudra, belantra, kenchana,sukma, and literally thousands of other words are all Sanscrit words, either in original or in modified form.

What of the influence of India on the religious developments of theMalaysian peoples? Malay folk-lore and Malay literature show thatduring the period before the coming of Islam, about the 14th century A.D., the greater gods of the Malay pantheon were really borrowed Hindu divinities. They were, in some respect, modified by Malay ideas, but only the lesser gods and spirits were actually native to the Malay religious system.

It is true these native gods and spirits can be identified with the great powers of nature, such as the spirit of the Wind (Mambang Angin), the spirit of the Waters (Hantu Ayer) and the spirit of the Sun (Mambang Kuning). But none of them appears to have the status of the chief gods of the Hindu system. Both by land and water, the terrible Shiva and Batara Guru or Kala, are supreme. In Malay folk-lore we find Vishnu, the preserver, Brahma the creator, Batara Guru (Kala) and S'ri all invoked by Malays, especially by Malay magicians.

Of all the greater deities of the Hindu system, Batara Guru is unquestionably the greatest. In Hikayat Sang Sembah , Batara Guru appears as a supreme god with Brahma and Vishnu and some subordinate deities. It is Batara Guru who alone has the "water of life", the elixir of life, which can restore life to dead humans and animals. To the Malays of old, then, and to the Malay bomohs even of the present day in whom are preserved these notions, "tok Batara Guru" or any one of the corruptions which his name now bears, was the all-powerful god who held the place of Allah before the advent of Islam, and was a spirit sopowerful that he could restore the dead to life. All prayers were addressed to him.

Of the lesser deities of Hinduism, the most notable who have remained in Malay superstition and folklore are the "gergasi", half-human forest spirits of Hindu mythology represented in Malay folk-lore as tusked orgres that feed on human flesh. Then there is the raksaksa, a race of cannibal giants ruled, according to the Indian Puranas, by Ravana.

A tribe of raksaksa is mentioned in the Kedah annals, HIKAYAT MARONG MAHAWANGSA, which tell of a giant king, Maroung Maha Wangsa, who led a tribe of giants and founded the present state of Kedah which they called LANGKASUKA (as I had mentioned in an earlier posting, the real Langasuka was more probably in Pattani, Thailand) All in all, that a form of Hinduism was the accepted religion of the Malays prior to the advent of Islam is certain, and it is a fact amply proved by Malay folk-lore and superstition, Malay literature, Malay customs and various archaeological inscriptions.

Muslim religious teachers in Malaysia today still preach the Islamic concept of heaven in a terminology which is neither Malay nor Arabic, but Hindu. The sanskrit word "syurga" is always used in connection with the Islamic concept of paradise. The proper Arabic word for this is actually "al-jannah". In the same way, the Hindu religious term "neraka" or hell is used by Muslim Malays to explain the Islamic concept of hell. The Arabic word for hell is "al-nar: or the place of fire.

Then the Muslim fast, the annual religious abstention from food and drink, is known by the Sanskrit term "puasa". A Muslim religious teacher is oftencalled "guru, another Hindu religious term , in fact the name of a Hindu deity, Batara Guru. The Muslim prayer is among the Malays, called "sembahyang". "Sembah" in Sanskrit means to pray, and "yang" is a Sanskrit term meaning divinity or conjuring respect, as in Sang Yang Tunggal", the most divine one, and "Yang Dipertuan ".

There are many other Hindu religious terms that have lost their original meaning and are being freely and unconsciously used by Muslim Malays in connection with the religion of Islam. This shows that Hinduism exerted a profound influence on Malay culture before the coming of Islam to Malaysia.

And this influence has survived, despite the strict monotheistic restrictions of the Islamic faith, to the present day. So, in religion as well as in other aspects of Malaysian culture, we cannot treat the influence of India as something belonging to the past.

The political influence of old India which was climaxed by the great Empires of "Sri Vijaya" and "Majapahit" is today at an end, but the cultural influence of India which began at the beginning of the Christian era is still very much alive, and it will be alive for many, many centuries to come because it has become part of the life of the Nation. So what are the Indian Muslims crying out for? More 'crutches' to be given to them vis-a-vis the other races.