Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c9.44

c9.44

There are grounds to believe that the Śailendras were fresh arrivals from India. In the first place their inscriptions are written in the North-Indian script of the period which is different from the script then in use in Java. Secondly, the Arab writers not only refer to them by the purely Indian title Mahārāja, which actually forms the name-ending of rulers of some Indian dynasties, but also testify to their close connection with India. Thus Ibn Rosteh says that the Mahārāja of Zābag is not regarded as the greatest among the kings of India because he dwells in the islands. Mas'ūdī also observes that Zābag, which separates India from China, is comprised within the former country. These evidences are not of course, conclusive. Much has been written about the origin of the Śailendras, but no definite conclusion is possible at the present state of our knowledge.⁷