The Lost Hindu Empire of Cambodia

A visit to Cambodia is recommended or may even be de rigueur for any Indian with an interest in the erstwhile history of India. For nowhere in the world outside India one can see the glory of its past splendor so well exhibited as in Cambodia. There are several hundred Hindu and Buddhist temple ruins throughout the countryside, especially around the town of Siem Reap near the large lake Tonle Sap. Siem Reap is the heart of the country. Here is where the splendid temple Angkor Wat has stood for nearly nine hundred years.

Mostly neglected for centuries and then ransacked and looted by occupying forces, the treasures of Cambodia are scattered all over the world now, mostly taken by Europeans. Smuggling of artifacts continues to this day. Cambodia has a very checkered history of war and destruction. It is only in the last one hundred years that attempts have been made to preserve, excavate and study the chronology of history, first by the French, and now by the rest of the world community. Indian and United States governments are also assisting in refurbishing and preserving the temples.

Many of the temple ruins appear like they are right out of pages of Rudyard Kipling’s books. Many with crumbling walls and roofs have seen better days. Giant trees hover over many temple walls, threatening their very foundations. Large roots of Kapok trees twine around the temples like giant mythical birds gripping them in their talons. Yet there is an indescribable charm that one immediately imbibes at first sight. Many ruins may look similar but one is drawn to see more. Those, which are preserved, demonstrate exquisite works of art and sculpture.

The people of this impoverished country are graceful and charming. They are simple, honest people, (mostly fishermen and farmers. There are not many towns outside a few larger cities. Once you leave the city limits of Phnom Penh there are not many homes or buildings of significant magnitude. Two-wheelers are the main modes of transportation, often attached to trailers that are used to transport families and goods. The vendors selling books, shawls and skirts are mostly beautiful children at temple sites, who surprise the tourists with better English than one would expect them to speak. These children are not scrappy, but not pushovers either and they can drive a hard bargain. The scattered temples are mostly deserted reminders of the former glory of the Khmer people, the dominant people of the region. Their kingdoms waxed and waned, to include parts of Thailand (Siam), Vietnam (Champa) and Laos at various times. There have been wars and skirmishes between the Khmer people and their neighbors for centuries. The most recent involvement of Cambodia in the larger war in Vietnam, when the country was carpet bombed by the might of the American military, was just one of several wars in its history to cause much death and destruction. Following the American exit, civil war had kept the country impoverished and desperate until the year 2000 when it gained independence and now has a nascent socialist democracy. Pre-history of Cambodia starts with the legendary Khambujaraja, a Brahmanical king of India, who had come to the region and faced adversity from a beautiful lady on the mountain. After a brief fight between them, a truce was drawn and the beautiful lady, Mero by name, married Khambuja. The country they jointly ruled was called Khambujadesa and their descendants were called the Khmer people. Khambujadesa later became Kampuchea and then Cambodia. The original language spoken was Mon-Khmer. Later in the 6th century the ‘Mon’ people moved further west to Thailand and the Khmer remained in current day Cambodia.

Indian influence in the region began in the first century C. E. They traded goods with Khmer by way of sea, when spice and silk trade had flourished. Both Indians and Chinese exerted their influences on the local people but Indian culture took a firm foothold, perhaps through the efforts of Brahmin priests. The rulers of the time had a suffix of ‘Varman’ to their names, similar to the Pallava kings of Kanchipuram. Whilst the Cholas of Tanjavur in India eventually defeated the Pallava Varmans in the 8th century, the Khmer kingdoms flourished well into the 14th century. Though all the rulers of Cambodia bore the name ‘Varman,’ they did not necessarily belong to the same dynasty. At various periods in their history, the rulers and usurpers came from Siam (Thailand) or Champa (Vietnam) as well as Khambujadesa (Cambodia or Kampuchea).

Morari Bapu

Morari Bapu was born to Prabhudas Bapu and Savitri Ma Hariyani on the auspicious day of Maha-Shivratri in Talgajarda, a small village near Mahuva in the District of Bhavnagar and State of Gujarat, India. Born into the Vaishnav Bava Sadhu Nimbarka lineage (parampara) where every male is called “Bapu” from childhood, Morari Bapu is commonly referred to as “Bapu” (meaning Father). Bapu has five brothers and two sisters, and is married with one son, three daughters and several grandchildren.

Bapu spent most of his childhood under the guidance of his paternal grandmother, Amrit Ma, often spending hours listening to folk tales from her of traditional India. At the age of five, Bapu began learning the Ram Charit Manas from his paternal grandfather, who is his only Guru, Tribhovandas Bapu. Both of Bapu's paternal grandparents were the influential guiding forces behind his upbringing.

Tribhovandas Bapu, affectionately called Dadaji, was a principled and learned scholar of the Ram Charit Manas. He would teach Bapu five couplets (chaupais) with its meaning each day. As the nearest school was approximately seven kilometres from Talgajarda, Bapu would utilise his time while walking to and from school to memorise the couplets with their meanings he had learnt earlier in the day, often singing to the trees and the plant life on his path. Upon his return home, Bapu would recite back to Dadaji what he had memorized.

At a young age, Bapu was also encouraged through letters from his paternal grandfather’s brother, Mahamandleshwar Vishnudevanand Giriji Maharaj, an ascetic of the Kailas Ashram in Rishikesh, to be proficient in the Bhagvat Gita and the Vedas.

At school, his teacher Ram Shanker Bhatt, remembers Bapu as a young boy who was an introvert, quiet and an independent student. The High School Headmaster, Narotam Mehta, recalls Bapu as being an intellectual student with an unusually high regard for cultural and religious values, and as a good student of the institution.

At the age of 12, Bapu began to recite the Ram Charit Manas by heart. As years went by, Bapu began to attract the attention of the elder villagers who would test his knowledge of the Ram Charit Manas , and on every occasion, young Bapu would leave the elders stunned. After graduating from secondary school, Bapu started a teacher training course at Shahapur College near Junagadh. Upon completion, he returned to Mahuva where he became a teacher at the J. Parekh High School teaching various subjects including English.

During his ten years as a teacher, Bapu often took time off to listen to prominent speakers and to meet some of India's most revered spiritual leaders. At the same time, Bapu's interest in Indian literature and poetry grew fonder and he regularly attended sessions on various literary subjects by high ranking orators.

Bapu's extraordinary command and oratory style quickly gathered crowds. His first Ram Katha was held at the Ram Mandir in Talgajarda in 1960. Bapu's name, command of the Ram Charit Manas and his heart rending narrations brought people from all over India in the thousands to listen to his Ram Katha, often overwhelming listeners and organisers alike. This was the beginning of a new era of listening to Ram Katha in large numbers by people from all walks of life and of all age groups. Bapu’s first Ram Katha outside India was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1976 when he was merely 30 years old. To date, Bapu has recited Ram Katha in countless places all over India and the rest of the world.

Bapu moves among people continuously. In his everyday life, one can see a conglomeration of ideals that are the basis of a good social structure, and on the other side, smoothly harmonized spiritual practices, devoid of all harshness. His entire living is to bring many different branches and sects of religion (even of other faiths) and the different levels of society to a common ground of undivided understanding, love and unity. He shows a way of uniting not just one nation, but.gif the entire human race, while at the same time, preserving their individuality. He refers to his Ram Katha as a prem yagna where people gather in the name of love and expressly calls out to humanity for love and respect for each other.

In Bapu’s words, the summary of righteousness (dharma) is threefold: truth (satya), love (prem) and compassion (karuna). Bapu’s life is like the flow of the river Ganges (Ganga pravah) – similar to how new water continuously replaces the current stream, Bapu believes in flowing traditions (pravahi parampara) that evolve with the times.

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