Founder of Malay Royalty - R.O. Winstedt

-:: Authentic records show that a dynasty sprung from "a king of the mountains" ruled the old Sumatran kingdom of Palembang (or Sri Vijaya) from at least the VII^th to the XIV^th century A.D., controlled Central Java as early as 778 A.D., claimed suzerainty over Western Java for 400 years and probably introduced Mahayana Buddhism there (JRASSB. No. 81, pp. 23-8). So great was this ancient Buddhist kingdom, that even the ruler of Muslim Minangkabau, which took Palembang's place after Hindu Java had destroyed it, is commonly described as one of the three great monarchs of the world along with the Sultan of Rome (= Byzantium) and the Emperor of China, all sons of Alexander the Great! (Encyclopadie van Nederlandsch Oost-Indië 1918, vol. II, p. 739: van der Toorn's Tjindoer Mato, Batavia, 1886, pp. 5, 68).

In the XVII^th century "Malay Annals" there is a story of a wandering "Kalinga" prince, a descendant of Alexander the Great, with the title of Bichitram Shah, the son of a Raja Suran who is recorded to have ravaged the west coast of the Malay Peninsula and was apparently an XI^th century Chula king at enmity with Palembang.

In Shellabear's edition of the "Malay Annals" Bichitram Shah is dissatisfied because his father gives him the small kingdom of "Chandu-Kani", and he sets sail from India on a voyage of conquest but his fleet is scattered by a storm and nothing more is said of him. According to Dulaurier's text (Collection des Principales Chroniques Malayes, vol. II Paris, 1856, p. 35) Bichitram Shah accompanied by Nila Pahlawan, Kisna Pandita and Nila Uttama, came from heaven down to a mountain in Palembang, Bichitram Shah was given the title of Sang Sapurba, made ruler of the country and begat two sons Maniaka and Nila Kisna on Radin Sendari, daughter of Demang Giwanan {arabic script} (ib. p. 54) - it would appear however that this text has dragged in a redundant Bichitram Shah not to leave him out of the story. Shellabear's text states that the three persons who descended on the Palembang hill were Nila Pahlawan, Krisna Pandita and Nila Uttama and that they were half-brothers of Bichitram Shah, their father being Raja Suran and their mother a princess from a kingdom in the depths of the sea. Nila Uttama is given the title of Sang Sapurba and begets Maniaka on a daughter of a Palembang aboriginal chief. His brothers marry Wan Empok and Wan Malini, the girls in whose rice-clearing the three princes had alighted.

Now the names Sapurba, Maniaka and Nila Uttama are corruptions of Suprabta, Menaka and Tilottama, three Apsaras, nymphs of Indra's heaven. And there is other Indian colouring in the incongruous legend. Nila Uttama descended in the Palembang hill rice-clearing on a white bull, from whose vomit emerged a bard with an Indian name who recited a Sanskrit coronation formula.* Again the Palembang mountain on which Sang Sapurba alighted from heaven was thereafter styled Mahameru, the Hindu name for the pivot of the universe, the abode of Vishnu and Indra; a detail that recalls how in Greece "the Olympian gods, wherever their worshippers moved, tended to dwell on the highest mountain in the neighbourhood and the mountain thereby became Olympus." Lastly while one of the two girl rice-planters bears a native name, Malini the name of the other seems to be Sanskrit, meaning "Garlanded."

The story continues that after wandering to Java, Borneo and Bentan, "Sang Sapurba" sailed to Minangkabau where the chiefs - one version mentions Pateh Suatang as their head - "waited respectfully on the raja and informed him that they considered his arrival as a signal piece of good fortune, and would be happy to appoint him raja, but that they were grievously harassed by an immense snake (Sakti-muna), which they wished he would oblige them by destroying, as it had resisted all their efforts either to cut or pierce without either being stunned or wounded. Sang Sapurba assented, and requested them to show him its den. Then a champion, named Permasku Mambang was sent by Sang Sapurba with his famous sword Chora Semandang Kini to perform this service... As soon as the champion saw it lying with huge coils like a hillock, the snake saw him and put itself in motion, when the champion smote it with the sword and cut it into three parts... In this combat the sword received one hundred and ninety notches." (Leyden's Malay annals, p. 39). According to this version Sang Sapurba was then made king of Minangkabau: according to another he had already been made king and was tested later over the snake.

The sword became one of the Minangkabau regalia and in the Chindur Mato is called Madang Giri. In the following interesting variant of the legend from the "Genealogy of the Rajas of Pulo Percha, from a MS. in the possession of the Sultan of Indrapura" (Miscellanies, Sumatran Mission Press, Bencoolen, 1822, vol. II) the kingdom of which the serpent's slayer is made ruler is Palembang or Langkapura and it is one of his descendants, driven by Javanese of Mataram away from Palembang, who founds Pagar Ruyong and becomes ruler of Minangkabau.

* This formula is still recited in Perak by the Dato' Sri Nara 'diraja, the lineal descendant of this bard (whose family may not eat beef) when wearing the ancient dragon-armlets of a Hindu prince a Sultan of Perak is installed. At the same time the real Hindu name of Sang Sapurba is whispered by the Dato' into his royal master's ear.

The name of the sword is given as Chemundang Giri, "Hewer of a mountain."

This version runs: -

The king of Mogul Khyrun set out from his city of Sah ul Sayah, came to the country of the Brahmans and placed over it a Raja named Bacha Salegram Jawahir Sing, passed on to Hindustan and thence to Barapura, whence he sailed for Medan. At the end of six months he reached Nilapura and remained there three years. At last he sailed away for an island, Pulo Percha, "towards the left of the rising sun whence smoke issued as from a rock." "On the fourth morning he arrived and saw the waves breaking at the foot of that mountain and at a little distance what appeared to be an island, with a man standing upon it. The island appeared endeavouring to rise from the sea, but the man scattered the earth and prevented it, so that it again disappeared. Day by day the same was repeated... The king then ordered the ship to be moved to that place, and, when he arrived, asked 'O thou, who stirrest up the waters who art thou?' The reply was, 'I am Sikatimuno.' The king asked, 'What is your employment?' and Sikatimuno replied, 'I am destroying this island that it may not become land.' Then the king drew forth his sword called Chemundang Giri, which destroyed of itself, and said, 'O Sikatimuno, now I will kill you.' He replied, 'Thou canst not kill me.' Sikatimuno was then destroyed by Chemundang Giri and the island of Lunkapura became land by the will of God. It became large and extended to the foot of the mountain. Thereafter the king landed on that island, called also Sa-guntang-guntang Penjaringan and situated between Palembang and Jambi." And he became its ruler.

More complete from the point of view of the folklorist a version of this widespread type of tale comes from Ujjain, the ancient capital of Malwa in western India. There once upon a time a demon vexed and devoured the people till the city was deserted. At last the demon consented to accept one victim a day, provided that the victim was allowed to exercise absolute sovereignty for the day. A caravan of merchants from Gujerat halted near the city. Vikramaditya, a grandson of Indra, was their servant. Understanding the language of beasts he heard the tale of the city's plight from a jackal. Next day he entered Ujjain, found a potter's son being forced into sovereignty, took his place and that night worsted the demon and was made ruler of the country. (Frazer's Golden Bough, Part III, The Dying God, 3rd ed., pp. 122-3).

An important detail is that in nearly all the Malay versions the slayer of the snake is a descendant of Alexander the Great! This anachronistic detail comes from Muslim India.

A Sumatran legend from Lampong of the beginning of the XX^th century relates how the great serpent Sakti-muna was slain by a Muslim Saint (Wali Allah) from India, how its corpse became a hill near Palembang and how the saint settling beside it at last got the name of Raja Iskandar, that is, Prince Alexander. Palembang folklore places the grave of Alexander the Great on a hill said to be the sacred hill of the Sang Sapurba legend! (G. P. Rouffaer's Was Malaka Emporium voor 1450 A.D. genaamd Malajoer, pp. 470-1).

A popular religious account robs "Sang Sapurba" of credit for the snake's destruction and ascribes it to an archangel! For according to a Malay charm-book from Selangor, which was lent to Skeat "the navel of the earth is the serpent Sakti-muna, who coils round the earth. And the word of God came secretly to Gabriel, 'Take the iron staff of the Creed that hangs by the gate of heaven and smite for me the serpent Sakti-muna.' And Gabriel smote the serpent in twain, so that its head shot against the sky and its tail penetrated the earth.

"Its tail became the Genie called Glory of the Universe (Sri 'Alam), its tongue the Wonder-working Genie (Jin Sakti), the seeds of its eyes White Genies, the hollow of its eyes Grandsire Siva (Dato' Mentala Guru), the irises of its eyes the Black, Green, Blue and Yellow Genies, and its life-breath the Raja of Genies. Its liver became the embryo of life, its eyes limes, the dirt of its eyes incense, the film of them cotton and its self became the Genie that makes the world revolve. Its intestines became the Genie who encircles the world, its heart the Genie who is the Herald of the World, the brightness of its jewel the genie that makes the world quiver, its voice lightning, the glitter of its sword sheet-lightning, and the hot breath of its sword the magic power of causing death by pointing, called after Raja Wana. Its sword became the rainbow, its blood the Yellow Spirit of Sunset, the glitter of its blood the Spirit of Light, and the heat of its blood became fire. Its spirit became wind, its liquid water, and the elements of its seed earth and iron; the hair on its body became grass, the hair of its head trees, its sweat dew. Again, the elements of its seed became rice and fish, and the blood of its navel became the poisonous upas tree.

From its tail that stuck in the earth sprang caul, after-birth, navel and the discharge before delivery, which cause all sickness. From their blood were created ghosts and spirits of the earth and from their souls all birth vampires." (Malay Magic pp. 582-3).

This is the crude popular pantheism that came from Muslim India. And the account ends by finding the attributes of that macrocosm the world in the microcosm, man. The Genie that is the Glory of the World is located in the human eye; the Genie that makes the world quiver in man's breath; the Genie that makes the world revolve in man's heart; and the Genie that is Herald of the World is the Muslim creed!

But what have Islam and the Angel Gabriel to do with Sakti-muna? Muslim legend makes Jan, a serpent, the father of all genies. To the Malays, Jan was a great serpent from over the sea. Therefore Sakti-muna must have been another name for Jan and have been the father of all genies! The old-world Malay was quite happy "voyaging strange seas of thought, alone," with an eye blind to language frontiers and the lapse of centuries. So the Malay magician uses the invocation

"Genies infidel and Muslim!

You and I are of one origin, both servants of Allah.

But ye are children of Sakti-muna

And I am descended from the Prophet Adam."

(Winstedt's Shaman, Saiva and Sufi p. 95).

And because the sword of Sang Sapurba received one hundred and ninety notches, it must have hacked one hundred and ninety pieces off the father of all genies and created the Malay magician's favourite number of one hundred and ninety spirits! (ib. pp. 84, 171).

The vitality of the many-detailed Minangkabau legend is so remarkable a feature in Malay folklore, that it would seem it must have had some important historical basis. Just as it has telescoped late Muslim myth into Hindu myth from Minangkabau, so it may have telescoped earlier Palembang history into Minangkabau legend. Several layers may be detected, and several points deserve stress.

A prince, whose original name is changed on accession, descends from the sky in a rice-clearing in Palembang. His coming improves the rice-crop. And one account associates the spot with "the tomb of Alexander the Great," which if it ever had foundation in fact would certainly be a megalith. It is needless to dilate on the interest of these associated details to readers of Mr. Perry's book, "The Children of the Sun." The sky origin of the rulers of Minangkabau (who took the place of the earlier Palembang dynasty) is preserved also in customary sayings, which with the usual democratic spirit of that people invent a similar origin for their commoner chiefs:-

When to earth a prince fell standing

And the first of chiefs fell pensive

And the first of tribal headmen

Fell in attitude of homage

Or

He the first king, king primaeval

Dropped he as the rain from heaven...

White the blood that in him flowed

(JRASSB. No. 78, pp. 8-11)

With regard to Mr. Perry's view that the diffusion of culture followed the track of gold and pearls, it may be noted that in the XV^th and XVII^th centuries Minangkabau was famous for its gold trade (Marsden's Sumatra 1784 p. 268), and the king "received his taxes in gold by the bushel" (ib. p. 270). -

Sang Sapurba is also a scion on the distaff side of a house that came from under the sea and he adopts as child a princess born of river-foam. He marries 39 princesses who the next morning develope a skin disease on hands and feet. Lastly he marries, Wan Sendari, the daughter of the aboriginal headman of Palembang, called Chief Broad-Leaf. No ill results follow. Chief Broad-Leaf gives up his sovereignty and becomes Mangkubumi or Viceregent, the officer who acts for the ruler in his absence. Chief Broad-Leaf promises that his family will never show treachery to Sang Sapurba or his descendants, so long as they never put him or his descendants to shame.

Sakti-muna, of course, is a Sanskrit word and the legend of this snake must have come from India. There is one aspect of the story of value for historians which will have interest also for the "Diffusion" school of ethnologists. This may be seen from a paragraph (p. 275) in Mr. Perry's book:-

"Garuda the ruler of the birds, was the son of Vinata, whose sister Karma was the mother of the Nagas or serpents, the father of both sons being the sun. Although of the same parentage, and although allied to one another, a hostility existed between Garuda and the Nagas. Garuda was associated with the sky and the Nagas with the underworld. This brings to light further evidence that the rulers of the Dravidians were divided into two groups, one connected with the sky and one with the underworld, both related and yet hostile. This corresponds to the division of Egyptian society into sections connected with the sky and the underworld, combined with the hostility between the two gods, Horus and Set, connected respectively with birds, snakes and water animals."

Both a Water-Snake and a Garuda figure in the Solo (Java) regalia (Rouffaer op. cit. pp. 106-124). The Garuda was the symbol of Erlangga an Xl^th century Vishnuite warrior prince of East Java, and it is still the symbol of Hindu Bali. The Naga, it has been surmised by Dr. Rouffaer, was the symbol of Buddhist Langka (wherever that was), and therefore (I suggest) probably of Buddhist Palembang, in which case the slaying of Sakti-muna may be a myth symbolizing the conquest of Palembang by Java in the XIV^th century.

As the rulers of Palembang had suzerainty over Kedah until ousted by Majapahit it is interesting to note that in the hotchpotch of myth at the beginning of the "Kedah Annals" the central fact is that the founder of Buddhist Langkasuka was invited to his throne after a contest with a Garuda. (JRASSB. No. 72, pp. 38-50).

The destruction of a country by a Garuda is found in the Sumatran folk-tale of Maalim Dewa, wherein a Raja from Java also assails the hero. (JRASSB. No. 85, pp. 58, 61).

Whether or not the victory over Sakti-muna symbolizes the conquest of Buddhist Palembang by Hindu Java, the snake at last becomes the Muslim Jan, the serpent in our story of Eve, expelled from heathen Minangkabau by the coming of Islam.

To-day in the art of Peninsular Malay Courts, which too often consists of designs in coloured paper, both Garuda and Nagas are favourite motives.

Other versions of the tale of Sang Sapurba will be found in Sir William Maxwell's paper "Aryan Mythology in Malay Traditions" (JRAS. vol. XIII, New Series, pp. 399-409) where the names of the three princes are given as Nijitram, Paldutani and Nila Asnam; and, again, in Papers on Malay Subjects, Second Series, No. 2, Sri Menanti by R. J. Wilkinson, C.M.G., pp. 7-10 (Kuala Lumpur 1914).

My references to Mr. Perry's book in this paper must not be taken to imply that I accept either his method or his conclusions, His guesses may be guesses at truth but his method is quite unscientific. ::-