Perak the Arrow-Chosen. 



By E. 0. WlNSTEDT. 



In J. R. A. 8., S. B. 1, p. 85, Sir William Maxwell translates 

 an extract from the Marong Mahawangsa or " Kedah Annals," of 

 which the original may be read on p. 62 of Journal 72 (1916). 

 It relates a Kedah claim that Eaja Marong Mahapodisat founded 

 Perak, selecting the site of its capital by loosing a silver {perak) 

 arrow called Indra Sakti and building a town on the island where 

 it fell. As related in my " History of Kedah," the only island 

 in Perak known to have borne that name was named and settled by 

 Sultan Iskandar who ascended the Perak throne in 1765 A.D. 

 (Vide Misa Melayu, published in the "Malay Literature Series," 

 Singapore 1919). But admitting the absurdity of the legend, 

 whence did a Malay chronicler get the non-Malayan idea of choos- 

 ing a site by loosing an arrow, a weapon seldom or never employed 

 by people of his race, into trackless forests ? 



In 2 Kings, chapter 13, verses 14-17 there is the story of how 

 Elisha bade Joash the king of Israel shoot an arrow eastward out 

 of the window, "the arrow of the lord's deliverance from Syria." 

 The shooting of an arrow to determine a site was practised by the 

 Persians in Sassanian times. The Haji-abad inscription (Martin 

 Hang's " Introductory Essay on the Pahlavi Language " prefixed 

 to Dastur Hoshangji Jamaspji Asa's " Old Pahlavi — Pazand 

 Glossary," Bombay and London 1870) gives one instance. Again 

 Tabari the famous Persian historian (b. A.D. 839-d. A.D. 923) 

 tells us that when the Persian general Wahriz, the conqueror and 

 governor of Yemen, felt his death approaching, he called for his 

 bow and arrows, bade his retainers raise him up and shot an arrow 

 into the air, commanding those who stood by to mark where it fell 

 and to build a mausoleum for his body there. (Noldeke^s " Ges- 

 chichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden," Leyden, 

 1879, pp. 263-264). This story is also related by the Arabian 

 historian Dinawari (ed. Guirgass 1888, p. 66). The practice con- 

 tinued into Muhammadan times and was used by the Arabs as well 

 as the Persians as is shown by a passage in al-Baladhuri's Kitabu 

 futujii'l-buldan (ed. de Goeje, p. 276.) 



Evidently in this Kedah legend we meet another instance of 

 Malay indebtedness to Persian models, such as is seen in the in- 

 troduction to the Sejarah Melayu (Wilkinson's " Malay Literature " 

 I, p. 18) and in the introduction of the same type to the "Kedah 

 Annals." 



R. A. Soc, No. 82, 1920. 



