ABSTRACT
R ice agriculture was the foundation of civilization in south India and of village life in Southeast Asia long before complex societies appeared east of the Bay of Bengal. But the productivity of “wet” rice agriculture lies at the very center of the debates over early civilization in Southeast Asia. Were the early states of this region indigenous developments, or did they arise as a result of pervasive contacts between Indian civilizations and regions to the east? As voyaging increased, especially from southern India to Southeast Asia, a strong cultural infl uence began to be felt. The tribal societies of Southeast Asia were introduced to many alien products and some of the foreigners’ philosophical, social, and religious beliefs. According to traditional South Asian histories, the Mauryan Emperor Asoka himself sent three missionaries to spread Buddhism in Southeast Asia. In a few centuries, kingdoms appeared that were run according to Hindu or Buddhist ideas of social order. These uniquely Southeast Asian states are the subject of this chapter.
