Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c13.443

v2.c13.443

More interesting light is thrown upon the Indian colonisation in Malay Peninsula by an analysis of the large number of inscriptions which have been discovered in different parts of the country. These inscriptions, of which a detailed account is given in an appendix to this chapter, are mostly too fragmentary to yield any complete sense, but they lead to very important conclusions. They are written in Sanskrit and in Indian alphabets of about the fourth or fifth century A.D. Two of them distinctly refer to a Buddhist creed and thus prove the spread of Buddhism in that region. As to the distribution of the inscriptions, seven of them were found at Tokoon in the centre of the Province Wellesley; four of them, in the northern part of the same province; one at Keddah; one at Takua Pa; five at Ligor; and two at Caiya. On the whole, therefore, these inscriptions clearly testify to the fact that the Indians had established colonies in the northern, western and the eastern sides of the Malay Peninsula by at least fourth and fifth centuries A.D. The palaeography of these inscriptions shows that the colonists belonged to both northern and southern India.