tNDIAN BOAT DESIGNS 213 



place ill turn to modern Hinduism, which lasted in strength till late in the i5tli 

 century, and still flourishes in Bali and lingers in out-of-the-way villages in East Java. 



Javanese tradition traces this Indian colonization back to 75 A.D., Indian in- 

 fluence and intercourse being certainly much older, dating back at least to Asoka's 

 days. However unreliable this date of the first Indian colonization may be, it repre- 

 sents a time which approximates to the probabilities, for the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hien 

 at the beginning of the 5th century found a large Indian population in Java, and sailed 

 in ships upon this memorable voyage with crews professing Brahmanism,^ whilst his 

 successor, I-Tsing, about 673, mentions more than ten prosperous Indian colonies in 

 Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Bali, etc. 



The leader of the first legendary arrival of Indian colonists in A.D. 75 is said by 

 the Javanese to have borne the name Adi or Aji Saka and in this it is possible that 

 we have a vague record of the activities of the great Asoka, who in 244 B.C. com- 

 menced that wonderful Buddhist propaganda which spread Buddhism far and wide 

 through India, Ceylon and the whole south-east of Asia. As Mr. V. A. Smith remarks, 

 "when we remember Asoka's relations with Ceylon and even more distant powers, 

 we may credit him with a sea-going fleet as well as an army".^ 



In this connection Mukerji's quotation'^ of a passage from a Kashmir work of the 

 loth century, preserves a very interesting tradition of Indian trade with the island 

 powers of the east in Asoka's times. From it we gather that certain Indian traders 

 had been attacked in their voyaging by Naga pirates who plundered and destroyed 

 their ships. In the steps taken by Asoka to exact redress it is not unlikely that we 

 have a far-off echo of a maritime punitive expedition against Malay or Malayo- 

 Polynesian pirates. 



Whatever may be the truth of the Javanese legends, it is, as we have seen, cer- 

 tain that Indian emigrants landed in considerable numbers in Java and Sumatra long 

 prior to the 5th century. For this century and the beginning of the seventh, Java- 

 nese tradition is very definite regarding large arrivals from India. In regard to the 

 latter immigration, the legends aver that in 603, a Gujarat ruler, forewarned of the 

 coming destruction of his kingdom, sent his son with 5,000 followers in 6 large and 

 100 small vessels to Java, who were reinforced later by over 2,000 more men, includ- 

 ing numerous skilled artisans.^ Many critics deride this story which they characterise 

 as baseless; they point to the belief that the bulk of the Javanese colonization 

 was from the Kalinga and the Orissa coasts and emphasize the improbability of 

 settlers arriving from the far western coast of India. These objections, I incHne 

 to think, are not necessarily conclusive. For centuries Java was the El Dorado of 

 India where the adventurous, the ambitious, the rebellious, and the discontented sought 

 power or wealth or refuge, standing in relation to India as the colonies have done 

 to Britain for three centuries and more. Given these motives there is no insuperable 

 or even considerable difficulty in the voyaging of large numbers of emigrants from 



1 He lamented " In this country (Java) heretics and Brahmans flourish, but the law of Buddha hardly deserves 

 mentioning." 



2 Edicts of Asoka, p. viii. ■'< Mukerji, R., Indiayi Shipping, p ii4- ^ Raffles, Sir S., History of Java, II, 82. 



