Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c7.79

c7.79

More positive evidence is furnished by the Chinese text of the third century A.D. We know from these that a trader from Western India reached Fu-nan in the second quarter of the third century A.D. Having learnt from him detailed account of India, Fan, Chan, the king of Fu-nan, sent one of his relations as an ambassador to India. The latter embarked at Teu-Ki-li, probably the famous port of Takkola, reached the mouth of the Ganga, and then proceeded up the river for about 1000 miles. Now this account shows that the trader from Western India made a coasting voyage up to the mouth of the Ganga, which was in active intercourse with South-east Asia. If a direct voyage between South India and this region was quite familiar, and South India played the dominant role in this colonization, the West Indian trader would not have proceeded to the mouth of the Ganga, and the king of Fu-nan, who got all his information about India from this trader, would have probably sent his embassy to South India rather than to North India. In any case, it is certainly worthy of note that the first definite account that we possess of a political and maritime intercourse between India and South-east Asia refers to North and not South India, and implies the absence of any direct voyage between South India and South-east Asia.