Funan

Funan was a pre-Angkor Indianized kingdom located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon-Khmer settlers speaking an Austro-Asiatic language. We know very little about it, except that it was a powerful trading state. This is evidenced by the discovery of Roman, Chinese and Indian goods during archaeological excavations at Oc Eo in southern Vietnam. The capital was initially located at Vyadhapura, near modern Phnom Penh, though it may have been moved to Oc Eo at a later time. According to reports by two Chinese envoys, K'ang T'ai and Chu Ying, the state was established by an Indian Brahmin[citation needed] named Kaundinya, who in the first century C.E. (!! dates not accurate, he lived in 6th century BC??) was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Khmer queen, Soma. Soma, the daughter of the king of the Nagas, married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan. The myth had the advantage of providing the legitimacy of both an Indian Brahmin and the divinity of the cobras, who at that time were held in religious regard by the inhabitants of the region. Area code: 558