It’s certain
that Bali has been populated since early prehistoric times, but the oldest
human artefacts found are 3000-year-old stone tools and earthenware vessels
from Cekik. Not much is known of Bali during the period when Indian traders
brought Hinduism to the Indonesian archipelago, but the earliest written
records are stone inscriptions dating from around the 9th century. By that
time, rice was being grown under the complex irrigation system known as subak,
and there were precursors of the religious and cultural traditions that can
be traced to the present day.
It is said
that some people from South China and Taiwan migrated to the Bali island around
2000 BC. Actually, there was a lot of trade between China and the
Indonesian islands even commencing before the Christian era. However,
culturally the Balinese (Indonesians in general) came
only under the Hindu-Buddhist influence that had spread from India.
The Balinese stock of population is still very much a mixture of Austronesian,
Polynesian, Melanesian etc.
Tamilians
migrated from Tamil Nadu to Malaya and Singapore as plantation labour during
the British Rule in Malaya from the 19th Century and that is how you see them
on your trips over there. Such is not the case with Indonesia/Bali
which was ruled by the Dutch for 150 years from c.1800 AD. I have come
across some persons (Indians) wrongly imagining that Bali (and even Indonesia)
would be having Tamilians!
Bali has had
its own Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms from the 10th Century AD. An inscription dated
914 AD on a pillar near Sanur, Bali, points out to relations between Bali
and the Sanjaya Dynasty of Central Java.
Bali had
close relations with East Java. It is to be noted that only a narrow strait of
3 km separates the two. The Balinese King Udayana of the Warmadewa
Dynasty of Bali married a Javanese Princess named Mahendradatta. Their
son Erlangga, born c.991 AD, became the Ruler of East
Java. However, Erlangga's younger brother Anak Wungsu became a
renowned Balinese King when he succeeded his father Udayana.
In 1284 AD,
King Kertanagara of East Java invaded Bali and ended its independence.
In 1292 AD, Kertanagara was murdered by Raden Wijaya (Raden
means Raja) , the founder of the great Majapahit Empire in East
Java. So, for a while Bali became independent. However, in 1343 AD, a
very significant year in Bali's entire history, Bali went under the
control of the powerful Hindu Majapahit Kings of East Java. With that, deep
cultural changes took place in Balinese society and the Hindu caste system got
inducted. The collapse of the East Javan Hindu Majapahit Empire in 1515 AD witnessed
the Hindu King and his Hindu people taking refuge in Bali island. And the
Hindu-ness of the Bali people got thus reinforced and has lasted till today.
And till 1908 when the Dutch eliminated the vestiges of royal reign in Bali,
with a military intervention, Bali witnessed growth in every way
in keeping with its resources and its genius.
