Here is your short paragraph on India’s relationship with oriental world!
The Oriental world includes into its fold the countries of East Africa, South West Asia, South Asia and the South East Asia. These countries surround the Indian Ocean which unites them through sea routes.
Economically and culturally, India’s major contacts with outside world for the last two millennia have been by sea, earning India, the title of ‘Mistress of the Eastern Seas’.
The opening of the Suez Canal has brought the countries of Southern Europe and North Africa very close to India. In ancient days, the boats of the Babylonians, the Egyptians and the Phoenicians used to sail in the Arabian Sea.
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Hindu and Buddhist cultures and religions spread too far off areas towards south and East Asia. There are a number of temples in Thailand with slokas from Ramayana engraved on the walls. Bali in Indonesia was the seat of Hindu Kingdom. Mauritius in the Indian Ocean is a ‘miniature India’.
Our relationships through land frontiers are much older than our maritime contacts. Passes, gorges and valleys in the mountain chains offered passages to travellers in the ancient times. Waves of settlers from the north-west were lured by the riches of India in general and that of the Great Plains in particular. Mongols, Turks, Arabs and Iranians entered India as conquerors and settled down here.
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These settlers got assimilated in the national mainstream with the passage of time which led to a mixture of races, cultures, people and ethnic groups. Some of the invaders brought architectural excellence to India and took back to their homeland the Indian numerals, the decimal system and the ideas of Upnishads.
Buddhism travelled from India to Tibet through land routes and further crossed over to China, Korea and even Japan. Thus India is an integral part of the oriental world and holds a significant position in the region.