TheHindu: Ancient landfall ~~ Where did the Pallava ships go from Mamallapuram?

This article was published in "The Hindu" on 6th June,2006 is really quite interesting for the people who wish to know history and historical events. This article speaks about the links between 'Kedah' an oldest state in Malasia and Tamils (people of 'Tamil Nadu' a state in Republic of India).
I put here excerpts from The Hindu Magazine :
"......On a trip to Malaysia, we drove into the green Bujang Valley in Kedah, the oldest State in Malaysia. And we learnt that it is recognised as the oldest State because foreign sailors set up an ancient trading settlement there in the Fifth Century A.D. These "foreign sailors" were Tamils, subjects of the Pallavas. But the Bujang Valley had been mentioned in a Tamil poem, "Pattanopolai", as far back as the Second or Third Century A.D. There, the Bujang Valley is called Kalagan, which philologists claim eventually gave rise to the modern-day Kedah......."

PAST GLORY: The foundations of a Hindu temple (below) and the view from Gunung Jerai. PHOTOS: HUGH AND COLLEEN GANTZER



"..........Trading colonies seldom restrict themselves to trade for long and this also occurred in the Tamil settlement in Kadaram. As happened centuries later with the East India Company's trading station in Madras, the Pallava colonists decided to expand their activities. In the middle of the Sixth Century A.D., new waves of colonials from the Pallava Empire asserted themselves and engineered the break-up of the neighbouring Hindu state of Funan in Cambodia. Funan had, at that time, been in existence since the First Century A.D. The expatriate Pallavas must have been a formidable force to shatter such a long-established kingdom whose monarch had a significantly Pallava name: Rudravarman. Clearly, the fact that the people of Kadaram and those of Funan shared a common religion, culture and, possibly, a language, did not deter the Pallavas from widening their sphere of influence; to Funan's great misfortune...............''

Read complete story here.
(Exceprts drawn from: www.thehindu.com)