Dong Duong, about twenty kilometres to the south of Mi-son, marks the site of the ancient capital Indrapura.  The monument which has made its name known differs from those already described.  Compared with them it has some pretensions to be a whole, laid out on a definite plan and it is Buddhist.  It consists of three courts[348] surrounded by walls and entered by massive porticoes.  In the third there are about twenty buildings and perhaps it did not escape the fault common to Cham architecture of presenting a collection of disconnected and unrelated edifices, but still there is clearly an attempt to lead up from the outermost portico through halls and gateways to the principal shrine.  From an inscription dated 875 A.D. we learn that the ruins are those of a temple and vihara erected by King Indravarman and dedicated to Avalokita under the name of Lakshmindra Lokesvara.

3

The religion of Champa was practically identical with that of Camboja.  If the inscriptions of the former tell us more about mukhalingas and koshas and those of the latter have more allusions to the worship of the compound deity Hari-hara, this is probably a matter of chance.  But even supposing that different cults were specially prominent at different places, it seems clear that all the gods and ceremonies known in Camboja were also known in Champa and vice versa.  In both countries the national religion was Hinduism, mainly of the Sivaite type, accompanied by Mahayanist Buddhism which occasionally came to the front under royal patronage.  In both any indigenous beliefs which may have existed did not form a separate system.  It is probable however that the goddess known at Po-nagar as Bhagavati was an ancient local deity worshipped before the Hindu immigration and an inscription found at Mi-son recommends those whose eyes are diseased to propitiate Kuvera and thus secure protection against Ekakshapingala, “the tawny one-eyed (spirit).”  Though this goddess or demon was probably a creation of local fancy, similar identifications of Kali with the spirits presiding over cholera, smallpox, etc., take place in India.

The social system was theoretically based on the four castes, but Chinese accounts indicate that in questions of marriage and inheritance older ideas connected with matriarchy and a division into clans still had weight.  But the language of the inscriptions is most orthodox.  King Vikrantavarman[349] quotes with approval the saying that the horse sacrifice is the best of good deeds and the murder of a Brahman the worst of sins.  Brahmans, chaplains (purohita), pandits and ascetics are frequently mentioned as worthy of honour and gifts.  The high priest or royal chaplain is styled Sriparamapurohita but it does not appear that there was a sacerdotal family enjoying the unique position held by the Sivakaivalyas in Camboja.  The frequent changes of capital and dynasty in Champa were unfavourable to continuity in either Church or State.