African Art

History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia was in the Indian sphere of cultural influence from 290 BCE to the 15th century CE, when Hindu-Buddhist influences were incorporated into local political systems. Kingdoms in the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent had established trade, cultural and political relations with Southeast Asian kingdoms in Burma, Bhutan, Thailand, the Sunda Islands, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Champa. This led to the Indianisation and Sanskritisation of Southeast Asia within the Indosphere, Southeast Asian polities were the Indianised Hindu-Buddhist Mandala (polities, city states and confederacies). Indian culture itself arose from various distinct cultures and peoples, also including Austroasiatic linguistic influence onto early Indians. However some scholars, such as Professor Przyluski, Jules Bloch, and Lévi, concluded that not only linguistic but there are also some cultural, and even political Austroasiatic influence on early Indian culture and traditions. India is seen as a melting pot of western, eastern and indigenous traditions. This distinctly Indian cultural system was later adopted and assimilated into the indigenous social construct and statehood of Southeast Asian regional polity, which rulers gained power and stability, transforming small chieftains into regional powers. Unlike the other kingdoms which existed on the Indian subcontinent, the Pallava Empire which ruled the southeastern coast of the Indian peninsula did not impose cultural restrictions on people who wished to cross the sea. The Chola Empire, which executed the South-East Asian campaign of Rajendra Chola I and the Chola invasion of Srivijaya, profoundly impacted Southeast Asia. This impact led to more exchanges with Southeast Asia on the sea routes. Whereas Buddhism thrived and became the main religion in many countries of Southeast Asia, it became a minority religion in India. The peoples of maritime Southeast Asia — present-day Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines — are thought to have migrated southward from South China sometime between 2500 and 1500 BC.

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See also

• ▸Bibliothèque nationale de France
• ▸Chernihiv Collegium
• ▸Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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