Sea, but it was clearly a very wealthy gold-producing country. "There is a mountain which produces gold; the gold appears in the stone in immense quantities. . . In this country they do not receive foreign merchants; if any happen to come, they kill them also and eat them. So no trader ventures to go there." P'i-ch'ien was in communication with Fu-nan, often sending embassies and vessels of pure gold for fifty persons. This kingdom will be mentioned again in connection with Malayadvipa. The earliest archaeological evidence of Indianization in Sumatra is provided by the huge granite figure of Buddha, twelve feet high, which was discovered on Bukit Seguntang, near Palembang. A fragmentary stone statuette, also Buddhist, was discovered on the same hill, and higher up the river another stone Buddhist statue. But the dating of all these is too controversial for anything certain to be said, though it is likely that the first one may date within the period of this paper.¹⁵

All the Indian scholars who have tried to identify the six subdvipas mentioned in Chapter 48 of the Vayu-Purana place them in the region known as dvipantara, though they do not agree on the identifications; and it seems to be clear that it is this region to which we must look. To this day people in Madras call the Malaysian region by the general name of dvipantara, the Prakritic form. Kalidasa writes of ocean-going ships and merchants making sea-voyages for the purpose of commerce. He mentions the dvipantara and associates it with cloves. It is the general opinion that the ancient dvipantara indicates Malaysia and possibly also the mainland of Indo-China. The word itself means 'island-continent beyond' and thus indicates a region overseas. Of the six sub-dvipas, Malayadvipa receives the most detailed description. Many have taken it to indicate the Malay Peninsula, but the late Professor Ramachandra Dikshitar identified it with Sumatra,¹⁶ and this, it is submitted, is the only identification which will answer to the facts. Malayadvipa "has mines of precious stones and gold, besides sandalwood and ocean mines. It is full of groups of Mlecchas and has many rivers and hills." Its Kulaparvata, 'chief mountain', is Malaya "and contains silver mines. The noble mountain is reported as the Mahamalaya. A second mountain (is there) Mandara by name, a beautiful hill with flowers and fruits resorted to by devarsis (divine sages). There is the venerable abode of Agastya revered by devas and asuras." There was another mountain called Kancapada in Professor Nilakanta Sastri's translation but given as Kancanapada by Professor Ramachandra Dikshitar.¹⁷ This was a holy hermitage rich in kusa grass and soma, a veritable Paradise, in

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¹⁵ See discussion by Nilankanta Sastri, op. cit., pp. 102-05.

¹⁶Some Aspects of the Vayu Purana (1933), p. 50,

¹⁷ The Purana Index, vol. I, p. 344.