Chandrabanu

Chandrabanu of Sri Vijaya(Indonesia and Malaysia), was an expanding empire by the 12th century. Chandrabanu though a Buddhist, did not consider it an unjust action to invade fellow Buddhist countries eg Sinhale, Thailand.

Chandrabanu had gained a good footing in South India by this time and had even established Malay communities in what is today Tamil Nadu. Remains of Buddhist vihara's built by the Buddhist King's of Sri Vijaya, can still be seen;

Chudamani Vihara was a Buddhist vihara (monastery) in Nagapattinam*, Tamil Nadu, India. Chudamani Vihara was constructed in 1006 CE by the Srivijayan king Sri Vijaya Soolamanivarman with the patronage of Rajaraja Chola. The vihara building survived in dilapidated condition till 1867, when Jesuit missionaries demolished it. Since 1856, about 350 Buddha bronzes have been found at Nagapattinam, dating from the 11th to the 16th century.

His expansion finally came into the Kingdom of Sinhale, around the 12th Century. After the struggle to expel Magha, the nation was not ready for another invader, so the Northern regions became under rule of Chandrabanu. It must be said that, their are some who claim that Vijaya Bahu may have been his son.

We are in fact, at present looking into claims, that the so called Arya Chakrawathi rulers, might have in fact been decentdent's of these 'Ja' peoples.

Their are many places that bare testimony to this effect:

Chavakachcheri-derived from Javakaketcheri-

For example, the Kokila Sandesaya which describes several places on the route to Jaffna in detail, mentions the huge Natha Devale [Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva worship] at present day Chavakachcheri, which John Clifford Holt in his intensive study on Avalokitesvara worship concludes, was the result of Javanese Buddhist occupation of these parts from the time of Chandrabhanu’s invasion and that even by the 15th century this influence was very much in evidence. Holt excludes the possibility of the Natha Devale there having been the work of non-Buddhist Ariya Cakravarttis. Even though there is evidence in Yalpana Vaipava Malai that alien Ariya Chakravartti rulers suppressed the Buddhist in the peninsula, they had to continuously contend with a Buddhist Sinhalese majority who were raising revolt against them with the support of Vanniyas.

And obviously Java Pattnam, meaning the port of the Javanese and Javakakotte.

Their are many other places that also suggest that the Java peoples were to be found in;

Ja Ela

Ja Watte

and also Yapahuwa, whose sculptures do suggest a very clear influence of the orient and historically has had connact with the Sri Vijayan empire of Indo-China.

*Nagapattinam

A flourishing centre of Buddhism in South India during the period was Naga-pattinam, near Madras on east coast.  There existed here in the mediaeval period a colony of the Malaya Buddhists who, patronized by the Cholas erected here two temples in the 11th Century A.D., with the aid granted by the Sailendra kings of Java and Sumatra.  One of the temples was called Rajarajaperumpalli and the Rajendracholaperumpalli.  Naga-pattinam was a place of piligrimage for the Buddhists of different places in India as well as outside.  Since 1856 about 350 bronzes have been found in these vihara sites.  Some of them are of the early Chola times while the rest belong to the later Chola period.  The Nagapattinam bronzes are some of the finest metal works of South India.