MARITIME TRADE AND CULTURAL TRANSMISSION: ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONAL LINKS BETWEEN INDIA AND MALAYSIA

Abstract

India's strategic location between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal has made it a maritime hub for over two millennia, facilitating enormous cultural and economic contacts with Southeast Asia. The Chola Empire (9th-13th centuries) was instrumental in controlling maritime routes to the Malay Peninsula, transmitting Hindu-Buddhist traditions, art, and governance models, and fostering a thriving trade. Ports like Muziris, Tamralipti, and Kaveripattinam functioned as crucial conduits for the interchange of products, ideas, and religious rituals. Malaysia's Indian diaspora, which numbers around 2.9 million people, continues to uphold these traditions, serving as a live cultural bridge between the two countries. This studies seeks to examine how maritime trade facilitated cultural transmission between India and Malaysia, with an emphasis on economic exchanges, religious spread, linguistic borrowings, and administrative impacts. The research blends comparative studies of texts, architecture, and diaspora behaviors by analyzing historical inscriptions, temple ruins, and trade records, as well as archaeological evidence from Bet Dwarka (India) and Penang (Malaysia). The findings show that India exported spices, textiles, beads, and ivory while acquiring gold, silver, and horses. Buddhism and Hinduism spread over marine channels, and Malaysian temples mirror Indian architectural forms. Sanskrit expanded Malay language, and epics like the Ramayana were localized in Southeast Asia. Indianized kingdoms, such as Srivijaya, adopted governance traditions influenced by Indian polities. Artifacts and diaspora traditions illustrate the continuation of Indian art, rituals, and festivals. Finally, maritime trade served as a civilizational connector, spreading religion, governance, language, and art, molding Malaysia's cultural identity and emphasizing long-standing Indo-Malay links across the Indian Ocean.