23/10/2025
Devasathan (Brahmin Shrine)
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Brahmin Influence in Thai Buddhism and Culture Part 1
1.1 Before the Buddha, There Were the Brahmins
Long before the Buddha’s teachings reached the lush river plains of Thailand, priests known as Brahmins were already gazing at the stars, chanting Vedic hymns, and invoking gods through sacred fire. These ritual specialists of ancient India; guardians of oral scripture and cosmic order, carried more than just religion; they bore a worldview where divine law governed both heaven and human destiny.
As their influence spread beyond the Indian subcontinent, so too did the seeds of Brahmin philosophy, ritual, and symbolism. These would later intertwine with Buddhism to create the distinctive spiritual fabric of Thailand — a blend of Dhamma and Dharma, serenity and ceremony.
1.2 The Roots of Brahminism
The word Brahmin (Sanskrit: ब्राह्मण; Thai: พราหมณ์, Phraam) comes from Brahman, the eternal truth or cosmic essence described in the ancient Vedas — India’s oldest sacred texts, composed between 1500–500 BCE.
Brahmins served as intermediaries between mortals and the divine, reciting Sanskrit hymns and conducting yajna (fire sacrifices) to honour deities like Indra, Agni, Varuna, and later Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. Their knowledge of astrology, medicine, ritual, and law made them indispensable to rulers across India and later, to monarchs abroad who sought spiritual legitimacy for their thrones.
By the early Common Era, Brahminism had evolved into classical Hinduism, deeply philosophical and ritualised, and its emissaries; priests, scholars, and merchants, began venturing beyond India’s shores.
1.3 Maritime Highways of Faith and Trade
The movement of Brahmin culture into Southeast Asia was not through conquest but through commerce and diplomacy.
Between the 1st and 6th centuries CE, Indian traders, guided by monsoon winds, sailed from ports in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Bengal toward the rich markets of the Malay Peninsula, Cambodia, and southern Thailand.
These maritime routes, later called the “Maritime Silk Road”, carried silk, spices, ivory, and gemstones — but more enduringly, they carried ideas. Alongside goods came Sanskrit inscriptions, ritual texts, and Brahmin priests who served as counsellors, astrologers, and spiritual envoys for local rulers.
As these exchanges grew, the region came to be known in Indian records as Suvarnabhumi — “The Golden Land.” It was in this Golden Land that the early Brahmins found fertile ground to plant their cosmic order.
1.4 The First Footprints in Mainland Southeast Asia
By the 2nd century CE, Indianised kingdoms such as Funan (in today’s Cambodia and southern Vietnam) had already adopted Brahmin rituals and Sanskrit court language. Royal inscriptions mention kings performing Vedic sacrifices under the guidance of Brahmins, claiming descent from Hindu gods.
From Funan and later Chenla, Brahminism travelled inland through trade and diplomacy, reaching the Khmer Empire by the 9th century CE. There, at Angkor, magnificent temples to Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma rose beside Buddhist sanctuaries. These monuments — from Angkor Wat to Phnom Bakheng — reflected the synthesis of Hindu cosmology and local Southeast Asian spiritual traditions.
This Khmer–Indic fusion would later radiate outward, shaping the religious and political foundations of neighbouring polities, including what would become Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, the early Thai kingdoms.
