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Kambuja-desa, or An Ancient Hindu Colony in Cambodia

by R.C. Majumdar

An India-centered approach of Cambodia, Champa and the "Indian colonization" of Southeast Asia".

Type: e-book

Publisher: Sir William Meyer Lectures 1942-1943 | University of Madras

Edition: National Library of India Digital

Published: 1944

Author: R.C. Majumdar

Pages: 185

Language : English

ADB Library Catalog ID: e-HISIND23

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“I propose to review, in a course of six lectures, the history of the Indian colony of Kambuja-desa (modern Cambodia) and some aspects of the civilisation that the Hindus, using this term in its broadest sense, had introduced in this distant land. I shall try to describe how the small isolated Hindu kingdoms in different parts of Cambodia were welded into a mighty kingdom that stretched from the Bay of Bengal to the sea of China, how the essential spirit of Hindu culture was transplanted to this distant corner of Asia, how the Hindu religion inspired it to build monuments whose massive grandeur still excites the wonder of the world and far surpasses anything known so far in India, how art and institutions, created on Indian models, grew and developed a unique character, how this mighty colonial kingdom flourished for more than a thousand years fed by constant streams of civilisation flowing from the motherland, and at last met with inevitable decline when this perennial source itself decayed and ceased to flow.”

Based on a somewhat biased reading of then available inscriptions, the author’s main thesis is that Southeast Asian polities, Angkor in particular, were basically the work of Indian ​‘colonization’, with this quite provocative historical explanation:

“It is to be noted that the Indian colonisation in the Far West was not an imperialism in any form, political or economic. It transfused new blood, in the shape of the cultural heritage of India, to create new life and spirit on alien soils. It transformed the weakest and the more backward by fresh vitality. and so long as this life giving force was there the people were quickened by new impulses and did not merely imitate but developed healthy lives of their own on the foundations well and truly laid by the Indians. What the Indian element meant in their life and civilisation is best seen when this perennial fountain-source ceased to flow. In proportion to the lack of fresh vitalising forces from India the culture and civilisation of Kambuja showed signs of decline, and then came the inevitable end. It is not perhaps a mere coincidence that the two Indian colonies of Champa and Kambuja were overwhelmed by two branches of the Thais in the 13th century A.D. when India herself lay prostrate under the foreign invaders. The same phenomena are also noticed in Java. This sudden collapse of the culture and civilisation in these Indian colonies at the very moment when India herself lost her independence and was submerged in darkness constitutes the most important testimony to the influence she excercised over their growth and development.”

The author founds his argument on ethnological assertions that have been contested or refuted: 

“The great German scholar Schmidt who first established the existence of the linguistic family called Austro-Asiatic, has proposed further to connect with it also the Austronesian and establishing a larger linguistic unity which he calls Austric. He also indicates the possibility of an ethnic unity among the peoples whose linguistic unity is thus assumed. In other words, Schmidt regards the peoples of Inda-China and Indonesia such as the Mons, Khmers, Chams and the Malays as belonging to the same race as the Munda and allied tribes of Central India and the Khasis of North-eastern India. He regards India as the original home of all these peoples who, starting from India towards the east, at first spread themselves over the whole length of the Indo-Chlnese Peninsula and then over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean up to its eastern extremity. This theory, we must remember, has not yet found general acceptance among scholars, but we must not lose sight of the possibility that the Aryanised India, in establishing colonies in the Far East, was merely repeating or continuing the work which had been inaugurated long long ago by many other peoples inhabiting the same land before the advent of the Aryans.”

ADB Input: In 1906 the German anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt classified Austroasiatic together with the Austronesian family (formerly called Malayo-Polynesian) to form a larger family called Austric. Paul K. Benedict, an American scholar, extended the Austric theory to include the Tai-Kadai family of Southeast Asia and the Miao-Yao (Hmong-Mien) family of China, together forming an ​“Austro-Tai” superfamily. 

Read The Austronesian Languages Encyclopaedia Britannica article.

It seems the material presented in these lectures was initially to constitute the third volume of R.C. Majumdar’s ambitious Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East. In the second volume, Suvarnadvipa (Part I, Dacca, 1937), the author noted in his preface: ​“As at present planned, the Second Part of this volume, referred to above, will be published before the end of 1937. The Third Volume, dealing with Kamboja (Cambodia and Siam), will be published in two separate parts, one containing the history, and the other the collection of inscriptions. I hope these will be out before the end of 1939. Volume IV, forming the sixth book of the series, and containing a general review of Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, will, I hope, be published by 1941.” Moreover, that second volume was initially supposed to deal with ​“Kamboja”, the first volume studying Champa in 1927. Again in the preface: ​“Various causes have delayed the publication of the second volume. One of them is a change in the planning of the different volumes. Originally I had intended to deal with the history of Kamboja (Cambodia) in the second volume. As the wonderful monuments of this kingdom were to constitute an important part of the volume, I paid a visit to Cambodia in order to obtain a first-hand knowledge of them. There, in my conversation with the Archaeological authorities, I came to learn for the first time that many novel theories were being advanced regarding the age and chronological sequence of the monuments of Angkor Thorn. I was advised to put off the publication of my book until these had been fully explored. Acting upon this advice I took up the history of Malayasia which was to have formed the third volume.”

Tags: India, Hinduism, Austroasiatic, colonization, Indianization, Khmer history, Thai, Champa, linguistics, Austric, ethnology

About the Author

R.C. Majumdar

Dr. Ramesh Chandra (R.C) Majumdar (4 Dec. 1884, Khandarpara, Faridpur, Bengal [now in Bangladesh] — 11 Feb.1980, Kolkata, West Bengal, India) was an Indian historian and professor whose 1918 book Corporate Life in Ancient India drew new perspective on ancient India. Dubbed ​“the Doyen of Bengali historians,” he was one of the first Indian scholars who extensively explored India’s role in the political and cultural development of South-East Asia, writing on Hindu kingdoms in South-east Asia and Hindu colonies in the Far East.

A noted historian and academic, ​‘Acharyia’ Majumdar served as the Vice-President of the ​‘International Commission for a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind’, wtith the course History of Mankind : Cultural and Scientific Development being taught at Calcutta University, Rabindra Bharati University and Jadavpur University, and published the 11 vols. History and Culture of the Indian People. Vice-Chancellor of Dacca University (1936−1942), he was the first principal of the College of Indology, Banaras Hindu University [BHU], in 1950. Other academic positions included Visiting Professor of Indian History at the Universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, president of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, Honorary Member of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona. He also served as president of the Indian History Congress and the All India Oriental Conference.

Modern Hindu nationalists have claimed — and sometimes instrumentalized — his legacy. The fact is the historian challenged Nehru’s policy regarding the Hindu-Muslim bipolarity of India, refuting the commonly held view that the Hindus and Muslims lived in harmony before the advent of the British rule and that the Hindu-Muslim tension was the outcome of the British policy to divide and rule. These two communities, the author holds, lived as ​“two separate communities with distinct cultures and different mental, and moral characteristics.”

As a free-spirited researcher, Majumdar published in 1957 an exhaustive and highly controversial history of the Freedom Movement in a three volume series titled the History of Freedom Movement of India, challenging prevalent notion on various topics like Hindu Muslim relationship, Swadeshi Movement, Gandhi’s role, and militant nationalism. 

While sticking to his convictions and his strong feelings towards the specificity of Bengal, he explored the Indian influences in Southeast Asia, publishing Champa, Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, Vol.I, Lahore, 1927, studies on Burma (Myanmar) and Java, and Kambuja Desa or An Ancient Hindu Colony In Cambodia. In the late 1920s, he had led research on Southeast Asia at the British Museum of London, the Kern Institute of Leiden and Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. 

For an assessment of R.C. Majumdar’s contribution to Indian historiography, read The Pursuits of the Past: A problematic passage to the national soul”, Open The Magazine, 13 Aug. 2021.

Rcmajumdar
R.C. Majumdar

Selected Publications

  1. Corporate Life in Ancient India, Calcutta: Surendra Nath Sen, 1918; Calcutta: The University of Calcutta, 1922, 492 p.
  2. The Kushan Chronology, Vol I‑Part 1, 1920; repub. 2018. ASIN B0BKZMYHXQ
  3. The early history of Bengal, London : Oxfod University Press for the University of Dacca, 1925.
  4. Ancient Indian Colonies in The Far East (Part 1): Champa, Lahore: The Sanskrit Book Depot (Books Relating to Ancient India series. n 16), 1927; reprint as Champa : history and culture of an Indian colonial kingdom in the Far East, 2nd-16th century A.D., Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 1985, 2008. 
  5. Outline of Ancient India History and Civilisation, Calcutta: self-pub., 1927, 535 p.
  6. The Arab Invasion of India, Journal of Indian History X‑1, 1930; reprint Dacca University Supplement, 1931, 61 p.
  7. “La paléographie des inscriptions du Champa,” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (BEFEO) 32, 1932 32 pp. 127 – 139.
  8. “IV. Les rois Šailendra de Suvarnadvîpa,“BEFEO 33, 1933, pp. 121 – 141.
  9. Ancient Indian Colonies in The Far East (Vol II Part I): Suvarnadvipa (Cultural History); (Vol II Part I): Suvarnadvipa (Political History), Calcutta: Modern Publishing Syndicate/​Dacca: Asoke Humar Majumdar Ramna, 1938 – 1939; reprint as Suvarnadvipa: Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, 1986, Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 1986, 1004 p. ISBN10: 8121200407/ASIN 8121200407. [in Bengali: সুদূর প্রাচ্যে হিন্দু উপনিবেশ [Hindu Colonies in the Far East].]
  10. Kambuja Desa or An Ancient Hindu Colony in Cambodia, Madras, 1944; reprint as The History of Kambujadesa, New Delhi, Cosmo Publications, ASIN B006B7PU4C.
  11. [editor with H. C. Raychaudhuri & Kalikinkar Datta] An Advanced History of India Part I : Ancient India, Madras: MacMillan India Ltd., 1946; 4d ed. 1978. [in Bangali: ভারতবর্ষের সংক্ষিপ্ত ইতিহাস [A Short History of India].]
  12. The Vakataka – Gupta Age Circa 200 – 550 A.D., Banaras: Motilal Banarsi Dass, 1946, 512 p; repub. 1996.ISBN 81−208−0026−5.
  13. Maharaja Rajballabh: A Critical Study based On Contemporary Records, Cambridge University Press, 1947, 104 p.
  14. A Concise History Of Science In India Medicine, Vikas Publication House, 1950, 93 p. 
  15. [editor] The Age of Imperial Kanauj, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951.
  16. History and Culture of the Indian People: The Vedic Age, Bombay: Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951, 572 p.
  17. The Growth of Scientific Spirit in Ancient India, Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay (K.L.M.), 1952. [in Bengali: প্রাচীন ভারতে বিজ্ঞান চর্চা [The Practice of Science Practice in Ancient India].]
  18. Inscriptions of Kambuja, 1953.
  19. [with Satyamayananda Swami] Eminent Indian Women: From the Vedic Age to the Present, Almora : Advaita Ashrama, 1953, 187 p.; repub. Kindle edition 2005. [in Bengali: ভারতীয় নারী [Great Indian Women].]
  20. Ancient Indian Colonisation in South-East Asia, The Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad Honorary Lecture 1953 – 1954, Baroda College, 1955. 
  21. Bibliography of Indological Studies in 1953, Oxford University Press, 1958, 54 p.
  22. জীবনের স্মৃতিদীপে [In Memory of Life], General Publishers, 1959, 260 p. (LANG: Bengali)
  23. [foreword to] Roma Niyogi, The History of the Gahadavala Dynasty, Oriental Books Agency, 1959. 
  24. The Classical Accounts of India, Calcutta: Firma K.L.M., 1960, 512p.
  25. Ideas of History in Sanskrit Literature, Oxford University Press, 1961.
  26. Nationalist Historians, Oxford University Press. 1961.
  27. History of the freedom movement in India Vol. I, Calcutta: Firma K.L.M., 1962; 4th ed. 1971.
  28. History of the freedom movement in India Vol. II, Calcutta: Firma K.L.M., 1963; 4th ed. 1971.
  29. The History of Bengal, Vol. 1: Hindu Period, Lohanipur N. V. Publications, 1963.
  30. The Sepoy Mutiny and the Revolt of 1857, Calcutta: Firma K.L.M., 1964.
  31. [editor] History and culture of the Indian people : the Maratha Supremacy, Bombay: Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan,1964.
  32. [editor] History and Culture of the Indian People: The Age of Imperial Unity, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966.
  33. History and culture of the Indian people (Vol. 5) :The Struggle for Empire, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966, 2d ed.
  34. History and culture of the Indian people (Vol. 6) : The Delhi Sultanate, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1967.
  35. Expansion of Aryan Culture in Eastern India: Being the Pandita-Raja Atombapu Sharma memorial lectures delivered at Imphal, Manipur State, on November 15 and 16, 1966, Atombapu Research Center, 1968, 52 p.
  36. ഭാരതബൃഹചരിത്രം [Bharatabrihacharitram], Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Language Institute, 1970; 1971; 2011. [LANG Malayalam].
  37. [editor] History and Culture of the Indian People: Classical Age, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1969, 2nd ed. 1970.
  38. [ed. with Sarkar, Himansu Bhusan] R.C. Majumdar Felicitation Volume, Calcutta : Firma K.L.M., 1970.
  39. [editor] The British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1970.
  40. Historiography in Modern India, New York: Asia Publishing House, 1970.
  41. বাংলা দেশের ইতিহাস (আধুনিক যুগ) [History of Bengal: Modern History], 1971, 660 p. ASIN B0DM1L57HK. (LANG: Bengali)
  42. The History and Culture of the Indian People: Volume 11: Struggle for Freedom, 1971, Bombay: Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, 1971; repub. 2003: ASIN B005F9E9MQ.
  43. Penal Settlements in The Adamans, Government of India Publications Division, 1975, 339 p. ASIN B0DT2X4ZK7.
  44. The revolutionary movement in Bengal and the role of Surya Sen, University of Calcutta, 1928, 27 p. 
  45. India and South-East Asia, I.S.P.Q.S. History and Archaeology Series Vol. 6, 1979, ISBN 81−7018−046−5.
  46. The History of Ancient Lakshadweep, Calcutta, 1979.
  47. History of the Freedom movement in India in 3 vols, Calcutta, 1994. ISBN 81−7102−099−2.
  48. Outline of the History of Kalinga, Asian Educational Services, 1996, 32 p. ISBN10 8120611942/ ASIN 8120611942.
  49. [with Pran Nath Chopra] Main Currents of Indian History, New Delhi: Sterling, 1998. ISBN 81 – 207-1654‑X.
  50. [ed. with Mohammad Habib, Ramesh Chandra Sharma, Anil Chandra Banerjee & Kalikinkar Datta] A Comprehensive History of India, Vol. IV Part 2, Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2008, 978 p. ISBN10: 8173045615/ ASIN 8173045615.
  51. ‎Ancient India, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publications, new edition, 2010, 558 p. ISBN13: ‎ 978 – 8120804364.
  52. বাংলা দেশের ইতিহাস: প্রথম খন্ড [History of the country of Bengal: Volume I], General Printers, 2010, 276 p. ASIN B0DLT946BF (LANG: Bengali).
  53. The History and Culture of the Indian People (Complete Set of XI volumes), Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2010. ASIN‏ ‎B00NNX2F04.
  54. Readings in Political History of India, essays by R.C. Majumdar ed. by S.P. Gupta, B.R. Publishing Corp., 2013, 279 p. ASIN B0DMFS8RB4.
  55. Swami Vivekananda: A Historical Review, Advaita Ashrama, 196 p. ASIN B01H1747N0. Kindle edition: 2016. 
  56. বাংলাদেশের ইতিহাস ‑২য় খণ্ড [History of Ancient Bengal, Vol. II], 2017, 463 p. ISBN10: 9848830685/ASIN 9848830685 (LANG: Bengali).
  57. Vidyasagar, Parul Prakashini, 2020. ASIN B08GCT8Q8L. (LANG: Bengali)
  58. Glimpses of Bengal in the Nineteenth Century, Street Press, 2021, 130 p. ISBN10: 1014416191/ ASIN 1014416191.





  59. বিবেকানন্দ ও সুভাষচন্দ্র (Vivekananda and Subhash Chandra)

    Sharan, Mahesh Kumar, Studies in Sanskrit inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, on the basis of first three volumes of Dr. R. C. Majumdar’s edition, Delhi: Abhinav Pub., 1974.