whose territory lay round Madjapahit were gradually
converted and the extinction of the last Hindu kingdom became
inevitable.[400]

3

It is remarkable that the great island of Sumatra, which seems to lie
in the way of anyone proceeding from India eastwards and is close to
the Malay peninsula, should in all ages have proved less accessible to
invaders coming from the west than the more distant Java. Neither
Hindus, Arabs nor Europeans have been able to establish their
influence there in the same thorough manner. The cause is probably to
be found in its unhealthy and impenetrable jungles, but even so its
relative isolation remains singular.

It does not appear that any prince ever claimed to be king of all
Sumatra. For the Hindu period we have no indigenous literature and our
scanty knowledge is derived from a few statues and inscriptions and
from notices in Chinese writings. The latter do not refer to the
island as a whole but to several states such as Indragiri near the
Equator and Kandali (afterwards called San-bo-tsai, the Sabaza of the
Arabs) near Palembang. The annals of the Liang dynasty say that the
customs of Kandali were much the same as those of Camboja and
apparently we are to understand that the country was Buddhist, for one
king visited the Emperor Wu-ti in a dream, and his son addressed a
letter to His Majesty eulogizing his devotion to Buddhism. Kandali is
said to have sent three envoys to China between 454 and 519.

The Chinese pilgrim I-Ching[401] visited Sumatra twice, once for
two months in 672 and subsequently for some years (about 688-695). He
tells us that in the islands of the Southern Sea, "which are more than
ten countries," Buddhism flourishes, the school almost universally
followed being the Mulasarvastivada, though the Sammitiyas and other
schools have a few adherents. He calls the country where he sojourned
and to which these statements primarily refer, Bhoja or Sribhoja
(Fo-shih or Shih-li-fo-shih), adding that its former name was Malayu.
It is conjectured that Shih-li-fo-shih is the place later known as
San-bo-tsai[402] and Chinese authors seem to consider that both this
place and the earlier Kandali were roughly speaking identical with
Palembang. I-Ching tells us that the king of Bhoja favoured Buddhism
and that there were more than a thousand priests in the city. Gold was
abundant and golden flowers were offered to the Buddha. There was
communication by ship with both India and C