Early history of Kedah - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kedah
Kedah
Kedah is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km², and it consists of the mainland and Langkawi. The mainland has a relatively flat terrain, which is used to grow rice...

is one of many early Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

trade centres that have been found, many have yet to be identified. Its location at the entrance to the Straits of Malacca, on the same latitude as south India provided a natural sailing route between the two points, ships could sail due east or due west on the Bay of Bengal

Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...

without danger of becoming lost. Early west coast trade centres are few in number as they were overshadowed by Kedah. After the 7th century, Kedah was subjugated by Srivijaya

Srivijaya

Srivijaya was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6...

but due to its well known, the Indian sources continue to depict Kedah. Early Kedah supplied the most in tin and jungle products such as rattan, resin, honey, beeswax, elephants, ivory, areca nuts, sepang wood and black woods, and profited from tax collections.

The early transpeninsular routeway is part of the Spice Route (Sea trade route from Arab, Persia, Tamilnadu - India to China) that occurred in the Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

, as the route through the Straits of Malacca does not seem to have been in general use. Early sea traders reached the coast of the peninsula, they let the local porters transport their goods, using rafts, elephants and manpowers. The porters propelled along the rivers (Kelantan River

Kelantan River

The Kelantan River is the major river in Kelantan, Malaysia. It drains a catchment area of about 11900 km²...

, Pattani River

Pattani River

Pattani River is a river in Southern Thailand, Thailand. It originates in Betong district, Yala Province and mouths into the Gulf of Thailand at the town Pattani. Within Yala province the river forms the Bang Lang Reservoir. The river has a length of 214 km....

, Pahang River

Pahang River

Pahang River or is a river in the state of Pahang, Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula. With 459 km in length, it is the longest river on the Malay Peninsula...

, Muda River

Muda River

Muda River is the longest river in Kedah, Malaysia. The river provides water supply to Kedah and Penang....

, Bernam River

Bernam River

Bernam River is located between the Malaysian states of Perak and Selangor, demarcating the border of the two states. Bernam River flows from Mount Liang Timur in the east on the Titiwangsa Mountains to the Straits of Malacca in the west...

, Muar River

Muar River

The Muar River or Sungai Muar is a river which flows through the states of Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang in Malaysia. The river also flows through Muar town.- History :...

, and others) to the opposite coast of the peninsula. The Sungai Muda in particular favoured the development of Kedah.

The early history of Kedah can be traced from various sources. From the prehistoric period to the archeological site of Bujang Valley

Bujang Valley

The Bujang Valley or Lembah Bujang is a sprawling historical complex and has an area of approximately 224 square km. Situated near Merbok, Kedah, between Gunung Jerai in the north and Muda River in the south, it is the richest archaeological area in Malaysia.These archaeological remains show that...

, the early Maritime trade of India, Persia, Arabs to the written works of early Chinese pilgrims and early Chinese records, the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa or The Kedah Annals is an ancient Malay literature that chronicles the bloodline of Merong Mahawangsa and the foundation of the Kedah, a state in Malaysia. Though there are historical accuracies, there are many incredible assertions...

(known as Kedah Annals) to Al-Tarikh Salasilah Negeri Kedah. In the early days, Kedah was known by the Tamils as Kedaram, Kidaram, Kalagam and Kataha, and Kalah or Kalaha by the Persian

Persian people

The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

Origins

Austronesians began migrating to the Malay Archipelago

Malay Archipelago

The Malay Archipelago refers to the archipelago between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. The name was derived from the anachronistic concept of a Malay race....

approximately 3,500 years before present

Before Present

Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...

. It is now accepted that Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

is the cradle of Austronesian languages

Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...

. Some 4,000 years ago, Austronesian began to migrate to the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. Later on, some of their descendants started to migrate southwards to what is now Indonesia and eastwards to the Pacific islands

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

Ancient History

Austronesians were great seafarers, colonizing as far as New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

and Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

. In some regions they intermarried with the local inhabitants (Orang Asli

Orang Asli

Orang Asli , is a generic Malaysian term used for people indigenous to Peninsular Malaysia...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the Persian Empire, Arabs, Han Chinese

Han Chinese

Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...

, etc.), becoming the Deutero-Malays.

Possibly as early as the 4th century BC, Austronesians started to sail westwards in search of new markets for their products. They reached the eastern coast of southern India, initiating trade. Gradually, rulers from western Indonesia began to adopt Tamil -Indian cultural and political models. However, the earliest evidence of such models found so far have been dated to the early 5th century only.

Trade connections between western Indonesia and Southern India ( Tamilnadu region ) seem to have been close during the reign of the Pallavas, from the 4th to 9th centuries CE. These relations helped spread Indian culture and religion to the Malays, and also lead to the emergence of Indianized kingdoms like Old Kedah

Bujang Valley

(Kadaram), Langkasuka

Langkasuka

Langkasuka was an ancient Hindu Malay kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula...

, Funan, and Champa

Champa

The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...

.

Some Greco-Roman merchants in the 1st century CE described huge non-Indian ships coming from the east with rich cargoes, possibly from the Malay Archipelago. This would indicate that the Malays participated actively in the Indian Ocean trade and likely handled much of the traffic between Southeast Asia and India.

Three kinds of craft are described by the author of the Periplus: light coasting boats for local traffic, larger vessels of a more complicated structure and greater carrying capacity, and lastly the big ocean-going vessels that made the voyages to Malaya

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

, Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, and the Ganges.

Kadaram

Kadaram (also known as Old Kedah) (630-1136) was founded by Maharaja Derbar Raja of Gemeron

Bandar Abbas

Bandar-Abbas or Bandar-e ‘Abbās , also Romanized as Bandar ‘Abbās, Bandar ‘Abbāsī, and Bandar-e ‘Abbās; formerly known as Cambarão and Port Comorão to Portuguese traders, as Gombroon to English traders and as Gamrun or Gumrun to Dutch merchants) is a port city and capital of Hormozgān Province on...

, Persia, around 630 CE. The Persian-Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

dynasty ended with Phra Ong Mahawangsa converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

In the middle of the 6th century, new waves of colonials from the Pallava

Pallava

The Pallava dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region with their capital at Kanchipuram...

Empire asserted themselves and engineered the break-up of the neighbouring Hindu state of Funan. Funan had, at that time, been in existence since the First Century A.D. The expatriate Pallavas must have been a formidable force to shatter such a long-established kingdom whose monarch had a significantly Pallava name: Rudravarman. Clearly, the fact that the people of Kadaram and those of Funan shared a common religion, culture and, possibly, a language, did not deter the Pallavas from widening their sphere of influence; to Funan's great misfortune.

Medieval History

Early in the Medieval era, Kedah became part of Srivijaya

Srivijaya

(the dominant Malay state and a major power in the Indian Ocean trade). This led to rivalries with the Indian states, especially the Cholas from the 9th to 13th centuries CE. The Cholas had a powerful merchant

Merchant Navy

The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...

and naval fleet

Naval fleet

A fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....

in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

and the Bay of Bengal

Bay of Bengal

. In the early 11th century, Tamil Chola King Rajendra Chola I

Rajendra Chola I

Rajendra Chola I was the son of Rajaraja Chola I and was one of the greatest rulers of Tamil Chola dynasty of India. He succeeded his father in 1014 CE as the Chola emperor...

sent an expedition to invade Kadaram (Sri Vijaya) on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his assistance to gain the throne. Chola dominance was brief, but effectively crippled the power of Srivijaya.

In ancient Kedah

Bujang Valley

there is an important and unmistakably Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

settlement which has been known for about a century now from the discoveries reported 1840s by Col. James Low and has recently been subjected to a fairly exhaustive investigation by Dr. Quaritch Wales. Dr. Wales investigated no fewer than thirty sites round about Kedah

Kedah

Kedah is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km², and it consists of the mainland and Langkawi. The mainland has a relatively flat terrain, which is used to grow rice...

. The results attained show that this site was in continuous occupation by people who came under strong South Indian influences, Buddhist and Hindu

Hindu

, for centuries.

An inscribed stone bar, rectangular in shape, bears the ye-dharmma formula in South Indian characters

Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu alphabet, also spelled Vattezhuttu alphabet is an abugida writing system originating from the Tamil people of Southern India...

of the fourth century A.D., thus proclaiming the Budhist character of the shrine near the find-spot (site I) of which only the basement survives. It is inscribed on three faces in Pallava script, or Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu alphabet, also spelled Vattezhuttu alphabet is an abugida writing system originating from the Tamil people of Southern India...

rounded writing of the sixth century A.D., possibly earlier. One of the early inscription stones discovered by James Low, at Bukit Meriam and in Muda River, mention of Raktamrrtika. The word Raktamrrtika means ‘Red Earth’ (Tanah Merah).

Inscriptions, both in Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

and Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, relate to the activities of the people and rulers of the Tamil country

Ancient Tamil country

The Sangam period is the classical period in the history of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and other parts of South India, spanning about the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE...

of South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. The Tamil inscriptions

Tamil script

The Tamil script is a script that is used to write the Tamil language as well as other minority languages such as Badaga, Irulas, and Paniya...

are at least 4 centuries posterior to the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

inscriptions, from which the early Tamils themselves were patronizers of the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

language.

In Kedah

Kedah

an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 A.D. has been found. This was left by Kulothunka Cholan I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country

Ancient Tamil country

The Sangam period is the classical period in the history of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and other parts of South India, spanning about the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE...

). This too shows the commercial contacts the Chola Empire had with Malaya.

An Indigenous style develops

The Tamils

Tamil people

Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

coming from Southern India

South India

and the local Malays were already using the rounded script, or Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu alphabet, also spelled Vattezhuttu alphabet is an abugida writing system originating from the Tamil people of Southern India...

writing styles which differed from the Devanagiri script of Northern India

North India

North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...

. Vatteluttu was also commonly known as the Pallava script by scholars of Southeast Asian studies

Southeast Asian studies

Southeast Asian Studies refers to research and education on the language, culture, and history of the different states and ethnic groups of Southeast Asia.-Publication:Southeast Asian Studies is also the English name of the Japanese scholarly journal...

such as George Coedes

George Coedès

Georges Cœdès was a 20th century scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history. Coedès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish emigres. In fact, the family was known as having settled in the region of Strasbourg before 1740. His ancestors were working for the royal Treasury...

and D.G.E. Hall

D.G.E. Hall

Daniel George Edward Hall was a British historian, author, and academic. He wrote extensively on the history of Burma. His most notable work is A History of Southeast Asia, said to "...remain the most important single history of the region, providing encyclopedic coverage of material published up...

. The Tamil script

Tamil script

The Tamil script is a script that is used to write the Tamil language as well as other minority languages such as Badaga, Irulas, and Paniya...

of Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu

Vatteluttu alphabet, also spelled Vattezhuttu alphabet is an abugida writing system originating from the Tamil people of Southern India...

later evolved into Old Kawi script which was used in Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

and Bali

Bali

Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...

as well.

There are stone inscriptions which indicate that the Kedah region at 400 CE or before was already an established trade centre. One of the early Malay texts include the karma

Karma

Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....

verses refers to a king named Ramaunibha, he may be the first local ruler whose name is recorded in history. The history of this period showed the influence of Indian cultures on the region while the locals in return, influenced the Indians in their living skills on the sea and in the hills.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Origins

Ancient History

Kadaram

Medieval History

An Indigenous style develops

See also

External links