The term Champa refers to a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through 19th century (1832), before being absorbed and annexed by the Vietnamese state. The kingdom was known variously as nagara Campa (Sanskrit; ) in the Chamic and Cambodian inscriptions, in Vietnamese (Chiêm Thành in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary) and (Zhànchéng) in Chinese records.