It’s most likely that they were Tamils. There was a time in history when Tamils ruled much of Southeast Asia. In fact, the word Singapore comes from a combination of the Tamil words “singa” which means lion and “pora” which means city, so the city of lions . We had an Empire called the Cholas who traded with regions around the Indian Ocean, and even traded with Greece and Rome. In more recent times, many Tamils were taken to various parts of the world as indentured labourers to work on sugar plantations, including my own great grandparents who were taken to South Africa.