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Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c13: Book I. The Dawn of Hindu Colonisation

Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champā; Vol. II: Suvarṇadvīpa) v2.c13

Language
English

Contents

Book I. The Dawn of Hindu Colonisation

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the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

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It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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SUVARṆADVĪPA

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THE LAND

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The Malay Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago constitute together the region known as Malayasia. Although this name is not in general use, we prefer to adopt it as it very nearly coincides with the group of ancient Indian colonies in the Far East with which we propose to deal in this volume.

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The Malay Peninsula forms the most southerly part of the mainland of Asia. It is a long narrow strip of land projecting into the China sea and connected with the mainland by the Isthmus of Kra. In spite, however, of this connection with land, the peninsula belongs, geographically, to the Malay Archipelago and not to the Asiatic continent. The Malay Archipelago is also designated Indian Archipelago, East Indies, Indonesia, Asiatic Archipelago or Insulinde. It begins with the large island of Sumatra which lies to the west of the Malay Peninsula and is separated from it by the Straits of Malacca. The narrow Sunda Strait parts Sumatra from the neighbouring island of Java to its south-east. Java is the beginning of a series of islands lying in a long chain in the direction from west to east. These are Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores and a number of small islands which almost stretch upto New-Guinea. A little to the south of this line are the two important islands, Sumba and Timor.

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A similar chain of islands lies to the north, along a line drawn through the centre of Sumatra towards the east. It begins with Borneo, the largest island in the archipelago. Next comes Celebes, and then the large group of islands known as the Moluccas or Spice islands.

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Beyond all these islands, numbering more than six thousand, lie the large island of New Guinea to the east and the group of islands known as the Philippines to the north.

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The Archipelago is separated from Indo-China in the north by the South China Sea and from Australia in the south by the Timor Sea. To the west there is no large country till we reach the shores of India and Africa, the intervening sea being dotted with hundreds of islands. The most important of these, beginning from the east are Andaman, Nicobar, Ceylon, Maldives, Laccadives and Madagascar.

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As Wallace has pointed out, it is seldom realised that the dimensions of the Archipelago are really continental. "If transferred to Europe and the western extremity placed on lands' End, New-Guinea would spread over Turkey." It extends over 50 degrees of longitude (100° to 50°) and nearly 25 degrees of latitude (10°S. to 15°N.)

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It is a very singular characteristic of the Archipelago that one part of it, including Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, Java and Bali is separated by shallow sea from Asia, and the other part, including New Guinea, Flores, and Lombok is similarly separated from Australia. Between these two parts, however, the depth of the sea has been found to be from 1000 to 3,557 fathoms, although in some places, as between Bali and Lombok, the two regions are separated by a strait not more than 15 miles wide. The study of the fauna corroborates the natural difference between these two regions, and we might accordingly divide the Archipelago into an Asiatic and an Australian Zone.

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Wallace, who has gone more deeply into this question than any other scholar, postulates from the above premises that Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo formed at one time a part of the continent of Asia. He describes their evolution into separate islands as follows :

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“Beginning at the period when the Java Sea, the Gulf of Siam, and the straits of Malacca were dry land, forming with Borneo, Java and Sumatra a vast sothern extension of the Asiatic continent, the first movement was probably the sinking of the Java Sea as the result of volcanic activity, leading to the complete and early separation of Java. Later Borneo, and afterwards Sumatra, became detached—and since then many other elevations and depressions have taken place.”

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Similar observations are made by Wallace regarding other parts of the Archipelago. As we are mainly concerned with that part of it alone which includes Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo, we need not pursue these interesting investigations any further.

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A detailed account of the more important islands will be given separately when we deal with them individually in subsequent chapters. Here we need mention only a few general characteristics of the Archipelago.

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The equator passes almost through the centre of the Archipelago, and, excepting the northern half of the Philippines, nearly the whole of the Archipelago lies within ten degrees of latitude on either side. In consequence warm summer prevails throughout the year and the only change of seasons is that from dry to wet. The whole of this region is within the influence of the monsoons but free from hurricanes.

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The Archipelago is eminently a mountainous region and a volcanic band passes through it “in a sweeping curve five thousand miles long, marked by scores of active and hundreds of extinct craters. It runs through Sumatra and Java, and thence through the islands of Bali, Lombok, Flores to Timor, curving north through the Moluccas, and again north, from the end of Celebes through the whole line of the Philippines. The zone is narrow; and on either side the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Celebes, and New Guinea have no known volcanoes, and are apparently not subject to serious disturbances.”¹

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¹ The preliminary account of the Archipelago is based on the following works :—
(a) Major C. M. Enriquez—Malaya ( Hurst and Blackett, 1927 ).
(b) John Crawfurd—Dictionary of the Indian Islands and adjacent countries ( London, 1856 ).
(c) A. Cabaton—Java, Sumatra and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies ( T. Fisher Unwin, 1911 ).

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The geographical position of Malayasia invested it with a high degree of commercial importance. Situated on the highway of maritime traffic between China on the one hand and western countries like India, Greece, Rome and Arabia on the other, it was bound to develop important centres of trade and commerce. The route to China from the west lay either through the Straits of Malacca or along the western coast of Sumatra and then through the Sunda Strait. Thus Sumatra and Malay Peninsula, and, to a certain extent, Java also profited by this trade. The main volume of this trade must always have passed through the Straits of Malacca, and sometimes, perhaps, the goods were transported by land across the Isthmus of Kra in order to avoid the long voyage along the eastern and western coasts of the Malay Peninsula.

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Malayasia has been famous in all ages for its timber and minerals and almost enjoyed the monopoly of spices. This was undoubtedly the main reason why the western nations were attracted to this corner of Asia from very early times. This was particularly true of India and China which were the nearest countries to the Archipelago that possessed a highly developed civilisation from an early period.

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There was a regular maritime intercourse between India and the Far East as early at least as the first century A. D. This is definitely proved by the statement in the Periplus that ships from Indian ports regularly sailed to Chryse, and there was a brisk trade relation between the two.¹ As we shall see later Chryse was a vague name applied to Malaysia.

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¹ The Periplus of the Erythraean sea (edited by W. H. Schoff Longmans, 1912) pp. 45-48.

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The further statement in the Periplus, that after Chryse "under the very north, the sea outside ends in a land called This," is of singular importance, inasmuch as 'This' undoubtedly stands for China. As Clifford has pointed out, this tends to prove "that the sea-route to China *via* the Straits of Malacca even though it was not yet in general use, was no longer unknown to the mariners of the east." This is confirmed by the fact that not long afterwards the sailor Alexander sailed to the Malay Peninsula and beyond; for, to quote again from Clifford, "it may safely be concluded that the feasibility of this south-eastern passage had become known to the sea-farers of China long before an adventurer from the west was enabled to test the fact of its existence through the means of an actual voyage."²

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² Ibid. p. 260.

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The author of the Periplus does not seem to have possessed any definite information or accurate knowledge of the Far East. The reason seems to be that there was no direct communication between the Coromandel coast and the Far East, but the voyage was made from the Gangetic region either direct or along the coast of Bay of Bengal. This follows from the fact that whenever Chryse is mentioned in the Periplus it is invariably associated with the Ganges. As this aspect of the question has not been generally recognised I may quote below the relevant passages from Schoff's translation.

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1. Referring to the Chola country the author says; "Among the market-towns of these countries, and the harbours where the ships put in from Damirica (Tamil land) and from the north, the most important are, in order as they lie, first Camara, then Poduca, then Sopatma; in which there are ships of the country coasting along the shore as far as Damirica ; and other very large vessels made of single logs bound together called *sangara* ; but those which make the voyage to Chryse and to the Ganges are called *colandia*, and are very large.” (p. 46)

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2. “After these, the course turns towards the east again, and sailing with the ocean towards the right and the shore remaining beyond to the left, Ganges comes into view, and near it the very last land towards the east, Chryse.” (p. 47)

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3. “And just opposite this river (the Ganges) there is an island in the ocean, the last part of the inhabited world toward the east, under the rising sun itself ; it is called Chryse.” (p. 48)

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Thus there is hardly any doubt that to the author of the *Periplus* Chryse is closely associated with the Gangetic region. The last sentence in the first passage may be taken to imply a direct voyage to Chryse, but it is at least very doubtful. Besides, it is to be remembered, that the author of the *Periplus* himself says that the coasting voyage was the order of the day, and he narrates the striking discovery by Hippalus of a direct voyage to the west coast of India from African shore.¹ It is difficult to believe that the author would not have referred to a direct voyage from the Coromandel coast to the Far East, if such a course was known in his time, at least in passage No. 1. quoted above.

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¹ Ibid. p. 45.

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This view is confirmed by Ptolemy. He refers to the *apheterium*, immediately to the south of Paloura, where the vessels bound for the Malay Peninsula “ceased to follow the littoral and entered the high seas”². S. Lévi has shown that the city of Paloura, which played such an important part in the eastern ocean trade of India was the same as the famous city of Dantapura, in Kalinga, which figures so prominently in the Buddhist literature. Thus even in Ptolemy’s days there was no direct voyage from the Coromandel coast, but in addition to the coastal voyage along the Bay of Bengal from Tāmralipti, a direct voyage to the east was made from Paloura near modern Chicacole.¹ It is difficult, therefore, to accept the view, generally held on the authority of the Periplus, that there was a direct voyage between South India and the Far East in the first century A. D.²

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² Ptolemy. (M’c. Crindle ), pp. 66, 69.

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¹ J. A. 1925, pp. 46-57. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil held the view that the apheterium was situated near the mouth of the Godāvarī (Ancient History of the Deccan pp. 86-88)

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² Cf. e. g. Krom’s emphatic opinion in Geschiedenis, p. 53.

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It cannot, of course, be maintained that a direct voyage between South Indian ports and Malay Peninsula was an impossible one. All that we learn from Ptolemy is that the usual point of departure for the Far East was near Paloura. It is possible, however, that occasionally ships sailed direct from Coromandel coast to the east, or via Ceylon and Andaman Islands to the coast of Sumatra.³

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³ For the probability of such voyage in pre-historic times cf. Chap. II.

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The fame of Paloura or Dantapura, in Kaliṅga (the coastal region between the Mahānadi and the Godāvarī), was no doubt due, at least to a great extent, to its importance as the point of departure for the Far East. That probably also explains why the Chinese referred to Java and other islands of the Archipelago as Kling, no doubt an abbreviation of Kaliṅga. All these point out to Kaliṅga as the particular region in India which was more intimately connected, through its port Paloura, with the Far East in the early period.

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There were important ports on the opposite coast also. In the Malay Peninsula we have reference to Takkola in classical writings, to Kala by Arab writers and to Singapore and Malacca by the Portuguese. In Sumatra the most important port was Śri-Vijaya. Others will be referred to in due course. On the whole, therefore, we can easily visualise Malayasia as a fairly extensive region between the continents of Asia and Australia, enjoying peculiar advantages of trade and commerce, both by its geographical position as well as by its native products. From a very early period it had intercourse with China on the north, Australia and the Pacific islands on the south and east, and India and various islands in the Indian ocean on the west. It was more intimately connected with Burma and Indo-China on the north, as their inhabitants were allied to its own.

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A detailed discussion of the people or peoples that inhabited Malayasia before the advent of the Hindus belongs to the domain of anthropology. It is beyond the scope of the present work to dwell upon this question at length and I propose, therefore, merely to give in broad outline the salient facts on which there is a general agreement among scholars.

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It is usual to divide the population into three main strata : (1) The primitive races (2) the Proto-Malays and (3) the Malays.¹

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¹ The account of the tribes is taken from Major C. M. Enriquez' excellent book "Malaya—an account of its People, Flora and Fauna" (Hurst and Blackett 1927) Chs. V-VIII. The quotations are also from this book. A detailed account of the manners and customs of the primitive people is given by I. H. N. Evans in "Ethnology and Archæology of the Malay Peninsula" (Cambridge, 1927) and by R. J. Wilkinson in "A History of the Peninsular Malays" 3rd Edition Singapore (1923).

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(1) The *Semang* and the *Sakai* of the Malay Peninsula may be taken as fair specimens of the wild tribes that inhabited the region in primitive times. The Semang Negritos belong to the earliest stratum of population which has survived in the peninsula. They now occupy "the wooded hills in the north of the peninsula, in Kedah, Perak and northern Pahang : with occasional communities like the Temo in Ulu Bera and Ulu Rompin in south Pahang". "They are dark, with woolly hair, and flat, spreading noses, feeble chins, and lips often everted : and sometimes they are almost pigmies in size. But for a bark loin-cloth, they are naked......They have no form of agriculture whatever, and live upon jungle produce and by hunting, fishing and trapping. Their distinctive weapon is the bow and poisoned arrow. They live under over-hanging rocks or leaf-shelter and build no houses.”

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The Sakai occupy the mountains of south-east Perak and north-west Pahang. They resemble the Semang in many respects and the two have interbred to a considerable extent. “In colour the Sakai vary from brown to yellow, and are lighter even than Malays. The hair is long and black, the nose finely cut and tilted, the eyes horizontal and half-closed and the chin sharp and pointed. They tattoo the face in certain districts and sometimes wear a ring or a porcupine’s quill through the nose. Their distinctive weapon is the blow-pipe with which they are extremely skilful. As a rule they live in huts sometimes placing them up trees at a height of 30 feet from the ground.”

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(2) A number of wild tribes to be found all over Malayasia are called Proto-Malays, as their languages are distinctly Malay. The Jakun who occupy the south of the Malay Peninsula may be taken as a fair specimen of this type. “They are coppery in colour, with straight smooth black hair of Mongolian type. The cheek-bone is high, the eyes are slightly oblique. Though inclined to be nomadic, they usually practise some form of agriculture, and live in fairly good houses.”

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The Proto-Malay type is met with all over Malayasia. The Batak, Achinese, Gayo and Lampongs of Sumatra, the Dayaks, Kayan, Kenyah, Dusun and Murut of Borneo, and the aborigines of Celebes, Ternate and Tidore—all belong to this type. Some of them are cruel and ferocious. The Batak, for example, are said to be cannibals who eat prisoners and aged relatives. The Kayan and Kenyah are noted for their frightful cruelty and their women seem to have a genius for devising tortures for captives, slaves and strangers. Others are more civilised. The Dayaks of Borneo, although head-hunters for ritualistic purposes, are described as ‘mild in character, tractable and hospitable when well used, grateful for kindness, industrious, honest and simple; neither treacherous nor cunning, and so truthful that the word of one of them might be safely taken before the oath of half a dozen Malays.’

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(3) The Malays, who now form the predominant element of the population of Malayasie, have been divided by Wallace under four great heads¹ :—(1) The Malays proper who inhabit the Malay Peninsula and the coastal regions of Sumatra and Borneo ; (2) the Javanese of Java, Madura, Bali and parts of Lombok and Sumatra ; (3) the Bugis of Celebes ; and (4) the Tagalas of the Philippines.

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¹ Wallace—Malay Archipelago, Vol. II, p. 439.

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Wallace describes the Malay as follows : “In character he is impassive. He exhibits a reserve, diffidence and even bashfulness, which is in some degree attractive, and leads observers to think that the ferocious and blood-thirsty qualities imputed to the race are grossly exaggerated. He is not demonstrative. His feelings, of surprise or fear, are never openly manifested, and are probably not strongly felt. He is slow and deliberate in speech. High-class Malays are exceedingly polite, and have all the quiet ease and dignity of well-bred Europeans. Yet all this is compatible with a reckless cruelty and contempt for human life, which is the dark side of their character.”

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Having given a short description of the various peoples, we may now proceed to trace their origin and affinities from racial and linguistic points of view. Both these questions are beset with serious difficulties and the views of different scholars are by no means in complete agreement. We must, therefore, content ourselves by merely quoting the view of one eminent authority in each line of study, referring the readers, who seek further information, to special treatises on the subject.

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Mr. Roland B. Dixon has summed up as follows the racial history of the Malay Peninsula.² “The oldest stratum of population was the Negrito Palae-Alpine which survives to-day in comparative purity only among the Andamancse. With this was later blended a taller Negroid people, of mixed Proto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid types, to form the Semang. This Negroid population is still represented among some of the hill-folk in Burma, such as the Chin, is more strongly present in Assam and dominant in the greater part of India. Subsequently to the formation of Semang a strong immigration came into the Peninsula from the north, of the normal Palae-Alpine type, of which perhaps some of the Karen may be regarded as the last survivors. From the fusion of these with the older Semang was derived the Sakai and some, perhaps, of the Jakun; the later and less modified portions of this wave forming the older Malay groups of to-day. Finally in recent times came the Menangkabau Malays from Sumatra who have overlain the earlier group throughout the south.” The statement in the last sentence that the Malays came from Sumatra, is, perhaps, no longer valid, as we shall see later.

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² Roland B. Dixon—The Racial History of Man (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, London, 1923) p. 275.

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As regards language, it has been recognised for a long time that the language of the Malays belongs to the same family as that of Polynesia and the name Malayo-Polynesian was applied to this group. Since then, however, Melanesian, Polynesian, Micronesian and Indonesian (Malay) languages have all been proved to belong to the same family to which the new name Austro-nesian has been applied. The discovery of human skulls and the pre-historic stone implements in Indo-China and Malay Archipelago has demonstrated the racial and cultural affinity between many of the races speaking these languages.¹

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¹ For pre-historic finds cf. Tijdschr. Aardr. Gen. Vol. 45 (1928) pp. 551-576; O. V. 1924 (127-133), 1926 (174-193), 1929 (pp. 23 ff).

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There is hardly any doubt that the primitive wild tribes of Malayasia belonged to the palæolithic age. Discoveries of human skulls and other pre-historic finds establish a sort of racial and cultural affinity among large groups of them spreading over Indo-China, Indonesia, Melanesia, and as far as Australia. They were gradually ousted by the peoples speaking Austro-nesian group of languages and belonging to the Neo-lithic period. The time and nature of contact between all these races we have no means to determine. So far as we can judge from the analogy of similar events and the few facts that present themselves to us, the result of the conflict seems to be, that the original inhabitants were partly exterminated, partly incorporated with the new-comers, and partly pushed back to hills and jungles where some of them maintain a precarious existence upto the present day.

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Whether the conquering peoples all belonged to one race cannot be definitely determined. This view is at least in accord with the fact that their languages were derived from one stock, and it is also supported by pre-historic finds, as noted before. Be that as it may, there is hardly any doubt that they must have lived together in close bonds of union, before they were scattered over the islands in the Pacific ocean.

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We can thus easily postulate a common home for this Austro-nesian group of peoples. Kern made a critical study of the question by considering the fauna and flora of this home-land as revealed by the common elements in the various languages of the group. By this process of study he placed the home-land of the Austro-nesians on the coast of Indo-China.¹ This view is corroborated by the fact that human skulls which are purely Indo-nesian and pre-historic finds which are undoubtedly Proto-Indo-nesian have been found in Indo-China.

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¹ Kern—V. G. Vol. VI, pp. 105-120. Kern calls it "Secundaire stamland" (Second home), for he traces their origin further back to India, as will appear later (V. G. Vol. XV, p. 180). R. O. Winstedt has further supported this view by noting the occurrence of identical tales in the Indo-nesian and Mon-Khmer languages (J. Str. Br. R. A. S. No. 76, pp. 119 ff).

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Ferrand has traced the early history of these peoples still further back, mainly on the authority of an account preserved by Ibn Saïd (13th cent.). He thinks that they originally lived in upper Asia as neighbours of the Chinese, and being driven by the latter, about 1000 B. C., came down to Indo-China along the valleys of the Irawadi, Salwin, Mekong and Menam rivers. Nearly five hundred years later they migrated again from this region to Malay Peninsula and various islands of the Indian Archipelago.¹ Of late, another theory has been advanced by Van Stein Callenfels. He infers from the remains of their metallic objects that the original home of the Austro-nesians lies in the region of the Altai mountains.²

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¹ J. A. II-XII (1918) pp. 120-125 ; 1919, p. 201.

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² T. B. G. Vol. 64 (1924), p. 604.

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It must be remembered, however, that considering the scanty and uncertain data on which the above conclusions are necessarily based, they can only be regarded as provisional. Nor should it be forgotten that the settlement of the vast region of Malayasia could not possibly have been a simple process of migration of a body of people from the mainland to each of the islands. There must have been currents and cross-currents from different quarters that swelled the tide, and we have to postulate migrations and emigrations, not only many in number but probably also varied in character. It will be outside the scope of this book to pursue the ramification of this fascinating problem any further. But there is another point of view regarding this question which is virtually connected with the subject-matter of this book and must be treated at some length. Recent linguistic researches have established definite connection between the languages of some primitive tribes of India such as Muṇḍā and Khāsi with Mon-Khmer and allied languages including those of Semang and Sakai. The great philologist Schmidt has thus established the existence of a linguistic family, which is now called Austro-Asiatic.¹ Schmidt believes that ‘the linguistic unity between these peoples which is now definitely established, points to an ethnic unity among them as well, though positive and satisfactory evidence on this point is lacking yet.’²

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¹ Die Mon-Khmer-Volker etc. (1906) pp. 35 ff. I have used the French translation in B. E. F. E. O. Vol. VII. (pp. 213-263), VIII (pp. 1-35). A good exposition of Schmidt's view, so far as the linguistic aspect is concerned, is given in the introductory chapter in “Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India” by Dr. P. C. Bagchi (Calcutta University, 1929) from which I have freely quoted. (The page marks within bracket in the text refer to this book).

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² Schmidt, op. cit. cf. specially, p. 233.

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“Schmidt has extended his studies even further and proposed to connect the Austro-Asiatic family with the Austro-nesian” to which, as stated above, the Malays belonged. Schmidt thus seeks to establish a “larger linguistic unity between Austro-Asiatic and Austro-nesian and calls the family thus constituted ‘Austric’.” Here, again, Schmidt indicates the possibility of an ethnic unity among the peoples whose linguistic affinity is thus definitely assured.

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Schmidt thus regards the peoples of Indo-China and Indo-nesia as belonging to the same stock as the Muṇḍā and allied tribes³ of Central India and the Khāsis of North-eastern India. He regards India as the original home of all these peoples from which they gradually spread to the east and south-east. The following passage sums up his views in this respect.

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³ The Muṇḍā group of language includes Kol, the more eastern Kherwari with Santali, Muṇḍāri, Bhumij, Birhor, Koḍā, Ho, Turi, Asuri, and Korwa dialects and the western Kūrkū; Khariā; Juang; and the two mixed languages Savara and Gadaba. (Dr. P. C. Bagchi, op. cit. p. VI.)

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‘In the same way as I have presented here the results of my investigations on movements of peoples who, starting from India towards the east, at first spread themselves over the whole length of Indo-Chinese Peninsula, and then over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean upto its eastern extremity,—my attention has for long been drawn to another current which, in my opinion, also started from India, but turned more directly towards the south and touching only the western fringe of the Pacific Ocean proceeded, perhaps by way of New Guinea, towards the continent of Australia'¹

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¹ Schmidt, op. cit, pp. 248-249. A critical summary of Schmidt's view is given by Blagden—"From Central India to Polynesia" (J. Str. Br. R. A. S. No. 53 p. 63).

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Schmidt's views, like those of Ferrand and others noted above, must be regarded as only provisional.² But several other scholars have supported this view on entirely different grounds. Among them may be mentioned the names of S. Lévi, J. Przyluski and J. Bloch. The relevant articles on this subject by these eminent scholars have been published together in English version by Dr. P. C. Bagchi. The following summary is derived almost entirely from this book entitled "Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India."

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² Recently Schmidt's view has been challenged by W. F. de Hevesy who denies the existence of the Austro-Asiatic family of languages (J. B. O. R. S. Vol. XX pp. 251 ff).

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'Prof. Thomson first maintained that Muṇḍā influence can be traced in the formation of Indian vernaculars. Recent studies have tried to establish that this influence can be traced further back. Prof. Przyluski has tried to explain a certain number of words of the Sanskrit vocabulary as fairly ancient loans from the Austro-Asiatic family of languages. Prof. Jules Bloch has proved that the question of the Muṇḍā substratum in Indo-Aryan can not be overlooked (pp. XI-XII)

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'But the problem has other aspects too, and it has been further proved that not only linguistic but certain cultural and political facts also of the ancient history of India can be explained by admitting an Austro-Asiatic element. In 1923 Prof. S. Lévi tried to show that some geographical names of ancient India like Kosala-Tosala, Aṅga-Vaṅga, Kaliṅga-Triliṅga, Utkala-Mekala, and Pulinda-Kulinda, ethnic names which go by pairs, can be explained by the morphological system of the Austro-Asiatic languages. In 1926 Przyluski tried to explain the name of an ancient people of the Punjab, the Udumbara, in a similar way and affiliate it to the Austro-Asiatic group. In another article, the same scholar discussed some names of Indian towns in the geography of Ptolemy and tried to explain them by Austro-Asiatic forms (pp. XII-XIII).

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'In another series of articles, Prof. Przyluski is trying to prove a certain number of Indian myths by the Austro-Asiatic influence. He studied the Mahābhārata story of Matsyagandhā and some legends of the nāgī, in Indian literature, compared them with similar tales in the Austro-Asiatic domain, and concluded that these stories and legends were conceived in societies living near the sea, societies of which the civilisation and social organisation were different from those of the neighbouring peoples, the Chinese and the Indo-Aryans.' (p. XIII)

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The bearing of all these interesting investigations on the question under discussion has thus been admirably expressed by S. Lévi.

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'We must know whether the legends, the religion and philosophical thought of India do not owe anything to this past. India has been too exclusively examined from the Indo-European standpoint. It ought to be remembered that India is a great maritime country, open to a vast sea forming so exactly its Mediterranean, a Mediterranean of proportionate dimensions—which for a long time was believed to be closed in the south. The movement which carried the Indian colonisation towards the Far East, probably about the beginning of the Christian Era, was far from inaugurating a new route, as Columbus did in navigating towards the West. Adventurers, traffickers and missionaries profited by the technical progress of navigation, and followed under the best condition of comfort and efficiency the way traced from time immemorial by the mariners of another race whom the Aryan or Aryanised India despised as savages.” (pp. 125-6)

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In other words, the cumulative effect of all these researches is to push back the first phase of Indian colonisation in the Far East to a time prior to the Aryan or Dravidian conquest of India. It will not perhaps be rash to imagine that, that colonisation was, at least partly, the result of Dravidian and Aryan settlements in India which dislodged the primitive peoples and forced them to find a new home across the seas.¹

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¹ Kern also held similar view; cf. V. G., Vol. XV, p. 180. He held that they came from India, their ultimate home being Central Asia. This is not in conflict with his original view that the homeland of the Malayo-Polynesians was the eastern coast of Further India.

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It may be noted, however, that conclusion of an almost opposite character has been arrived at by certain scholars. Krom, for example, believes that the Indo-nesians had colonised India in primitive times, and the later Aryan colonisation of the Far East was merely the reverse of that process.² This is in flagrant contradiction to the views of Schmidt and Lévi, and seems to be based mainly on the theory of Mr. J. Hornell. In his Memoir on “the Origins and Ethnological significance of the Indian Boat Designs” Mr. Hornell “admits a strong Polynesian influence on the Pre-Dravidian population of the southern coast of India. He thinks that a wave of Malayan immigration must have arrived later, after the entrance of the Dravidians on the scene, and it was a Malayan people who brought from the Malay Archipelago the cultivation of the Coco-palm.” (p. XVII)

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² Krom—Geschiedenis, p. 38.

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Two other observations by different scholars probably lend colour to this view. In the first place, Prof. Das Gupta “has brought out the striking analogy between some sedentary games of India (specially of the Central Provinces, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and the Punjab) and those of Sumatra.” (p. XVII)

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Secondly, we have the following remarks made by Dr. J. H. Hutton with reference to some pre-historic monoliths of Dimapur near Manipur. "The method of erection of these monoliths is very important, as it throws some light on the erection of pre-historic monoliths in other parts of the world. Assam and Madagascar are the only remaining parts of the world where the practice of erecting rough stones still continues...... The origin of this cult is uncertain, but it appears that it is to be mainly imputed to the Mon-Khmer intrusion from the east." In his opinion these monoliths take the forms of *lingam* and *yoni*, and he thinks that they possibly originated in Indo-nesia. (pp. XVII-XVIII)

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In all these cases the similarity that undoubtedly exists may be explained by supposing either that India derived the practices from Indo-nesia or that Indo-nesia derived them from India. The recent discoveries at Mohenjo-daro,¹ however, prove the existence of the cult of Liṅga and Yoni in the Indus Valley at least in the beginning of the third millenium B. C. Thus the migration of the cult towards the east seems most probable. Considering the whole course of Indian history it seems more probable that the migration of the people and ideas was generally from India towards the east, and no tangible evidence has yet been obtained that the process was just the reverse. On the whole, therefore, the views of Schmidt and Sylvain Lévi appear far more reasonable than those of Hornell and Hutton.

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¹ Marshall—The Indus Civilisation, pp. 58 ff.

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In view of a possible pre-historic connection between India and Malayasia, it is necessary to say something on the word Malaya which has given the name to the dominant race and the dominant language in Malayasia. It is a well-known fact that an Indian tribe called Mālava (var. Malava) or Mālaya (var. Malaya) is known from very ancient times. The common form, of course, is Mālava, but the form ‘Mālaya’ also occurs on their coins. In a discussion of these coins Mr. Douglas maintained that Mālaya is the older form of the tribal name. His conclusion rests chiefly on the Greek form of the name. "The Greeks" says he "called them the Malloi. Had the name Mālava been in common use at that time, I feel sure that the Greeks would have transliterated the word as the Malluoi. This seems to me to show that the commoner form of the tribal name at the time of the Greek invasions was Mālaya."¹

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¹ J. A. S. B., N. S., Vol. XIX (1924). Numismatic supplement No. XXXVII, p. 43.

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Whatever we may think of this view, there is no doubt that both the forms were in common use. The form Malaya occurs in Mudrā-Rākṣasa² and Mālaya in an inscription found at Nasik.³ The interchange of y and v is also attested by the alternative names of a Sātavāhana king as Pulumāyi and Pulumāvi.⁴

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² Canto I, verse 20.

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³ Rapson—Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhras etc, p. LVII.

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⁴ Ibid, fn, 1.

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The antiquity of the Mālava-Mālaya tribe is proved by Pāṇini's reference to it as a clan living by the profession of arms (āyudhajīvin). There is no doubt also that the Mālavas were widely spread in different parts of India. Alexander met them in the Punjab, but their settlement in Rājputānā is proved by the discovery of thousands of their coins at Nāgar in Jaypur State⁵ and the reference in the Nasik inscription mentioned above.

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⁵ V. Smith—Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum, pp. 161 ff. 170 ff.

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The Indian literature also makes frequent references to the Mālavas. The Mahābhārata knows of various Mālava tribes in the west, north and south.⁶ The Rāmāyaṇa and Matsyapurāṇa include the Mālavas among the eastern tribes⁷ while various other texts refer to them as a people in one or other parts of India.

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⁶ cf. Mahābhārata II-32, III-51, VI-9, 87, 106.

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⁷ Rāmāyaṇa IV-40, V-22. Matsyapurāṇa Ch. 114 V. 34.

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The wide spread of the Mālavas may also be guessed from Indian dialects or toponyms connected with them. Mr. Grierson has referred to a Malavia dialect extending from Ferozepur to Bhatinda in the Punjab, and we have also the well-known Malayalam language of southern India. The well-known Indian provinces of Mālava in northern India and Malaya-bar or Malabar in southern India still testify to the influence of that tribal name. The Malaya mountain, the source of Sandalwood, is referred to in Purāṇas and other ancient literature as one of the seven Kulaparvatas or boundary mountains in India. Lastly the famous era, beginning in 58 B. C., has been associated with the Mālavas from the earliest times.

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The Buddhist literature also refers to Malaya country. The famous Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is said to have been delivered by the Buddha in the city of Laṅkā on the summit of the Malaya mountain on the border of the sea. The Buddhist reference to Malaya has been regarded by some as purely imaginary but the existence of a Malaya mountain in Ceylon is proved by Ptolemy and Mahāvaṃsa. That of a Malaya country and a Malaya mountain in the south of India also rests on definite grounds. The great Buddhist Vajrabodhi who came to China in A. D. 719 is described as a native of the Malaya country adjoining mount Potalaka, his father being preceptor of the king of Kāñcī. Hiuen Tsang places the country of Malakūta, 3000 li south of Kāñcī, and refers to its mountains Malaya and Potalaka. Alberuni also places Malaya 40 farsakhs (about 160 miles) south of Kāñcī. Thus we have both a Malaya country and a Malaya mountain in the extreme south of the Indian Peninsula.¹ There is no doubt that this name is preserved in modern Malabar which the Arab Geographers call either Malaya-bar or simply Malay.¹

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¹ S. Lévi in J. A. CCVI, pp. 65 ff. Watters—On Yuan Chwang, Vol. II, pp. 229-231. Ptolemy—(M'c. Crindle), p. 249. Geiger—Mahāvaṃsa, p. 60. Sachau-Alberuni, Vol. I, p. 200; cf. also B. E. F. E. O. Vol. IV, p. 359.

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¹ Ferrand—Textes, p. 38 fn. 5, pp. 204, 340.

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While the Mālava and Malaya can thus be traced as tribal or geographical names all over India, upto its north-western, eastern and southern extremities, the spread of this name across the sea is no less conspicuous. On the east, the famous Malays of Malayasia, the place names Malay and Malacca in the Peninsula, Malayu in Sumatra,² Mālā or Mālava for Laos and perhaps even Molucca islands in the eastern extremity of the archipelago, and on the west Maldives (Māladvīpa), and Malay the ancient name of Madagascar³ testify to the spread of the name in Indo-China and along the whole range of the southern ocean.

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² "The name Malayu is very common in Sumatra. There are a mountain and a river of that name; there are five villages called Malayu and a tribe of that name." T'oung Pao, series II, Vol. II, p. 115.

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³ Ferrand—Textes, pp. 389, 396.

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Now Ferrand has drawn our attention to the fact that the Indo-nesian language, mixed with Sanskrit vocabulary, was current in Madagascar. Combining this fact with other traditional evidences he has come to the conclusion that Madagascar was colonised in ancient times by Hinduised Indo-nesians.⁴ It is not necessary for the present to discuss the further implications of this theory as enunciated by Ferrand, and I must rest content by pointing out the bearing of the account of Mālava—Mālaya, as given above, on this as well as several other theories.

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⁴ J. A. II-XII (1918) pp. 121 ff. J. A. II-XIV (1919), pp 62 ff., pp. 201 ff. Krom, however, thinks that the Indo-nesian people colonised Madagascar before they came into contact with the Hindus. He attributes the Indian element in the language of Madagascar to later intercourse (Geschiedenis, pp. 38-9).

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Now the theories of Schmidt, Lévi, Hornell and Hutton (as modified by the discoveries at Mohenjo-daro) referred to above, all presuppose, or are at least satisfactorily explained by a stream of migration of Indian peoples towards the east and south-east, to Assam, Burma, Indo-China and Malay Archipelago, both by land and sea. The migrations of the Mālava tribe, so far as we can judge from the occurrence of geographical names, follow, as we have seen above, exactly this course, as we can trace them from the Punjab to Assam on the one side and to Malabar on the other.

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From Malabar we can trace the name in the east through Ceylon (Mālava mountain in Laṅkā) and Sumatra (Malayu) to Malay Peninsula, perhaps even to Moluccos. On the west we can trace it from Malabar to Maldives and Madagascar. It is, no doubt, more reasonable to explain the linguistic facts observed by Ferrand in Madagascar by supposing a common centre in India, from which the streams of colonisation proceeded both towards the east as well as towards the west, than by supposing that Hindu colonists first settled in Malayasia and then turned back to colonise Madagascar. The people of Madagascar have a tradition that their ancestors came from Mangalore.¹ This place is located by Ferrand in the south of Malaya Peninsula, but it should not be forgotten that Mangalore is the name of a well-known place in Malabar Coast and is referred to by Arab writers as one of the most celebrated towns of Malabar.²

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¹ J. A. II-XIV (1919), p. 64.

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² Ferrand—Textes, p. 204.

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I do not wish to be dogmatic and do not altogether reject the views of Ferrand. But the known facts about the Mālava-Mālaya tribe in India seem to me to offer quite a satisfactory explanation not only of the problem of colonisation of Madagascar but also of the racial, linguistic and cultural phenomena observed by Schmidt, Hutton and Hornell. It is interesting to note in this connection that various words inscribed on the coins of the Mālavas which have been provisionally explained as names of tribal leaders, are non-Sanskritic. Thus we have Bhapamyana, Majupa, Mapojaya, Mapaya, Magajaśa, Magaja, Magojava, Gojara, Māśapa, Mapaka, Pacha, Magacha, Gajava, Jāmaka, Jamapaya, Paya. Whatever the language may be, it shows one peculiar Austro-nesian characteristic, which has been traced by Sylvain Lévi in certain geographical nomenclatures of ancient India, viz., the existence of a certain number of words constituting almost identical pairs, differentiated between themselves only by the nature of their initial consonants. Among the terms on the Mālava coins noted above we may easily select two series of this type.

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1. Paya, Ma-paya, Ja-ma-paya.
2. Gajava, Magojava.

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The tribe Mālava-Mālaya has played great part in the history of India. Its name is associated with an old language, the most ancient era and two important provinces of India. The Mālaya tribe has played an equally dominant part in the Indian seas. It has been the dominant race in the Indian Archipelago and its name and language are spread over a wide region extending almost from Australia to African coast. I have shown above enough grounds for the presumption—and it must not be regarded as anything more than a mere presumption—that the Mālava of India may be looked upon as the parent stock of the Malays who played such a leading part in Malayasia. It may be interesting to note here that Przyluski has shown from linguistic data that Udumbara or Odumbara was the name of an Austro-Asiatic people of the Punjab and also designated their country.¹ The Odumbaras were neighbours of the Mālavas and the coins of the two peoples belong approximately to the same period.² Thus, *prima facie* there is nothing inherently objectionable in the assumption that the Mālava-Mālaya may also be the name of an Austro-Asiatic people.

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¹ P. C. Bagchi—Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India, pp. 149-160.

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² V. A. Smith—op. cit, pp. 160 ff., p. 166.

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If the presumption be held a reasonable one, we may refer to Ptolemy’s account as an evidence that the Malays had spread to the Far East before his time. Ptolemy refers to mountain Malaia in Ceylon and cape Malcou Kolon in the Golden Khersonesus. Regarding the latter, M’c. Crindle remarks as follows : “Mr. Crawford has noticed the singular circumstance that this name is pure Javanese signifying “Western Malays.” Whether the name Malay can be so old is a question : but I observe that in Bastian’s Siamese extracts the foundation of Takkhala is ascribed to the Malays.” Thus indications are not wanting that various branches of the Malay tribe had settled in Malayasia before the second century A. D. There is a general tradition among the Malays of Minankabau that their parent stock came from India and settled in the western coast of Sumatra.¹

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¹ Cf. Ferrand in J. A. II-XII, p. 77.

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Thus while it is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion in this matter, pre-historic migrations of Austro-nesian tribes from India to Malayasia appear very probable, and if this view be correct, we may regard the Indian Mālaya-Mālava people as one of these tribes.²

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² Although I have arrived at the theory of the Indian origin of the Malays quite independently, it is only fair to note that Gerini made the same suggestion in his ‘Researches on Ptolemy’s Geography of Eastern Asia’ (pp. 101 ff). I have not referred to his views as they are mixed up with a great deal of extraneous matters and some amount of fanciful etymological derivations. So far as I can see, his views rest primarily on the resemblances of geographical names.

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Gerini explains Maleou-Kolon as referring to two prominent Indian tribal names-Malay and Kola (Cola) of south India, and he traces many other south Indian tribal names in the Malay Peninsula (cf. pp. 102-3). He holds that Malacca was either a modification of Malaykolam or Malayaka (meaning the country of the Malays) or identical with Mālaka, the name of a southern Indian tribe mentioned in the Mahābhārata (p. 105). I have tentatively adopted this view in respect of both Malacca and Moluccos. With the exception of this and the statement that

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PRE-HINDU CIVILISATION IN MALAYSIA

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The Austro-nesian races must have occupied Malayasia for a pretty long time before they came into contact with the Hindus and imbibed their civilisation. In order, therefore, to estimate properly the influence of this new element we must have some idea of the civilisation which these indigenous races possessed before the arrival of the Hindus.

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Unfortunately the materials for such a study are very scanty. The actual remains left by these races do not differ very much from what is usually termed as ‘pre-historic’ and met with in various other countries. We may start with a brief account of them, beginning from Java¹, where a more systematic study has been made of these materials than in other places.

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¹ The following sketch of the pre-historic remains of Java is based on (a) Krom—Kunst Vol. I. pp. 121-26 ; (b) Krom-Geschiedenis, pp. 42-45.

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Laos is referred to as Mālava (p. 117) I have not borrowed from Gerini any views or statements recorded in this chapter.

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I must also state that it is usually held, though without sufficient reason, that the term Malaya as designating the Malay Peninsula came into use only in the seventeenth century A.D. (J. Mal. Br. R. A. S. 1930, p. 85), presumably in consequence of the migration of a large number of Malays from Sumatra, in the fifteenth century A. D. (B. C. A. I., 1909, p. 184). Blagden refers to I-tsing's Malayu and infers that Malaya country *par excellence*, was in Central Sumatra, a fact agreeing very well with native Malay tradition on the subject which derives the origin of many of the Malays of the Peninsula from the old Central Sumatran state of Minangkabau (J. Str. Br. R. A. S. No. 32 pp. 211-213). This view admits the possibility of the name Malaya being applied to the Peninsula at an earlier date. (cf. Crawfurd—Dictionary pp. 250-252).

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