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Small Malay kingdoms appeared in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.The peninsula lacked broad, extensive, fertile plains and were unableto support the pattern of densely populated classical Southeast Asiancivilizations that flourished in Cambodia and Java. Nevertheless,Chinese written sources do indicate that perhaps 30 small Indianisedstates rose and fell in the Malay Peninsula, mostly along the east andnorthwestern coasts.

This was a time when Indian traders and priests begantraveling the maritime routes and brought with them Indian concepts ofreligion, government, and the arts. Over many centuries the peoples ofthe region, especially the royal courts, synthesised Indian andindigenous ideas - including Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism - thatshaped their political and cultural patterns.

The most important of these states, Langkasuka, controlledmuch of northern Malaya. The Peninsula developed an internationalreputation as a source of gold - hence ithe name given to it byPtolemy, Golden Chersonese. It also became an important source of tinand was populated by renowned seafarers. While scholars still debateover the precise location of the famed Langkasuka, archaeologicalevidence leaves no doubt that the modern state of Kedah (referred to inancient Indian texts asKadaram orKataha) in thenorthwest of the Peninsula was an important centre of early Indianinfluence and trade.

Between the 7th and 13th centuries many of these small, oftenprosperous peninsular maritime trading states came under the loosecontrol of Sri Vijaya, the great Sumatra-based empire. At various timesthe Cambodian Angkor and Javanese Majapahit empires and the TaiAyutthaya (Ayudhia) kingdom also claimed suzerainty in the region.There was even an military expedition by the Cholas of South India sometime in the beginning of the elevent century A.D., when Rajendra Cholaattacked parts of the peninsula and Sumatra.

However, Hindu influence was not spread by the sword but byIndian trade. Initially, it came from traders from India, particularlythe Coromandel coast in South India. This trade was maritime andriverine, that is, confined to the coastal and riverine areas the MalayPeninsula. The centres of Indian trade were places such as Pasai,Indragiri, Melayu and Jambi in Sumatra; Kuala Muda in Kedah; andSurabaya in Java. Later, the centres of trade became powerful centresof political influence and expansion. First, there was the great MalayBuddhist Empire of Srivijaya in Sumatra, followed in the 14th centuryA.D. by its conqueror and successor, the Hindu Empire of Majapahit inJava. The military and political expansion of these two Empires meantalso the theological expansion of Buddhism and Hinduism in thepeninsula. These early states left a living legacy, traces of which canstill be found in the political ideas, social structures, rituals,language, arts, and cultural practices of the Malays.