Panai, the brick-temple plain of Padang Lawas

Who rules

Title

Lord of Panai, or the lords of the Padang Lawas temple plain

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No ruler of Panai is named in any source of the age. The name appears in the Tanjore inscription (struck in 1025) and in Javanese lists of 1365; the temples and the settlement mound at Si Pamutung are the only direct evidence.

Overlord

None named. In 1025 the Chola list shows Pannai as a place of its own; the later lists put it under Majapahit (1365). Whether the lords of Padang Lawas pay Jambi in 1200 is not known.

What the realm holds

• The temple plain of Padang Lawas (Bahal I to III at Portibi, Si Pamutung, the Binanga landing)
• The head of navigation on the Barumun, where cargo goes into boats for the strait
• The Panai mouth on the coast of the strait, by claim
• The road over the Angkola pass to Natal and the western sea, by position

How it was acquired

Allies and rivals

The Batak and Mandailing suppliers (who owe it nothing); Barus on the west coast, which competes for the same camphor; Kota Cina and the coast of the strait; Jambi, if it is a paramount court.

The realm that morning

Not known. Whether building is still going on is not pinned: the style runs to the thirteenth century.

Wealth

Camphor, benzoin and gold in transit; the cult of the sanctuaries; the toll of the head of navigation.

Military

No fortress has been identified; the Si Pamutung mound is a settlement. No figure.

Threats

• The competition of Barus, which has the harbour
• Loss of the supplier peoples' goodwill

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. 1275 to 1365Javanese sources later list Panai (and Haru) among Sumatran dependencies; Majapahit's expedition of 1339 is said to take Haru and Pane.Depends on: A Javanese empire, which does not exist before 1293. Stopped by: No Majapahit.

Places of note

• Bahal temples: Three brick sanctuaries at Portibi.
• Si Pamutung mound: Settlement mound at the meeting of the Barumun and the Batang Pane.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board (panai-barumun-mouth, powers.txt) says the temples were 'building through the twelfth century' as a fact; the sources give only style and a few radiocarbon dates reported by the excavators, and we could not recheck them.
• The campaign board puts Panai's polity at the Barumun mouth; no harbour has been found there. Marked as a claim.

Evidence: Real temples and a settlement mound, one line in the Chola list; no text names a lord of 1200.

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

On the map: The plain is firm; the coastal part is a guess based on where the later Panai river runs.