Professional Documents
Culture Documents
History of Keday
History of Keday
BY E. 0. WIXSTEIIT.
(Elagden, J. R. A. S., Jnly 1901). One ma.y a(1d to these instances Indrapnra the 0.ld court ila~lne for Pallang. The term
to
Lallglrasulia now surviues onljr as the n.ame of a slnall tri1~uta.r~
the upper reaches of the Feral< river. 'CIYle flt. illal-ong ALcchazoangsa relates hour Sri l'lal~~anrangsa,
the third ruler of ICeclall,
ren~n~led(to Serolial~l) fro111 Langl;asulia, because i t lvas too f a r
fro111the sen.. (J. R. A. S., S. B. 72, p. 64) : " i t l y llear Gnnong
-Jerai " (ib. KO. 53, 12. 1 4 s ) . The Javanese poem, the ATctqa?-n.X.?.etci.gc~nzci.colllposecl i n 1365 A.D., ~lielltions both Iieilall alld
Lang1;asnlra alnollg a. list of I?e~lillsulnrsettlellieilts tributary to
i\!Itxja~rllit ( i b . 1111. 145-9). B L I ~though Laagkasulia 7vns an old
nalne for Iiedah, the Chinese Langa-jra-hsiu is more likely to have
Iseel1 Tenasserim.
Of tlle prevalence of the BndcLhist religion eviriilence exists in
certaiil illscriptions found i n Kecfah ailcl Prooiilce TT'elleslejr, going
ba.cl; according to Kern to 400 A.D. ( i b . No. 49, pp. 95-101) and
having :a.S o ~ ~ t h Illcliail
e ~ n Sanskrit a1,phabet; anil again in inscribed
clay tablets found in l<edah in a cave, nine feet above the floor,
written accordillg to Kern i n Naga.ri of tlle 10th century alld
n
Nlerefore fro111 A ' o ~ t l ~ e rI~ldia.
(ib. No. 39, 1). 205 and c.F. J. and
P., A. S. Bengal, Vol. 111, No. 7, July 1907, where Rad<shaldas
Banerji has identifiecl five votir~etablets fro111 Trang as relics of
a4a.hayaiza Builclhism belonging to the \vestern grouls of the
Nortl~eril Illdiail Nagari dhahanacters -of the 11th celltury A.D.,
.resen~blingthe clraracters ,of the Ee~laresgrant of TCanlaclera allcl
.the grants of the Ratliors of SCanauj.) Cllula (Corolllanilel) re.cords claim t1ia.t Iiedah 114a.s coiiqt~ereclby a C11nla ki11g iin the 11th
.centnrjr.
Accordi~lglgwe l;1101\7 of Iiedah till the end of 14th century
t11a.t i t was fan~~ous
as a mart for till ; its people were Bud~clhists,anil
.the preilominant illfluellce was Inilian. Besicles this we k1101v that
.first Pale111Isang ancl the C h u l ~kings ancl then the great Ja~ranese
lcingdom 01 Majapahit claiiiled suzerainty over it.
or " Iiedah Annals," as the
T l ~ e.EIikci?jat iilarong ill~~l~a~cangscc
morlr is termed, records seven pre-i\iIuhammacl,?a rulers of 1Zetla.h
bearing the SanslrritJSiai~iesetitles o-f Marong Mnhan~angsa,Marong
'lit.al-~apodisa.t,
Sri Jilal~a.~\~aagsa,
$ri Indrawangs~~,
Maha l'marita Baria.
(Raja B,i.reiong), Phra Ong Maha Poclisa.t, and of I'llra. Ong l!lrcharuler tulder the style of
nral~gsa~vliobocanle its first I!l~i~I~ammadan
Jfnclzaffal Shah. Some of these titles are not Indiail but IndoChinese ; ' Poclisat ' for example is ' Bodisat ' anil the cllasge of
.sound from soliallts to surds is neither Illiliall nor Malay but
~cl~aracteristicallg
Inclo-Chinese occnrrilzg in &Ion, Iihmer, Siamese
.and Bunnese. This is e~ii1enc.ethat I<edah fell, after the fall of
Palei~ibangand the decay of Majapahit, under the influence of its
'Xortllern neigllbou~,the Siamese.
A11 Acbinese account gives 1414 A.D. as the date of the con.version of the first king of I<eclah to Islam (Journal of the Ilztlian
Archipelago T701. 111, p. 480 and J. X. A. S., April 1909, 1., 52'7)).
Jour. Straits Branch
1i
j
t
i
Sac.,
HISTORY O F ICED9H.
-32
ll~~clzaffal
Shah (Phraong Iviahawangsa.)
I
I
~ u a z x a ' mShah Raja ~ f u h k m a dShah snlairn& Shah
(reigned a t Icota Palas)
(ruled Langkapuri)
( ? h4ans11r Shah)
I
~ a l l m u ' dShah
Snlailnan Shah
*(carried to Acheen 1619 A.D.)
I t mns i n the reigx wf 1Sulta.n Mua.zza.lll Shah, the seconcl RIuham" profess i11 their
-ma.dan ruler of l<ecla.ll, t11a.t the " Iiedah Annn.1~
preface to have been composed (J. R. A. S., S. B. 'l2, p. 37). I f
that statenlent is .true a t any rate of the llucleus of the book, i t
-nronld be for Malay histories of a very respectal>le age incleed. But
t11a.t there ]),navebeen many recensions is clear not only fro111 the incident of Shaikh Nuru'cl-din's Si~atzi.'l-mzistukim,But also, as we
shall see, from the completion of bile list of rulers dovn t o very
.recent tilnes (ib. 13. 122). illlother an~chro~~ilism
I1la.y be the mention of IiuaLa Changgo~~g,
if that n a n ~ emeans R.angoon, ~~rllich
la.tter name dates frmn 17.55 A.P. only.
Jnst as Xi-amese influence l ~ a dnot s~veclIcedah fro111 the
Portugnese ancl the ,Achinese, so too i t did not sare it from the
'Dutch. Having trade routes not only fro111 Singapore but fro111
Patani i t was a very illlportant centre. ".Onthe 11th July 1.642,
-the king of l<edah, ~1r1101n Ifatelief bacl visited i n 1.606, agreed
v i t h ,the (Putch East In.dia) Conipagnie to let her have h a l of the
tin-l?rocluction of his country a t a iisecl price and not to adalit ships
nrjthout the Compagnie's permit. An. a.ttempt was nlade t o obtain
.a similar contract from Peralr nlhich mas richest in tin. Rut that
country refused, givillfi as a reason its sassnlage to ilcl3een. On
the
I<,edah a tight 1101~1nrns Irept. The i~~structiolls
to ' break
.office there ' (11686) nlso container1 orders ' for the blockade of its
port.' This colnnzalld was rel~eatedthree years h t e r : the Governor
~vastold to ' b l ~ ~ l i a dthe
e river of Hedali as closely as possilsle;'
-in 1663 the ' Dagregister' melltions that 'the river of Q,t),nedais
,still being blockaded ' ancl i n 1664 t,he Netherlands I n d i a ~ l.Governlllel~tresolves, i n spite of the liing's wish for peace, ' to colltiilne
the blocltacle of Queda on the olcl footing.' Iiedah dicl not bear
.t!l~is~lleekll;;in 1G'i'G Governor B o d ~nrritesto Bata~riathat 'the
Compagnie's cruising sloops had been assailed many times about
Pera and Qneda by Mahay pirates.' Ancl shortly afternards he
-reports that ' about Dinghdiaglz another sloop with a crew of six
hail beell r ~ ~ s l ~by
e c lthe Qnednze pirates onring to the crew's owli
,
HISTORY O F KEDSH.
33
HISTORY O F KEDA.H.
34
.Rijaln'd-din Shell
(Marhum Naga)
Muhigyu'cl-din 3 f : a . n ~Shah
~
(,Marhum Sena)
Ata'11'1lci11 I1\ICuha.mntadBhah
( 14arhum Blukit Pinang)
I'
Al~clullaliad-&I~~.karranl
;Shah
Dniiu'd-din Muzzam Shah
(Marhum Iii5yanga.n;1799 1
( N a r h ~ u nTvIucla, Bnliit Pinang ;
a. 1798)
abdicated after 2 yea-rs: d. 1818)
Zainu'l-Rlasl~id .Shall
(d. ci~aca,185-2)
'. Li'
I
I,
A~lln~acl
Tajn'cl-din. M u l i ~ r f a ~Shah
n~
(cl. 1879)
.Ji
I!
Zainu'l-Easlii>d
Al)cln'I-Eamid
Abdu'l-Aziz,
BSuta.zaam .S;l~~al~.
.I-Ialim shah.
Raja n'Iuda.
(d. 1881)
(.d. 1907)
giT7es the cli-~tesfor 17luhaiilmacl Jinw %8inal-al>idin ancl'
Ke~r~bolcl
Al~dullrllbut s e a m to have got the fain.ily relationshil~swrong.
For the names and dates after Ahme,cl Tajn'd-din, ~v11odied about
IS44 KT)., I ail1 indebted to a list conlpiled for Mr. E. A. G. S,tuart
" There is a coin of 'this ruler dated 1154 A.R. = 1741-2 (Milliesr
'Recherches snr les l l o c l ~ n i e s cles Indigsnes de 1'Archipel Indien et de
Peninsula Malaise' ( l g ' i l ) , p. 133 ancl plate. Cf. J. Ib. A. S., S. B., NO27, p. 132).
Jour. Stl-aits Branch
i_
II
[
35
bv Wan Ya.haya Haji and also to the account i n the " Straits DirecA.llinad Taju~'d-d.i~i~
Balinl Shah beg:n. his reign a t IZ11sl.a
ICedall. I n I.S21 the Siamese invadecl liedah and he fled to
l'rovince IVellesle~rand li[lanlai. Tlle Bliannese rnled Jieclah for 23
years, cliv,itbing i t into four parts: ( I ) li-ecla:h, (2) Getnl ruled by
' ~ n n l ; u Bisnn, (3) Perlis ruled by Sa.yic1 EIusain Jamaln'd-din,
' ( A ) 1<11bang ~ ' R S I LI - L I ~by
~ CTu11liu
~
L l n u i ~ ~I.n six years the population was reducecl from lSO,OO0- to 6,000. I n 18-31Sultan Ahmncl
Taju'il-(tiin ~ v a sren~ovoclt o IJ\.lniacca; in 1536 having got peramission
to lewe Malacca :for cx visit to Deli he vest to Gruas and prepared
t o a.ttacli Iiedah, rnllcll a British gun-hont captured and took him
to 13,ellang. I n IS43 Icecla'll, k11e division, was restored to him under
Siainese protection ancl he returned to reign a t Kota Iiu,da Muda,
as Alor Star \bras oyergromn with forest. I l e was buriecl a t Langgar. Later Kubang Rusn was restored- to Kecla11, blit Perlis remains
inclcpendent ancl Setnl is st.ill :L part of Siamese territory.
I11 1.909 snzerainty over Icedah and Perlis was transferred by
-Sianl to Great Britain.
There m e two illteresti~lgpoints in the "~Iieda11;Innals " nrhich
,tIesenle remark. Allusioll is ,11lade to the fact t11a.t C+lulong Geriang,
Ciunong J6ra:i and Gunong J a l ~ ~ t l were
~ u l once islands (J-. B.. A. S'.,
S. B. 72, 11. 69). Mow geologists tell us this is true. hut it was
t,l~ousandsof years ago, coo fa.r back for trailit.ion to 1la.ve conle
-clown; so that presanlably Ma1a.y~a ~ n s have
t
obser~eclthe evideace
-of sea-shells inland and drawn haphazard the correct conclusion.
Again, the " Annals" record a. T<eclah legend (which I sha.11
show in the next Journal to be of foreign origin) as to the founding of Perali (ib.,, 11. 62 a.nd No. 9, pp. 85-86 and J. R. A. s.,
April 190.5) and say t11a.t the palace of the I<edah Raja who became
tlie first ruler of Perali was erected a t 13ul,a.11Indra Sakti. Rut
.according to Perak 11.istory recorded i n the JJistc 3fL'lnyu, an
STTIIIt.l~century history of that state, S ~ t l t a nIskanclar who came
to the tlnwne in 17'63 A.D. was the first r d e r of Perali to build n
padace on an islailil d o n l ~the Perak River, called Chen~lpaliaSari,
till he changecl its nalne into Indra Sakti. The legend of the
"Annals" is a late interpolation. But does i t refer to an earlier
Pulau Inclrn S ~ l c t i ? Did Iiedah elrer hold continuous swag over
the nort~l~enl
part of Pernl;, before the present Peralc dynasty
was founded? On these points there is no evidence.
I am indebtecl to Mr. C. 0. Blagden for mncll vulud~lei11.foim-ation towarils the prepara.tioii of this paper: and in connection
l
with i t should be read his article in this number of the J o ~ u n a ,011
" The Empire of tlie Alal~nraja."
torjr."
R..\