The peoples of maritime Southeast Asia — present day Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines — are thought to have migrated southwards from southern China sometime between 2500 and 1500 BC. The influence of the civilization of India gradually became predominant among them, and among the peoples of the Southeast Asian mainland. Indian traders, adventurers, teachers and priests continued to be the dominating influence in Southeast Asia until about 1500 CE, and Indians often ruled the earliest states in these regions. Hinduism and Buddhism both spread to these states from India and for many centuries existed there with mutual toleration. Eventually the states of the mainland became mainly Buddhist.