Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c7.76

c7.76

The second question concerns the particular localities in India which supplied the Hindu colonists. The view that only the Indians of Malabar and Coromandel Coasts colonised South-east Asia by the sea-route was held by eminent scholars. In a book published more than twenty-five years ago, I combatted this view and tried to prove that North India, through the port of Tāmralipti in Bengal, had a fair share in this colonization. There has been much discussion on this point, and my esteemed friend Professor Nilakanta Sastri has opposed my view. This has led an eminent French scholar to remark, in a recent publication, that the Hindu scholars do not take a positive or detached view of the subject, and according as they belong to Madras or Calcutta, they attribute to the Tamil land or Bengal the honour of having colonized Greater India.¹³ Although I do not regard this criticism a just one, it becomes a somewhat delicate task for me to discuss the problem. But nevertheless I cannot altogether avoid this discussion, and therefore state below the important data which must be taken into consideration before arriving at any conclusion.