The story behind Sukmavati, daughter of former Indonesian President Sukarno, leaving Islam and converting to Hinduism.

Sukmavati Sukarnoputri, daughter of former Indonesian President Sukarno, has left Islam and converted to Hinduism. Sukmavati converted to Hinduism at the Sudhi Vadani ceremony held at Sukarno Sukmavati Sukarnoputri Center Bali. In many videos shared on social media, she was seen following religious rituals. He also held a press conference after the event. Social media users are calling it the spread of Sanatam Dharma in Southeast Asia.

In the video, the priest can be seen reciting mantras and sprinkling holy water on Sukmavati. Aarti was also performed in their traditional way and other beliefs were also followed. Sukmavati knows all the principles and traditions of Hinduism. There are many temples associated with Hinduism in Bali and people from all over the world come to see it.

One notable feature of his conversion is that his move has been supported by his brothers, Guntur Soekarnoputra and Guruh Soekarnoputra, and sister Megavati Soekarnoputri. Not only this, his step has also been welcomed by his children i.e. Muhammad son Parveera Utama, Prince Haryo Paundrajarna Sumautra Jeevenegara and Gusti Raden Age daughter Sinivati.

Actually Sukmavati Sukarnoputri was married to Adipati Arya Mangkunegara, but they got divorced in 1984. Then in 2018, Sukarnoputri was in the news when one of her poems went viral around the world. In which he wrote “Java’s Hindu women’s thong is more beautiful than Islamic chadar”, after which radical Muslims filed a complaint of blasphemy against him. Now after nearly three years, once again Sukmavati Sukarnoputri is in discussion.

In such a situation, a question must have been swirling in your mind that how can Sukmavati whose husband’s name is Adipati Arya Mangkunegara can be a Muslim? Because the names of Muslim men are Tofiq, Farooq, Momin etc. And how is Sukmavati Muslim because the names of Muslim women are also Anisha, Noor Jahan, Adiba etc. Is it that Sukmavati’s husband has changed his name to Adipati Arya for love jihad? Like these people are doing in India these days!

Actually there is nothing like that! The relations between India and Indonesia go back thousands of years. Because in Indonesia there is a deep influence of not only Hinduism but also Buddhism. A living example of this is that even though the fundamentalist Muslim section there is campaigning to wrap women in hijab, but in the royal palace of Indonesia, women are still not allowed to enter the palace with their heads covered or hijab burqa. Not only this, even though the Muslims of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh consider themselves to be the children of Gauri, Ghazni, Babur, but it is not so in Indonesia, they may have changed their religion but the father has not changed. If you mention Mahabharata and Ramayana in Indonesia, they will say that these are our scriptures. Those people consider the characters of Mahabharata including Hindu God Shri Ram ji, Hanuman ji as their ancestors.

For this reason, it has been well described in the book “The Hinduized States of South East” Asia, written many years ago by the famous French scholar and historian Paul Cedis. For example, the names of the old kingdoms of Indonesia are Srivijaya and Gajah Madha etc. A few years ago, Anees Baswedan, the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia, came to India. During this visit, one of his statements especially made headlines. Anees said that our Ramayana is famous all over the world. We want our staging artists to perform at least twice a year in different cities of India. We would also like to organize the Ramayana festival regularly in India.

Actually, Indonesia with 90 percent Muslim population still has a deep impression of Ramayana. Famous Hindi scholar “Father Kamil Bulke” said in an article in 1982, “35 years ago, a friend of mine, seeing a Muslim teacher reading Ramayana in a village in Java, asked why do you read Ramayana?” So got the answer, I read Ramayana to be a good human being.

Not only this, an interesting anecdote is also heard about this. It is said that during the time of Indonesia’s first President Sukarno, a delegation of Pakistan was on a visit to Indonesia. During this time he got a chance to see Ramlila there. Pakistani people were surprised that why Ramlila is staged in an Islamic republic! He also asked this question to Sukarno. He immediately got the answer “Ramayana is our culture”.

For example, they became Muslims, but instead of Arabic culture, they kept their culture alive. Even by breaking the temple, do not make domes on them. As a result, even today people with names like Sukarno, Suharto, Megavati, Indra, Krishna, Vishnu, Surya, Rama, Lakshmana, Arya, Subrata, Aditya, and Kamala etc. will be found. Many words of Sanskrit are also found in the language here. Also, if anyone wants to see the ancient temples of Hindus, then they will be found in large numbers in Indonesia.

Now understand this whole episode that what is the relationship between Indonesia and India – food and drink, clothes. Ram-Sita and Ramayana-Ramlila. Actually say it is old or it is very old thing. For this, the period goes to about 300 BC, when Emperor Ashoka was in power. In the same period, there was a vast kingdom of Hindu kingdoms inside Indonesia as well. Java and Sumatra are the largest islands in Indonesia, consisting of more than 17 and a half thousand islands. This was the period when this vast region was not called Asia but Great India. At that time, merchants from here used to carry their goods there through the sea. At the same time Buddhism also reached there.

After this, around the seventh century, the Srivijaya kingdom here used to be heard in the whole of South-East Asia. As they had their rule over the sea and the business from it, and also the reason for their wealth. You get the meaning of Srivijay! Shree means “Lakshmi” and “Vijay” means victory. This Lakshmi used to come from the Strait of Malacca, located between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. This was the route of ships going towards China.

However, during this time the Shailendra Empire, which believed in Buddhism, also ruled here. Because the huge Buddhist stupa built here during this period is still a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then when the Srivijaya kingdom came there, they came to Java. Some also say that the Srivijaya Empire had its hand on its head.

It is said that in the 11th century AD, Raja Rajendra Chola of the Chola dynasty, Tamil Nadu, attacked the Srivijaya kingdom through the sea. Even some parts of it were conquered. Rajendra Chola attacked many parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. The Cholas also conquered Kadaram, the capital of the Srivijaya Empire. Only after this the empire came to an end.

After this description is found, this was a very powerful kingdom of the Majapahit Empire. He believed in both Hinduism and Buddhism. There were Shaivas as well and there were Buddhists along with Vaishnavas. The king was considered to be the incarnation of all three. The best time of this dynasty came in the 14th century. During this, he spread his feet far and wide. This empire spread all over Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei. There has never been a more powerful empire in the history of Indonesia.

Now what happened as people like Alberuni had entered India in the eleventh century by pretending to be Sufism. At the same time, these people started entering there, initially they started spreading the raita of Sufism by going to the sea beaches. Arab Muslim merchants started coming, after this Muslim merchants married local women, after that some wealthy merchants started marrying the ruling and prestigious families there. That is, the merchants and the kings of the major states were given a sip of religion. When the kings of the islands converted to Islam, the common citizens were sure to leave! That is, by the end of the thirteenth century, Islam was established in North Sumatra.

After this, Indonesia was conquered by the Portuguese in the 15th century. Then came the Dutch. That is, sometimes Portuguese, sometimes Dutch, sometimes Islamic army, between these three, their original religion Sanatan got crushed. But the amazing thing in this was that the votes were imposed on them but they could not impose their culture, like it was imposed in India. That is, even today the people there are very close to their original Sanatan culture. That’s why the youth there says that we youths do not leave our Java culture because if we lost it once then it cannot be brought back. This is the reason that whenever one sees Islamic fundamentalism there, he returns to his original culture Sanatan. Because those people have saved it by saving it and probably kept it for this day to know when any Sukmavati Sukarnoputri will return.

BY- Rajeev Choudhary Author  Blogger Youtubers