Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c13.s1.83

v2.c13.s1.83

kingdom comprising the whole of the island of Java, or merely one of the many kingdoms into which that island was divided. The statement in the "History of the First Sung Dynasty", that "the state of Ho-lo-tan ruled over the island of Chö-p'o", would, no doubt, incline us to accept the former view, but certain details, preserved in the same Chinese history, would favour the latter. Thus we read: "In 433 A. D., the king of Ho-lo-tan named Vaiśa (or Vaiśya)-varman presented a letter. The kingdom was afterwards usurped by the son of Vaiśavarman, of which the old king complained in a letter to the emperor of China, dated in the year 436 A. D." Now, as we have seen above, a king bearing a different name was ruling over Chö-p'o or Chö-p'o-p'o-ta in 435 A. D. We must, therefore, presume that Ho-lo-tan and Chö-p'o (or Chö-p'o-p'o-ta) were two distinct kingdoms, and if the latter were in Java, as some scholars have held, Ho-lo-tan could not mean the whole of Java.