INDIGENIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE
Contacts between Malaysia and India may have begun by the 5th century BCE when Malay mariners—the first of the world's great, long-distance sailors—voyaged across the Bay of Bengal in search of metals, textiles and rare objects which served as status symbols. Communication between Malaysia and South Asia is recorded in Indian sources as early as the 3rd century BCE, as well as Graeco-Roman and Chinese records of the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. The oldest signs of the adaptation of Indian elements into Malay culture date from the 5th century CE, and consist of statuary and inscriptions related to Buddhism. These traces of South Asian cultural elements indicate that northern Peninsular Malaysia was participating in the general phenomenon of Buddhist expansion along Asian trade routes.
Important centres of religious and literary activity were found in Bengal, Madras, Sri Lanka, and Gujerat, and the earliest inscriptions and statuary found in Malaysia display a familiarity with these various South Asian cultures, rather than a preponderant influence from any one region. This indicates that the Malaysian adaptation of Indian cultural elements followed a process of selective incorporation into the pre-existing civilization.
From approximately 680 CE to 1025 CE, the west coast of the Malay Peninsula was part of the Empire of Srivijaya. Although the Maharaja of Srivijaya resided in South Sumatra, the Chinese described the kingdom as a 'bipolar' polity. Kedah, which had the closest relations with India of any Southeast Asian port, was probably the northern 'pole', and Indian sources suggest that it enjoyed a substantial degree of autonomy and regional influence.
Although the Malay language borrowed some terms from Sanskrit, these were used to express a particularly Malay view of the proper relations between subject and ruler. South Asian vernacular languages had very little impact on Malay. Malaysian interest in South Asian culture was mainly stimulated by religious and philosophical concepts expressed in written form, rather than dissemination by personal contact.
In 1025 CE, Kedah was conquered by the Cola kingdom of South India, which seems to have exerted strong political and artistic influence over the Kedah region, as many South Indian-style Hindu shrines were built during this period. In the 12th century, the Cola kingdom declined and Kedah reasserted its independence.
Religious and artistic elements of South Asian culture attracted Malaysian attention. However, the major developments of this period were the results of indigenous factors. South Asian literature, architecture and sculpture are well represented in the archaeological and historical record because they were manifested in physical objects which have survived until now. But the dynamic developments of Malay culture which took place during this time were the result of Malaysian interaction with its nearest Southeast Asian neighbours, with South Asia providing a kind of international cultural milieu and language which facilitated rapidly intensifying regional communication.
