70 SOUTHERN INDIA AND THE STRAITS. 



earlier ages a domination of intellect, if not of conquest, by some 

 Hindu power of Hindustan over the whole of Malaya. 



The defect of the language-test is that it does not aid us, 

 except inferential ly, in fixing the date of the commencement of 

 this domination or in determining the length of its existence ; 

 but it may help us to decide from what part of Hindustan the 

 civilizing influence proceeded. As to the former, all we know 

 for certain is that the Hindu influence was antecedent to that of 

 Islam ; while as to the latter, in addition to the very slender 

 evidence of history and tradition, and comparison with the rela- 

 tions of India with neighbouring countries, we can take as our 

 guide the various Indian elements which have found their way 

 into the Malayan tongue. 



Sanskrit — that is, the pure Sanskrit of the Vedas — ceased 

 to exist as a living language about 300 B.C. Various dialects, 

 however, more or less debased from Sanskrit, but having a 

 vocabulary largely identical with the parent tongue, continued 

 to subsist as spoken languages. It is not inconceivable that the 

 Hindu influence on Malaya may have begun when Sanskrit was 

 yet a living language. As regards Java however, the Dutch 

 scholars have fixed the introduction of Hinduism at the begin- 

 ning of the 6th century A.D., and it would seem probable that 

 its extension to Malaya took place about the same epoch or 

 even later. Be this as it may, it is most unlikely that this early 

 civilization of the Malays, which coloured their language «o 

 strongly with Sanskrit words, proceeded from any other than 

 a genuine Aryan race, of Hindustan, speaking Sanskrit or a 

 dialect closely akin to it. But within historic times the South 

 of India has been inhabited by Tamulic or Dravidian races ; and 

 had their first civilization been imparted to the xMalaya by 

 Hindus of this stock, the Sanskrit words would have been filter- 

 ed through a Dravidian medium, and appeared in Malay in 

 a quite different form from that which they have actually 

 assumed. It must be taken for granted, than, that this earliest 

 influence proceeded from a genuine Hindu race inhabiting 

 central or northern India, and perhaps commanding a part of 

 its seaboard in the South by virtue of conquest or commerce, 

 and who made this the starting-point for their pioneering work 

 in the Far East. 



