In many recent posts, I have been writing about a place that I call “Jāba.” This was the center of a major trans-peninsular trade empire, and it was located around the area of what is now Songkhla in southern Thailand.
This place is referred to in various historical sources by slightly different names, such as Zabaj in Arabic, and Shepo 闍婆 in Chinese (1,000 years ago this sounded something like “Jaba”), but for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to refer to it as Jāba.
People have long thought that Shepo was a variant of the name for “Zhuawa” 爪哇, meaning the island of Java. However, it was not. It was a different place.
While I have already provided a lot of historical information about that place, today I found yet more information about it, and this time, I found mention of it in relation to an early Burmese polity/empire known as “Pyu.” This polity is called “Piao” 驃 in Chinese, and there is a good deal of information about it in the New History of the Tang (Xin Tangshu 新唐書, completed in 1060).
That text records that the Pyu kingdom had 18 tributaries, the last of which was. . . Jāba. It also provides information about the itinerary to Jāba from a place called “Modibo” 磨地勃, which some scholars have claimed could be a reference to Martaban (Moke Ta Ma).
This text records that you travel by sea for five months until you reach the polity of Fodai (佛代 fhut-thay; I’ll put rough approximations of historical pronunciations in parentheses).
This number can’t be correct, because 1) I don’t think people sailed straight for five months in those days, and 2) if they did, then in sailing five months from Burma, they probably would have ended up in either Australia or Antarctica.
In any case, this place is then described as follows:
“There is a [large] river with 360 tributaries. Its king is called Sili Xiemita (思利些彌他 Sri Sia-mji-tha). There is a river called Sili Pilirui (思利毗離芮 Sri Phji-li-rjay). The land produces many exotic fragrances. To the north is a market. It is where the ships from various kingdoms congregate.”
海行五月至佛代國。有江，支流三百六十。其王名思利些彌他。有川名思利毗離芮。土多異香。北有市，諸國估舶所湊。
Assuming that this was a place where ships congregated because it was at one end of a trans-peninsular trade route, it looks like there are two possible places that this passage could be referring to: an area in what is now southern Myanmar across from Prachuap Kiri Khan Province in Thailand, and the place where the Kraburi River flows into the Andaman Sea.
From this polity of Fodai, this text then indicates how one traveled from there to Jāba. To quote,
“When you cross the sea, you are at Jāba. After then traveling for 15 days, and crossing two mountains, one called ‘Zhengmi’ (正迷 tsiajng-mjiaj) and the other called ‘Shedi’ (射鞮 shia-tiaj), there is the kingdom. The king is called Sili Moheluoshe (思利摩訶羅闍 Sri Maharaja). The customs are the same as in Fodai. Passing Duorongpuluo (多茸補邏 Ta-rywng-pura), a river reaches Jāba. After traveling eight days, you reach the polity of Pohuijialu (婆賄伽盧 Ba-xuaj-kya-lyə).
“The land is hot. Coconut and betel nut trees are planted along the route. Looking up, you do not see the sun. The king’s residence has gold tiles. Cooking materials are made of silver and porcelain. Ovens use fragrant wood. The chambers are ornamented with pearls. There are two pools with gold embankments. The boats and oars are all ornamented with gold and jewels.”
越海即闍婆也。十五日行，踰二大山，一曰正迷，一曰射鞮，有國，其王名思利摩訶羅闍，俗與佛代同。經多茸補邏，川至闍婆，八日行至婆賄伽盧國，土熱，衢路植椰子、檳榔，仰不見日。王居以金為甓，廚覆銀瓦，爨香木，堂飾明珠。有二池，以金為隄，舟檝皆飾金寶。
We have to keep in mind that Jāba was both a polity and an empire. So, when this text indicates that one reached Jāba after traveling by sea and landing on the western side of the Malay Peninsula, it is indicating that one reached the territory of the empire of Jāba.
To reach the polity of Jāba itself, one had to travel overland from the coast, and in doing so, one had to pass two mountains. This is a significant detail because in looking at a Tang-era itinerary from China to India in an earlier post, we saw that that route also went through a mountain pass in this same area.
According to this text, one reaches the kingdom after passing through the mountains. In actuality, one reached Patthalung, but that was a tributary of Jāba. The placename that is mentioned here, “Ta-rywng-pura,” is, I would argue, a reference to Patthalung, as the “Ta-rywng” seems to match the final two syllables of this name, and is similar to the term we find in Arabic, Harang, as well as the Chinese name Heling 訶陵. “Pura,” meanwhile, is a Sanskrit term for a fortress or a town.
Further, that the title of the king is recorded as “Sri Maharaja” is important because that title is mentioned in reference to Jāba in many other texts.
Also, the mention here of pools with gold embankments is also significant because there are references to this in Arabic sources that mention Jāba (Zabaj) as well.
Finally, one other detail worth mentioning here is how the section on the Pyu kingdom/empire in the New History of the Tang begins. It does so by stating the following:
“Pyu was formerly Zhupo. It calls itself Tuluozhu. People from the kingdom of Jāba [Shepo 闍婆] call it Tulizhuo.” (驃，古朱波也，自號突羅朱，闍婆國人曰徒里拙。)
Some scholars, believing that Shepo was the same as the island of Java, have translated this to say “People from Java call it Tulizhuo.”
That never made sense to me. Why would Chinese record how Javanese pronounced the name of a kingdom in Burma??
When, however, we understand that Shepo was not the island of Java, but instead, was a polity in the area of what is now Songkhla that was located at one end of a trans-peninsula trade route, and that apparently for at least a while during the Tang period (618-907) it was a tributary of the Pyu kingdom, then this statement makes sense.
The reason why Chinese would know how people in Jāba/Songkhla referred to the Pyu kingdom was because Chinese probably traveled to Songkhla and obtained goods from the Pyu kingdom that had been brought there along the route described above.
Therefore, once again, we have evidence here of the importance of Jāba/Songkhla and of trans-peninsular trade.
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Liam Kelley, I am so impress with your tedious and quite fascinating posts. I say tedious with great awe and pleasure. I began tramping about South East Asia in 1968 in Vietnam in the war.. I am a cultural anthropologist and I have dabbled in writing about printed talismans from Chinese temples since 1975. I was taught by Irish Nuns in Catholic school. I was no stranger to the ruler/yard stick for “bad Catholic boys”. HAHAHAHAHA I say that with great fondness now, not so much then. But, it was in Newfoundland , Canada in 1969 that I learned the difference between the Orange and the Green. So, because of forced selection, I traveled with the Greens and I learned many an IRA drinking tune. Men are such silly sods to quibble about such things. As Nature would have it I saw, The Temptations of Eve in the pretty colleens, no matter if they prayed standing up, or kneeling. I am 1/2 English and 1/2 Quebecois, so the Quebecois blood led me astray at times. Oh yes and I met many a Kelly. They told me their families were so poor at the time of the Potato famine they could not afford the “e” in Kelley; and most assuredly not an “O”.
Thank you for the kind comments, Jim!!
I always thought my ancestors migrated to America to escape from dying in the potato famine, but now I see that they probably also did so to preserve the “e.” I’m going to remember that and feel even more proud the next time I point out to people that they misspelled my name. 🙂