THE INCEPTION OF LION CITY

An 1819 and Before: Singapore’s Pasts lecture

Iain SinclairNalanda-Sriwijaya Centre

ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore3 April 2019

v2.2 (12/4)

Major events impacting on Southeast Asia:

1204: • the downfall of Buddhism in India• the destruction of the Bengali Sena dynasty• the rise of the Delhi Sultanate

1279: • destruction of the Southern Song and the

advent of Mongol rule over China

1296–: • The collapse of the Khmer Empire

The long thirteenth century

• A line of Hindu-Buddhist kings that ruled parts of present-day Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia

• An “Indo-Malay” dynasty: both bangsa hindustan and raja melayu (Sinclair 2019:6)

• Little is known about them outside the Sejarah Melayu literature

• “Tribuanic dynasty” coined by Wolters (1970); not in widespread use

The Tribuanic dynasty

The Tribuanic dynasty: hypothesised movements

Map by I. Sinclair · © 2019

What is the Sejarah Melayu (SM)?

• the internal chronicle of the Tribuanic dynasty• covers events occuring between the 11th and

16th centuries• has a factual core, with some embellishment

and selectivity• exists in three recensions (Chambert-Loir

2017). The recensions are not of equal value.

There has been no systematic study of any recension of the SM.

Reading the Sejarah Melayu literature

When does Temasek emerge?

• 1225: Zhao Rukuo reports on the area of Lênggâ mn̂g ( 凌牙門 ) = Telok Blangah = present-day Keppel Harbour. Brisk trade is being done there. He does not know the name Temasek.

• 1279–1293: A Temasek envoy ( 册马锡国使 ) arrives in Đại Việt ( 大越 ) looking for diplomatic recognition ( 来贡 ). He can only be understood by Nhật Duật 日燏 , who is said to be of Phan Rang descent ( 蕃落人后身 ). (Ngô 1479)

Temasek: main dates

When does Temasek disappear?

• 1365: Mpu Prapañca’s Deśawarn! ana 14.2c has the last known dated reference. Prapañca claims Temasek is under the jurisdiction of Pahang (not Java).

• References to Temasek in Chinese nautical literature after the 14th century may be “ghost references”.

Temasek: main dates

Temasek in some undated regional literature

Hikayat Galuh Digantung & others: • refer to satria Tumasik, satria dari Tumasik

(ed. Hasjim 1984:82, 100, etc.)

Hikayat Panji Kuda Semirang:• Panji Semirang walks to Tumasik; there is a

market (pasar); encounters hill tribes (orang gunung), a queen with an elephant, a Demang Singabuwana (“Chamberlain of Lion Palace”); lots of bloodshed; goes to Angkor. Unstudied. (ed. Ali & Hutagulung 1996:143–152)

Temasek: main dates

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What is the extent of Temasek?

• Chinese sources mention Temasek along with Lênggâ mn̂g ( 龙牙门 ) / Telok Blangah.

• Temasek’s trade shows that it controls a “hinterland” (Heng 1999:143).

• The Mao Kun ( 茅坤 ) map, probably going back to the early 15th c., shows Temasek to be contiguous with the mainland.

• In the SM, it is never called an island (pulau).

Temasek: territory

Photo by I. Sinclair · © 2018

Lênggâ mn̂g / Telok Blangah / Keppel Harbour

Mao, Yuanyi. Wu Bei Zhi. 1644. Map. (Library of Congress)

Temasek ( 淡马锡 ) contiguous with the mainland

tasik+infix em > t-em-asik“in the lake/waves”

• Proposed by Rouffaer (1921:75)• has semi-official status (is often cited)

Pro: • SM ciri: ...*salila-d[v]īpa ... “island in the waves”• is found in Tagalog dictionaries

Con: • little support in period sources• has no particular relation to Singapore

Temasek: etymology

timah+?“tin-”

• Proposed by Gerini (1905:502–4); the -sik element was not identified

Pro:• tin is called timah all over the Archipelago• tin is associated with the Malay world• “dipper tin” (concave ingot) is a Temasek

export

Temasek: etymology

Photo by I. Sinclair · © 2019

Bukit Timah from the mouth of the Pandan River

Photo by I. Sinclair · © 2019

Bukit Timah quarry

timah (Malay)+sikka (Arabic)“tin coinage/currency”

• New proposal• Bengal, after coming under Muslim rule in the

1200s, began adopting sikka currency• After the collapse of the Bengali Senas, new

trade began flowing through the Straits• It is not yet known how Malay words began to

be formed from Arabic words• The Portugese called the tin currency of the

region “cash”

Temasek: etymology

siṃha+pura (Skt.)“lion city”

• Common knowledge and official status• pura: a walled compound (Eng. fort, borough;

Ger. burg)• But why a lion?

Singapura: etymology

The beast Sang Nila Utama sees at the Padang:

seekor binatang maha tangkas lakunya; merah warna tubuhnya; hitam kepalanya, dan putih dadanya. Sikapnya terlalu pantas dan perkasa, besarnya besar sedikit dari kambing randuk.(r2; ed. Teeuw et al 1958:39; regularised)

• The description is identical in all SM versions, which suggests that it is particularly old and authoritative

Singapura: the lionlike animal

Proposed ID: Masked Palm Civet (Paguma larvata) 果子狸

• Strongly resembles SM animal description:• black & white head, white chest stripe, tawny

body • up to 76 cm long, with tail up to 63 cm• can be active during the day• eats shellfish

Singapura: the lionlike animal

Masked Palm Civet

Masked Palm Civet – 06 · Kabacchi, 2010 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Masked Palm Civet

ハクビシン＠多摩動物公園 · tomosuke214, 2012 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

• the hero looks for a secure site;• sees a display of unusual strength

(a quiet animal beats a stronger attacker);• the hero accepts that the site is special

Occurs in the stories of South Asian cities’ foundings, going back to the 9th c.; still current in 16th c. (Digby 2004)

Trope of the Superior Defender / Valiant Beast

Problems with the SM application of the trope

• Internal: the description of the beast is consistent in all recensions, but the “is it a lion?” reactions vary in their wording; this indicates that the reaction part is later

• External: non-Malay sources know next to nothing of Singapura long after the Padang episode, so the city could not have been known as Singapura at the time of founding

Trope of the Superior Defender / Valiant Beast

1299 CE• semi-official view• Derived by subtracting all regnal years for

Singapura kings in the SM from the date of Iskandar Shah’s death, 1414. (Linehan 1947)

• Problem: the regnal years come from only one version of the SM.

c. 1292 CE (alternative proposal)• Derived by Linehan’s method, but with the

Singapura-Melaka years following SM r2, r3 (32/33/35 years) rather than SM r1 (25 years).

Singapura: Date of founding

1292–3: Marco Polo in the Straits

redacted

*siṃhāsanapura (Skt.)“city of the lion throne”

• Proposed meaning of “lion” in this context• The Lion Throne is consistently associated

with the royal line and ruling king in the SM• The Lion Throne was taken from Singapura to

Melaka; attempted to be retrieved from the burning of the istana

Singapura: etymology

http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.63

http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.104

āmalaka (Skt.) > melaka“myrobalan tree” (kayu melaka)

• Official view• Derives from the name of the tree the founder

of Malacca (Iskandar Shah/Parameswara) was standing under during a Valiant Beast episode

Melaka: etymology

“Maka anjing perburuan itupun diterjangkan oleh pelanduk putih, jatuh ke air. [...] Baik tempat ini; sedang pelanduknya lagi gagah. Baiklah kita berbuat negeri di sini”. [...] “Apa nama kayu ini, tempat kita bersandar?” [...] “Kayu melaka namanya, tuanku”. Maka titah baginda: “Jika demikian, Melaka-lah nama negeri ini”.(r2; ed. Teeuw et al 1958:80; regularised)

• Clearly an instance of the trope: the mousedeer is the valiant beast.• But by the logic of the trope: “Mousedeer city”

Malacca: etymology

“Paramiſora fled to...this new foundation, which was after called Malaca ſignifying a baniſhed man, in remembrance of this Iauans exile.” (Purchas 1626:493, after Portugese sources)

• *melupakan (?) > melaka Linguistically unlikely.• typical early usage: negeri melaka, orang melaka, etc.

Melaka: etymology

mleccha (Skt.) > maleca (O Jav.) > melaka“foreigner, barbarian” (O Jav.: Gonda 1973:383)

— often means Muslim in Indic contexts

• Tentative proposal• negeri melaka would mean a “Saracen city”• Melaka must have been mostly Muslim before

the arrival of the Tribuanic dynasty.• In c. 1403, Melaka was promoted to the Ming

(Yongle) Emperor by Muslim traders from S India (Wang 1964:99).

Malacca: etymology

END

THE INCEPTION OF LION CITY — SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Ali, Lukman, and M. S. Hutagalung. 1996. Hikayat Panji Kuda Semirang . Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.

• Chambert-Loir, Henri. 2017. ‘The History of a History: Variant Versions of the Sulalat al-Salatin’. Indonesia 104: 121–177. doi:10.1353/ind.2017.0013

• Digby, Simon. 2004. ‘Travels of the Acaryas in the Sixteenth Century According to Taranatha’. Unpublished correspondence with David Templeman.

• Gerini, G. E. 1905. ‘The Nāgarakretāgama List of Countries on the Indo-Chinese Mainland (circâ 1380 A.D.)’. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for 1905 485–511.

• Gonda, Jan. 1973. Sanskrit in Indonesia. 2nd ed. Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture.• Hasjim, Nafron. 1984. Hikayat Galuh Digantung . Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.

• Heng Thiam Soon, Derek. 1999. ‘Temasik as an International and Regional Trading Port in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: A Reconstruction based on Recent Archaeological Data’. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 72(1): 113–124.

• Linehan, W. 1947. ‘The Kings of 14th Century Singapore’. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 20(2): 117–127. JSTOR:41560034

• Ngô Sĩ Liên 吳士連 (1479); Jinghe Chen 陳荊和 (ed.) 1984. Daietsu shiki zensho: kōgōbon ( 大越史記全書 : 校合本 ). Tokyo: 東京大學東洋文化硏究所附屬東洋學文献センター .

• Prapañca, Mpu (1365); Stuart Robson, trans. 1995. Deśawarn! ana. Leiden: KITLV Press.• Purchas, Samuel. 1626. Purchas his pilgrimage, or, Relations of the world and the religions observed in all ages and places discouered, from the creation vnto this present . London: William Stansby.

• Rouffaer, G. P. 1921. ‘Was Malaka emporium vóór 1400 A. D., genaamd Malajoer? En waar lag Woerawari, Mā-Hasin, Langka, Batoesawar? (Met terreinschetsen van Djambi, oud-Singhapoera, en de Djohor-rivier)’. Bijdragen tot de taal, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 77:1–174,359–569.

• Teeuw, A., Seri Lanang, T. D. Situmorang, and Abdullah, Munshi. 1958. Sedjarah Melayu. Djakarta: Djambatan.• Sinclair, Iain. 2019. ‘Sang Sapurba/Maulivarmadeva, first of the last Indo-Malay kings’. NSC Highlights 12:6–8.• Wang, Gungwu. 1964. ‘The opening of relations between China and Malacca, 1403–5’. In John Bastin & R. Roolvink (eds), Malayan and Indonesian Studies: Essays presented to Sir Richard Winstedt on his eighty-fifth birthday . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 87–104.

• Wolters, O. W. 1970. The Fall of Srivijaya in Malay History . London: Oxford.• Zhao Rukuo ( 赵汝适 ). c. 1225. Zhu Fan Zhi ( 诸蕃志).

SPECIAL THANKS: Tai Yew Seng, Andrea Acri