Further reading: Martin Ebon, Maharishi: The Guru:
The Story of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Bombay: Pearl,
1968); Jack Forem, Transcendental Meditation (New
York: Dutton, 1974); Paul Mason, The Maharishi: The
Biography of the Man Who Gave Transcendental Medita-
tion to the World (Rockport, Mass.: Element, 1994);
Helena Olsen and Roland Olsen, Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi: A Living Saint for the New Millennium (Herndon,
Va.: Lantern Books, 2001); Khushwant Singh, Gurus,
Godmen and Good People (Bombay: Priya Adarkar, Ori-
ent Longman, 1975).
maithuna See PANCHA MAKARA.
Malaysia
The earliest Hindu state to appear on the Malay
Peninsula was Kamalanka, which emerged dur-
ing the seventh century C.E. It appears to have
developed out of the earlier kingdom of Lang-
La-Tsiu, a dependency of the Cambodian king-
dom of Funan. Eventually the Malay Peninsula
became part of the Hindu kingdoms of Srivijaya
(Sumatra) and Majapahit (Java). Hinduism as
well as Buddhism were practiced throughout
the peninsula, which became in 1957 the Fed-
eration of Malaya. Malaysia was formed in 1963
when the former British colonies of Singapore
and Sabah and Sarawak (on Borneo) joined the
federation.
Malaysia became a British colony during the
19th century; from the start, the colony accepted
Hindu immigrants. Immigration from India con-
tinued until World War II, with peak numbers
entering Malaysia during the Great Depression
of the 1930s. The movement of laborers to
Malaysia constituted one of the largest Indian
out-migrations in history. Unlike in earlier peri-
ods (the era of Hindu expansion), emigrants
were primarily from the lower castes, recruited
to work in the sugar and rubber plantations, or
in the fishing, forestry, and mining industries.
Most migrants were from the state of Madras and
were culturally Tamil, although significant num-
bers were Telugu and Gujarati. SIKHS from the
Punjab served in the military and police forces.
The Tamil financier caste introduced worship of
the deity Murugan, or KARTTIKEYA son of SHIVA,
who became the principal deity recognized in
Malaysia.
Today South Asians compose 8 percent of
the population of the Malay Peninsula. Most
Hindus do not practice orthodox Hinduism, but
rather Tamil folk religion. Recently, Brahminical
practices have become more popular, a process
called Sanskritization. Hindu fundamentalism
was growing among a minority, as in India, at the
close of the 20th and beginning of the 21st cen-Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Institute for
the Study of American Religion, Santa Barbara, California)K 274 maithuna