winstedt, r.o. (1938) - the kedah annals

8/10/2019 Winstedt, R.O. (1938) - The Kedah Annals

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THE KE H

ANNALS.

By

R.. O. WINSTEDT,

K.B.E. C.X.G.

D.Litt.

Were it not for a colophon giving a list of Kedah Sultans,

-and for a preface, copied word for word from the

Malay Annals

of

1612A.D. an d borrowing for a farrago of folk-tales their name of

Sulalatu s-Salatin.

the

Hikayat Merang

(or

Marong Mahawatrgsa

would never have been styled

the

Kedah Annals or been accepted

as serious history.

It starts with confused Malay traditions of the great empires

of Byzantium (Rum) and China, of Sri Rama an d Hanoman

and Langkapuri from the Ramayana (so often the source of

Siamese shadow-plays and Siamese art, and of Vishnu s roe or

Geroda, a figure the shadow-plays and today a crest on Siamese

railway carriages. As a Muslim, the author drags in the Prophet

Solomon, king of the animal world and so lord of the Geroda

I

There are enough tusked rajas in Siamese art to inspire any

teller of tales, but the story of the cannibal king of these so-called

annals has been taken from an Indian and Buddhist source and is

to be found

n the Maha-Sutasoma-]ataka,

No. 537 of the usual

series of

Jataka

tales , a series familiar enough to

the

Buddhist

Siamese.

The story of the Prince from the Bamboo

and of a Princess _

from river spume is common folk-lore, in various forms: in

Kedah, Patani and Perak. The Rajas of Raman may not eat

bamboo shoots, because their ancestor came out of the bamboo ;

an dthe Malay A nnals

tell of

the

birth of a prince of Champa from

an areca-palm spathe. A bamboo princess occurs in Polynesian

folk-lore, in Malay versions of the Ramayana, in the

Hikayat

Raja-Raja Pasai

and n

the Hikayat Aelleh. Into

the present work

the

story

n

dragged for no reason, and the Carp Princess

is

for no

reason made to commit adultery with a commoner and bear a

son, Meget Zainal, whose place in Kedah history

is

not explained

further.

The abduction of a princess by a roe,

the

wrecking of her

bridegroom-to-be on the island to which she has been carried, the

secret meetings arranged by the old waiting-maid,

Kampar s

magic combat with the Tusked Raja, the fight of the Bamboo

Prince against four

Patani

robbers, the choice of a ruler by a

sagacious elephant, these and other incidents are the common

stuff of Malay romance,

. Langkasuka

is

a name and little

more: it

.. faced Pulau Sri

and

it was

far from the sea. The incidents connected with later

Kedah settlements are unimportant and probably anachronistie

myth. The only real attempt at history is a romantic account of

how the first ruler of Kedah to accept Islam was converted by a

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32

The Kedah Annals.

Shaikh Abdu Ilah

Yamani

0.1

Abani) from Baghdad. (This

seems to be by a different hand, as it employs the Javanese style

t an

p t r m l m t ~

and

t u l ~

saudagar The name of this first

Muslim Sultan of Kedah is given as Muzaffar Shah and he is said

in the colophon to have been fifth

ascent from Sultan Sulaiman

who died a prisoner in Acheh just after 1622. The fifth ruler in

descent from Sulaiman was alive in 1741,

and

the fifth in ascent .

may possibly have reigned as early as 1474, the date given an

Achinese account for Kedah s conversion.

But of this or any date,

as well as of the story told n the

Malay

u t ~ l s of Kedah s embassy

to Sultan Mahmud, who ruled in Malacca from 1488

t ll

1511, no

word is to be found.

is, however, related that hearing of Kedah s

conversion, the Sultan of Acheh

and

Shaikh Nuru d-din sent to the

Kedah court two treatises the Sirat al-Mustakim and

b

a n

t.ikah.

Actually this Shaikh Nuru-td-din, translator of the

Sirat

al-Mustakim

and author of the

Bustanu s-Salatin,

did not reach

Acheh from India until 1637.

The work is

ull

of omissions, anachronisms and errors.

The seven pre-Muslim rulers of Kedah bear Sanskrit-Siamese titles

and may indicate a Siamese suzerainty following wars of the 13th

century when the Emperor of China issued an order to Siam not to

hurt

the Malays. But no historical data are attached to the names.

Similarly in the title of Klana. Hitam there is a reminiscence of the

Bugis invasions which wasted Kedah for half a century from

1723, but again only a name is given and it is connected with wild

romance. There is also cursory reference to the selection of the

island of Indra Sakti by a pre-Muslim Kedah prince loosing an

arrow (in accordance with Persian and Arabic but not Malay pre

cedent) to choose a kingdom: according to this Kedah folk-lore, the

island became the capital of a kingdom the prince founded and

ruled, calling it Perak after his silver arrow. But Indra Sakti

on the Perak river was founded and named by Sultan Iskandar,

not

a Kedah but a Perak prince, who reigned from about 1750 till

1764. Nor was Perak ever subject to Kedah until 1818, so

that

it

is

difficult to conceive of folk-lore concocting the arrow story

before that date.

In a Batavian MS. of the Kedah Annals, the list of kings

in the colophon ends with Sultan Abmad Taju- d-din Halim Shah,

whoconquered Perak 1818 and was driven

out

of Kedah by the

Siamese in 1821 not to return till 1842. This Batavian MS. be

longed to Von de Wall, a Dutch scholar, who lived from 1807 until

1873, and is therefore probably older than the three other MSS.,

two of which belonged to Sir William Maxwell and one to Mr.

R. J.

Wilkinson. There is no MS. of the work at Leiden and none in

the older London collections, not even among the RafBes MSS.

though Raffies was once stationed

at Penang The Chronicles of

Pasai have survived only in one MS written for Raffles 1815

though Pasai ceased to have a court or be a kingdom after 1524.

But, notwithstanding

that

case, the paucity and modernity of the

MSS point to the recent origin of these

romantic

Kedah Annals.

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R. O. Wiustedt.

33

The appearance of the names of the reputed two first Muslim

rulers of

Kedah

a preface cribbed from the Malay A

in ls

of

1612 A.D. is no evidence of a

5th

or even of a 17th

century

com-

pilation. Clearly

they

were chosen as the only two prominent

Muslim rulers mentioned in

the text and

even if, as seems certain,

the text was not completed till late in the 18th 6r early in the 19th

century, there is nothing wonderful in written memoranda or

verbal tradition having preserved

their

names, see

ing

that there

are few Malay countries where the names of the first royal convert

to Islam

and the

first successful missionary of Islam are forgotten.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT.

After

the

war of Sri

Rama and

Hanoman, t he monkey god,

was over,

the

island of Langkapuri was deserted save for Vishnu s

bird, Geroda. One day Geroda made a wager with his Muslim

lord, the Prophet Solomon,

that

he could keep

apart

two persons

fated to mar ry, to wit, a son of t he emperor of Rome and a daughter

of the Emperor of China. The Chinese princess and her old maid

and confident, Geroda carries off to Langkapuri. Then with the

tempest of his wings, he sinks the fleet of the prince from

Rome;

as

he thinks, drowning the prince and his companion Marong Maha-

wangsa off Kuala Chahggong which was ruled by a Raja Gulanggi

or Kelinggi).

But

the prince from Rome gets ashore on a plank

and

hides

a cave on Langkapuri, daily meeting

his

future bride

secret. And Marong Mahawangsa reaches the mainland and

founds a kingdom Langkasuka facing Pulau Sri. When Geroda

report to Solomon

that

he

has

won his wager, Solomon sends genies

to fetch the prince and princess, whose appearance so confounds

Geroda that he keeps his word and vanishes to the Red Sea far

from

the

sight of man. Solomon sends t he young couple to China

with a

letter

to the Emperor, who agrees to their marriage.

From

Langkasuka Marong Mahawangsa sends embassies to

two large neighbouring countries, Acheh which only became a

kingdom

at

the

end

of the 15th century) and to Burma , the

country

of the Raja of Gulanggi or Kelinggi) famous for its great jars. At

Gulanggi is anchored a fleet from Rome come for news of Marong

Mahawangsa who now surrenders his kingdom to his son Marong

Mahapqdisat, changing its name to Kedah Zamin Turan, and sails

back to Rome.

Of t he sons of Marong Mahapodisat theeldest became king

of

Siam;

the second shot a silver arrow

that

fell on the island

lndra Sakti and became ruler of Perak. His daughter was placed

on a sacred elephant along with a magic creese Lela Mesani, and

the elephant carried her to Patani where she became queen. His

fourth son, Sri Mahawangsa, succeeded to the throne of Kedah and

removed from Langkasuka, which was far from the sea, to Seru-

kum : whenever his eldest brother in Siam begat a child , he sent

th e child a present of gold and silver flowers.

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The Kedah Annals.

Sri M.ahawangsa died of grief because.his son ,and successor

SriIndra Wangsa married a demon. (gergtm) girl, who bore a son

OngMaha Perita Deria, destined to become famous as the Tusked

Raja

(Raja BersiC ng . Ong Maha Perita Deria moved his court

from .Sungai

Emas

to

Kota

Aur, where he built stone palaces of

carved stones .. from Acheh . By this time Pulati Seri had

become

G1. J1ong J er ai a nd Pn la u

Jarnbul had become Bukit Jam-

bu t and

.Pulau Tanjong had joined the mainland.

One

day

Ong Maha

Perita

Deria found he

had cut

a tusk.

Next

a serving-maid who had cut her finger let a drop of blood f ll

in his spinach an d was forced by him t confess. why

the

spinach

tasted to him so delicious. After that .the king d ra nk t he blood

first of condemned criminals, and

then

of innocent victims. (One

man,

Kampar

of

Sri

Gunong Ledang, dared

the

Raja,

by

magic

turning

himself into a boar, a snake and a tiger and evading stabs

and blows.) At last

the

four ministers at ta ck ed t he palace, its

female inmates arranging for the palace guns to loaded only

with powder. The Tusked Raja escapes up-country,

Iiveswith

a

rice-planter and gets a child by his daughter. He evades soldiers

sent to kill

him.

Meanwhile the four ministers sent to Siam asking

for a king and were told by

the

court astrologers to loose an

elephant to find one. The same elephant which took Patani its

first queen brought the Tusked Raja s bastard son from the rice

clearing, to succeed his father .

On the island of Ayer Tawar, east of Gulanggi and south of

Siam, dwelt Klana Hitam, rulingover negritos and

ether

aborigines.

He decided to invade Kedah

and

become it s king; West of Ligor

he met a Siamese force under a Siamese minister e ~ a m w a s

defeated and

taken

a prisoner to Siam. Kelaham marches along

the

coast to Sala, where he builds a palace for the new kitig and

instals him as Phra Ong Mahapodisat. The new king returns to

Kuala Muda, begets a son

Phra

0ng Mahawangsa an d adopts also a

boy born from a bamboo

the

king

had

taken from outside

the

house

of two old peasants when he was hunting one day.

He

builds a

palace

at

Bukit Meriam to be

near

BukitPenjara where

the

Tusked

Raja lived on Sungai Dedap. One

day

his consort finds in the

spume of the Sungai Kuala Muda a beautiful

girl

whom he adopts

and names Princess Carp (seluang). Princess Carp is married to

the Bamboo Prince. Phra Ong Mahawangsa succeeds his father:

an d

is a great drinker of spirits.

Now Baghdad was a great centre for Islamic teachers, And

from Mecca came Shaikh Nuru d-din to Acheh bringing religious

treatises. Abdu lIab a saint of Baghdad, had a pupil Abdu

llab of Yaman, who was shown by Iblis how he stirred up

-strife in homes and markets

and

gambling and opium dens

an d

schools, and how he caused women to co mmit adulteryand hus

bands to murder wives,

and

princes like

Kamishdzur and

Kamish

kar to war. .And Abdu Uah 1 Yaman and Iblis came to

the

palace of Phra Ong M a:hawangsa where

lblis

frlled

the

king s wine.

JOflNUlI

Malayan Bra [Vol. XVI, Part n


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R. O. Winstedt.

goblet half full of urine, a

nd

Abdullah reproached Iblis, who

vanished taking from Abdu llah the wand of invis ibility he had

given him . The king wakes and questions the intruder, who

persuades

him

and

his people to break

and

bum

their idols of gold.

silver, wood and clay and to embrace Islam. The king s name

becomes Sultan Muzaffar Shah

and

his son and successor Mua zzam

Shah

and

his other two sons Muhammad Shah and Sulaiman Shah.

The S ul tan of Acheh and a Shaik

h Nuru

d-din send the Kedah

court two treatises,

the Sira: al-mustakim and the Bab a n-Nikah .

No Kedah girl wanted to

m rry

Sha ikh A bdullah, because he

was soon to r etur n to Ba ghdad.

Now the Prince from

the

Bamboo was sent north west to find

a sit e for a fort

and

palace.

By

a minister s son his wife, Princess

Carp, conceived

and

bare privily a son Meget Zainal. Prince

Bamboo opens a settlement

at Kota

Palas

and

is

attacke

d by four

robbers from Patani , Data Sangkai, Senik Ipeh, Senik Ratu Senik

Payu . He kills them but is so wounded that he becomes once more

bamboo

and

vanished .

Mua zzam Shah succeeds his father, who retires to a religi

ous life. Sulaiman Shah rules th e island of Langkapuri. Mahmud

Shah rules up -country

ulu .

The work concludes with a list of

Sultans of Ke dah, down to Abroad Taju d-din Halim Shah.

References. Hikayat

Mal 1lg

Maha Wangsa. ed. A. ] .

Sturrock, j R A.S.S.B., No. 72, 1916 ; Cannibal King in

the

Kedah A1mals

C. O. Blagden,

ib.

No . 79, pp . 47-8 ; Introduction

to the

Hikayat ri Rama

W. G. Shellabear,

ib.

No. 70, p. 191 ;

Malay Reader, Winstedt and Blagden, Oxford 1917, pp. 182, 187 ;

Catalogue of the Malay and Sundanese MSS. in Leiden University

Library, H. H. juynboll Leiden 1899, p. 235 ; Sejarah Melayu ed.

W. G. SheUabear; Date and au thor of Buslanus -Salatin Winstedt

] R A S.S.B. No . 82, pp . 151-2 ; Perak the Arrow Chosen,Winstedt,

ib. No. 82 p. 197 ; History of Perak, Wilkinson and Winstedt

J R A

.S.M.B. No. 12 1934),

Part

I, pp. 122-4, 132 ; Catalogue of

Malay MSS. in

the

Library of the

Batavian

Society, Dr.

Ph S

. van

Ronkel, pp. 290-3 ; The Kedah nnals

tr

. by James Low. reviewed

by C. O. Blagden ] R.A .S., London, April 1909, pp. 525-531.

1938J

Royal Asiatic Society .

winstedt, r.o. (1938) - the kedah annals

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