52 EARLY INDO-CHINESE INFLUENCE 



inscriptions hitherto foand in the Peninsula are sufficiently 

 characteristic to prove a specifically Peg-uan origin : they are, 

 I believe, mainly in Sanskrif*^ and the character is one of the 

 numerous forms into which the Indian alphabet has diverged, 

 but whether Logan is rig-ht in distinctly asserting them to be 

 Peguan I have no means of ascertaining. Elsewhere he speaks 

 also of a period of Cambojan influence in the Peninsula, and his 

 view^^ would appear to be that there were two successive epochs, 

 the first of Peguan, the second of Cambojan supremacy. 



Moura^' in relating' the history of Camboja from Chinese 

 sources, states that^in G27 A. D. the " King of Chon-lap (Camboja) 

 united the whole of Fu-nan under his authority. From this 

 period onward the Chinese chroniclers denote Fu-nan by the 



name of Chon-lap About 650 A. D. the countries of Cuu-mat, 



Phu, Na, Gia, Tac, Vo, Hinh, Seng, Kao, situated towards the 

 isthmus of the Malay Peninsula were united to Chon-lap." 



That is all the historical evidence I am able to adduce and 

 it really amounts to two statements, viz. that at an early age a 

 part of the Peninsula was under the dominion of Fu-nan, which 

 Forbes^^ regards as Pegu and which probably included the lower 

 Menam valley, and that Fu-nan and Chon-lap, which latter is 

 certainly Camboja, became united in the 7th century and Chon- 

 lap took over the suzerainty of certain southern states whose 

 names I am unable to explain, but which are admitted to be 

 somewhere in the Peninsula or the isthmus leading to it. In 

 spite of many intestine quarrels and frequent struggles with 

 surrounding nations it may fairly be stated as an ascertained fact 

 that for a long series of ages the Mon-Annam races held the 

 broad river-valleys and alluvial deltas of Southern Indo-China in 

 almost undisturbed possession, and no doubt it is to this period 

 of comparative peace and prosperity that the civilization of 

 Camboja and the Indo-Chinese suzerainty in the Malay Peninsula 

 must be attributed. 



Whether their hold on this comparatively distant region was 

 shaken by the growing influx of Hinduized Malays from Sumatra, 

 or whether the pressure of their inland neighbours, the Siamese, 



JiO. Indo-Chinese Essays, series I, vol. I, pp. 219-234. 



I^Q, J. I. A passim. 



47. Le Royaume du Cambodge vol. II, pp. 25, 35. 



48. Op. cit. p. 43, seqq. 



