History of Kedah

Map of the early Kadaha kingdom and the Early transpeninsular routeway

Ancient artefact found in Kedah

Austronesians were great seafarers, colonising as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Madagascar. In some regions they intermarried with the local inhabitants (Orang Asli), becoming the Deutero-Malays. Possibly as early as the 4th century BCE, Austronesians started to sail westwards in search of new markets for their products.[4][5]

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 Malay participated actively in Indian Ocean trade, and likely handled much of the traffic between Southeast Asia and India.[6]

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, Sumatra, and the Ganges.[7]

Flag of Kedah in the 18th century

Deep in the pristine estuary of the Merbok River, lies an abundance of historical relics of the past. Ancient monumental ruins, buildings, temples, harbour and shipwrecks were all cloistered and entombed in the soil for two millennia.[8] At its zenith, the massive settlement sprawled across ~1000 kilometers and dominated the northern plains of the Malay Peninsula.[9][10] By contemporary accounts, the area is known as the lost city of Sungai Batu. Founded in 788 BC, it is among the oldest of civilisations in Southeast Asia and a potential progenitor of the Kedah Tua kingdom.

The historical landscape of the area was bound to a flourishing iron industry, with archaeological findings unearthed various historical mines, warehouses, factories, a harbour; together with a vibrant plethora of superior-quality ores, furnace, slag and ingots. Additionally, the peculiar Tuyere iron-smelting technique mobilised in Sungai Batu is hailed as oldest of its kind in the world. The produce was highly sought after and exported to various corners of the Old World, including ancient India, China, Middle East, Korea and Japan. Based on early Sanskrit reports, the area was known as "the iron bowl".[9][10]

The settlement also narrated a glimpse of the ancient religious undertakings prior to the mass Indianisation of the region. The early inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago was chronicled to be the adherence of indigenous animism and shamanism, strikingly similar to other indigenous religions of Eastern Asia, such as Shintoism. The ancient folk religion vividly characterised that every element of nature possessed a spirit, known as semangat. The semangat has the governing power to richly bless or mercilessly curse the society, hence the spirit should always be pleased and entertained. In Sungai Batu, archaeological evidence unmasked several ceremonial and religious architectures devoted to worshipping the sun and mountains.[9][10]

In addition to Sungai Batu, the early Malay archipelago also witnessed the monumental development of other subsequent ancient large urban settlements and regional polities, driven by a predominantly cosmopolitan agrarian society, thriving skilled craftsmanship, multinational merchants and foreign expatriates. Chinese records noted the names of Akola, P’an P’an, Tun-Sun, Chieh-ch'a, Ch'ih-tu, among few. Upon the fifth century AD, these settlements had morphed into sovereign city-states, collectively fashioned by an active participation in the international trade network and hosting diplomatic embassies from China and India.[9][10]

Map of early sea trade route (in red) and the early transpeninsula routeways of the Malay Peninsula

Early in the Medieval era, Kedah became part of Srivijaya (a major power in the Indian Ocean trade). This led to rivalries with the Indian states, especially the Chola Empire from the 9th to 13th centuries CE. The Cholas had a powerful merchant and naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. In the early 11th century, Tamil Chola King Rajendra Chola I sent an expedition to attack Kedah (Sri Vijaya) on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his assistance to gain the throne.The Chola fleets successfully defeated the Srivijaya empire, captured and sacked Kedah.

In ancient Kedah there is an important and unmistakably Hindu settlement which has been known for about a century now from the discoveries reported 1840s by Col. James Low, later subjected to a fairly exhaustive investigation by Dr. Quaritch Wales. Dr. Wales investigated no fewer than thirty sites round about Kedah . The results show this site was in continuous occupation for centuries, by people who under strong South Indian, Buddhist and Hindu influences.[11]

An inscribed stone bar, rectangular in shape, bears the Ye Dharma Hetu formula[nb 1] in South Indian characters of the 4th century CE, thus proclaiming the Buddhist 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 rounded writing of the 6th century CE, possibly earlier.[12] 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 and Sanskrit, relate to the activities of the people and rulers of the Tamil country of South India. The Tamil inscriptions are at least four centuries posterior to the Sanskrit inscriptions, from which the early Tamils themselves were patronizers of the Sanskrit language.[13]

In Kedah, an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 CE has been found. This was left by Kulothunga Chola I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Chola Empire had with Malaya.[13]

Map based on the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a source of information about the Indian Ocean region during the early centuries CE

The Tamils coming from Southern India and the local Malays were already using the rounded script, or Vatteluttu writing styles which differed from the Devanagari script of Northern India. Vatteluttu was also commonly known as the Pallava script by scholars of Southeast Asian studies such as George Coedes and D.G.E. Hall. The Tamil script of Vatteluttu later evolved into Old Kawi script which was used in Java, the Philippines, and Bali 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 verses refers to a king named Ramaunibham, who 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.