A question may, here, be raised : From where
did these Indian artists come ? Did they hail from
the north or south of India ? It is not possible, on the
whole, to restrict the limit in such a way. Like the bulk
of the colonists, they might have hailed from all parts
of India. Each band of colonists might have counted
among its number men from different parts of India.
The majority of artists might have come from the
South of India, because the style of architecture found
prevalent in Kamboja deia is Dravidian. We have
already spoken of the two routes which were used by
the Indian colonists in coming over to Indo-China.
It was possible for the artists from South India to cross
over the sea in coming to the coast of Indo-China.
Indians, coming as the inheritors of an ancient
civilisation, established a powerful kingdom under the
name of Camboja. The kingdom of Camboja flourish-
ed until the period when the followers of Islam began
to impose their religion on the people of Asia.
Though, Islam penetrated into India and made in-
roads on the islands of the Indian archipelago, yet it
could not make any successful movement towards
Indo-China* This period, however, should be regarded
as "the commencement of the decadence of the great
Indo-Chinese civilisation/' With the gradual fall of
the kingdom of Camboja, Siam raised up its head.
The Thai's became powerful by this time and asserted
their independence in the thirteenth century. On the
ruins of the Indian colony of Camboja, rose up another
Indian colony, namely, the kingdom of SyUma deia.