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SHRI SAI LEELA – APRIL 1986ii) India and South-east Asia — early contacts and trade motivation:Relationship between South-east Asia and India goes back tothe hoary past. Apart from migrations from India of pre-Aryan tribesand peoples who found new homes in various parts of South-eastAsia, the early motivation behind Indian exploration of this region wastrade. This becomes apparent when we look at the early names givento parts of this region in Indian texts. In the Ramayana Yavadvipa orJava is called Suvarnadvipa, the island of gold and Suvarnabhumi theland of gold and the Vayu Parana and the Buddhist fatakas refer tothis region in the same terms. The Malay peninsula was known toPtolemy as the Aurea Cher-scnesus (land of gold and silver) and thePeriplus records that Malaya possessed gold mines. Later theChinese traveller l-Tsing called Sumatra "the Isla of Gold" wherepeople used to offer the Buddha a lotus flower of gold. Many localitieshad names indicating gold e.g. Kanburi-Kanakapuri, the city of gold."I would like", writes Sylvain Levi "apropos of Kanakapuri the city ofgold in Dvipantara, to stress the role played by the search for gold inthe Indian expansion of Farther India; it is not only the classicalappellation of Suvarnabhumi and Suvarnadvipa that gives evidenceof this. The names of rivers and streams recorded by Ptolemy in histables evoke the fabulous metal which the sands of Indonesia stillbear. The multiple dialectic alterations of these names may reveal theorigins of the seekers for gold. It was gold that attracted India toEldorado of the Far East."But besides gold South-east Asia provided epics aromatic woods likesandalwood and eaglewood and fragrant resins like camphor. Thenames Takkola (market of cardamom) Karpura-dvipa (the island of9WWW.SAILEELAS.ORG