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A Note on the Founding of Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

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Extract

In both versions of the Malay Annals the founder of Singapore is a prince of Indian descent who had been given the throne of Palembang by a chief with the corrupt name of Demang Lebar Daun, and both versions make this chief a descendant of a Raja Shulan. Shulan is generally taken to be a corruption of Chola, but if Demang Lebar Daun were a Chola, it would mean that the Indian dynasty which ruled Palembang (or Śri Vijaya)was installed after 1025, the date of the first Chola raid on that country. In fact Palembang bore the Indian name of Sri Vijaya and had rulers with Sanskrit titles as early as the time of the Buddhist monk I-tsing, who stayed there for six months in 671 A.D. to study Sanskrit. Demang Lebar Daun, whatever his correct name, must have been an aboriginal chief who welcomed Indian rule and Indian trade.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1964

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