Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c14.t6.49

v2.c14.t6.49

An alternative supposition would be to trace the later Hindu civilisation in Borneo to Java. That Java exercised political authority in some parts of Borneo as early as the thirteenth century A.D. is definitely known, and it is easy to conjecture that Indo-Javanese culture and civilisation should find its way to Borneo, and influence it to a certain extent. This influence is quite apparent in the art of later Borneo, and nobody can possibly mistake it. But it is equally impossible to deny that some elements even of later civilisation in Borneo are not Indo-Javanese, and must be traced ultimately to India. Nor is it necessary to assume, with Krom, that Javanese political authority extended to Borneo even earlier than the thirteenth century A. D., in order to explain the traces of Hinduism noticed in Pu-ni in the tenth and eleventh centuries A. D.¹