Greater India
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Indian cultural sphere or Indosphere is an area that is composed of the many countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture and the Sanskrit language. The term Greater India is used to encompass the historical and geographic extent of all political entities of the Indian subcontinent, and the regions which are culturally linked to India or received significant Sanskritization and Indian cultural influence. These countries have varying degrees been transformed by the acceptance and induction of cultural and institutional elements of India. Since around 500 BCE, Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had resulted in prolonged socio-economic and cultural stimulation and diffusion of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs into the region's cosmology, in particular in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.
See also
- Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
- Hinduism in Southeast Asia
- Indianization of Southeast Asia
- Indian diaspora
- Indies
- Indo-Roman trade relations
- Indosphere
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
- List of Hindu Empires and DynastiesTemplate:Colend
