Cobra Arbok
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Not really, ancient India only refers to the Indian subcontinent(mostly modern day India). However, it is a well known fact that ancient Indian Empires/civilizations spread their culture and religion to Southeast Asia through conquest and trade, The Cholas are a good example of this. Modern day India was home to some of the world's most advanced civilizations at the time, so it was natural for India to spread its influence to nearby regions. As some posters have pointed out, some of that influence exists today. So it can be accurately said that Ancient Indian influence existed everywhere between Myanmar and the Phillipines. Some of the first powerful empires in Southeast Asia were Hindu Empires, many of which were tributaries to the CHolas. These are known as the Indianized Kingdoms.So Ancient India exteded to Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. wow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Southeast_Asia
And I am not sure what you mean when you say Indians are not proud of their connection to Southeast Asia. There are several threads even on this forum about that. I was actually thinking about making a thread on this subject on one point, but I felt that would be redundant given how much it has been discussed. As for Indus envy, well you know how much I hate it when people steal other's history, and that applies to Indians who want to claim Pakistani IVC sites. It is very ridiculous, especially because Indians do not need to claim Pakistani history, since India has a rich and ancient history that goes much beyond some ruins, impressive as they may be. Not to mention, India has a more than sufficient amount of IVC sites of ancient sites dating to that era.
We love our ancestry, traditions, values, languages and history. We deplore the artificial and utterly meaningless categorisation as "Indian". We have our shared pasts and a lot more that is not shared.
The problem is that Indians cannot respect their neighbours identities and feel the need to intentionally blur lines in order to credit their modern nation for the achievements of outsiders. Your identity is based on deceit if you interchangeably refer to the "subcontinent" and your nation as "India", while throwing tantrums if your neighbours don't engage in the same practice. Its not only Pakistanis who feel like this. Most Nepalis have the same opinion of Indians claiming Buddha as Indian. Its even more farcical when you claim Islamic/Mughal/Central Asian cultures as "Indian".
Hindu nationalism is clearly a very insecure movement that is frustrated by never identifying with or having anything resembling a historic nation like Persia or China. So now you resort to this "soft influence" and "celebrate festivals and exchange ideas" crap to convince the world that you are historic equals. Its sad and laughable at the same time. The truth is that Hindustan. which itself has had numerous meanings, was never the basis for any identity. This is why you desperately need to blur the lines and claim the Indus valley, Afghanistan, Nepal, OIT, Sanskrit (which itself is foreign) to supplement Hindu Nationalism.
With all due respect, there are a lot of inaccuracies in your post. First of all, the Buddha WAS born in India. Siddhartma Guatma was born in a kindom that is now in Nepal, but he only became the Buddha, or the enlightened one, in Bodh Gaya Bihar. He then spread his teachings(which would later become the religion of Buddhism) at Varanasi, which btw is the oldest city in South Asia, older than any city in Pakistan. From there it spread west to modern day Pakistan and East to SE and East Asia. India arguably has more Buddhist heritage and history than any nation on Earth, which is why many of the holiest sites in Buddhism are in India(Bihar to be specific). Without India, there is no Buddhism.
And what is that garbage about India never being a historic nation? the phrase historic nation itself is an oxymoron because the idea of the nation state did not come until recently. And this looks a lot like a nation to me.
In case you do not know, Hindu nationalists base India after the Maurya Empire, which is pretty accurate. And what makes Persia and China more of a nation than India? Persia is a multi-ethnic state with countless cultures and religions aside from Farsi speaking Persians. What exactly do Kurds have in common with Armenians and Bolochis? China has historically been more like a nation, but the modern PRC has little todo with the Han Empire, and is a result of the COmmunist revolution. What exactly do Uighurs. Tibetans, and Manchurians have in common? If anything, India is MORE of a nation because out of all the cradles of civilization, only the people of modern India largely follow the same religion, culture, and traditions as their ancestors did 10000 years ago.
As for Sanskrit, even if it is foreign(which is debateable) we definitely are the masters of it, since the greates works of Sanskrit literature have been written in modern India. No great work of post-Vedic Sanskrit literature has been written anywhere else.
As for the topic, it is a historical fact that ancient Indian empires such as the cholas successfully invaded and spread their culture and religion to Southeast Asia, showing modern India was one of the most influential and powerful civilizations in ancient times. The fact that some posters here are derailing the topic of a thread started by an Indonesian about the historical connections between India and Indonesia and bringing up Paksitan when the OP never mentioned that country just shows their insecurity and inferiority complex.
It looks like this thread has really triggered some people. I guess they cannot stand the fact that modern day India was home to some of the most advanced and influential civilizations in the ancient world, and they successfully spread Indian culture and religion(Hinduism and then buddhism) to SE Asia, some of which exists today. The fact that India directly shaped the evolution and history of a region with over 1 billion people puts it in an elite club historically, and some here do not seem to like that.
With that being said, most South east Asians are proud of their connection to Ancient India. Kudos to @Indos for starting this informative thread, and sorry it got derailed.