Ceylon and the South-East Asian countries:

Malay Peninsula.' An inscribed stele found at Vat Sema Muang of Ligor commences with svasti, an appropriate beginning for a Hindu record. The term siddhayatra in the inscription of Mahanavika Buddhagupta has its own story to tell. These are two seals, one of carnelian stone bears the legend Sri Visnuvarmasya and the other from Perak in Pallava characters has Sri and varman. It is interesting to note the names ending with varman,14 since the term is Indian in origin.

Indonesia: In Sumatra, the local indigenous language contains many Sanskrit words pointing to the prevalence of Mahayana Buddhism in the seventh century A.D. The Kedukau Bukit inscription bears the Sanskrit words "Srivijaya siddhayatra subiksa" while the two Telaug Tuwo epigraphs mention that in Saka 606 Jayasena (-naga) laid out a charitable park called Sriksetra perhaps after the holy city of Puri on the Kalinga coast.

In Java, the inscriptions of Purnavarman are the earliest. Purnavarman styles himself as vikranta and his foot prints are likened to those of Visnu; the allusion being to the Trivikrama avatara. Certainly, Purnavarman had Hindu leanings. Another inscription refers to the digging of a canal named after the two well-known rivers of north India, Candrabhaga and Gomati. The system of reckoning days of the month here recalls the practice obtaining in south India. As a finale, we may mention that great was the attachment of the people of Java with India that one of the Sailendra kings endowed a vihara at Nalanda.

In Central Java at Tuk Mas an inscription in the upajati metre and datable to A.D. 732 extols a spring by comparing it with the holy Ganga. The Changal inscription of the same date mentions that a king named Sanjaya installed a Siva linga, besides invoking the Hindu Trinity; Sanjaya himself being compared to Raghu, Sannaha and Manu.

In Borneo from a cave at Goenoeng Kombeng Hindu and Buddhist sculptures were found. Four sacrificial posts inscribed in Sanskrit verse and datable to A.D. 400 mention the bahusuvarnika sacrifice, gift of twenty-thousand kine, danas, like bahudana jivadana, kalpavrksadana, bhumidana, while the fourth compares the donor with Bhagiratha, son of Sagara. The name Kundanga occurring in the first inscription was perhaps a merchant/adventurer from south India,15

Indeed, for ages South-east Asia was the land of Hinduism.