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 Mûlavarman, son of Aśvavarman and grandson of Kuṇḍagga. They are not dated, but Kern considers for palæographical 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 latter. But it is most interesting to find that these annals give the family name of the king of Poli as Kauṇḍinya[409] which no doubt corresponds to the Kuṇḍagga of the Koetei inscription. At least one if not two of the Hindu invaders of Camboja bore this name, and we can hardly be wrong in supposing that members of the same great family became princes in different parts of the Far East. One explanation of their presence in Borneo would be that they went thither from Camboja, but we have no record of expeditions from Camboja and if adventurers started thence it is not clear why they went to the east coast of Borneo. It would be less strange if Kaundinyas emigrating from Java reached both Camboja and Koetei. It is noticeable that in Java, Koetei, Champa and Camboja alike royal names end in varman.