EARLY SUMATRA AND JAVA
The Strait of Malacca, a significant geographical feature between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, influenced the formation of early states in both Sumatra and Java. Trade through the strait was a spur to settlement and the development of cities.
For many centuries, the Strait of Malacca was the only passageway through Southeast Asia for traders and travelers moving between the major civilizations of eastern Asia on one side and southern and western Asia and Europe on the other. The annual monsoon winds determined when ships sailed. From about January, the northeast monsoon winds provided a powerful tailwind that brought traders from East Asia directly to the southern entrance of the strait. From some time in July, the winds blew in the opposite direction from the southwest and brought with them ships from the west. The traders overlapped briefly in the strait, which allowed just enough time to exchange their goods before journeying homeward.
Enterprising people living along the strait quickly saw the opportunity to profit from the annual movement of foreign traders. They created ports where traders could rest and repair their vessels for the return journey, underground warehouses where their goods could be stored without fear of fires, stores of food and water for the crews, and a system of reliable laws to assure fair and predictable trade practices. As a result of the profits flowing from this international trade, early communities acquired the means to develop into states.
SRIVIJAYA
Chinese sources of 441 CE mention a port called Gantoli in southeastern Sumatra that may have flourished because of its trade in camphor (a gummy compound obtained from wood) and benzoin (a gum resin) from the forests of Sumatra. These items were successful substitutions for frankincense from China and myrrh from Arabia. Little else is known about Gantoli, and it had disappeared from the records by the late sixth century CE. It is nevertheless believed that Gantoli laid the foundations for its better-known successor, Srivijaya.
Srivijaya, which was also located in southeastern Sumatra, became a major power in the western half of the Indonesian archipelago from the seventh to the eleventh centuries CE. One of the strengths of the kingdom was the effectiveness of the Orang Laut ("Sea People"), who constituted the major part of the navy of the ruler of Srivijaya. The Orang Laut patrolled the sea lanes to encourage traders to visit their ruler’s port city, while harassing or destroying the ships of Srivijaya’s competitors. The Chinese emperor came to recognize the value of Srivijaya as a power that could guarantee the safety of Chinese traders moving through the Strait of Malacca. By acknowledging Srivijaya as a favored port, the emperor contributed to Srivijaya’s popularity with Chinese traders. The presence of the Chinese with their wares in turn attracted local and foreign traders, and transformed the port city of Srivijaya into a bustling marketplace. In addition to enjoying thriving commerce, Srivijaya became a center of Mahayana Buddhist learning. Chinese pilgrims stopped there to study Buddhist texts in Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language) before going to India.
Based on the discovery of inscriptions written on stone in the Malay language, scholars believe that Srivijaya’s influence extended throughout Sumatra, as well as in parts of Java, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula, and as far north as the island of Luzon in the Philippines. In 1024 and 1025, Srivijaya was attacked and destroyed by its chief competitor, the Cholas of southern India. Its demise led to the rise of Malayu, located immediately to the north of Srivijaya in the present-day Indonesian province of Jambi.
MALAYU
Malayu continued the traditions of Srivijaya, and some scholars believe that it was simply the Srivijayan state with a new center. Jambi’s long river, the Hari, extends far into the interior and became the principal means by which the local inhabitants transported gold from the mountains and aromatic woods and resins from the forests to a downriver port. In the thirteenth century, the growing power of the eastern Javanese kingdom of Singosari posed a threat to Malayu. To avoid destructive raids from the sea, the Malayu court moved inland to the upper reaches of the Hari River. However, even in a more defensive location, Malayu could not escape the attentions of the Javanese. As a result, in the mid-fourteenth century, the ruler of Malayu moved his court to the highlands of central Sumatra. Isolated so far in the interior, the Malayu kingdom could no longer play a role in international trade through the Strait of Malacca, and Malayu’s place was taken by Pasai, another port-state located along the northeastern coast of Sumatra.
PASAI
Pasai was favorably placed at the northern entrance to the Strait of Malacca and, like Srivijaya, controlled the movements of ships through the strait. In 1292, the Venetian explorer Marco Polo (1254–1324) stopped off at this coast in a town called Samudera, which was later annexed by Pasai, and he noted that its inhabitants were Muslims. This statement has been used by historians to date the first recorded Muslim community in the Indonesian archipelago. The state based on Samudera and Pasai grew wealthy as a result of international trade that was conducted principally through an Islamic trade network. Pasai’s prosperity attracted Islamic traders and teachers, and soon the city grew famous as an important center of Islamic learning. The powerful eastern Javanese kingdom of Majapahit attempted to destroy the kingdom of Samudera-Pasai, which it considered to be a dangerous regional rival. However, Pasai retained its independence until the kingdom was absorbed by its northern neighbor Atjeh in the sixteenth century.
TARUMANAGARA AND HO-LING
The island of Java has had an important role in the history of the archipelago. Java is home to two major ethnic groups: the Sundanese in west Java and the Javanese in east and central Java. Some of the earliest inscriptions (writings on stone) found in west Java were issued by a ruler called Purnavarman (dates unknown) from Tarumanagara ("the state of Taruma") sometime in the fifth century CE. Although there were other settlements in western Java, Tarumanagara was the first to have left any records. Its principal source of revenue came from international trade, and it is likely that it formed part of a single trade network with the early kingdoms in Sumatra. There is evidence of the influence of Indian religions on the society of Tarumanagara, but little else is known about the functioning of this city-state.
In the seventh century CE, there was another state in Java, which Chinese sources call Ho-ling. It had an important port in the north coast and occupied the rich agricultural lands in the coastal plains and the Kedu Plain of central Java. Ho-ling’s major source of wealth was also trade. By the middle of the seventh century CE, it had succeeded in becoming a vital intermediate station in the trade between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. In addition, it came to dominate the regional market for spices that had previously been traded through western Java. Although Chinese records mention the presence of Buddhism in Ho-ling, there is also evidence of the retention of earlier indigenous beliefs. The rulers were local, but they assumed Sanskrit names and they had inscriptions written in a mixture of Sanskrit and the local language.
MATARAM
Sometime in the early eighth century CE, the neighboring state of Mataram in central Java absorbed Ho-ling. Mataram may have also absorbed a number of other cities in becoming the first major state in Java. Between the late eighth and late ninth centuries CE, the rulers of Mataram built many of the religious edifices in central Java, including the impressive Buddhist temple of Borobudur. Mataram had a decentralized form of government, with officials and relatives holding positions at court while the outlying areas continued to be governed by their own rulers as vassals or allies of Mataram. What helped to integrate the state was a network of markets that met at a different location in each of the five-day weeks of the Javanese calendar. The role of the officials of the court in assessing and collecting taxes at these markets, maintaining order, and arbitrating disputes helped to create the sense of a unified state and of a single community.
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Foreign Influences in Early Sumatra and Java |
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An important consequence of Southeast Asia’s participation in international trade was the transfer of ideas from abroad. Among the early Southeast Asian societies, Chinese influence was largely limited to Vietnam, but Indian ideas penetrated the rest of the region. Because of their location on or in relative proximity to the Strait of Malacca, the early states of both Sumatra and Java were frequently exposed to Indian ideas of religion, statecraft, and culture. Various forms of Hindu and Buddhist worship were found in these communities, along with indigenous beliefs based on the worship of powerful spirits. Local rulers and religious leaders adopted Sanskrit titles, and the communities in Sumatra and Java came to be compared favorably with Indian states. However, these Indianized forms merely masked the persistence of indigenous ideas. Through a process called "localization," each of these societies selected aspects of Indian ideas that they found most useful and then adapted them to their own needs. Nevertheless, the common source of Indian ideas meant that the early states of Sumatra and Java, as well as the other Indianized states in Southeast Asia, recognized a cultural "family resemblance" that reinforced links that had already been forged through trade.
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Some time in the tenth century CE, the center of the Mataram kingdom moved from central to east Java. It is not known what caused this shift, but some historians speculate that there may have been some natural catastrophe, such as a massive volcano eruption in central Java. East Java was blessed with rich rice-growing plains watered by the Brantas River, as well as a sheltered port at the eastern tip near present-day Surabaya. Initially the east Javanese were harassed by Srivijaya, but the destruction of the latter by the Cholas in 1024 and 1025 enabled King Airlangga of Mataram (reigned 1016–1049) to strengthen this new center. He succeeded in absorbing all the smaller neighboring states and came to rule both east and central Java.
Airlangga pursued a dual policy of increasing both agricultural production and international trade. He built dams at various points along the Brantas River in order to construct irrigation canals for wet-rice agriculture. The increased rice acreage was worked by people possibly brought from central Java. He also created port facilities at Surabaya, which became a major redistribution center of cloves, nutmeg, and mace from the eastern Spice Islands (the modern-day Moluccas) to China, western Asia, and beyond. Through successful integration of farming and trade, King Airlangga set a precedent for the emergence of other powerful centers in east Java.
SINGOSARI
The death of Airlangga in 1049 saw the division of the realm between his two sons, but the kingdom was once again reunited in the mid-thirteenth century under the name of Singosari (also known as Singhasari). King Kertanagara (reigned 1268–1292) extended his kingdom to different parts of Java and reasserted his control over Malayu in 1286, leaving behind religious statues as reminders of his overlordship. These successes may have convinced him that he was more powerful than he really was. When he mutilated the envoy sent by the Mongol ruler on the throne of China, the Mongols sent a large naval force against Singosari. However, before their arrival, Singosari fell to rivals in 1292 and Kertanagara died at the hands of an assassin. Kertanagara’s son-in-law, Raden Wijaya (reigned c. 1292–1309), founded a new kingdom, Majapahit, which became the next major power in the region.
L. ANDAYA
