Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c7.4

c7.4

It will not be desirable, however, to plunge immediately into these problems without a general reference, however brief, to the important factors which form the background of our study. This is all the more necessary in view of the fact that the study of the subject is of recent growth, and is still in its infancy in our country. It is true that archaeological discoveries in Indo-China and Indonesia, bearing upon India's contact with these regions, date back to the last century, but unfortunately the publications on the subject, being written in Dutch and French, were but little known to Indians who are generally ignorant of these languages. I still recall that the text of Indian History which I had to read in schools emphasised the unique character of Indian culture due to the fact that India lived in splendid isolation and never came into contact with the outside world. We were gravely told in these books that India never influenced nor was influenced by any foreign country.