Srivijaya
Srivijaya (also written Sri Vijaya, Indonesian: Sriwijaya, Thai: ศรีวิชัย or Ṣ̄rī wichạy) was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia.[1] The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6 months.
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The existence of Srivijaya was only formally suspected in 1918, when French historian George Coedès of the École française d’Extrême-Orient postulated its existence.[5]
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There was no continuous knowledge of Srivijaya even in Indonesian histories; its forgotten past has been recreated by foreign scholars. No modern Indonesians, not even those of the Palembang area around which the kingdom was based, had heard of Srivijaya until the 1920s, when French scholar George Coedès published his discoveries and interpretations in Dutch and Indonesian-language newspapers.[6] Coedès noted that the Chinese references to “Sanfoqi”, previously read as “Sribhoja”, and the inscriptions in Old Malay refer to the same empire.[7]
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Little physical evidence of Srivijaya remains.[11] According to the Kedukan Bukit Inscription, dated 605 Saka (683 AD), the empire of Srivijaya was founded by Dapunta Hyang Çri Yacanaca (Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa).
