The Early Bay of Bengal: An Austronesian Sea?

Roger Blench

The modern distribution of peoples and languages around the Bay of Bengal is very different from the situation 4000 years ago. There is indirect evidence for an active maritime culture quite different from the medieval period when records largely begin. Scholars such as James Hornell (1930s) and Waruno Mahdi (1970s) have long ago pointed to the evidence for early population movements, but their work has seen limited follow-up. Reconstructing this period is hampered by a lack of comprehensive archaeological work, especially along the east coast of India. Nonetheless there are clues in the distribution of modern-day populations, particularly the Munda and Nicobarese. Both of these are Austroasiatic speaking; but they are remote from the core area of this language phylum, in Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos. Moreover, they show little or no signs of maritime traditions. The paper proposes that they were transported to their present locations by Austronesian mariners. More broadly, the whole Bay of Bengal area was probably dominated by Austronesian shipping, following the explosive dispersal out of Southern Taiwan around 4000 BP. The later rise of Indian maritime capacity reversed this process, bringing trade goods to the Isthmus of Kra and over-writing evidence of Austronesian presence.