168 
A TRANSLATION OF THE KEDDAH ANNALS. 
participation in the sin. But if the colony was a Sivaic one as I 
ieel convinced was the case there can be no difficulty in the case. 
The name here given to this first Raja —that is the first who was 
regula-rly installed, partakes more of a religious than of a lay 
character. Podi-sat is properly Buddha Satwa. 
I cannot find any Malay of this coast able to explain why the 
name of Kedda was given to their countiy. One author states it 
to be equivalent to zarnio tauran or toran—which he says was 
applied, because the conntry had been easily obtained. Zamtu 
being “ land, country, in Persian, and tor in Arabic —a mountain, 
we would have the mountain region/' Torani in the latter lan¬ 
guage means (t wild, desolate” which would give “ the wild country,” 
or one in a state of nature—and either of these interpretations will 
apply, since it would rather seem that the coast line at Pulo Srai 
was not then cultivated, the aboriginal inhabitants living some way 
inland, owing perhaps to its having been not long before that 
period, an island. Kedda “ is in Persian, a place, vault &c, 
and in Arabic “ a cup or bowl.” Some Malays affirm that the 
name was given subsequently to the conversion of their ancestors 
to Islamism which is the most probable supposition, I think, since 
I consider M&h&wangsa a native of India. 
But the people of Kedd& still call the Kedda peak Gunonq 
Jerai, a corruption of Srai—which is the appellative given to it 
by the Siamese. Cbrai is another mode of spelling it. As the word 
is written in the Malayan character it might be read Sri, greet 
excellent, superior &c. but the natives never pronounce it thus. 
Chapter IV. 
Then Marong M&hawangsa, said to his son the Raj&—“My 
son, should you be blessed with children, it will be as well that 
you send a son to the north north west of Kedda, and another 
to the S. S. E. or nearly so, of Kedda, and a third to the E. 
N. E. And do not you, my son, leave this country of Keddd, 
because there is a great extent of waste land still remaining 
to be cultivated, and a great deal has also been left dry by the 
sea, and besides, by so doing you will make my name famous 
throughout the world, as the settler and founder of this coun¬ 
try.” Then the large jar was brought on shore from the 
Envoy's ship, and it was placed close to the foot of a tree 
named Prokam ( T ) which was of the girth of a deer net, or 
gooling aring. The old Raja said nothing when the people 
reported that the jar had been thus placed, for he was busy 
( T ) Carissa spinarum, flacouriia calaphra$ta. Marsden’s Dictionary p. 
153. It is a thorny tiee. 
