Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c11.5

c11.5

Such examples are furnished by Pre-Angkorean temples in Cambodia, and the temples in Champā and Central Java. While discussing the origin of these temples in Champā, Parmentier, the great French authority on Art, held that this art was not traceable in the old Indian style. This view was challenged by me in my book on Champā published in 1927. Since then there has been a great change of views in this respect. In his latest book¹ Parmentier has made a painstaking analysis of the common elements between the architecture of India and South-east Asia, and has frankly admitted that both the temples and *stupas*, in the Indian colonies derive not only their basic plan but also their general moulding and decoration from Indian models. He has even traced the influence of Hindu architecture in the temples of China, Japan, Korea and Annam. Nevertheless, Parmentier's views about this type of temples in India do not seem to be very accurate, and this question will be dealt with at length at the end of this lecture.