Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c8.42

c8.42

In all these places Hindu manners and customs became widely prevalent. This shows that the number of Indians who migrated to them was large. Shrivijaya. Shailendra and Chola rule was established in South-East Asia from the eighth to the eleventh centuries. Al Masudi talks of the 'innumerable armies of the Maharaja' of Zabag ('isles of the eastern sea'). In the Hindu kingdom of Kambuja, a Chinese author writes : "More than a thousand Brahmans from India reside there...(and) read their books day and night".²⁵ In the temples of Borobudur and Angkor Vat. 'the style of sculpture follows the classic models of Gupta India'.²⁶ The causes of Indian cultural and colonial expansion in South-East Asia are not easy to assess, but Mysoreans, other South Indians, North Indians, Bengalis and many others went there.²⁷ The emigration was not due to any population pressure in India. But the migration of princes, soldiers, scholars, priests, sculptors etc., and that too in good numbers, indicates that India had a large population—enough and to spare.