Centuries before English emerged as a global lingua franca or the European Union envisioned regional integration, Southeast Asia had already experienced a form of “unity.” Remarkably, this cohesion did not arise from military conquest or rigid trade agreements, but through an ethereal chain of syllables: the Sanskrit language.
Historians refer to this phenomenon as the Sanskrit Cosmopolis, a period in which, from the Mekong River valley to the coasts of Java and Bali, intellectuals operated within a shared cultural frequency.
Regardless of ethnic boundaries, rulers in the Khmer Kingdom (Cambodia), Ayutthaya (Thailand), as well as Srivijaya and Majapahit (Indonesia), employed the same language to legitimize their authority.
This stands as tangible evidence of an intellectual brotherhood that crossed oceans, positioning Southeast Asia as a major center of thought in the classical world.
The Lingua Franca of Kings
The concept of the Sanskrit Cosmopolis was first popularized by historian Sheldon Pollock. He explains that between the fourth and fourteenth centuries, Sanskrit spread across Southeast Asia not through population colonization, but through what he terms “cultural conquest.”
According to Pollock, this cosmopolis was not shaped by any single religion, but by ideas and values embedded in the broader Sanskrit textual tradition, which circulated beyond the boundaries of diverse local languages.
This was possible because Sanskrit was not tied to any particular ethnic, linguistic, or territorial group. From its earliest use, it functioned as a transregional language—or, in Pollock’s words, “a language of the gods in the world of men.”
Sanskrit became the gold standard for anyone wishing to be regarded as civilized and learned. In Thailand, ancient inscriptions record not only prayers, but also royal genealogies composed with refined linguistic aesthetics, comparable to those found in Central Java, Indonesia.
The use of Sanskrit created a transnational public sphere. A monk from Sumatra could debate logic and philosophy with a scholar in Champa (central Vietnam) or at Angkor without linguistic barriers.
Rulers in the Khmer Kingdom, Champa, and Srivijaya adopted Sanskrit to articulate concepts of leadership. Terms such as Cakravartin (universal ruler) and Mandala (center of power) became widely recognized political standards throughout the region.
This shared vocabulary fostered a common political vision across Southeast Asia, in which royal authority was often analogized to the harmonious order of the cosmos.
A Shared Legal Order
The power of Sanskrit extended far beyond religious texts. It permeated legal systems and administrative practices. The Manava Dharmasastra, for instance, served as a reference for legal codification in many Southeast Asian kingdoms.
In Indonesia, this influence is especially evident in the formation of customary law, which later developed in symbiosis with local values.
Literary traditions such as the kakawin tradition in Java and the Ramakien in Thailand likewise demonstrate how major Indian epics were reworked through Sanskrit’s “poetic logic,” while retaining strong local character.
Notably, this diffusion occurred voluntarily. Local elites in the archipelago and mainland Southeast Asia adopted Sanskrit because it was regarded as a language capable of expressing complex thought, from mathematics and astronomy to the performing arts.
This process gave rise to a new intellectual class, often referred to as brahmanas or court poets, whose role was to preserve and transmit this transregional “library of knowledge” for more than a millennium.
A Living Legacy in Modern Vocabulary
Although Sanskrit’s dominance gradually faded with the arrival of Islam and Western colonialism, this intellectual “elder sibling” never truly disappeared. Instead, it transformed into a foundation for many national languages in Southeast Asia.
Indonesian, for example, has absorbed thousands of Sanskrit loanwords, particularly for abstract, philosophical, and state-related concepts such as Pancasila, bhakti, sastra, and warta. Thai likewise continues to draw on Sanskrit roots in official terminology and academic discourse.
The enduring presence of Sanskrit serves as a reminder that Southeast Asia once possessed a deeply integrated intellectual identity. This shared heritage demonstrates that long before modern notions of globalization emerged, the region had already developed a sophisticated form of global connectivity.
