Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c7.44

c7.44

Reference has been made above to the tradition about the conquest of Fu-nan by Brāhmaṇa Kauṇḍinya. This was recorded by the Chinese ambassador K’ang T’ai who visited Fu-nan, probably some time between A.D. 245 and 250. He refers to a number of kings who succeeded Kauṇḍinya. One of these died at the advanced age of ninety, and his third successor sent an embassy to China in 243 A.D. Kauṇḍinya must have therefore reigned in the first century A.D., if not earlier still. For the present this is the earliest date to which we can definitely trace back the foundation of Hindu political authority in Indo-China.