| Abstract: |
The paradigm that the early Southeast Asian polities known as Dvāravatī and Zhenla were respectively, indeed almost exclusively, Buddhist and Hindu/Brahmanical during the second half of the first millennium CE has long remained uncontested. In this reappraisal, however, arguments are presented that challenge this general scholarly opinion. A thorough reassessment of the material culture and inscriptions from these two neighbouring regions of mainland Southeast Asia tempers such clear-cut compartmentalisation and instead emphasises the complex and evolving nature of the religion of that age through the lens of the ideology of merit. The religious affiliation of certain artefacts and inscriptions that are clearly related to this ideology are further examined and questioned.
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