Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v1.c7.s3.5

v1.c7.s3.5

The Indians must have been acquainted with Champā by way of trade and commerce, long before they established their political supremacy in that region. The general question about the nature and antiquity of Indian colonisation in the Far East will be fully discussed elsewhere. Here we may confine ourselves to the traditions which the later Hindu kings of Champā preserved about their origin. The Dong Duong (No. 31) Stelæ Inscription of Indravarman II., dated 797 Śaka, describes how Uroja, apparently the first king, was sent to the earth by Śiva himself. Three other inscriptions (Nos. 22, 29 A, and 71) refer to a king Vicitra-Sagara who flourished in the year 5911 of the Dvāpara age or about 1,779,357 B. C. Uroja is evidently a mythical conception and Vicitra-Sagara, too, belongs to the same category.