144 NOTES ON MALAY HISTORY. 



Of these name?, Nusantara is believed to denote the 

 Archipelago generally, Gurun is Goram, Seran is Ceram, both 

 in the Moluccas, Dompo is a state in the island of Sumbawa, 

 Bali is the island lying immediately to the east of Java, Sunda 

 is the western end of Java itself, and Palembang is of course the 

 well-known place of that name in south-eastern Sumatra. 

 Haru, which is often mentioned in the Sejarah Melayu, was a 

 state on the east coast of Sumatra, Tahjung Pura is evidently 

 Borneo or some particular spot in Borneo, where a place 

 bearing* that name did in fact exist. (I follow here the identifica- 

 tions given by Brandes). The names that particularly interest 

 us are Pahang and Tumasik : the former requires no comment, 

 the latter is certainly Singapore. In the Sejarah Melayu the 



old name of Singapore is given as < i5w\i which the Malays 



nowadays pronounce Temasak. It is evident, however, that 

 there has been a break in the tradition here: they ought to 

 call the place Temasek, as it is printed in the Romanised (1898) 

 edition of the Sejarah Melayu, for that would be the proper 

 Malay equivalent for the Javanese form Tumasik, and we shall 

 meet with the latter form again in another Javanese work in the 

 same connection. Brandes derives the name from tasek, " sea", 

 and imagines an identification with Samudra ' (near Pasei) but 

 refers to the possibility of Singapore being meant. The Ency- 

 clopaedic van Nederlandsch-Indie (s. v. Tochten, vol. IV, pp. 

 383-4), following Professor Kern, correctly identifies it with 

 Singapore. 



Evidently, (and this is important as confirming the amend- 

 ed chronology of the Peninsula), Singapore was still in exist- 

 ence as a state unsubdued by Majapahit at the time when 

 Gajah Mada made his vow, somewhere about the year 1346 

 A.D. probably. It could not therefore have been finally de- 

 stroyed by the forces of Majapahit in 1252 A.D. (in which year, 

 it may be remarked, Majapahit had not yet been founded). 



Most unfortunately there is at this point a lacuna in the 

 text of the Pararaton and nothing whatever is told us of the 

 important events which took place in pursuance of Gajah 



Jour. Straits Branch 



