Palembang, the Musi port-state

Who rules

Title

Ruler of Palembang (the Pa-lin-fong of the Chinese)

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No inscription, Chinese notice or chronicle names a ruler of Palembang between the Chola raid of 1025 and the thirteenth century. The seventh-century stones (Kedukan Bukit 683, Talang Tuwo 684, Telaga Batu, Kota Kapur 686) name kings of the old Srivijaya.

Overlord

Not pinned. The Zhufan zhi (about 1225) lists Pa-lin-fong among San-fo-ts'i's fifteen dependencies; Wolters took this to mean the paramount court was by then at Jambi. Whether Palembang answers to Jambi in January 1200, stands beside it, or stands alone is open.

What the realm holds

• The port on the lower Musi with its canals and artificial islands
• The Musi mouth (Sungsang) and the pilots who bring ships over the bar
• The rice of the Komering plain (Kayu Agung) and the Ogan
• Bangka, by claim: Kota Kapur on the Mendo river, the tin ground in the ground
• The head of navigation on the upper Musi and the Rawas, where highland goods are loaded
• The Lampung coast, by an inherited claim (Tulang Bawang)

How it was acquired

Inherited seat of the seventh-century Srivijaya; its rank after 1025 is the open question of the region.

Allies and rivals

Jambi (rival or overlord); the Pasemah highlands (not subjects); Sunda and Kediri across the strait; the Orang Laut who pilot the Bangka strait.

The realm that morning

Not recorded. A port-state with no named ruler, probably paying something to the paramount court, if there is one, and holding the Musi by its own tolls.

Wealth

Tolls on the Musi and the Bangka strait, rice from the Komering, forest goods and iron from the Pasemah highlands, gold from the Rawas, and Chinese ceramics in quantity (Manguin's excavations).

Military

River and sea craft; the Zhufan zhi's iron chain across the harbour (about 1225) is hearsay of a later date. No figure.

Threats

• Jambi's greater standing with the Chinese
• A Javanese fleet (not yet attested)
• Pasemah and Lampung peoples who owe nothing

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. about 1225The Zhufan zhi names Pa-lin-fong among San-fo-ts'i's dependencies.Depends on: Later hearsay only. Stopped by: Not applicable.
2. 1275 to 1293Singhasari's Pamalayu expedition sends Javanese forces to Sumatra; later sources (not before 1293) tell of Javanese success against Malayu and Palembang.Depends on: A strong Javanese king. Stopped by: A quarrel or defeat in Java.

Places of note

• Bukit Seguntang: Ritual hill with a colossal stone Buddha.
• Karanganyar canals: Artificial islands and canals west of the city.
• Sungsang: Musi mouth and pilot station.
• Kota Kapur: Seventh-century curse stone on Bangka; site occupied later.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board (palembang) marks Palembang 'contested' and the campaign board's regions text says the paramountcy has moved to Jambi; this record keeps it open.
• The campaign board's Bangka tin note is right: the great Bangka workings are eighteenth century; the record shows tin as a resource and the island as a claim.

Evidence: Fair archaeology (Bukit Seguntang, Karanganyar, ceramics) but no text names a ruler of the age; the political ties depend on the 1225 hearsay list.

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

On the map: The core follows the lowlands that must feed the port; every other part is a claim inherited from the seventh century and drawn only so that no ground is left to chance.

Primary sources for this realm

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.

• History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
• History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
• The Leiden grants of Rajaraja I and Kulottunga I concerning the Srivijaya vihara at Nagapattinam, The Chola chancery (Rajaraja I, Rajendra I, Kulottunga I) (the Larger plates about 1005 to 1014 (completed under Rajendra I); the Smaller plates 1090). Background documents for the relations between the Cholas and the Malay world. Read online
• The Grahi (Chaiya) Buddha inscription and the Tambralinga records, Various (the officers of Grahi and the kings of Tambralinga), edited by George Coedes (the Chaiya bronze Buddha inscription 1183; the Nakhon Si Thammarat records 13th century; edited 1929, revised 1961). The peninsula in 1200 has one near-contemporary dated text: the Old Khmer inscription on the base of a bronze Buddha from Wat Hua Wiang at Chaiya, dated 1183, which records the image's casting by order of the mahasenapati Galanai, governor of Grahi, under the king Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhusanavarmadeva, a name that is argued to be either a Malayu (Srivijaya) overlord or a local king.
• A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
• Notes in Answer to Questions about the Lands beyond the Passes, Zhou Qufei (周去非) (1178, after service in Guangxi). A Guangxi official's notes, written twenty years before 1200, on the south-western frontier of the Song and the countries beyond. Read online
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
• The Description of the Country, called the Nagarakretagama, Mpu Prapanca (1365 at the Majapahit court). A Majapahit court poem of 1365 listed here only for its retrospect. Read online