Definition:

• "Indianisation" means "The Spread/Expansion of Indian Culture." The term has been generally applied by scholars to refer to the impact of Indian culture upon SEA. This phenomenon occurred during the 1^st century AD of the Christian era and was accomplished by peaceful means. Its result was not political colonisation, but rather the implantation of Indian culture & civilisation in countries which already possessed a definite, if not limited, culture of their own. However, the culture which the Indians propagated was not completely unfamiliar to the people who received it. In fact, it spread rapidly in the 1^st century because the people were able to recognise the similarity of the Indian culture to their own traditional culture.
• The process of lndianisation in SEA and its influence was to have a significant effect on the culture and historical development of the Southeast Asian people. One of the most visible remnants of Indian in SEA was the Angkor Wat whose ruins were discovered more than a century ago by a French botanist. The island of Bali today remains as proof of the spread of Hinduism to SEA. Different theories and explanations have been formulated to account for this spread of cultural ideas and the result of this dissemination.

• A lack of written records has been a great hindrance to historians trying to piece together the ancient history of SEA:

a) Ancient Indian literary texts:

• Exact information about the lands east of the Indian Ocean is conspicuously absent from Indian literature. There are purely incidental illusions almost impossible to interpret in Sanskrit classical verse and Tamil court poetry.
• For example, the Ramayana speaks of ‘Yavadvipa’ (the island of gold and silver), and ‘Suvarnadvipa’ (golden island or peninsular) – ‘dvipa’ being the Sanskrit for ‘land with water on two sides’, i.e. a peninsula or island.
• The Puranas mention ‘Malay-dvipa’ and ‘Yava-dvipa’. Sir Roland Braddell, a historian, equates ‘Malay-dvipa’ with Sumatra, while the ‘Yava-dvipa’ is interpreted by scholars as a regional name for the Java and Sumatra islands.
• The Buddhist Jatakas, or birth stories of Buddha which enshrine folk tales of early India, often tell of voyages to ‘Suvarnabhumi’ the Land of Gold. The name also appears in other texts together with a few other names applied by Indians to places in SEA.
• But the only information to be drawn from all these references put together is that in India, there was a vague idea of an ‘El Dorado’ eastwards across the ocean. However, they tell u precisely nothing about the spread of Indian culture in that direction.

b) Indigenous Southeast Asian writings:

• The writings dealing with this early period provide little help, as most of the discoveries are relatively recent, none of which is more than 200 years old. They tell us that dynasties of a much later period wanted people to believe about ancient times and in particular, about their own splendid ancestry.

c) Early Chinese records:

• Chinese sources, while invaluable for the light they shed upon the political geography, contain little information about the spread of Indian influence. They gave us our earliest glimpse of a Hindu court – Funan – the precursor of Cambodia, and they mention the story of the arrival of the Brahmin Kaundinya in the 1^st century AD; They also mention some Malay states with Sanskrit names, they do not tell us anything else.

d) Ptolemy’s works:

• In the first two centuries AD, there was a general expansion of commerce along the Asian sea-route. With this there came an increase in geographical knowledge. A Graeco-Roman geographer named Ptolemy who published a geography atlas of the known world at Alexandria (in about AD 150) provided the first documentary evidence about SEA. His map shows a number of ports dotted along the coasts of mainland and island SEA. He called the Malay peninsula, which was drawn with remarkable accuracy, the "Golden Khersonese" (Golden Peninsula), which corresponded to the Savarnadvipa of the Ramayana.
• He also mentioned, in SEA, Iabadion or ‘Island of Barley’ which is exactly the Prakrit version of the Sanskrit Yavadvipa. This has hitherto been generally taken to mean Sumatra-Java, (but more recent research identified it with Borneo). Ptolemy’s map showed that he had access to fairly full information about the geography of SEA, and this information must have come directly, or indirectly, from Indian traders who had been active in the region. However, other than these, not much can be gleaned from Ptolemy’s works.

e) Archaeological findings:

• As far as Indian influence in SEA is concerned, historians have to depend on archaeological findings through deciphering of inscriptions on rocks referring to literature and mythology to piece together the historical development of SEA in the period of Indianisation.

• The factors that stimulated Indian penetration into SEA can be generally explained as follows:

1. The prospect of acquiring wealth first tempted Indian traders and merchants to explore unknown territories beyond their frontier.
2. Another factor was the reorientation of Indian commercial interest owing to changing political conditions in the Mediterranean and Central Asia. An interesting hypothesis had been formulated by Coedes in the examination of various factors which he thinks may have played a part in the movement. His opinion is that in its early stages, Indianisation had a pre-eminently commercial origin. The contact between the Mediterranean world and India followed by the foundation of the Mauryan and Kushan empires on the one hand, and the rise of the Seleucid and roman empires on the other, led to an important trade in luxury articles between Indian and the west. Several of these articles such as spices, scented wood, perfumed resins came from SEA. The insistent demand for oriental imports had the effect of stimulating Indian traders to develop their contacts with the Malay peninsula and beyond.
3. Moreover, in SEA, had gold (which had a deep religious significance to the Indians). During the two centuries before the Christian era, India lost a principle source of gold. Nomadic disturbances in Central Asia closed the routes through Bactria to India’s source of gold in Siberia. This situation was aggravated when Emperor Vespasian prohibited the export of gold from the Roman Empire. Thus insulated from the West and the North, the Indians turned eastwards to ‘suvarnabhumi’, the Land of Gold. Sanskrit names such as ‘savarnabhumi’ and ‘savarnadvipa’ which were given to places in SEA showed that to the Indians, these places were famous chiefly for gold.
4. This reorientation of Indian commerce came at a time when notable advances were being made in navigation in the Indian Ocean. One major innovation was the construction of large sea-going vessels carrying up to 700 passengers and with a rig which permitted them to sail close to the wind. Moreover in the middle of the 1^st century AD, knowledge of the effects of the monsoons on the conditions of sea traveling caused an immense increase in voyages between Indian and the Red Sea ports. This must also have had its effect upon communications between India and the countries further east.
5. Finally, it was the missionary zeal of the Buddhists which led many to cross the seas to spread their faith. Buddhism played its part in overcoming the strong repugnance many Indians against overseas travels since its teaching undermined their ideas of racial purity and their fears of pollution by leaving their native shores. The example of the Buddhists encouraged the Hindus to leave India. The Brahmans overcame the fear of loss of caste by employing their rights to raise the native princes to the ranks of Kshatriya and by accepting the native gods as avatars (divine incarnation) of their own.

• The beginning of the Christian era was a particularly active period for the spread of Indian cultural influence and various theories have been put forward to account for it. All these theories suffer from the common failing of attempting to explain everything according to one single principle, but each would seem to contain some part of the truth.
• There are various theories about the process of Indianisation. According to Coedes, Indianisation "must be understood essentially as the expansion of an organised culture that was founded upon the Indian conception of royalty; was characterised by Hinduist and Buddhist cults; the mythology of the Puranas and observance of the Dhanasastra; and expressed itself in the Sanskrit language".
• In the later 19^th century, when European scholars began the intensive study of the antiquities in SEA and began to realise the extent of the influence of the Sanskrit culture upon the religion, art and architecture of the area, the tendency was to regard these things as the results of a movement of Indian expansion eastwards. Attempts, therefore were directed towards explaining it in terms of Indian conditions – Southeast Asia was at the receiving end and played a passive role.

• The old school of historians have tended to treat Indianisation on a "colonialisation" basis in which there was an organised migration of ethnic or class groups for political and belligerent purposes. In other words, there were deliberate attempts on the part of Indian rulers or states or individuals to create colonies in Southeast Asia which might have later developed into empires. Unfortunately, this group of historians placed too much importance on the Indian element and ignored the local element.

1. Evacuation/Mass Migration Theory:

• Some historians suggested that there was an exodus of Indians who came to SEA during the period of Indianisation based on two assumptions:

1. It arose out of disturbed conditions in India which caused large numbers of refugees to seek new homes across the sea. These ‘disturbed conditions’ were caused by:

• The Aryan conquest of India which drove the Dravidians to South India and to SEA.
• The bloody conquests of Kalinga by Maurya Emperor Asoka in 261 BC;
• Samudragupta’s conquest of the Deccan; and
• The Kushan invasion which led to the wholesale migration of coastal people to SEA.
• Dr Majumdar refuted this theory when he argued that there was ample space in India itself for the refugees to take shelter and that the conquest of foreigners never affected South India. The period of Samudragupta’s conquest coincided with the rise of Hindu states further south and southwest. Besides, the conquest of Samudragupta were more an assertion of suzerainty rather than an attempt at subjugation as almost all the defeated kings were restored to their thrones.
• Furthermore, there was no evidence of such mass movement as Indian influence does not show itself in SEA until several centuries later.

1. That a statement in Kautilya’s ‘Arthasastra’ which recommends the king to seize the territory of another or to deport the surplus population of his own to another country led to a wave of Indian emigration to SEA.

• However, this statement is so vague and general that no reliable information can be deduced about the process of colonialisation in India itself, much less in a far-off land. Furthermore, historians recently are quite certain that the culture of India was never brought to SEA through mass migrations.

1. Indian Merchant Colonies Theory:

• Some historians believed that the existence of many Indian merchant colonies contributed to the spread of Indian culture in the region. Indian merchants played the role of culture transmitters when they married into the local communities.
• Indian historians feel that the introduction of the Indian cultural pattern was a gradual process beginning with the arrival of Indian merchants and adventurers (kshatriya) who later became more numerous and married local girls. In order to teach the religion to the people, Brahmin priests were said to be brought from India.
• Coedes fully supported this theory and formulated an ingenious hypothesis to explain what he thinks took place. He does not support the theory of a mass migration of refugees from India but he sees Indian trading settlements arising in Southeast Asian facilitated the arrival of more cultured elements such as priests and literati who were able to disseminate Indian culture. Thus, coastal port areas are suggested to have been the most Indianised regions.
• These views, however, have been refuted by many scholars. For eg. contrary to the view that coastal regions were the most Indianised, there were areas of Indian influences such as Central Java, Mon Dvaravati and Cambodian Angkor which were not centres of sea-borne trade, but were advanced political entities in their right. Besides, the merchants in the trading communities were interested more in commercial gains. It is highly unlikely that they took it upon themselves to transmit sophisticated Hindu and Buddhist cultures that prevailed in these centres.
• Van Leur rejected the notion that traders and merchants were disseminators of culture: most traders, he said, belonged to the lower social groups, and ship crews were often composed of African negroes and slaves. Such people could not have been "administrators of rituals, magical consecrations and disseminators of rationalistic, bureaucratic written scholarship and wisdom".

1. The Search for Gold:

• Coedes also believed that the Indian trading settlements were formed in SEA due to the search for gold. He explained that the contact between the Mediterranean world and India; and the foundation of the Mauryan and Kushan empires, on the one hand and the rise of the Seleuccid and the Roman empire on the other, led to an important trade in luxury articles between East and West. Hence, in the 1^st century AD she tried to import them from the Roman Empire, but the resulting drain in Roman gold forced Emperor Vespasian to stop Rome’s adverse trade with India.
• This forced the Indians to look for new sources of gold and they consequently turned to the "Golden Khersonese". The Sanskrit names such as ‘Suvarnabhumi’ and ‘Yavadvipa’ the Indians gave to parts of SEA indicated that these places were famous chiefly for gold. This reorientation of commerce came at a time when improvements were being made in the art of shipbuilding and navigation.
• However, it is possible that the Indians already knew about ‘Suvarnabhumi’ and ‘Suvarnadvipa’ and may have already had commercial relations with these areas and the rest of SEA. The Roman decree merely made them look for supplies of gold already known to them. Place names like ‘Suvarnabhumi’ and ‘Suvarnadvipa’ originated in a much earlier period than the time Vespasian lived in and this proves that these places of gold were known at least earlier than the 1^st century AD, and that relations between India and SEA had begun much earlier. It therefore follows that Vespasian’s ban on the export of gold was not a direct cause for the Indians to turn to SEA. They may have come for gold but they were trading on familiar grounds.

1. Intermarriage Theory:

• One of the more common explanation for the process of Indianisation is intermarriage. Kshatriyas who married into local ruling families became chieftains or rulers. Their way of life had a strong influence on their subjects. Although Indian records are silent on these matters, there is some evidence in Chinese history – the Chinese Annals preserved a Cambodian tradition that an Indian adventurer who assumed the name of Kaudinya ascended the throne of Funan by marrying a queen of that country.

1. Ksahtriya – Vaisya Hypotheses:

• Dutch scholar C.C. Berg saw Indian culture being introduced as a result of the activities of the Indian warrior immigrants (Kshatriya). He believed that the Southeast Asians invited the Kshatriyas to SEA to teach them the military techniques. Hence, this brought them into contact with Indian culture.
• Another scholar, Professor N.J. Krom postulated that Indian penetration was peaceful, and that it began with Indian traders (Vaisyas) who settled and married native women, thereby introducing Indian culture. In this sense, Southeast Asians voluntarily accepted the higher Hindu civilisation.
• These views have been criticised because they characterised the local population as passive recipients, awed by the impressive demonstration of Indian culture. These theories suffer from the defect of being based on the assumption that the initiative in establishing relations between India and Southeast Asia was undertaken by Indians, not Southeast Asians.

1. Role of indigenous scholars and traders:

• Coedes has called attention to an important method of cultural transformance – namely the introduction of Indian customs to SEA by indigenous neophytes and traders returning from the Indian sub-continent. Modern scholars stressed that Indian ideas in art, law, politics and religion were not necessarily spread by Indians alone. The people of SEA were notable sailors, they knew the secrets of the monsoons and it is almost likely that they visited Indian ports. These traders and scholars were the most efficient ambassadors, according to Coedes, as they visited India, absorbed her culture and returned to their homeland eager to spread the Indian culture to the rest of the population.
• However, Coedes’ view was criticised because again, it characterised the local population as passive recipients of Indian culture. In fact, according to him, the natives of SEA were taken aback by the rich, extensive power of Indian culture.

• Almost all the historians of the old school have branded the local population of Southeast Asia as being primitive and that the Indian colonists, traders and merchants brought in the civilising elements into SEA. These theories placed too much emphasis on the Indian factor. They amount to the complete adoption of Indian cultural influence and religious ideas and all things Indian by the peoples of Southeast Asia.

• Historians of this new school believed that local genius was a very essential factor in the rise of states and empires with their corresponding art and architecture and only some ideas were borrowed from India. In other words, the cultural greatness of Cambodia and Java is a result of the blending of Indian and Southeast Asian cultural elements, a blending in which Indian ideas were selectively borrowed.
• It is unlikely that the local population were ‘passive recipients awed by the impressive demonstration of Indian culture’. The old assumption that Southeast Asian culture and society started in the first few centuries AD with the coming of the Indian bearers of civilisation to a primitive society is not accepted.

1. Van Leur’s Theory

• Van Leur says that Malay seamen played an equally important part in the trade between India, Ceylon and Southeast Asia. He opposes the view that trade was the main instrument in the dissemination of Indian culture. But he recognises that it was through trade that the vital contacts were made at court level. He believes that Indian culture was spread by the Brahmans employed by the local princes in their emerging courts to legitimise their control and rule of their people (i.e. to give divine sanction to the king’s rule). In this way, all the cosmological and mythological concepts of divine kingship, the Sanskrit language and traditional laws and geneologies that provided the basis of power of Hindu and Buddhist rulers in India were brought to SEA to serve this purpose.
• This view is supported by the fact that the less desirable aspects of Indian culture (eg. the caste system and Indian vernacular languages) were not adopted and were therefore absent in the Southeast Asian region.
• Hence, it is very likely that whatever Indian characteristic that were selectively borrowed were modified to suit local conditions and this blending of borrowed and adapted Indian cultural features with the indigenous culture gave birth to distinct cultures in Southeast Asia.

1. Improvements in Indian Navigation:

• Dr. R.C. Majumda, the Indian historian concluded that it must have been the improvements in Indian navigation that prompted them to set sail to South East Asian territories, and subsequently conduct trade. In the words of Dr. Majumda "far more plausible causes for Hindu colonialisation are the improvements in navigation, particularly in the art of constructing large vessels which could carry six or seven hundred passengers". According to sources from Chinese texts, no Chinese junks were on sail in the Indian Ocean during this time and yet products of Western countries still reached China via the sea. The only possibility is therefore the presence of Indian navigation in the South China Sea. This means that Indian trade must have been conducted with South East Asia.
• In fact, this theory should come as no surprise since in the 14th century A.D., we also witness the venture of the Portuguese into South East Asia with their improved navigation.

• Though various theories on the process of Indianisation of SEA have been put forward, historians agree on several points:

1. That the beginnings of Indian influence overseas and eastwards happened a long time ago and over a number of years;
2. That the spread of Indian culture in the region was accomplished not through military expeditions but through peaceful, non-political means;
3. And that the Indian culture was easily assimilable in terms of indigenous tradition.

• Brahmanism (Hinduism) and Buddhism played a vital role in the Indianisation process. Brahman, as well as, Buddhist priests followed the traders, adventurers and craftsmen, bringing with them many aspects of Indian cultural and spiritual life to enrich the vocabularies and cultures of SEA.
• Brahmanisation: As trade continued to develop, the Indonesians were slowly brought into closer contact with the Indian Brahmans. The princes of Indonesia soon imitated those of Dravidian India by inviting Brahman priests to their courts. Thus, transmission was done at court level with credit awarded to the Brahmans. More often, it was the case of an ambitious ruler, anxious to copy the grandeur of the Indian courts that resulted in the employment of a Brahman and consequently the assimilation of Indian culture. The work of the Brahmans has been termed generally as "Brahmanisation" and but it cannot account for the Indianisation of S.E.A., only a component of Indianisation.
• Buddhism: Whereas Hinduism was mainly an aristocratic process, Buddhism involved cultural transfer at popular levels. Pilgrimages of Southeast Asian monks and scholars to Indian mainland monasteries were common. In the case of the Hinayana sect, pilgrimages to Ceylon were often made. It was likely that the vast majority of the hundreds of Buddhist scholars may have advanced their knowledge of Indian culture to those back home. It is therefore not surprising that through such religious exchanges, much information could be gathered about each country. We could perhaps also assume that if this was the case, the Indian culture must have been so deeply rooted that the other states were indirectly assimilated into it. The role of Buddhism is undeniable, thanks to its missionary spirit and lack of racial prejudice.
• Hinduism, with it emphasis on ceremonies and complicated rites was more popular in the courts while the simpler Buddhist faith appealed more to the commoners. Apart from the influence of these religions, trade also played an important part in the Indianisation process. But the Southeast Asian peoples took a long time to absorb the Indian cultural elements which they adapted to their own local requirements. Thus, indianisation was not limited to a particular time and space but was a slow process of cultural diffusion occurring over several centuries.

• During the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries AD, the Cholas of southern India had a major share in the trade of SEA. But in the 4^th century AD, the Pallavas of the Coromandel Coast exerted the greatest influence in the region. Hence, the southern Indians were active in spreading Indian culture and religion to SEA. The chief factor that attracted them was trade and the prospects of getting rich. The lands of SEA had the reputation of possessing large quantities of gold, precious metals and spices.
• Besides trade, there were also other objectives. According to one Indian source, princes and nobles expelled from their homeland by enemies fled overseas, most probably to SEA, to take refuge. The missionary zeal of Buddhhists and Brahmin priests also spread Indian influence in the trading areas established by their countrymen in SEA. Some Indian sources also believed that the pressure of population caused Indian sto migrate to SEA to establish small colonies or Indian enclaves.

• These merchants, missionaries and colonists were believed to have arrived in SEA by 3 main routes:

1. The overland route

• From early times, there was a regular trade route by land between eastern India and China through upper Burma and Yunnan. From different points of this route, merchants could branch off to Annam, Champa and Siam, as well as the Malay peninsula.

1. The sea-route

• From Indian ports, ships sailed directly across the Indian Ocean, passing through the Straits of Malacca or the Sunda Straits to various ports in SEA.

1. The combined sea and land routes

• Vessels sailed from Indian ports to Tavoy in Burma and from here, the Indian merchants went by land across mountains through the Pass of 3 Pagodas into the Menam Valley. From here they proceeded to other ports of SEA.
• The three important ports of departure were Amravati, Tamralipta and Kanchipuram. According to Professor Tregonning: "From Kanchipuram in Pallava times, routes spread out like a Chinese fan stretching to Burma, the Kra Peninsula to Malaya, Sumatra, Java and onto China itself."