Dharmasetu was an 8th-century

Maharaja Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...

Srivijaya Srivijaya (), also spelled Sri Vijaya, was a Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia) that influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important ...

. Under his reign, he successfully incorporated Pan Pan, a kingdom located in the north of the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

, into the Srivijayan sphere of influence before 775 CE. At an old monastery of

Nakhon Si Thammarat Nakhon Si Thammarat (, ; from ) is a city municipality (''thesaban nakhon'') located in Mueang Nakhon Si Thammarat, the capital of Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. Nakhon Si Thammarat Province is situated in the South of Thailand. It is about s ...

in modern-day

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, there is a

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

indicating that Dharmasetu ordered the construction of three sanctuaries dedicated to Bodhisattvas Padmapani, Vajrapani, and

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

in Ligor. The inscription further states that Dharmasetu was the head of the Sailendra dynasty that ruled

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

. This is the first instance of a relationship known to have existed between Srivijaya and the Sailendra. Dewi Tara, the daughter of Dharmasetu, later married a member of the Sailendra dynasty by the name of Samaratunga who later assumed the throne of Srivijaya around 792. The relationship between Srivijaya and the Sailendra became intimately close afterwards. He was succeeded by his son-in-law Sangramadhananjaya around 782.

References

Maharajas of Srivijaya Shailendra dynasty Indonesian Buddhist monarchs 8th-century Indonesian people {{Indonesia-bio-stub