INDIAN OCEAN IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY 25 



proselytising zeal, went as far as China, Corea and Japan, 

 carrying with them the torch of Buddistic faith." l 

 Most interesting to us is the Buddhist colonization 

 of Java, which began in the year 75 A.D. "The adven- 

 turous navigators planted a colony, built towns and cities, 

 and developed a trade with the mother country which 

 existed for several centuries." 2 Further migrations 

 took place from India to Java, and there grew up in that 

 fertile island a splendid Hindu civilization, which found 

 expression in the great Temples of Prambanam and 

 Borobudur, " the grandest specimen of Buddhist art 

 in the whole of Asia." 3 In their sculptures we may 

 still see the story told how Hindoo navigators set sail 

 to colonize Java. 



We learn then that, from the first century of the Chris- 

 tian era, there were regular voyages between India and 

 Java, that in Java there was a permanent Hindu colony 

 of fervent missionaries and keen merchants, inspired 

 by high aims, commanding great material resources, 

 and possessing excellent ships. Of Hindu voyages beyond 

 Java we have no news. But we may assume that any- 

 thing the Javans may have learnt of the continent to 

 the South would travel, in the form of rumours at least, 

 as far as India. 



More important, from our present point of view, were Arabian 

 the voyages of the Arabs, or Saracens,, or Moors, as they voyages ' 

 are variously called. 4 The religion of Mahomed was 

 a religion that aimed at the conquest of the world ; and 

 so fervent was its early missionary zeal, and so keen 

 was its sword, that in less than a century it had actually 

 conquered the world from the Atlantic to the Himalayas ; 5 

 and, but for the sudden death of a Caliph, we are told, 

 would probably have extended its sway to the Pacific. 



1 Mookerji, p. 155. 2 Mookerji, p. 148. 3 Mookerji, p. 151. 



4 See map in Beazley, vol. iii., to illustrate the geographical knowledge 

 of the Arabians. Printed in this volume, p. 27. . 



" The last of the Ommiades (750 A D.) reigned over three-quarters 

 of the Empire of Alexander, and a quarter of the dominion of Trajan " 

 (Beazley, vol. i. p. 397). 



