long and stylistically beautiful narrative meditation on
the arising of the conditions that propel its heroine to
eventual enlightenment, culminating in two densely
terse chapters on Buddhist LOGICand PRATITYASAMUT-
PADA(DEPENDENT ORIGINATION). With the settings of
its stories ranging from luxurious Tamil cities to
Kapilavastu and the shores of a Southeast Asian island
kingdom known as Cavakam, the Manimekalaiclearly
attests to a vibrant literary culture in Tamil that
counted Buddhists, sophisticated in their knowledge of
Buddhist tradition and highly technical philosophical
language, among its participants.
Further evidence of Buddhist literary culture in the
South can be found in the Vlracoliyam,an eleventh-
century treatise on Tamil grammar and poetics attrib-
uted to Puttamittiran and accompanied by a
commentary thought to have been composed by the
author’s student, Peruntevanar. As the first Tamil
grammar to claim direct appropriation of Sanskrit po-
etic theory (in its treatment of alan ̇karaor “poetic or-
namentation”), the Vlracoliyamexplicitly forges a new
Tamil-Sanskrit hybrid language in the name of Bud-
dhism. Claiming that the literary language he de-
scribes first issued forth from the mouth of Avalokitan
(Avalokites ́vara), Puttamittiranpioneers a new poetic
style for his own sectarian community. The commen-
tary then substantiates that project by gathering to-
gether examples of Tamil Buddhist poetry in
illustration of this new Sanskrit-Tamil hybrid. Such
scattered poetic phrases—many alluding to Tamil
versions of JATAKAstories and to songs in praise of the
Buddha and his many wonderful qualities—are,
unfortunately, all that remain (apart from the
Manimekalai,which the commentator never cites) of
what must have once been a considerable corpus of
Buddhist devotional, philosophical, and narrative po-
etry in Tamil.
Evidence for the presence of Buddhists in south-
ernmost India thus presents us with a series of dis-
parate snapshots, some more in focus than others.
Whether the substantial archaeological finds in south-
ern Andhra Pradesh bear any relevance for under-
standing the Buddhist literary record in Tamil, or
whether the scattered Buddhist images recovered from
paddy fields across the region reveal anything of “Bud-
dhism” per se in the South, are questions that await
further research.
See also:India; India, Buddhist Art in; India, North-
west
Bibliography
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Diocesan Press, 1932.
ANNEE. MONIUSINDONESIA AND THE
MALAY PENINSULAThe geography of the Malay Peninsula and of Indone-
sia helps to explain the role the region played in the
early spread of Buddhism to Southeast Asia and China.
The peninsula includes the modern nation-states of
Malaysia and Singapore and the southern portion of
Thailand. Malaysia occupies the end of the peninsula,
with the small city-state of Singapore at its southern
tip on the Sunda Strait. Malaysia shares its northern
border, halfway up the peninsula, with Thailand. For
purposes of examining the role of ancient Buddhism,
the entire peninsula can be seen as a single geograph-
ical area. Some twenty-five miles from Singapore,
across the Sunda Strait, is the island of Sumatra, one
of about three thousand islands that make up the arch-
ipelago of modern Indonesia. The peninsula and the
islands, surrounded by water, are an environment that
produces cultures that rely on boats. Likewise, the
peninsula is located about halfway between India and
China along the route taken by trading vessels. The
area was a crossroads for both local and international
trade and communication. It is thus not surprising thatINDONESIA AND THEMALAYPENINSULA