212 J. HORNELL ON 



relics in the possession of the Sinhalese, he relates how he sailed from the mouth of 

 the Ganges to Ceylon in "a great merchant ship." In 673 this port, Tarnralipta or 

 Tamluk, near the modern Midnapore, was found still prosperous by the later pilgrim 

 I-Tsing, who there embarked when returning to China. 



In the sixth century we get considerable light upon the mercantile importance 

 of Ceylon in the writings of that much travelled Alexandrian monk, Kosmas Indi- 

 copleustes,^ who wrote about 535 A.D. To quote his own words: "As the position 

 of Ceylon is central, the island is a great resort of ships from all parts of India, and 

 from Persia and Ethiopia, and in like manner it despatches many of its own to 

 foreign ports. And from the inner countries, I mean China and other marts in that 

 direction, it receives silk, aloes, clovewood, sandalwood, and their other products, and 

 these it again passes on to the outer ports, I mean to Malabar where pepper grows 



and to Kalliana (near Bombay) where copper is produced and to Siudu 



also and to Persia and the Homerite country {S. Arabia) and to Adule" (Abyssinia). 



The connection between the country known in ancient days as Kalinga — the land 

 stretching from the Godaveri to Ganjam — and the opposite coast of the Malay Penin- 

 sula has always been great. The only good harbour on the Ganjam coast is called 

 Kalingapatam, and the port of Coringa (apparently etymologically identical with Ka- 

 linga) has long been the greatest shipbuilding centre on the East Coast so far as we 

 have definite information. From the former port in particular emigration has been 

 active from time immemorial, hence it is easy to understand why the name of Klings is 

 universally given to people of Indian race in the Malay Peninsula, whether they be the 

 descendants of old settlers who doubtless did come from Kalinga or whether they are 

 newly arrived immigrants from parts far distant from that locality. In the same way 

 Lower Burma or Pegu being conquered by emigrants from Telingana, the land of the 

 Telugus, comprising the coast region from Madras to the southern border of Ganjam, 

 the people of Pegu were long known to the Burmese and to all foreigners as Talaings.'^ 



It follows therefore that the most conclusive proof of the high development of 

 purely Indian overseas trade in ancient times is afforded by the great colonizing epoch 

 of the first seven centuries of our era. Within this period, at ill-determined dates, 

 several waves of colonizing energy carried large bodies of Indians from the north- 

 western shores of the Bay of Bengal, Telugus or Takings from Telingana, Klings from 

 Kalinga, and a Magadha element from Bengal, to Pegu and the Tenasserim coast, to 

 parts of Sumatra, to Java and to Cambodia. The written records have gone, tradition 

 is scanty and unreliable, but stone monuments remain in plenty and in unrivalled 

 magnificence that bear silent witness to Indian inspiration and workmanship. The 

 colonists appear to have represented the three chief phases of Indian religious feeling ; 

 Brahmanism, the oldest, was succeeded by Buddhism, made vivid to us in the wonder- 

 ful sculptures of Boro Budur ; this latter religion, once predominant in Java, gave 



1 Christian Topography, nth Book. 



2 Phayre, History of Burma. It may also be noted that the Telingana and Kalinga coastal limits largely overlap 

 and represent almost the same region. The latter term is the older. It represents the name of an ancient kingdom whereas 

 Telingana is a racial term indicating the area occupied by the Telupu branch of the Dravidian race. 



