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i) CAMBODIA, 49- have some knowledge, but they seem rather to have been dedicated to some bastard form of Buddhism than to the worship of the Serpent in the form in which it is found at Nakhon Vat. The question that principally interests us at this stage, is to ascertain how this marvellous development of Serpent Worship arose in Cambodia, and at what time. The first impulse would be to assume that it was indigenous, but this certainly does not seem to be the case. The architecture of the temple is, if anything, classical —Roman Doric. The ornaments—bassi-relicevi—are all subjects: borrowed from the Ramiyana or Mahdbharata, and fade gradually into the myths of the Hindu religion. ‘The people are Indian. The natives, wherever they appear, are represented as an abject race, and are very cruelly treated by the superior race who were re paneer of the temple, and the carvers of the bas-reliefs. Another theory, which ‘at first sight seemed plausible, was that the worship had reached Cambodia from the north. We know from Hiouen-Thsang that Serpent Worship was to be found in Koutche in the north of Thibet,* we know that the Stri “Rajya, or Amazon kingdom, was in Thibet,+ and we have so many traces of Serpent Worship. all along the north of the Himalaya, Hindu Kush, and Caucasus, that it. looks like a Scythian or northern form of faith, and may have leaked through the mountain ranges into both Cashmere and Cambodia, radiating from a common northern centre. When more closely looked into, this theory seems as untenable as the last. |The communication between Thibet and Cambodia is barted by ranges of mountains, which have hitherto proved practically impassable either as trade routes or for military operations. The southern country could only be reached through China, and Serpent Worship could hardly have passed through that country without leaving more traces of its passage, or bringing with it more evidences of Chinese civilization, than appears to be the case. We know so little, however, of the local superstitions of China that we must pause before expressing any decided opinion on this subject. The only remaining hypothesis that suggests itself is that they came from India direct by sea. When we turn to their. own traditions for any confirmation of this, ' the amswer is distinct, “Our ancestors came from Myang Rom, or Romavisei, not far from. Takeasila” (Taxila).t Startling as this may at first sight appear, there ‘are many circumstances which not only take away from its strangeness, but seem to render it probable. In the first place Taxila, as just pointed out, was one of the | great centres of Serpent Worship. The country they claim to have migrated from is, by the ancient. Sanskrit authorities, called Kamboja.§ Their capital they call Inthapattapari (Indraprastha), and that of Siam was Ayuthia (Ayodhyé), the two ‘eapitals of the Mahdbharata and Ramayana, and almost all the other principal towns throughout the country bear Sanskrit names. If Ilalifax, Boston, and New York, ate evidence of an English people having settled in America, the names of the Cambodian cities are equally conclusive in this respect. ee ' .- ** Mémoires, L. 4. § Wilford, A.R., VI. 516. VII. 336; Muir, orig. ¥ Asiatic Researches, XV. 48. Sanserit Texts, IT. 368. ff. &. '. } Bastian, Volker des Ostlichen Asien, I. p. 393. (4799.) a 50 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Another argument which seems as important as any other, is the 'similarity of the style of architecture in the two countries. This is not only traceable in the arrange- ment of their temples, but in the details. The Cashmere pillars are curiously like those of the Grecian Doric order,* those of Cambodia are even more classical, but resemble Roman Doric. Nothing similar to either has yet been discovered between ‘the two points, but there is an amount of classical influence apparent in the sculpture at Amravati which scems to supply a connecting link. The improbability of such a migration is considerably lessened by the know- ledge that an Indian colony did reach Java, by sea of course; did introduce there their own faith, and built those wonderful temples of Brambanan and Borobuddor, which in many respects resemble, though they do not rival, those of Cambodia. All this has been rendered more probable within the last year by the discovery of Serpent Worship existing to the extent it does at Amravati, near the mouth of the Kistnah, the very country whence navigators set sail who were about to cross the bay of Bengal going. to the Gold Coast,+ which we may almost certainly fix at, Ligor, and this ‘seems to point out the route which the Cambodians took on their migration. Every day since my attention was turned to the sculptures at Amravati, fresh evidence of the prevalence of Serpent Worship in Central India has come to light, and it seems now tolerably clear, either that serpent races passed down. the valley of the Indus, across Central India by the valley of the Godavery, and thence by sea to Cambodia; or that they passed from TashsaéilA direct by land to Amravati, and ‘hence to the Golden Chersonesc. If a straight line is drawn on the map between nese two first- named places it passes over Sanchi and other. spots where Snake - w Worship once prevailed, and on the whole this route seems to be the one the emigrants would most probably have taken; but we are only yet on the threshold of the inquiry, and must wait for further information before deciding. The time when this migration took place is not so easily fixed,’ but it appears to have first commenced in the fourth century, (after 318,) to have been continued in the fifth and sixth, and probably reached its height in the era of the religious disturbances and persecutions in India in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Cambodia was conquered by the Siamese between the years 1351-74, the capital destroyed, and depopulation set in.: From that time Serpent Worship seems to have declined rapidly from its position .of splendour and ‘supremacy, and to have been succeeded by Buddhism, which is now the faith of all the civilized Indo-Chinese provinces. The Cambodian legends which refer to the colonization of the country and the building of the city of Inthapattapuri, are all extremely similar to those related by. Hiouen-Thsang, when speaking of the country whence they came, as noticed above. In all the dragon king’s daughter is the principal personage, and from her the royal race claim to be descended. In the Cambodian legend it is related that the ° banished prince, Phra ‘Thong, was driven, after a long sea yoyage, on. an island where grew a wonderful Talok ee “Grewia ineequalis.”” He ascends its branches to look about him, but the tree grows faster than the celebrated beanstalk of Jack, and a * Essay on the Arian: order of Architecture as exhibited in the , Temples of Kashmir, by Captain A. Cunningham, J.A.S.B., September 1848. , ° } Ptolemy, VII. 1. t Jour. Asiat, Soe. eax XVIL 86. CAMBODIA.—CHINA: "61 fears he shall never see his mother earth again. ‘In descending, however, he finds himself in a wonderful grotto in the hollow of. the tree, where he meets with the dragon king’s daughter, and marries her. The father consents to their union, and , builds the city of Nakhon Thom for their residence, where he comes frequently to visit his beloved daughter; but the people complain of his presence, and his ungrateful ° children frighten him away by placing an image of the four-faced Brahma over the gate of the city.* Another form of the legend is, that iiug Pathumnia Surivong, while reposing under the wonderful tree, saw the dragon king’s daughter bathing with her companions in a neighbouring lake, fell in ove and married her, and went to the underground abode of his father-in-law, where he spent a fortnight. According to this legend he behaved much better to the'old Serpent than Prince Phra Thong. _ According to.a third form, Indra had come down from heaven, but had neglected to bring any female attendants with him; feeling the loneliness of his situation, took up with the dragon king’s daughter, who bore to him Ketumalea, the father of Pathumma Surivong, who seems really to have been the founder of the city.t _ We have a date twice repeated, 957-8 a.p., for the accession of the last-named king, and if the names above quoted were really or closely connected with one another, as the legends would lead us to suppose, the migration and all the subsequent events down to the founding ofthe city really took place in the tenth century. If we were to draw our conclusions from the legends alone, this view must probably be adopted ; but the context, and the indications from Indian expericnce, incline me to extend the time between the first migration and the building of the city to four or - five centuries; but it is at present little more than guess work, in so. far as the earlier dates are concerned. ‘The circumstance that interests us most is the impor- tant part played in these legends by Nang Nakh, the Serpent King’s daughter, and the description of her father and his kingdom. Foolish and legendary as all this may appear at first sight, it assumes considerable importance when we find it resulting in some of the most wonderful temples which the world ever saw, and in the most remarkable development of pure Serpent Worship anywhere to be found, CHINA. It i$ extremely difficult to ascertain anything that is at all satisfactory regarding | the worship of the Serpent in China. No scholar, so far as I know, has investigated the subject, nor has any traveller devoted special attention to such indications of it as may exist in the country. We are consequently left to such stray passages as are scattered.