Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra85861922roya).pdf/323

 The Early History of Singapore, Johore & Malacca;

AN OUTLINE OF A PAPER BY G. P. ROUFFAER.

BY R. O. WINSTEDT, D. LITT, (OXON.)

In the Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie (Deel 77), 1921, G. P. Rouffaer, who first identi- fed tanah Mĕlayu as the basin of the Jambi, has published a start- ling paper on the geography of the Malaya Peninsula. It is pro- bable that his surmises as to the situation of Langkasuka and several other theories will not be accepted, but his paper should be in the hands of every serious student of Peninsular history.

Rouffaer brushes aside G. Ferrand's recent theory (Journal Asiatique, 1918) that Malacca existed, as the unreliable Gaspar Correa wrote, for 100 years before the coming of the Portuguese, under the name Malayu, Marco Polo's Malayur. Malayur is only a Tamil form of Malayu, the original home of the Malays in Jambi. Would Fra Odorigo van Pordenone and Ibn Batutah have been silent over the existence of such an early Malacca? Would the Nagarakretagama (1365 A.D.), recording the conquests of Hayam Wurok, the famous ruler of Majapahit, have then referred to the Peninsula simply as Pahang?

On the other hand it is hardly likely that in 1403 Malacca "belonged to Siam," as the Ming annals say; from 1405-1413 was a Hindu state under Permaisura and becoming Muslim under Gujerati influence in 1414 suddenly won trade and empire. The Pararaton mentions two Malay princesses captured at the fall of Jambi and one Tuhan Wurujo (= Bongsu), a dewa-putěra (i.e. son of a Ksatriya dewa) of Pamelekahan or Malacca lands," a captive in Majapahit in 1328 A.D. Again Gerini tells how Siamese laws enacted in 1360 A.D. cite as tributary to Siam "Ujong Tanah, Malaka, Malayu, Worawari (Researches, 1909, pp. 531-2). Probably Barros (1553 A.D.) and the Sĕjarah Mĕlayu are right in saying that Malacca existed as early as the middle of the XIIIth century A.D. and became a commercial centre about 1400 A.D. owing to immigration of Malays from Singapore or Tumasik, the "sea-country."

Barros (1558), the most reliable of Portuguese chroniclers, relates how one Sangesinga (? Sangyang Singha) ruler of Singa- pore was murdered by his guest Permaisura, who was a fugitive from East Jara owing to disturbances on the death of Pararisa. (= O. J. Bra Wicesa, who ascended the throne of Majapahit in