T. Lubin
This topic has been the source of a lot of controversy, esp. since Quaritch
Wales and a number of Indian scholars opened the discussion by explaining it
as a case of Indian kings making conquests abroad (hence they referred to
Hindu S.E. Asia as "Greater India" -- see the Journal of the Greater
India Society, published from Calcutta from 1934).
In fact the most likely scenario: Indian traders seem to have operated in
the eastern Indian Ocean beginning in the last couple of centuries BCE.
Eventually, that trade came to be dominated by south Indians, who
established trading colonies along the coasts. Local rulers, consolidating
realms (based usually in in-land capitals), adopted Indic cultural styles
(including writing) and religious beliefs and practices learned from the
traders, eventually establishing contacts with Indian rulers, and inviting
brahmins and monks to settle there to establish "classical" royal cults.
Over time, local ancestor cults and other religious beliefs were integrated
into the local versions of the Indic traditions. Earlier claims that these
features remained a veneer associated only with the royal courts are belied
by the persistence of Indic names at many social levels, and of forms of
Hinduism itself among remote (i.e., not subsequently Islamized) groups in
Indonesia.
For an overview of what I take to be the current scholarly consensus on how
Indian culture and religions spread to Southeast Asia, I recommend:
Kulke, Hermann, " India's Impact on Southeast Asia: Causes and
Consequences," pp. 152-161 in:
Kulke, Hermann, and Dietmar Rothermund. (1990) A History of India.
London: Routledge.
PRE-MODERN PERIODS, S.E. ASIA IN GENERAL
Bhattacharya, Kamaleswar (1955) "La secte des Paçupata dans l'ancien
Cambodge." Journal asiatique 243: 479-490.
---- (1961) Les religions brahmaniques dans l'ancien Cambodge d'après
l'épigraphie et l'iconographie. Paris: EFEO.
de Casparis, J. G. (1996) "Some Notes on Ancient Indian Ritual in
Indonesia." in Ritual, State and History in South Asia: Essays in Honour
of J. C. Heesterman, ed. by A. W. van den Hoek, D. H. A. Kolff, and M.
S. Oort, pp. 480-492. Leiden: Brill. (de Casparis has written extensively on
inscriptions.)
Christie, Anthony (1964) "The Political Use of Imported Religion: An
Historical Example from Java." Archives de sociologie des religions
9(17): 53-62.
---- (1983) "Raja and Rama: The Classical State in Early Java." In:
Centers, Symbols, and Hierarchies: Essays on the Classical States of
Southeast Asia, Monograph Series, no. 26, Southeast Asia Studies. New
Haven: Yale U.
Coedès, George (1932) "Études cambodgiennes, XXVIII-XXX." Bulletin de
l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 32: 71-112.
---- (1937-1966) Les inscriptions du Cambodge, 8 vols. Paris:
Editions de Boccard.
---- (1939) "La plus ancienne inscription en langue chame." New Indian
Antiquary, extra ser. I: 46-49.
---- (1968) The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, edited by Walter
F. Vella, translated by Susan B. Cowing. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press.
Finot, Louis (1902) "Notes d'épigraphie, I: Deux nouvelles inscriptions de
Bhadravarman Ier, roi de Champa." Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient
2: 185-187.
---- (1918) "L'inscription de Chiêm-son." Bulletin de l'École française
d'Extrême-Orient 18: 13-14.
Glover, Ian (1983) "Archaeological Evidence for Early Trade between India
and South East Asia." In: The Indian Ocean in Antiquity, edited by
Julian Reade, pp. 365-400. London: Kegan Paul.
Gomez, Luis O., and Hiram W. Woodward, Jr. (1981) Barabudur: History and
Significance of a Buddhist Monument. Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series.
Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press.
Gonda, Jan (1973) Sanskrit in Indonesia, 2d ed. New Delhi,
International Academy of Indian Culture. (Orig. ed. 1952.)
---- (1975) "Siva in Indonesien," repr. in Selected Studies, vol. 4,
pp. 91-121. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
---- (1975) "The Old-Javanese Agastyaparvan," repr. in Selected Studies,
vol. 4, pp. 523-end. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
---- (1975) Selected Studies, vol. 5: Indonesian Linguistics. Leiden:
Brill. (incl.: "The Javanese version of the Bhagavadgita" and "Einige
Mitteilungen ueber das altjavanische Brahmanda Purana.")
Higham, Charles (1989) The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia from
10,000 B.C. to the Fall of Angkor. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
---- (2001) The Civilization of Angkor. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Houben, Jan E. M., ed. (1996) Ideology and Status of Sanskrit. Leiden:
Brill.
Kern, Hendrik (1917) Verspreide Geschriften, vol. 7.
Kulke, Hermann (1978) The Devaraja Cult, translated by I.W. Mabbett,
with an introduction by the author and notes on the translation of Khmer
terms by J.M. Jacob. Data Paper no. 108, Southeast Asia Program. Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University. Orig. pub.: (1974) "Der Devaraja-Kult."
Saeculum 25(1): 24-55.
---- (1993) Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and
Southeast Asia. New Delhi: Manohar.