Tibet forms a narrow enclave between India and these northern countries. It was not, however, such an exclusive and isolated region as it is to-day, and a regular route from China to Nepal passed through it. Tibet became a powerful kingdom in the seventh century AD, and Srong-tsan Gampo, one of its best-known kings (seventh century AD), introduced Buddhism into his country. He had married a princess from China and another from Nepal, and presumably the influence of his queens converted him to the new faith. Along with the new religion, he introduced Indian alphabets and thus was paved the way for a new culture and civilisation in Tibet. As in the case of China, Tibetan Buddhists came to India in large numbers, and the proximity of India enabled them to come into closer contact with the home of Buddhism. The Pala emperors helped towards the reform of Buddhism in Tibet, and there was a lively intercourse between Tibet and the Pala kingdom. Tibetan monks studied at the monasteries of Nalanda, and Vikramasila, and many Indian Buddhist monks visited Tibet. The name of Atisa-Dipamkara, a monk of Eastern Bengal, who visited Tibet in the eleventh century AD in the days of Nayapala, is still held in the highest veneration there. Hundreds of the sacred texts of Buddhism were translated into Tibetan, of which two famous collections, Tanjur and Kanjur, still exist.
The spirit of maritime adventure in India found its full and free scope in the south-east. Across the Bay of Bengal lay Indo-China and the Malay Archipelago. They were peopled by primitive races, and held almost a monopoly of the world’s spice trade. These fertile tracts were also rich in minerals and soon drew the attention of the Indians. The eastern coast of India, from the mouth of the Ganges to Cape Comorin, was studded with ports, some of which are named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The author of this book refers to some of the Far Eastern countries as Chryse, or the Golden Land. He implies, though he does not expressly state, that there was a coasting voyage from Bengal to those regions. Ptolemy, in the second century AD, knew the names of important trading centres in the Malay Peninsula and the lands of Java and Sumatra. Buddhist text, written about the same period, give a long list of trading centres in the Far East which agrees fairly well with that of Ptolemy. These names are mostly in Sanskrit. There is thus no doubt that by the second century AD Indians had developed important trading relations with the Far East. We learn from Ptolemy that there was a direct route from Palura (not far from Chicacole and Ganjam) across the sea, to the Malay Peninsula.
Indian literature has faithfully preserved the traditions of the early days of this perilous voyage to unknown lands beyond the sea. The stories preserved in the Jatakas, the Kathasaritsagara and other similar collections frequently refer to traders’ voyages to Suvarvnabhumi the land of gold, which was a general designation of several lands in the Far East. Traders returned with immense riches from the land whose very soil was supposed to be made of gold. On the other hand, many met with shipwreck and there were also sufferings and miseries of other kinds. Some stories represent young Kshatriya princes, dispossessed of their hereditary kingdoms, sailing to Suvarnabhumi to restore their fortunes.
To some such Kshatriya enterprise we perhaps owe the foundation of Indian political power in these far-off regions. From the second century AD onwards we find reference to kingdoms ruled by persons with Indian names. Their religion, social manners and customs, language and alphabet are all Indian and we may therefore regard these States as Indian colonial kingdoms. Between the second and fifth centuries AD such kingdoms were established in the Malay Peninsula, Cambodia, Annam, and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo. The history of these kingdoms is known, partly from the Sanskrit inscriptions found in those countries, and partly from the accounts preserved by the Chinese. The Brahmanical religion, mainly Saivism, flourished in these regions, though Buddhism was also not unknown. The indigenous people adopted the civilisation of their masters and there was a gradual fusion between the two races. Hindu customs end manners were no doubt modified to some extent by coming into contact with these people, but still for nearly a, thousand years the essential features of Indian civilisation were the dominant characteristics of society in these regions.
The Indian colonists established great kingdoms, some of which lasted for more than a thousand years and continued to flourish even long after the end of Hindu rule in India. On the mainland of Indo-China there were two powerful kingdoms, those of Champa and Kambuja. The kingdom of Champa comprised, at its greatest extent, nearly the whole of modern Vietnam (Annam). Some of its kings such as Jaya Paramesvaravarmadeva lsvaramurti (c. 1050-1060), Rudravarman (c. 1061-1069), Harivarman (1070-1081), Maharadhiraja Sri Jaya Indravarman (C. AD 1167-1180), Jaya Simhavarman (c. 1257-1287), were great heroes and defended their country successfully against the attacks of their western neighbours, the Kambujas, and the great Mongol chief, Kublai Khan. They had diplomatic relations with the Chinese. After a glorious existence of more than thirteen hundred years (C. AD 150-1471) their power was virtually broken by the repeated attacks of their northern neighbours, the Annamese, and in the sixteenth century the Hindu kingdom was overrun by these Mongolian hordes. There were many flourishing cities in Champa, and the whole country was adorned with beautiful temples, both Hindu and Buddhist.
The origin of the Hindu kingdom of Kambuja is shrouded in mystery. According to an old legend, Kaundinya married Soma, a Naga princess, and founded the royal dynasty of Kambuja. He planted a spear which he had obtained from Drona’s son Asvatthama. Another version makes the hero a son of Adityavamsa, king of Indraprastha. In any case, we can trace the earliest Hindu kingdom in Kambuja to the first or second century AD. It occupied the southern part of Cambodia and was called Fu-nan by the Chinese. It rose to great power, and exercised suzerainty over several vassal states. On its southern frontier was the vassal kingdom of Tuen-sien. A Chinese author writes about this kingdom as follows: “More than a thousand Brahmanas from India reside there. The people follow their doctrines and give them their daughters in marriage. They read their sacred books day and night.” The kings of Fu-nan sent ambassadors to both India and China.
The position of supremacy passed in the sixth century to Kambuja-desa, originally one of the vassal states of Fu-nan. Kambuja-desa, at first only a small principality in the north-east, has given its name to the whole country, and its kings ruled in great splendour for nine hundred years. Among its most valiant kings may be named Jayavarman I, II, and VII Yasovarman, and Suryavarman II. In the fifteenth century AD the invasions of the Annamites from the east and the Thais (who had conquered Siam) from the west reduced the powerful kingdom to a petty principality which became the protectorate of the French, and is now again an independent State.
