Champa- History and Culture of an Indian Colonial Kingdom in the Far East 2nd-16th Century A.D

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The story of Greater India is bound to be of absorbing interest, not only to every student of history, but also to all educated people in this country. The Indian colonies in the Far East must ever remain as the high-water mark of maritime and colonial enterprise of the ancient Indians. But al- though an extensive literature in French has grown up on this subject, hardly anything has yet boon written in English. This alone accounts for the comparative apathy and ignorance in this matter which is generally noticed in this country.

No apology is therefore needed for bringing out this volume dealing with one of the many colonial kingdoms which the Indians had established in the Far East. It is intended to be the first of a series of volumes dealing with the whole subject. But when, if at all, the other volumes will see the light of day is more than I can tell. The present volume was taken in hand more than four years ago, but a variety of difficulties- the space of 1300 miles between the author and the printing press being by no means the least of them-have considerably delayed its publication. As at present planned, the second volume, dealing with Cambodge, will be published before the end of 1929, and the remaining two or three volumes, dealing with Siam, Sumatra, Java, Bali and other colonial kingdoms will not probably be delayed beyond 1931.

Champa has been selected as the subject of the first volume, partly because it is the remotest colony in the East, and partly because it is less known than Cambodge and Java on which general attention has been focussed on account of the famous monuments of Angkor Vat and Boro-budur.

Although the study of Ancient Indian history has made a great deal of progress in recent years, there is one aspect of the subject which has not yet received the attention it deserves. This is the expansion of the Aryans beyond Indian frontiers towards the east and south-east. The history of Indo. Aryans usually begins with their settlement in the Punjab and ends with their expansion over the whole of India as far as Assam in the east and cape Comorin in the south. Thesis, how. ever, an arbitrary line of distinction for which there does not seem to be any great justification, For the Aryans never regarded the hills or the sea by which India proper is bounded as the natural limits of their advance, and they boldly crossed over these to new regions on the other side. Their achievements in these regions are but vaguely known, but the more one thinks on this subject the more is one forced to realise that the Indianisation of these countries was probably as complete in the ancient period as we find in the Dravidian countries within the frontier of India. The study of Indian civilisation must therefore be regarded as imperfect so long as we do not take into proper account the achievements of Indians in these regions.

Until recently, however, our knowledge of this subject was limited in the extreme. Indian literature, no doubt, clearly shows that there was an intimate intercourse between India and the Far East' in ancient times, but it does not tell us much regarding the activity of Indian colonist settled there. The writings of Ptolemy and Fa-Hien, also, while bearing ample testimony to the firm hold of Indian civilisation in those countries, have not preserved any detailed account of the colonial history of India. Such an account has been rendered possible only in comparatively recent times, when the colonies them- selves have been made to yield up their rich antiquarian treasures, thanks to the untiring efforts of the savants of France.