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SHRI SAI LEELA – APRIL 1986from South India and they brought with them their priests andfounded Indian settlements in different coastal regions in Malaya. InPerak grew one such settlement. In the state of Pan-Ban along withHinduism, Buddhism prospered and in the sixth century this smallstate had ten Buddhist monasteries, and in other states of Malayaalso Buddhism had well established itself side by side with Hinduism.In Kedah and Province Wellsley on the western coast werediscovered more than a century ago undoubted relics of a Hinducolony with ruins of temples and mutilated images etc., and severalSanskrit inscriptions dating from the fourth and fifth centuriesonwards. Paleographically some of these show Gujarat and Malwaaffiliations suggesting brisk Gujarat relationship with this area. Fromthe sixth century onwards the main influence seems to have beenfrom the Coromandel coast with Pallava Hindu groups settling inKedah around in pursuit of commerce. Here these immigrants wereconstantly being reinforced by new arrivals from their homeland. "Itseems as though Kedah remained remarkably Indian long after localevolution had set in further afield. This is evident even to our day inthe names of two ministers in the Malay government. These areSambanathan and Manickavasagan, good South Indian soundingnames.After the Pallavas, the famous Chola kings, specially under Rajendrathe Great, extended not only the cultural but political domination overMalaya. So it is natural that traces of a revival of Hinduism in Kedahare found coming right down to the 13th century. Buddhism alsoprobably lingered, but several brick temples with Hindu images,terracotta Canesha and various cult objects seem to explain why the15WWW.SAILEELAS.ORG