was zealous for the faith and so were several kings of Siam.  I am inclined to think that this movement was a consequence of the flourishing condition of Buddhism at Pagan in Burma from 1050 to 1250.  Pagan certainly stimulated religion in both Siam and Ceylon and Siam reacted strongly on Camboja.[443] It is true that the later Buddhism of Java was by no means of the Siamese type, but probably the idea was current that the great kings of the world were pious Buddhists and consequently in most countries the local form of Buddhism, whatever it was, began to be held in esteem.  Java had constant communication with Camboja and Champa and a king of Madjapahit married a princess of the latter country.  It is also possible that a direct stimulus may have been received from India, for the statement of Taranatha[444] that when Bihar was sacked by the Mohammedans the Buddhist teachers fled to other regions and that some of them went to Camboja is not improbable.

But though the prestige of Buddhism increased in the thirteenth century, no rupture with Brahmanism took place and Pali Buddhism does not appear to have entered Java.  The unity of the two religions is proclaimed:  Buddha and Siva are one.  But the Kamahayanikan while admitting the Trimurti makes it a derivative, and not even a primary derivative, of the original Buddha spirit.  It has been stated that the religion of Java in the Madjapahit epoch was Sivaism with a little Buddhism thrown in, on the understanding that it was merely another method of formulating the same doctrine.  It is very likely that the bulk of the population worshipped Hindu deities, for they are the gods of this world and dispense its good things.  Yet the natives still speak of the old religion as Buddhagama; the old times are “Buddha times” and even the flights of stairs leading up to the Dieng plateau are called Buddha steps.  This would hardly be so if in the Madjapahit epoch Buddha had not seemed to be the most striking figure in the non-Mohammedan religion.  Also, the majority of religious works which have survived from this period are Buddhist.  It is true that we have the Ramayana, the Bharata Yuddha and many other specimens of Brahmanic literature.  But these, especially in their Javanese dress, are belles lettres rather than theology, whereas Kamahayanikan and Kunjarakarna are dogmatic treatises.  Hence it would appear that the religious life of Madjapahit was rooted in Buddhism, but a most tolerant Buddhism which had no desire to repudiate Brahmanism.

I have already briefly analysed the Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan which seems to be the most authoritative exposition of this creed.  The learned editor has collected many parallels from Tibetan and Nepalese works and similar parallels between Javanese and Tibetan iconography have been indicated by Pleyte[445] and others.  The explanation must be that the late forms of Buddhist art and doctrine which nourished in Magadha spread to Tibet and Nepal but were also introduced into Java.