ned with a native goddess,
received great honour (especially at Nhatrang) under the names of Uma,
Bhagavati, the Lady of the city (Yang Po Nagar) and the goddess of
Kauthara. In another form or aspect she was called Maladakuthara.[357]
There was also a temple of Ganesa (Sri-Vinayaka) at Nhatrang but statues
of this deity and of Skanda are rare.

The Chinese pilgrim I-Ching, writing in the last year of the seventh
century, includes Champa (Lin-I) in the list of countries which
"greatly reverence the three jewels" and contrasts it with Fu-nan
where a wicked king had recently almost exterminated Buddhism. He says
"In this country Buddhists generally belong to the Arya-sammiti
school, and there are also a few followers of the Aryasarvastivadin
school." The statement is remarkable, for he also tells us that the
Sarvastivadins were the predominant sect in the Malay Archipelago and
flourished in southern China. The headquarters of the Sammitiyas were,
according to the accounts of both Hsuan Chuang and I-Ching, in western
India though, like the three other schools, they were also found in
Magadha and eastern India. We also hear that the brother and sister of
the Emperor Harsha belonged to this sect and it was probably
influential. How it spread to Champa we do not know, nor do the
inscriptions mention its name or indicate that the Buddhism which they
knew was anything but the mixture of the Mahayana with Sivaism[358]
which prevailed in Camboja.

I-Ching's statements can hardly be interpreted to mean that Buddhism
was the official religion of Champa at any rate after 400 A.D., for
the inscriptions abundantly prove that the Sivaite shrines of
Mi-son and Po-nagar were so to speak national cathedrals where the
kings worshipped on behalf of the country. But the Vo-can inscription
(? 250 A.D.), though it does not mention Buddhism, appears to be
Buddhist, and it would be quite natural that a dynasty founded about
150 A.D. should be Buddhist but that intercourse with Camboja and
probably with India should strengthen Sivaism. The Chinese annals
mention[359] that 1350 Buddhist books were carried off during a
Chinese invasion in 605 A.D. and this allusion implies the existence
of Buddhism and monasteries with libraries. As in Camboja it was
perhaps followed by ministers rather than by kings. An inscription
found[360] in southern Champa and dated as 829 A.D. records how a
sthavira named Buddhanirvana erected two viharas and two temples