As stated in the previous post, there were two “Javas” in the past in Southeast Asia. These two Javas are referred to in Arabic, Chinese and other sources variously as Java/Jaba/Zabag/Shepo and mul-Java/Zhuawa.
Originally only one Java was mentioned in historical sources. Then in the 1200s and 1300s both of these Javas are mentioned, and they sometimes both occur in the same historical source where it is clear that they refer to different places. And then after that, there is only one Java/Zhuawa, the place we now know as island Java.
Here it is important to note that the name “Java,” appears to only have been used by foreigners during this time period. We have no evidence that any people in Southeast Asia before say 1400 ever referred to their own kingdom or the place they lived as “Java.”
For instance, there are no inscriptions, as far as I know, from a place like island Java where that place is referred to as “Java.” Instead, Java is a term that foreigners gave to places and which eventually came to be used by people who live on the island of Java to refer to that island (and I don’t know when that happened).
In this sense, the term “Java” is like the term “America.” None of the ancestors of the people we now call “native Americans” ever referred to the place they lived as “America” until outsiders came and started to refer to that place by that name.
So, let’s look at what outsiders were referring to when they mentioned “Java” in the period before say the 1400s.
The earliest records of “Java” are not of island Java, but instead, of a place on the Malay Peninsula. By looking at geographical information, itineraries (here and here), and other historical information in Arabic and Chinese sources, I have concluded that the main center of this “Java” was originally around the area of what is now Songkhla in current southern Thailand.
That said, this “Java” was a typical premodern “mandala” polity that claimed authority over numerous other polities. In Arabic sources, the ruler of “Java” was referred to as the Maharaja, or great king, and he was said to rule over a large number of “islands,” a term which in Arabic sources can mean an actual island or part of a land mass.
Prior to the 1200s, it is clear from Arabic and Chinese sources that the Maharaja was based in the area of Songkhla, and that his “kingdom” or “empire” fit a pattern of other kingdoms or empires that historically existed in the Malay Peninsula (such as ones based in the area of what is now the Chaiya district of Surat Thani province in Thailand and another that was based at what is now Nakhon Si Thammarat).
All of these empires had their “capitals” or “centers” on the eastern side of the peninsula, but they had “tributaries” on both sides. Here, the ones on the western side were particularly important as they were able to “catch” trading ships that came from places to the west, from Burma to India to the Middle East.
From the west, ships could come from different directions (from northern India, Sri Lanka, etc.) and could land at different places. What these empires tried to do was to have a presence at different places on the western side of the Malay Peninsula so that they could “catch” the trading ships as they arrived, wherever that might be, and then they would move the trade goods over the peninsula to their capital, and then on to Cambodia, Champa, and China.
On the eastern side of the peninsula, ships did not come from different directions. There was just one route that went from what is now southern Vietnam across the Gulf of Thailand to the area of Surat Thani province and then went southward along the peninsula.
Along the eastern side of the peninsula, there were a limited number of bays where ships could congregate and anchor a ship, such as at Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Songkhla. Not surprisingly, these three places are precisely where the “capitals” of important trans-peninsular trade empires were established.
It looks like the Chaiya district in Surat Thani is where perhaps the earliest such trade empire was established, and we can find evidence of this trade empire in the seventh-century writings of Chinese Buddhist monk Yijing.
Then in the 900s-1100s there is plenty of evidence to indicate that the trans-peninsular trade empire based at Songkhla was very powerful. This place is referred to in various sources by different but similar names such as Zabag, Jaba, Shepo (yes, historically that was pronounced something like “Jaba”), etc.
This trading empire claimed as its tributaries places nearby Songkhla such as what is now Patthalung and Sating Phra. It also had tributaries on the island of Sumatra. I’ll write in detail about this later but I think its main tributaries were on the northern tip of Sumatra and a place on the eastern coast in what is now north-central Sumatra.
Finally, Zabag/Jaba/Shepo also claimed Kedah as its tributary. These were very strategic possessions. Let me explain why.
Songkhla, Phattalung, and Sathing Phra were linked to the “China route,” that is, the trade route to the east that also stopped at Cambodia and Champa. Meanwhile, the tributary in north-central Sumatra had access to places down past the Straits of Melaka, such as island Java.
This place was mentioned in Arabic sources and modern scholars have rendered that name in different ways, from Sarbaza and Sarbuza to Sribuza. I believe that this is the same place as a “Sumutra” that is mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 1300s. Again, I will explain all of this later, however, I think everyone agrees that this place was on the island of Sumatra (although I don’t think there is any evidence to put it as far south as Palembang).
I have been looking at Tang Dynasty-era itineraries and find no evidence of ships going between China and India/the Middle East by going around the Malay Peninsula and through the Straits of Melaka. However, it is obvious that island Java had contact with the outside world, so how did trade work?
The way I see it, in the 900s-1100s, the Zabag/Jaba/Shepo based at Songkhla had privileged access to three trade “corridors.” It had access to trade coming from the east (China, Champa, and Cambodia). Through Sarbaza/Sarbuza/Samutra, it had access to trade coming from Java.
Then through its tributary in northern Sumatra (“Lāmuri” in Arabic sources) and Kedah, it had access to trade coming from the west, particularly India and the Middle East.
This is visualized in the map below, where the dotted white circles indicate the extent of the “empire” of Zabag/Jaba/Shepo.
As the above map hopefully makes clear, Zabag/Jaba/Shepo didn’t need to control many places to be able to essentially dominate trade in the region.
What is more, foreign traders did not need to journey far to get what they needed. All they had to do was to go to either Songkhla or Kedah and they could gain access to goods from many distant lands.
Importantly, no one needed to travel down through the Straits of Melaka to island Java, because those goods were brought up to Sarbaza/Sarbuza/Samutra by local traders, undoubtedly many of whom were from island Java, and then on to Kedah and Songkhla where the majority of foreign traders were.
This is why we don’t find island Java mentioned in Arabic, Chinese, etc. sources before the 1200s. These people didn’t need to go there. (Actually, I think there are some references to places on the island of Java in Arabic sources prior to the 1200s, but scholars have erroneously placed them on the Malay Peninsula. Still, these appear to be references to places Arab traders had heard of rather than visited themselves. I’ll explain this later).
So, this was a very good situation for Zabag/Jaba/Shepo, and of course, when someone has it good, others will want to bring that person down, and the same goes for empires.
Zabag/Jaba/Shepo was attacked by the Chola kingdom in southern India in the early eleventh century (I’ll write about this later), and it had an ongoing feud with Angkor. In the 1200s, Angkor appears to have gotten the upper hand in this long conflict, as it created a network of tributaries that surrounded Zabag/Jaba/Shepo.
Initially, I thought Angkor did this by creating a network of tributaries that went around the trans-peninsular trade route by going through the Straits of Melaka, but now I don’t think that is correct. Instead, Angkor and its allies came to control several trans-peninsular trade routes, leaving Zabag/Jaba/Shepo with perhaps only a single route across the peninsula (see Srivijaya 3.0 (07): Jaba/Songkhla in The Crystal Sands).
When the famous Muslim world traveler, Ibn Battuta, passed through this region in the 1300s, he mentioned “Java” and met its king at a place on the island of Sumatra called “Samutra.” Ibn Battuta also mentions traveling 21 days to the south to a place called “mul-Java” that was ruled over by “infidels,” that is, non-Muslims.
Passages like this one make me wonder if the (apparently successful) effort by Angkor to gain control of trade over the Malay Peninsula in the 1200s had pushed the Maharaja to relocate to the western side of his shrinking empire and establish his base on the island of Sumatra at the location of one of his former tributaries (Sarbaza/Sarbuza/Samutra).
Having lost control and influence in many places on the Malay Peninsula, we could imagine that the Maharaja would have sought to expand his control and influence from his new base on the island of Sumatra. To do so there was only one direction to go – southward through the Straits of Melaka toward island Java.
This is what I suspect happened, and as this unfolded, it looks like Arab and other traders from areas to the west followed and started to sail down into that region. This is when the term “mul-Java” started to appear. Scholars are not sure what exactly “mul” meant, but this term was clearly employed to indicate some new place that was different from, but somehow similar too, the “Java” (Zabag/Jaba/Shepo) that they had long been familiar with.
Additionally, for some reason, Chinese knowledge about the area of island Java started to emerge at this point as well (as discussed in the previous post), and there were references in the late 1200s and 1300s to both Shepo as well as a new place, “Zhuawa,” a reference to island Java.
Finally, starting in the late 1200s and continuing in the 1300s, there was an effort by island Java to expand its influence up into the Straits of Melaka area, and I think I have found evidence that Javanese also attacked Angkor and “occupied” places in the lower Mekong region in the late 1300s and into the 1400s (this will be documented in the second half of my article coming out in early 2023).
I need to look more into this, but such development might point to a major effort on the part of the kingdom of Majapahit on Java to transform the trade routes to look something like what we see in the image below.
Majapahit’s attack on Angkor in the late 1300s took place at a time when Ayutthaya was attacking and seeking to control Angkor, as well as extending its control southward to places like Nakhon Si Thammarat, one of Angkor’s tributaries in the 1200s, and a place that seems to have played a key role in countering Zabag/Jaba/Shepo at that time (see Srivijaya 3.0 (07): Jaba/Songkhla in The Crystal Sands).
This, combined with Majapahit’s possible efforts to redirect trade could have led to not only the decline of Angkor, but also to the decline of the trans-peninsular trade routes, and probably to the demise of what was left of Zabag/Jaba/Shepo.
Ultimately, Majapahit declined in power as well, and in the aftermath of all of these developments, Melaka emerged as an important trading center, and the trade route through the Straits of Melaka developed.
There are various pieces of historical evidence that can be brought together to support the interpretation of the past that I have presented here. Nonetheless, what I have presented here is still just a “work in progress.” This is my current effort to try to make sense of the sources, and to try to figure out why outsiders/foreigners referred to one Java up to the 1100s (which was not island Java), two “Javas” in the 1200s-1300s, and only one Java, island Java, after that point.
This Post Has 4 Comments
Interesting article, but there is one problem “We have no evidence that any people in Southeast Asia before say 1400 ever referred to their own kingdom or the place they lived as “Java.””
Look up the content of Canggal inscription, Shivagrha inscription, Padang Roco Inscription, Wurare Inscription
, and many others. Plenty of Old Javanese inscriptions and manuscripts mention the term ‘Jawadwipa’, ‘Bhumijawa’, ‘Yawa’, ‘Yawapuri’, and many others. In short, the Kings of Java (island) themselves already called their land ‘Jawa’ even before the 1400s. The large-scale project of translating Sanskrit Mahabharata into Old Javanese language in the 10th century was recorded and called ‘Mangjawaken Byasamata’ (literally means “Javanize Vyasa’s thinking” in Old Javanese), which results in the creation of Javanese-style Mahabharata stories like ‘Bharatayuddha’. This further tells us that the language at the time was also called ‘Jawa’ (‘Bhāṣa Jawa’, also known as Old Javanese).
To be fair, the Island of Java, parts of Sumatra, & parts of the Malay Peninsula were definitely called Java by foreigners, including ‘Cāvakam’ by the Tamils (derived from Sanskrit ‘Javaka’). However, unlike the island of Java, there are no records (such as inscriptions) in those areas (Sumatra & Peninsular) that mention the term ‘Java’ as their land (If I am wrong, please enlighten me). For instance, the ruler of Tambralinga (Chandrabhanu) was called ‘Javaka’ by foreigners from Sri Lanka, but the people from that area (Sumatra & Peninsular) never made it clear from their inscriptions/texts that they consider themselves as ‘Java’. Unlike the island of Java, their languages were never called ‘Phasa Jawa’ / ‘Phasa Javaka’ or something similar at any point in their history, and they never refer to their land as ‘Yawa’ / ‘Javaka’ or something similar either.
In my opinion, the people of Sumatra and Peninsular were never Javanese to begin with. they were mistakenly called ‘Javanese’ by foreigners, similar to how every white European was called ‘Farang’ / Franks by the Muslims and other foreigners, or how every foreigner called the people of Bharata ‘Indians’ (derived from Sindhu river). Thus, it is very likely that they use the term ‘Javaka’ / ‘Jawah’ as a catch-all term for the people in the region (particularly Maritime Southeast Asia).
hmm the formatting doesn’t seem to work, I guess you are not supposed to write paragraphs in the comment section.
Although there is no records (such as inscriptions) in those areas (Sumatra & Peninsular) that mention the term ‘Java’ as their land, however those areas (Sumatra & Peninsular) mentioned “Jawi” (and other variants, which literally mean Javanese in Javanese Homeland and Bali).
Thank you very much for these comments!!
I have been “away” and did not see these comments until now. I’ve just finished a working paper that revisits the Chinese sources for early Southeast Asia and essentially argues something similar to the points that you make here. I’m just waiting for it to get approved and then I’ll post a link to it.
On another note, I wasn’t aware of “Cavakam.” It’s helpful to know about that, so thank you for mentioning it.