Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c8.40

c8.40

The names of the early kings of Champā are mostly known only in their Chinese form. Each of these begins with Fan, and this has been held to correspond to Sanskrit title 'Varman' which was the epithet of almost every Cham king in later times. Recently a scholar has opposed this view, as noted above, and he takes Fan to be the designation of an indigenous clan. But some of the kings, whose names ending in 'varman' are known from Sanskrit inscriptions, must have flourished during the same period, and this supports the equation of Fan with Varman.