The Empire of t h e Maharaja, King of the

Mountains and Lord of the Isles.,

BY C. 0. BLIGDEN.

I11 the ant~uinnof the year G71 the Chinese Buddhist l~ilgrim
I Tsingl sailed from C.anton in a Persia11 ship with the North-East
nlonsoon lailcl i n less than t~ventydays arrived a t the country of
Fo-she, where he stayed for s i s months before l~roceeding to
India. Fourteen years later, on his return from India, lie sta.jwl
tliere again, this tinle for four yea.rs. A11 the available evidei~ce
points to tlie co~iclusioilthat this Fo-she or Slii-li-fo-she country
\\-as Palembang, in Southern Sun~atra.,and from t.lle 7th century
to its conquest by the Javanese of Maj.apahit about 1'37,7 we get
lizaiijl glillly~sesof i t a s a. flourishing k i ~ ~ g c l o of
n ~ Hiilclu (and
particularly Buclclhist) civilization. T h a t much bas been con~inon
l~i~omleclge for a good many years past. Gerini in his Resecu-ches
012 Piolenz?j's Qeog~*uphy of Enste7.n Asia, pp. 610-30, has coml~iled
a useful list of dates forming all outline sl<etcl~of ?ale~nba~ig
history clnring the period above mentioilecl, aiicl TA?ill<inson i n
Papelas on llcilciy Subjects: Wisbol.y, Pt. I, pp. 11.--1, hns also gi~len
a brief account of i t (omitting, ho~vever,any referenmce to I Tsiiig
and relying on the very ilonl~tfullyidenti-lied liil~g::dol~l of li,aaclali).
Quite receiitly, hou~ever, the im1)ortance of Paleml~ang in
relation to the ~vholecourse of the local history of the Straits before
the 14th century 118s had fresh light t h r o ~ \ ~~11011 n it. It is no
longer as R single kingdonl localizecl in Southeni Suinatra that we
nlust regarcl it, but as an enlpire n~liielifor several c e n t ~ ~ r i ehad s
outstations on both sides of the Straits, by mea~lsof which i t con-
trolled nlld toolr toll of the international trade that passed throng11
them. TLie~veclin that light, the llmtter becomes cnstly more in-
teresting, for i t is linlieil up n~itllthe llistory of Eastern tracle-rontes
in general and in particular vith the sea-route between China and
the West. I n Ptolem)1's time (2nd Centnry AD.)tracle already
\\rent t l ~ r o u g lthe
~ Straits, though on occasjon i t availecl itself of
various land crossings on the isthwus between Inilo-China nnil tlie
$ialay Peninsnla., in places where that istlimus narro\.irs ancl they,
are con~renientgaps in the ~ilountainridge. No clonbt, as n.avig::a-
tioil progressed, the continuous sea-ronte througl~tlle Straits, in
spite of the delays iav.ol\~ecl1s)~its uleali ancl vanj.able n~i~icls, lsecamt:
more ancl more firilily estalslished as the normal one. A~lclso it
re~naineduntil Vasco da Gallla clisco~\~ered tlie nenT route rounil
the Cape of Good I-Iope, whereupon for a few centuries tlle trade
\lras diverted to sonie estent, only to return aga.in into its old
channels by r e n s ~ nof the cutting of the Suez Canal.
1 I-Tsing translated by J. Takakusu," (1396, Clnrendou Press,
Osforcl).
Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc., NO. 81, 1920.
a4 TEIE EMPIRE OF THE MAHARAJA.
111 I Tsing's time 1'aleinl)any annesed the 3ilnlayn e o ~ ~ n t r p ,
probably in Central S u m a t r a son~enjhereabout I<anl1~aror Sial;,
nrith a p o r t a t n(llicl1 the p i l ~ r i malso staged a ~1~11ile. A century
later, there is e~~,iclence tliat Vieng Sa, a n illlallcl l,lace sonth of t h e
B a y of Bancloll i n what is I . I O I ~ ~L o n e r S i a m alltl situateil a l ~ o u t
9" N . lat., nras i n seine way under the coiltrol of t h e " Bfal~drdja,"
f o r t h a t was the dynastic style of t h e Icing of Palembang. A San-
skrit jnscription set u p a t TTieng Sa' records tlle erectioll i n tlle y e a r
775 of c e r t a i ~ iBncldliist l~uilclii~gs I I ~order of the Iiillg of 8 r i -
~ ~ i j a y a Tllis
. reflects 11ack a ray of light on the h~nclnt~rarz S?.ivijn?/a,
tlie l t i n ~ ~ d o lof
l l Srivijaga. illentioiled i n the I i o t a I i a p u r (TqTestern
Bang1;a) inscription2 mhich is ne.arly a century older a n d corn-
inelnorates ai? attack on ~ J a ~ r a It . nonr seems highly probable t h a t
Srivijaya nras not t h e lame of the ltillg ]rho set u p t h a t inscril,tion
11ut rather of his Iringdom. I11 t h e midclle of tlle 9th century begins
t h e s e ~ j e sof Arabic writers mlio mal<e nzucll of the empire of t h e
Mal18rSja, v h i c h according to tllelll illcluded all t h e regioll of t h e
Straits. F o r the early Arab traders the great e m p o r , i ~ umas l ~ ICalah
o r Iiilah, where there were tin-mines nrllicl~localize it clef in it el!^ i n
t h e tin-l~earingt r a c t of country extending froill Soidher11 Tenns-
serinl through t h e greater p a r t of the Rlalay Peninsnla. I t s
identification wit11 IiPilah is a t least highly probable, f o r I<Eclah is
t h e p o r t n ~ l ~ i ca htra.veller f r o m t h e West ~.i~onlcl
first reach a n d call
a t . I b n Iihordaclzbeh, tlie earliest Arab nnthoritg who goes i n t o
these matters, says tliat I c i l a l ~was sis days' journey from t h e islancl
of Lang1;abnlus (,one of the Nicobars, prd~abl!l Great Nicobar). It
is nlelltionecl allout t h e beginning of t h e 10tli centnry .as a clepeil-
clency of thc R'lahRrBja, ancl l,rol~ablystood i n t h a t relation a century
or tn7o earlier. It is probad~lyidelltical nit11 ICie-ch'a (old pronun-
ci.ation IZada), nrllere I Tsillg called on h i s nray t o Inc1,ia ancl wllence
h e sailed i n a sliip O~elongillgt o t h e Iring (of Ptaleillll~ang).
B u t what tl:ro.\vs t h e strongest light on the extent a n d import-
ance of t h e ellll~ireof Palsiltbang is t h e record of i t s relations with
t h e T a m i l clynastj' of t h e cholas i n t h e 1 1 t h century. First, ill
1005, there i s a g r a n t of a village to a Buclclhist -1emple a t Nega-
p a t a m built I ~ j rt,wo Paleinbalig liings, father ailcl son. T h i s g r a n t
is i n Sans1;rit a n d T a m i l ; i n the S a n s k r i t portlion the llaines of t h e
two kings are given ancl t h e secollcl one is stj~lecl" k i n a of I<atdha
a n d lting of Srivishaya." T h e i r identity as l;ii~gs of Palein,bang is
clinchecl by two entries i n t h e Chinese allilals of t h e S u n g dynasty
wliich also give their nailles a n d inention embassies from them i n
1003 ancl 1008 respectively. I n the Tanlil text IZatilha is caaled
l i i d a r a m . It is .almost certainly IiPilah. :Some twenty years later
t h e Chola k i n g of tlmt clay lsoasts i n his inscri.pti,ons of his concluests
overseas, resulting i n the captnre of t h e l i i n ~of Iiacl%rain ailcl t h e
taliing of a number of places in h i s empire, i n e l n d i n ~inter alin t h e
Nicobars, L a m b r i !(near Achin) , Iiacl%ram, L a n g l i a s ~ ~ k(at h e old
1 (Insc~iptionsdn Siam et de la Pkninsule Malaise,' by I'I. L. Finot
in the iiBulletin de la Conlnlissioll arch6ologique de l'Indochine, 1910."
2J.E.A.S.,S.B.,No.64.
R. 9.SOC., No. 81, 1920.
:site in SouLhel.11 ICGddl), aliil' S~.Irisliayaitself. Again 211 106s
anotller Chola king clailns to have captnred SC[ZEcIah but restored i t
to its ruler, and a few gears later \qre find that Palembang 11a.s per-
.suaded the Chinese Court that the MahBrSjla is the ol~erlorcland the
Chola his vassal ! Fronl this period of conflict ending thus v e may
perhaps infer that honours were clivitled, t h o ~ q l il t does not appear
t h a t Paleinbang reta.liatec1 by a. genuine strategical offensive i n the
11th century, a t any rate.
I t is not ullliliel~rthat the attaclcs on Ceylon i n 1250 and be-
.hveen 1270 and 1275 attri1)utecl lly the Ceylon cliroaicles to the
." Javaku" emanated fro111 Pdem'bang. Chao J n IZna., wrjting
d o u t 12m2'5, represents Palenlbang as 11avin.g fifteen pro~rinces or
.depe~~..dencies,inclncling Pahang, T r Z i ~ g g r l ~Ii6ia.nta1i,
~~~, Langka-
:suka, half a dozen no re places less easi'ly idelltifieil bnt of ~vhich
two have lseen clefinitely located in Lower Siam, ancl five others,
nanldy Paleinbang, Sunda, I$ompai, I.na.mbri, and Ceylon, the last
namecl (lilie some of the otllers) sending a yearly tribute.
B u t before the end of the 13th century the Pale~nballgempire
:seenls to hase broken up. Even i n 1225 i t slio~veclsigns of internal
decay, for the Chinese autllor jnst cited, after e n n ~ ~ ~ e r a t I<ompni
ing
alnong the depenclencies, devotes a sepa.r,a.te chapter to it i n ~1~11ich
he expressly sajTs : " Formerly it was s clepenclencg of Saa-fo-ts'i,
but after a. fight i t set up a king of its 0~~11." Then there was
serious pressure from nritllout. Perhaps we may inclucle l~erein
the Javanese expeclition of 12-75 to " Malayu," tllough we do not
Irno~vprecisely wliic'h part of Sumatra it wa.s a61ned at. There was
Tvorse troul~lein the estre~neNorth of the Penii~suln,where the
'Malay forces vfere falling back before the growing Siamese lringilom
.nrl~osecapital l-rras 81cn a t S:uJthodaya, far away to the North, near
tlie LRO country. The Jfon chronicles s p e d of these conflicts a t
.some date not long before 1280, alld the Chinese records say tha,t
they l ~ a dbeen going on for inany years before 1295. T h e upshot
nr'ass t1la.t the northern ontstations .of Palembang in the Peninsula
v e r e illcludecl i n Lower Sia,ln. Alljout the same tiine Islam was
making its first and .as pet peaceful conquests i n Northern S'unlatra,
and little places like P5rlal<, Pasai, alid S.amudr~?, set up as in-
depenclent states and ~ n a d ea bicl for a share i n the tracle.of the
'Straits. '

~Soilzendlere about the same period, possibly a little earlier,

Singa,pore must d s o have becoine inclepencleilt and begun to talre
:advantage of its xu7iqne position. For plainly the conmlancl of
klle Straits so long exercised by Plalembang rested not on n a t i ~ r e
but on force: i t TVRS quite ofl klle direct trade-rate. '30 long as
b y threats of ~v1la.twe should call piracy it conlcl compel trading
.ships to ccme into its ports and there pnjr toll, i t did so, eve11 as
late as the early part of the 13th century, as Cliao J u Rna tells
us. But already in his ti.ine it would seem that about a third of
the merchants from China put in a t Ling-ya-man (Straits 01
Linggi, or I think nlore probably Singal~ore)before going on to
Jonr. Straits Branch
26 T E E EAIPIRE OF T H E M A H A R A J A .

Palembang. Prol~abl~r this Ling-!la-mon, ~vliere~ier i t nlas, 11.n~ olllTr

a clepeacleiicy and so Palenl.l,a.ng got tlie tolls anyhour. RLli: nl!crr
the outstati.ons began to di-01) a,~vay)the olcl mono pol,^ nr.i.; Kolle
ancl t . 1 l'lah3rilja
~ lost his holcl on the t,racle nrhicli he had co~ltrolled
ancl tared for some six centuries. For 18hy shoulcl t r n d i : ~go ~ ont
of their way, nr11ei1 the short cut lay by Singapore?
Comparing these somenrhat scanty historical facts wit11 the
legends handed clorvn by traclition ancl eli~bocliedin klala.~~ litera-
ture, one is tempted to see in the ll~ythical especlitioii of Raja.
S u r a ~do~rlathe Malay Peninsnla (Stjni~zh~ I B l n ~ ~chapt. u , I ) a.
vague reflection of the Chola raids of the 11th century, ~vhil:?tllc
tales of friendly correspondence between 3!Cala,~ralld Incliail ! i i ~ l g ~
l n q ~'ivellbe based 011 half forgotten memories of a state of tllings
that really esistecl for several centuries. There is evidence enough
in lllalajr titles, place-l~an~es, a13.d lnallg other worcls, of the strong
influence ~trhicb Illdial1 civilizatioll had on Western Indonesia..
I<nonring soinething now of the course of llistorjr, even if i t is mere-
ly in rough outline, 'one can ullderstaud why the Sijus~~lt, llIElayz~
lnalres the Iiil~gsof Singal~oreclescencl from the roya.1 family of
Palembang, the great state nrhich playecl such a leading part for
such a long time ;and an epithet in the dynastic style of that f&n~ily
throws light on the myth of the origin of the S i n g y ~ o r e]louse.
Both i n the Trieng S a jnscription and in the earliest of the C h o l ~
records above referrecl to, the i\lahBriija. is said to be " of the family
of the 1;ing of the mountains." l'his, n~ithall the otller evidence,
esta~.~lishes tlie fa.ct that the same dynasty is referrecl to in botll
inscril~tionsand also acconnts for what puzzled Mr., T~~illriasoi~ (op.
cit., p. 11)) ilalnely the legend of the aq,pea~aace of the tllree.
princes 011 Mo~ultSiguntan.~Mahameru. T h ~ is t not a. na.tiona1
Malap legend but a11 echo of the c1ynasti.c traclition of the Palem-
bang family nrhich claimecl to spring fro111 " the king of tlie 1110~11-
tains." What nlountain or illountains the Hinc111 or Ilin~lnizecl
clynast~7of Pa.lemba.ng coil.ceivecl itself to have conle from, me (10
not k11015r. Possibly it may have beell a nloulltain i n Inclia, thong-11
th(! later &Inlay lgeilcl locates it i11 Soutl~ernSnmatra. Nor does.
it very much matter. B.ut the epithet definitely proves that the
l\fall8r&ja of Srivijaya who set 111p t11e illscription a t Vieng S a i n
~jrhat is now lo\ver Siam was head of the state urhicli Inore than
tnro centuries later Ivas ruled by the kings 1v110 built the temple a t
Negapatam. Allcl that state was I Tsing's .Shi-li-fo-she, the Sar-
) ) ~ %ora Sribuza of tlie Arabs, no longer to be read as Sri Bhoja but.
Srivijaga, ailcl certalllly Palenlbang.
For these illlportant aclclitions to our linon~leclge of Jfalay
history we are indebted to an eesellellt pa.per by 34. G. Csdhs i n
the B.ulletin de I'Ecole finn~aise d'EztrCrne-01ient (191S), Tome:
STTIII, No. 6, entitled " Le Royannle de Crivija.jra," to nhitcl~the
reacler shoulcl refer for the details of the evidence and many further.
particulars. The conclusions arrived a t seem irresistible. At tile
very least, they point to the lfahiiriija of Pnlembang having held
Jour. Straits B r n n c b
 'THF: EMPIRE O F THE MAHARAJA. 27

f o r several centuries a number of ",Straits Settlei~~euts,"the north-

er~lrliostof nrhich made him for sonle tiine a near ~ieigllbourof the
.great Indo-Chi~lese power 01 Camboja. I11 fact a relatively late
(probably 12th cent~lry)illscription referring to Iiini and apparent-
ly execnted by his order is i n the Canlbojan lalzguage, but in a
.scri]~t~vhichi n tllose days was comnio~lin Western Indo~iesiaand
i s allnost ide~lticalwith the contemporary script of Gurma.
1JThatbearing has all this on the date when the I$alays first
.really colo~lized the Peninsula? Apart from the few nortllern
.s~ttlementsactualljl mentioned, , i t is l~arclto say. B n t i t seems
reasona:ble to assume that the Mahiiriija garrisoned these nrith his
oivn people. I<BcIall, therefore, mag have been the first redly
Malay (or a t any rate Sumatran) settleinelit i n the Peninsnla, ancl
there were others lsegond it, in the comltry that is 11our Sianlese.
B u t we hear aothing of settlemellts i n the South of the Peninsnla,
.escept Singapore and that a t no very early date. '1:hi.s seems to fit
i n pretty well v i t h the evidence that the North .containecl fairly
civilized Budclllist states, nrllile there is comparati~7elylittle tra.ce
of civilization i n the South i n pre-14ulzamrnadan clays.
'To what 1,eriocl then inust ure refer the Man-I<hmer influel~ce
which is i~~coiltestably eviclencecl 1~ythe linguistic characteristics of
the " a!borigines " of the Peninsula, for instance by the unc~uestion-
ably M0n numerals of the Southern Saliai (Bi.sis.i, etc.) ? Are we
~compelleclto pus11 i t further bacl; than the 7th or 8th century A.D. ?
Or niust sonle other explana.tion be invented to account for i t ? Did
the so-called alborigines clrift into the Peniusula fro111 Indo-China
after the 15alsy coloniza.tio.n had .actnallg beg1111 ? Tll'hat seelns very
inq~robiaible, but i t is difficult to feel positive about the matter;
there are still too nlany unlinowns in the history of the P e n i n s ~ ~ l a .
It seems certain now tllat soinc portiolls of it, a t ally rate, fell under
S u n ~ a t r a npolitical influence as early as the 7th or a t latest the 8th
.century. But a t first they were n~erelytracling stntions, and it does
not follow illat 14aJay colonizatio~lon a large scale set in immecliate-
ly. Perllal~ssoine clay the veil which s ~ ~ r o ~the ~ c learlg
s history of
the Peni~lsulanil1 be sti!l fnrtl~erlifted. I11 the ~nealltilnev e have
to t11an.l~M. G. Ccecl&sfor f i e ne\v ligllt he has t h r o ~ ~onn a 1w.y 01s-
.scure matter. H e has focnssd .upon it evide~lcederived from many
.sources n11d has aclclecl to the subject a new interest.
Postcl-ipt.
Since the above was written, Dr. N. J. Iirom, for~nerlyhead
,of the Arch~ological Survey in the Dutch Rn.st Inclies aucl. now
Professor of the Arclxeolog~~ and Ancient Ristorjr of the Dutch
East Indies in the University of Leyden, has contributecl solne
very i m ~ o r t a n ta11d interestinq additional facts to the discussion.
I n his inaugural address of the 3rd Decenlber, 1919, he poil~tecl
,out tlmt the evidence of Javanese inscriptions sllon~sthat as early
as 77'8 A.D. the dynasty of the king of the momitains" ~vas
ruling Central Java, ancl it seeins to have continned to do so for
.about a century, during nll~ichperiod it erected important monu-
ft. A. Soc., No. 61, 1920.
28 THE EMPIRE O F TEE I\IAEARAJA.

n ~ e n t st11el.e. Ibleanwhile Eastern J a v a was under another dynasty,.

~vhichclailnetl South hlclian origin. It T V O L I ~ Cappear
~ tliat i n those-
early days the Sunlatrail house mas the more po~rlerfnl. It con--
tinucd t o maintain, or a t a n v rate claim, supreinacy over ITTestcrn
J a m (Suncla) till abont 1200 A.D. There is mnch reason to be-
lieve t h a t its influence on the development of Incli,zn civilization
i n Java was yery great, and t h a t alllongst other things it ~ v a sthe
means of i n t r o d u c i i ~the ~ Ma!layann for111 of 13uddhism (~~11ich we-
l<iio~rr~ r e ~ a i l e ca lt ralelnbaag) illto Java.
It seems, thfrefore, tliat ~1.e have to ronceive the existence,.
~ 1 ~ 1 r i tlle
l ~ g period 111 cluestion, of t ~ v ogreat rival powers i n t h e
Archipelago, tlie one centred i n Southern Sumatra. the other i n
Eastern J a w . Until v e l l into tlie 13th century, the forinel. mas
the stronger. Then, hy degrees, the Javanese power, soon to be
eentre(1 a t J4ajapahit, gained npon it, ancl eventually col~lpletecl
i t s ruin by concjuering its ca1)ital anil many of its outlying posses-
sions alld dependencies so~ue~vliere about 1377 A D .
C. 0 R.

Jour. Straits R r a n e b