As per the extracts from the works of French Sinologist Paul Pelliot who researched on Indo China history, there exists a strong historical link between India and the Hindu Kingdom of Khmer in Funan (present day Cambodia). 
The research says about Hun-t’ien (Indian name Kaundinya) whom Indian legend regard was a great Brahmin who received his spear from Asvatthaman (Aswathama), son of Drona, teacher of the Pandavas in the epic Mahabharata.
As far as Liu-yeh is concerned, she is regarded among local Hindus as Nagi Soma, daughter of Soma, King of the Nagas. It is likely Kaundinya gave his wife the mythological name of Soma, as he had taken that of Kaundinya (a Brahmin gotra).
According to Pelliot, Kaundinya’s conquest of Liu-yeh probably took place in the second half of the first century AD. They had a son who succeeded to the throne, giving rise to the Hun, or First Kaundinya, dynasty,
.. which ruled Funan (present day Cambodia as per earliest Chinese travellers) for over one hundred and fifty years. The Angkorean civilisation lasted five centuries.
According to Chinese accounts, the young queen, Liu-yeh, was “celebrated for her virile force and her exploits”. Hun-t’ien married her and became king. Not content with seeing her go naked, as was then the custom of both men and women in..
.. Funan, he dressed her in a fold of cloth, with a hole through which she passed her head, and it covered her breasts too. He made her do her hair up in a knot. This was the beginning of women’s clothing and styles in Funan.
Another legend says, one night two thousand years ago, a god visited a youth in India and said to the young man, named Kaundinya: “Find a bow, board your boat, sail toward the rising sun.” Kaundinya went to the temple next morning and there found, on the floor,..
.. a bow with a quiver full of arrows; he embarked and the god-driven wind blew him across the elephant-backed sea to a shore where Liu-yeh, the beautiful queen and leader of the Khmer amazons, reigned...
.. The queen launched her war canoe to repel Kaundinya, but the youth shot it through with his arrows, and she submitted to him. They were married, and thus was born the dynasty of the first Khmer kingdom.”
Angkor Wat, the magnificent marvel of Hindu architecture and the world’s largest temple complex was later built and explanded by several illustrious rulers of Hindu Kingdom of Khmer.
Source and Credit:
1)THE INDIA THEY SAW (VOL-1) by SANDHYA JAIN
2)Extracts from the works of French Sinologist Paul Pelliot
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1)THE INDIA THEY SAW (VOL-1) by SANDHYA JAIN
2)Extracts from the works of French Sinologist Paul Pelliot
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3)The Ancient Khmer Empire, Lawrence Palmer Briggs, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 41, Part I, 1951, p 17.
4)Monuments of Civilization. Ancient Cambodia. Donatello Mazzeo & Chiara Silvi Antonini. Foreword by Han Suyin, Cassell, London, 1978.
4)Monuments of Civilization. Ancient Cambodia. Donatello Mazzeo & Chiara Silvi Antonini. Foreword by Han Suyin, Cassell, London, 1978.
