Numerous sources and folklores talk about the arrival of the merchant Brahmin Kaundinya from India and the subsequent marriage with the Naga princess Soma leading to the establishment of the kingdom.

The union led to the foundation of the House which would rule Funan for many generations and the royal legitimacy of the dynasty was acquired through the female line (i.e. the matrilineal lineage) in the kingdom.

DNA sample taken from a protohistoric individual from the Wat Komnou cemetery at the Angkor Borei site in Cambodia contains substantial level of South Asian admixture (ca.

Radiocarbon dating result on the human bone (95% confidence interval is 78–234 calCE) indicate that this individual lived during the early period of Funan.

[11] The links with Kalinga are also noted from the copper plate land grants given by the rulers of Kalinga to Kaundinya Brahmins who lived in the Mahendragiri region of Ganjam with the most notable one being the Ragolu inscription copper plate grant issued by the ruler Nandaprabhanjanavarman of the Pitrbhakta dynasty,[12][13] the Shaivite customs mentioned in the Chinese work History of the Southern Dynasties during the reign of Kaundinya's descendant Jayavarman Kaundinya with regards to Mount Mo-tan in Funan,[14][15] bearing affinity with the early Saivism and its relation to Mahendragiri mountain which was the prevalent religion during the reign of different dynasties of Kalinga[16] and the diplomatic relations between Funan and the Murunda dynasty of northern Kalinga during 3rd cen CE, when King Dhamadamadhara (Dharmatamadharasya) of Murunda received envoy Su-Wu representing King Fan Chan of Funan (225-250 CE).