A note on the Makara balustrade at Malacca
This note by Piriya Krairiksh examines the makara balustrade found at Malacca, discussing its stylistic affinities, probable date, and implications for the pre-Parameswara history of the site (p. 96).
Summary
Krairiksh traces the balustrade’s provenance to St. Paul’s Hill, where Lunet de Lajonquière reported it in 1907–08, and argues that it likely derives from a temple that predated the founding of Malacca around A.D. 1400–01, having fallen into ruin before the Portuguese arrival (p. 96). He describes the balustrade’s features in detail: a makara head with slant eyes, leaf-shaped ears, ram’s horns, upward-pointing tusks, and an elephant’s trunk ornamented with foliage, from whose open mouth issues a standing male figure with one leg raised, wearing a tall conical crown and large round earrings (p. 96).
Stylistically, Krairiksh positions the Malacca makara as a transitory type between the Central Javanese variety (eighth–tenth century) and the Sumatran examples from Solok (c. 1064) and Padang Lawas (eleventh–thirteenth century), noting its shared features with both groups (pp. 96–97). The dancing figure within the jaw is compared to a similar figure at Batu Lintang, South Kedah, with which it shares stocky physique, muscular build, and workmanship, suggesting local production (p. 97). Krairiksh dates the balustrade to the eleventh century A.D., supported by the figure’s pose, which parallels early Chola dance movements depicted at Tanjavur (pp. 97–98). He concludes that the balustrade may represent a solitary remnant of an early settlement on St. Paul’s Hill that flourished and disappeared within the same broad timeframe as the Merbok Estuary settlements, leaving no trace by the fifteenth century (p. 98).