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Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue 21 INTEGRAL STUDY OF THE SILK ROADS: ROADS OF DIALOGUE 21-22 JANUARY 1991 BANGKOK, THAILAND Bengal and Southeast Asia: Trade and Cultural Contacts in Ancient Period Prof. A. M. Chowdury 1 Bengal and Southeast Asia: Trade and Cultural Contacts in Ancient Period Prof. A. M. Chowdury The labors of a few generations of Indian, South East Asian and European scholars have brought to light valuable data regarding the trade and consequent cultural contact between Indian subcontinent and the South Asian countries, both mainland and the archipelago. The contact resulted in very profound influence – mainly in the spheres of religion, art, culture and society and the intensity of this “Indianisation” have led scholars to designate the area as Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (1) or parts of “Greater India” (2) or even the unchallenged dean of Southeast Asian classical scholarship G. Coedes titled his work as “The Indianised States of Southeast Asia” (3) (Les Etats hindouisés d’Indochine at d’Indonésie). The geographical situation of the Indian Subcontinent combined with its eastern sea-board; the monsoon wind facilitated this contact. The affinities of the climate and agriculture had made the contact easy and meaningful. Thus scholars have found justification in grouping together the countries of Monsoon Asia as opposed to Western and Central Asia (4). It is only in comparatively recent times that the region roughly east of India and south of China, but excluding Australia and the Pacific Islands has been called “South-east Asia” (a term which does not go beyond the Second World War) and the area was seen as an entity in its our right, distinct from the rest of Asia. This fact had long been realized by the Chinese, who had always referred to South-east Asia in its entirely by one name, Nan Yang, the Southern Seas. It is now considered to be beyond any doubt that Indian Chinese influences played dominant role in shaping the culture and civilization of this area. The Indian strand is so clearly discernible that scholars called these areas as “Farther India” or “India beyond the Ganges” (5), and which the Indian scholars now call with justifiable pride “Greater India”. Without going into a detailed discourse it may be asserted on good grounds that the seamen, traders or immigrants were the founders of first Indian settlements, who preceded the Brahmanic or Buddhist priest. The Sporadic influx of traders and priests became a steady flow that resulted in the founding of Indian kingdoms practicing the arts, customs and religions of India and using Sanskrit as their sacred language. Thus Indianisation, through an “osmosis” process was essentially the expansion of an organized culture that was founded upon the 2 Indian conception of royalty, characterised by Hinduist or Buddhist cults, the mythology of the Puranas, and the observance of the Dharmasastras and expressed in the Sanskrit language and the art and architecture connected with the Hindu-Buddhist culture and beliefs (6). The purpose of this paper is to bring together the scattered pieces of information available in the local and south-east Asian sources of the part played by Bengal (7) in this process of “Indianisation” of South East Asia. While doing this I am aware of Coedes remark: “Whence came the Indians who emigrated to Farther India and where did they embark? – the Indian historians have not always approached it with the desired objectivity: if they were natives of Madras, they attributed the honor of having colonized “Greater India” to the Tamil lands, if they were from Calcutta, to Bengal”. (8). Our attempt is simply to high-light the contributions of Bengal to this process of Indianisation without in any way venturing lay the sole claim for Bengal. The geographical situation of Bengal places it very well at the doorstep towards the Suvarnabhum, the “Land of Gold”, an appellation often found in its ancient literature. Bengal, situated in a transition zone between South-west and South-east Asia, has lot of common traits with Southeast Asia: rice and fish is the staple diet, betelnut and betel-leaf chewing is common, the lungi (sarong) is the main dress for men, and there are similarities in the way many tropical articles, such as bamboo, are used. Bengal belongs naturally more to humid, tropical Southeast Asia than to the very alien, arid western parts of Asia. Bengal, through which flow some of the biggest rivers which in turn created this largest delta in the world, forms the capstone of the arch formed by the Bay of Bengal and because of the Tibetan massif to the north it is a comparatively narrow land-bridge between the subcontinent of India and the subcontinent of southeast Asia, enjoying this situation, Bengal commanded trade with South East Asia from the beginning of the Christian era, if not earlier, both by land and sea. There are evidence of the existence of overland trade routes between Bengal and the lands to the east and southeast. Chinese priests are reported to have come to India from Szuchuan via Upper Burma in the 3rd – 4th centuries A. D. The accounts of Chank-Kien (126 B. C.), the Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan, Shung-she (420-479 A. D.) and Kia-tan (785- 805 A. D.) refer to a land route from Tonkin to Kāmarūpa. It crossed the Karatoya and passed through North Bengal and running across the Ganges to people about the route from Szuchuan to Kāmarūpa. The route ran from Bengal to southern China through Assam, 3 Manipur and upper Burma. (9). This Route was used for overland journeys of men and merchandise between Bengal and the countries of mainland Southeast Asia. There was another land route from south-eastern Bengal (Samatata) to Pagan in central Burma through Surma and Kachar valleys (Sylhet-Silchar), Lusai Hills, Manipur and northern Burma. A second land route connected Chittagong with lower Burma (Ancient Sriksetra) through Arakan. It was through these two routes that the kingdoms of Pagan and Sriksetra in Burma had political, trade and cultural links with the adjacent Chittagong-Comilla area of south-eastern Bengal. Traditions on both sides bear ample testimony to this contact (10). The facilities for movement afforded by the sea-coast of Bengal made the sea-routes easy and favoured by the traders. Bengal entered the field of foreign trade by sea long before the commencement of the Christian era, and it played a prominent role in the sea-borne trade and cultural expansion of India, especially towards Sri Lanka and the countries of South East Asia. Since our focus in this paper is only on the latter area we shall concentrate our attention on this aspect alone. On the evidence of some early Chinese records it has been postulated that a regular sea-borne trade existed between Tonkin and the lower reaches of the Ganges (11). On the evidence of Kan-Tai (Fu-nan-chuan) it is clear that in the middle of the third century A. D. a regular maritime route existed between China and Tamralipti (12). The Milinda Panha (which in its present form dates back to about 5th century A. D.) refers to overseas trade between Vanga and different countries of the east. Although not all the places mentioned here can be identified with certainty, there is little doubt that commercial relations between Bengal and countries of the east such as China and South Burma did exist (13). Stories in the Mahajanaka Jataka refer to voyages between Tamralipti and Suvarnabhūmi (land of gold, possibly lower Burma) (14). It was from this port of Tamralipti that the Chinese pilgrims undertook enterprises for the land of the north eastern side of Sumatra, southern shores of Malacca to the city of Palambang (15). The account of I-tsing (Seventh century A. D.) clearly shows that the sea-port from Tamralipti to Canton was dotted with a number of thriving ports (16). It appears that from Southeast Asia mainland Kedah was perhaps the point of departure for the voyage across the Bay of Bengal. From Kedah to Nicobar Islands, where the route bifurcated: one branch led to Tamralipti whiles the other to the ports of Sri Lanka (17). We learn from Somadeva’s Kathásarit-sàgara, which contains reference to merchants from Tamralipti carrying on overseas trade with distant countries like Lanka (Sri Lanka) and Suvarnadvipa 4 (Sumatra) (18). It may be mentioned here that ancient Indians designated Indo-China and Malay Archipelago by the general name Savarnabhūmi or Land of Gold. They also used the name Suvarnadvipa or Island of Gold to denote particularly the islands including Malay Peninsula. Particular regions in Indo-China (Such as Burma and Siam) and Malay Archipelago were also called respectively Suvarnabhūmi and Suvarnadvipa. These designations, however, indicate the Indians, like the Arabs, believed that this region produced gold in large quantities or was rich in precious commodities; “they regarded the lands as veritable mines of gold, literally or figuratively” (19). From the cumulative evidence mentioned above, it is apparent that Tamralipti was the most important for the sea-borne trade of Bengal at least from the beginning of the Christian era down to the 11th-12th century A. D. Tamralipti has been identified with Tamluk on the Rupnarayan River in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. Archaeological relics bear testimony to the antiquity of the place (20). Taking Tamralipti as the centre, we find radiating from it three principal routes of overseas trade; two in the south-easterly direction towards southeast Asia and the other to the opposite south-westerly direction past the coast of Kalinga (Orissa) and Coromandel to South- India, Sri Lanka and beyond to the west.
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