5 otherwise forgotten history of Indian cultural
preeminence in Southeast Asia, what has otherwise been termed as a glorious chapter in the cultural history of Southeast Asia. There are the natural linkages that facilitated the absorption of the Indian cultural elements including the place names by the native societies. Pertinent to mention are the similarities based on physical setting including geology,
landforms, soils, climate and forest wealth. Though formed as a barrier for the overland contacts between India (in the Northeastern region) and Southeast Asia Myanmar, the Tertiary mountain series in Southeast Asia are the extensions of the young folded mountain chains of Himalayas. The semblance
in the tropical monsoon rhythm, besides fostering cultural contacts, has brought in similarities in the ways of life as well as farming methods including irrigation practices (Yagama Reddy 2005 a.
Mention maybe made of the Mons, who upon settling in the coastal deltaic fringes, adopted the Indian wet-farming techniques and thus ensured food surplus in the lower Sittang valley and Irrawaddy delta.
The people of Funan, which is now called Cambodia, acquired from
the Indians especially the Tamilians of southern India various ideas and farming techniques including the art of irrigation that ensured economic prosperity necessary for expanding their empire in the lower Mekong during rd to 5
th centuries AD (Tate 1971:468). The well-planned and elaborated irrigation system which was analogous to the tanks of peninsular India (Fisher 1966:89), facilitated both the extensive and the intensive agricultural practices and ensured power and prosperity of the
Angkorian rulers who made regular endowments to the religious establishments (Hall
1992:236&240).
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