Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c9.48

c9.48

From the beginning of the tenth century, for a period of more than three hundred years, the Chinese annals frequently refer to a kingdom called San-fo-tsi, and give many interesting details about it. Though the origin of the Chinese name is obscure, there is no doubt that it refers to the great island-empire called Zābag by the Arab writers. San-fo-tsi had very intimate diplomatic and trade relations with China. The Chinese accounts fully corroborate the Arab testimony about the political and commercial greatness of the Mahārāja's Empire throughout the tenth century A.D.