Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c8.40

c8.40

Another fact which should not be lost sight of is that from the time of Ashoka, Buddhist missionaries used to go abroad, and with time their number would have become commensurate with their influence as "both Buddhist and Brahmanical religions were widely prevalent in several countries of western Asia before the advent of Islam".²⁴ Between the second and fifth centuries A.D. Indian colonial kingdoms were established in the Malay Peninsula, Cambodia, Annam and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo.