Gangga Negara

Gangga Negara
2nd century–1025/1026
Beruas, Manjung previously known as Dinding as seen in the Straits Settlement of Malaya map.
Capital		Beruas
Languages		Malay language
Religion		Hindu
Government		Monarchy
Raja		Gangga Shah Johan
History
•	Coronation	2nd century
•	Defeated by Chola Empire	1025/1026
Succeeded by Kedah Tua
Today part of		Malaysia

Gangga Negara is believed to be a lost semi-legendary Hindu kingdom mentioned in the Malay Annals that covered present day Beruas, Dinding and Manjung in the state of Perak, Malaysia with Raja Gangga Shah Johan as one of its kings. Researchers believe that the kingdom was centred at Beruas and it collapsed after an attack by King Rajendra Chola I of Coromandel, South India, between 1025 and 1026. Another Malay annals Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa known as Kedah Annals, Gangga Negara may have been founded by Merong Mahawangsa's son Raja Ganjil Sarjuna of Kedah, allegedly a descendant of Alexander the Great or by the Khmer royalties no later than the 2nd century.

Gangga Negara means "a city on the Ganges" in Sanskrit, the name derived from Ganganagar in northwest India where the Kambuja peoples inhabited. The Kambujas are an Indo-Iranian clan of the Indo-European family, originally localised in Pamirs and Badakshan. Commonly known as Hindu traders, they built their colonies in Southeast Asia around 2000 years ago at the Mekong valley and also at the Malay archipelago in Funan, Chenla, Champa, Khmer, Angkor, Langkasuka, Sailendra, Srivijaya, etc. Historians found the Kambuja traders travelled from Gujarat to Sri Lanka and then to Ligor (Nakhon Sri Thammarat) of the northern Malay peninsular, overland to Thailand and Cambodia.