Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c13.323

v2.c13.323

The list of Niddesa thus practically covers a large part of the region which we have named Suvarṇabhūmi and Suvarṇadvipa, and of all the Indian texts available to us it shows the most detailed knowledge of the oversea centres of trade in the East. Lévi has drawn attention to the points of agreement between this list and that given by Ptolemy, and has drawn the conclusion that both must belong to approximately the same period. The knowledge of the Far East possessed by Pliny and the author of the Periplus makes it highly improbable that such an extensive and detailed knowledge of the Far East, as is shown by the author of Niddesa, existed in India in the first century A. D. On the other hand, the absence of any reference to Cambodge or Champā makes it equally improbable that the list was drawn up in the third century A. D. when those countries were certainly known to India. Thus the list of Niddesa must have been drawn up between the end of the first and the beginning of the third century A. D.