The Indian-Khmer contacts in Ho Chi Minh City

Dear Mr. Madhusree Chatterjee,
(e-mail: madhu.c@ians.in)

I am writing in regard to your article "South Indians were the ancient money bags in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City" in which you claimed that South Indians had contacts with the Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City 2000 years ago. Your article, which you quoted Mr. Sheetesh Sharma's book about the Indian-Vietnamese relations, erroneously claimed that ties between India and Vietnam date back to more than 2,000 years when Hindu traders from the Bhagalpur region established the ancient Champa kingdom in central Vietnam. I would like to draw your attention to the following:

First, 2000 years ago, Vietnam and the Vietnamese have not made their presence in the location of today's Ho Chi Minh City. 2,000 years ago, they had inhabited the most northerly territories near present Hanoi City.

The regions described in the book, Ho Chi Minh City and the kingdom of Champa (central Vietnam), were inhabited by the Hindu population known as the Chams, who later had all converted to Islam. The areas where present Ho Chi Minh City is located was a Khmer territory 2000 years ago known as Prey Nokor. It was only annexed by the Vietnamese ruler in 1698.

I wish to set the record straight here. Mr. Sheetesh Sharma had made serious historical errors in his book as he failed to properly research the topic.

The areas of Ho Chi Minh City and below were Khmer territories 2000 years ago and were populated by the Khmer people. The areas were only annexed by the Vietnamese rulers in 1698, therefore the South Indian traders whom you were talking about had contacts with local Khmers, not the Vietnamese. Today, the region below Ho Chi Minh City, even still controlled by Vietnam, is known as Kampuchea Krom (lower Cambodia) and are still populated by millions of ethnic Khmers.

You had also erroneously claimed that the "Vietnamese adaptation" of Ramayana, 'Ms Sita', is woven around the lives of local prince Po Liem, a local version of king Rama and his wife Sita. The adaptation of the Ramayana you are talking about is not a Vietnamese adaptation. In fact it was a Cambodian version of the Ramayana known as Reamker and was performed by the Khmer Krom people, ethnic Khmer people who still inhabited the former Khmer territories known as Kampuchea Krom. The name Po Liem is a Khmer name and is a mispronunciation of Preah Ream (King Rama) and Demon Riep was actually Vay Riep, a Khmer name for Ravana, Sita is called Seda and Hanuman is still called Hanuman like the Indian version.

Lastly, you erroneously claimed that 'according to a Chinese version, Kaundinya, who came to Vietnam from India via Cambodia, married a local princess Nagi and founded the dynasty. It was true that Kaundinya, an Indian Brahmin, had sailed to the location near Oc Eo (O'Keo which means 'precious creek' in Khmer), an area in the Mekong Delta, but he did not "come to Vietnam from India via Cambodia". He actually came to Cambodia from India because 2000 years ago, Oc Eo and Ho Chi Minh City were Khmer territories. The story of Kaundinya's journey and his union with the Cambodian princess Nagi had been recorded in the Cambodian chronology and was adapted into an epic theatre like the Ramayana. Kaundinya is known as Hun Tien in Chinese and in Khmer as Preah Thorng. Nagi is known in Chinese as Liv Yi and in Khmer as Soma.

We, the Khmer people, would like to ask Mr. Sharma to review his book and rewrite it to reflect the historical accuracy by saying that "south Indian traders had contacts with Khmers 2,000 years ago", not with the Vietnamese people, because 2000 years ago the Vietnamese people had not inhabited the areas mentioned yet.

Yours sincerely,
Khmerization
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For your information, I include a short history of Ho Chi Minh City as published by Wikipedia below:

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was once known as Prey Nokor, an important Khmer seaport prior to annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century.

Early history

Hồ Chí Minh City began as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese. It should be noted that in Khmer folklore southern Vietnam was given to the Vietnamese government as a dowry for the marriage of a Vietnamese princess to a Khmer prince in order to stop constant invasions and pillaging of Khmer villages.

Khmer Territory

Beginning in the early 17th century, colonization of the area by Vietnamese settlers gradually isolated the Khmer of the Mekong Delta from their brethren in Cambodia proper and resulted in their becoming a minority in the delta.

In 1623, King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia (1618—-1628) allowed Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn civil war in Vietnam to settle in the area of Prey Nokor, and to set up a custom house at Prey Nokor. Increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers, which the Cambodian kingdom could not impede because it was weakened by war with Thailand, slowly Vietnamized the area. In time, Prey Nokor became known as Saigon.

Prey Nokor was the most important commercial seaport to the Khmers. The city’s name was changed by Vietnam to Sài Gòn and then Hồ Chí Minh City. The loss of the city prevented the Cambodians access to the South China Sea. Subsequently, the Khmers' access to the sea was now limited to the Gulf of Thailand. It began as a small fishing village known as Prey Nokor. The area that the city now occupies was originally swampland, and was inhabited by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the Vietnamese.

In 1698, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế by sea^[9] to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. He is often credited with the expansion of Saigon into a significant settlement.