ordered that they should not come to Court but present themselves in the province of Fu-kien.  The Annals state that Sanskrit writing was in use at San-bo-tsai and lead us to suppose that the country was Buddhist.  They mention several kings whose names or titles seem to begin with the Sanskrit word Sri.[403] In 1003 the envoys reported that a Buddhist temple had been erected in honour of the emperor and they received a present of bells for it.  Another envoy asked for dresses to be worn by Buddhist monks.  The Ming annals also record missions from San-bo-tsai up to 1376, shortly after which the region was conquered by Java and the town decayed.[404] In the fourteenth century Chinese writers begin to speak of Su-men-ta-la or Sumatra by which is meant not the whole island but a state in the northern part of it called Samudra and corresponding to Atjeh.[405] It had relations with China and the manners and customs of its inhabitants are said to be the same as in Malacca, which probably means that they were Moslims.

Little light is thrown on the history of Sumatra by indigenous or Javanese monuments.  Those found testify, as might be expected, to the existence here and there of both Brahmanism and Buddhism.  In 1343 a Sumatran prince named Adityavarman, who was apparently a vassal of Madjapahit, erected an image of Manjusri at Tjandi Djago and in 1375 one of Amoghapasa.

4

The Liang and T’ang annals both speak of a country called Po-li, described as an island lying to the south-east of Canton.  Groeneveldt identified it with Sumatra, but the account of its position suggests that it is rather to be found in Borneo, parts of which were undoubtedly known to the Chinese as Po-lo and Pu-ni.[406] The Liang annals state that Po-li sent an embassy to the Emperor Wu-ti in 518 bearing a letter which described the country as devoted to Buddhism and frequented by students of the three vehicles.  If the letter is an authentic document the statements in it may still be exaggerations, for the piety of Wu-ti was well known and it is clear that foreign princes who addressed him thought it prudent to represent themselves and their subjects as fervent Buddhists.  But there certainly was a Hindu period in Borneo, of which some tradition remains among the natives,[407] although it ended earlier and left fewer permanent traces than in Java and elsewhere.

The most important records of this period are three Sanskrit inscriptions found at Koetei on the east coast of Borneo.[408] They record the donations made to Brahmans by King Mulavarman, son of Asvavarman and grandson of Kundagga.  They are not dated, but Kern considers for palaeographical reasons that they are not later than the fifth century.  Thus, since three generations are mentioned, it is probable that about 400 A.D. there were Hindu princes in Borneo.  The inscriptions testify to the existence of Hinduism there rather than of Buddhism:  in fact the statements in the Chinese annals are the only evidence for the