Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c8.20

c8.20

It may be noted that all the kings of Fu-nan beginning from Fan-che-man, who succeeded the last descendant of the first Kauṇḍinya up to the accession, of Hindu Chandana, had Fan as part of their names. It is generally supposed that this was the Chinese transcription of ‘Varman’, the usual name-ending of a Kṣatriya in India. Recently a scholar⁴ has suggested that it was an ethnic title, denoting an indigenous person as opposed to a Hindu immigrant. According to this theory the Hindu colonization spent its force and there was a revival of indigenous influence at the beginning of the third century A.D. This continued for two centuries till a fresh wave of colonization, under Kauṇḍinya II, planted the Hindu culture once again.