Port · Malay river-mouth ports (a colour, not a state) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Takua Pa

The best Andaman landfall between Kedah and Burma, and the western head of the shortest useful road over the isthmus.

It is often, not certainly, the Takkola of Ptolemy (second century); Trang is the rival. The English Wikipedia article on Takkola says it was active from the first to the thirteenth century, with trade declining in the tenth and eleventh as Srivijaya and Pan Pan pushed the routes south. A ninth-century Tamil inscription from the river bank records a tank named for the Pallava king Nandivarman II (826 to 850) and the merchants of the Manigramam guild under garrison protection, which makes this the one peninsular port where an Indian trading corporation is documented on the ground.

Talaittakkolam is among the places the Tanjore inscription of Rajendra Chola (1030/31) names as struck. Tin comes down its river gravels. On 1 January 1200 no lord is named; Grahi holds the other end of the road (an inference), and a Pagan inscription of 1196-98 is said to claim the coast as far south as beyond Junk Ceylon, a claim the same article marks as disputed.

Who holds it

Name
not known: no source names a governor of Takua Pa
Title
Lord or headman of Takua Pa
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

not known: no source names a governor of Takua Pa

How things stand that morning

Not recorded. A working port on the best road across the isthmus; its lord, if any, is not known.

Council

No headman, judge or council is named in any source.

Communities

A Tamil merchant guild is documented in the ninth century (Manigramam, in the Ayyavole-ainurruvar consortium, per the Wikipedia article); none is named for 1200.

Fairs and markets

None known; trade follows the monsoon.

Militia

No source.

Walls and castle

A garrison is mentioned in the ninth-century inscription; nothing for 1200.

Trade and crafts

Tin ingots washed and smelted at the diggings (board), forest goods, the transfer of cargo to the carry over the Khao Sok road.

Places of note

  • Takua Pa tin: Tin in the river gravels, washed and smelted into ingots at the diggings (board).
  • Ko Phra Thong (the bar shelter): The sand island that shelters the approaches; its own record is Ko Phra Thong.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board calls the Tamil inscription 'ninth century' and says Takua Pa is 'often but not certainly' Takkola; the Wikipedia article on Takkola agrees on the century. That article also claims Takkola lasted to the thirteenth century, which it does not date more closely.
  • The Pagan inscription of 1196-98 is reported only by the Takkola article as we read it; the English article on Narapatisithu does not mention it, and the Burmese record we could reach shows Pagan's governors only on the Tenasserim coast. Treat the claim as unverified.

Evidence: Fair for the port's long life (Tamil inscription of the ninth century, Chola notice); nothing for 1200 itself.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

Primary sources for Malay ports

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia (English): Takkola
  2. Tanjore (Thanjavur) inscription of Rajendra Chola, 1030/31, as reported in the brief and the English Wikipedia article on the Chola invasion
  3. OMNIA board note (a lead only, checked against the sources above)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.