84 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS half of the first century after Christ at the latest. In the Champa region, still further away (Southern Annam), this process must have occurred a hundred years later. Sumatra, the Isle of Gold (Suvarnadvipa), and Java, the Land of Barley (Yavabhūmi), were highly flourishing in Gupta times, when, for example, Fa-hien landed on the latter island." "This great radiation of Indian influence, extending from Madagascar to Tongking, was not merely an endeavour to acquire material wealth. It also aimed at religious ends. Vişnuism, S'ivaism, and Buddhism all sought to take root in new soil, apparently without their rivalry giving rise to violent conflicts. The Indianization of the Austro-Asiatic and of the Malayo-Polynesians does not seem to have been the result of ferocious wars" (Paul Masson-Cursel, Helena De Willman. Grabowska and Philippe Stern, Ancient India and Indian Civilization, pp. 110-111, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1934). 10. Traces of Links of contact between the Archipelago and Egypt and Africa 01 one side, and the Archipelago and Yucatan and Mexico on the other : The resemblance between the remains at Sukuh and the contemporary edifices in Yucatan and Mexico was striking. From this Fergusson inferred that "the building races of Central America were of the same family as tenative inhabitants of Java." The next question is how and where Java got its culture. The answer seems that India and especially South India should have influenced the early Javanese during the pre-historical period. Remark is made that "the portals of Sukuh resemble the pylons of ancient Egypt, such for example, as those at Karnak. It may be noted, however, that similar forms, with
