Article

Evidence for the contemporary existence of two Kedah sites

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Evidence for the contemporary existence of two Kedah sites

Treloar and Fabris (1975) present a metallurgical and comparative argument that two Kedah temple sites excavated by H. G. Quaritch Wales—Site 8 (Candi Bukit Batu Pahat) and Site 10—were contemporary, belonging to the 12th–13th century AD rather than the 7th–9th century dates Wales originally assigned. Using x-ray fluorescence analysis of inscribed gold discs from both sites, they demonstrate the objects derive from a common workshop stock, and they conclude that the two shrines served a single mixed Hindu-Buddhist trading community at nearby Pengkalan Bujang.

Summary

The article takes issue with Quaritch Wales’s 1940 dating of his Kedah sites, which relied on stylistic parallels with South Indian temples and epigraphic analysis of foundation-deposit inscriptions. Wales had placed Site 10 in the 8th–9th century on the basis of six silver discs and a single gold disc, and Site 8 (CBBP) in the 7th or early 8th century from architectural and bronze-trident arguments. Treloar and Fabris had previously argued, on chemical and mineralogical grounds, that CBBP belongs to the 12th–13th century: the ritual copper objects in its deposit boxes closely match fragments from Lamb’s Pengkalan Bujang excavations (a site clearly of the 13th century by its Chinese pottery), and the mercury-rich gold linga and yoni point to a Sarawak cinnabar source attested in the 13th–14th centuries by a find at Santubong (pp. 70–71).

The new evidence here is a direct physical and chemical comparison of two small gold discs, each inscribed with the syllable om, one from the SW deposit box at CBBP and one from the Site 10 foundation deposit. Both are approximately 4 cm in diameter; x-ray fluorescence shows closely similar Au-Ag-Cu alloy compositions (86.60/11.05/2.36% versus 90.82/7.47/1.71%), with only trace silica and iron in each. The authors attribute the slight compositional difference to surface enrichment of the Site 10 disc, which was buried directly in soil and would have lost copper and silver to groundwater leaching over centuries (pp. 73–74). They dismiss the alternative that a fixed liturgical formula prescribed the alloy, noting that Site 10 fits a Mahayana Buddhist context while CBBP is Saivite, and argue instead that both discs were cut from a common stock by the same maker (pp. 74–75).

The broader implication is that the two-mile separation between the sites on the slopes of Kedah Peak is unremarkable for a trading entrepôt: a community with a substantial Indian base at Pengkalan Bujang would naturally maintain places of worship of multiple denominations simultaneously, making any simple “Buddhist period then Hindu period” sequence a gross oversimplification (p. 75).

Key Findings

  • The two gold discs are near-identical in diameter (4.05 ± 0.1 cm and 4.11 ± 0.1 cm) and closely similar in alloy composition, differing only in thickness (0.0061 cm vs. 0.0103 cm) and weight (0.957 g vs. 1.733 g) (Table 1, p. 77).
  • X-ray fluorescence yields: Site 8 disc = 86.60% Au, 11.05% Ag, 2.36% Cu; Site 10 disc = 90.82% Au, 7.47% Ag, 1.71% Cu, with trace silica and iron in both (p. 77).
  • The Site 10 disc was buried directly in soil; the CBBP disc was sealed inside a copper pot within a stone box, explaining the compositional drift via differential groundwater leaching (p. 74).
  • CBBP (Site 8) lies four miles from Pengkalan Bujang; Sites 8 and 10 are separated by only two miles around the slopes of Kedah Peak (pp. 71, 75).
  • A small piece of cinnabar (mercury sulphide) from the Santubong shrine in Sarawang, excavated by Harrisson and O’Connor, provides independent evidence for local knowledge of Sarawak mercury sources in the 13th–14th centuries (p. 71).
  • The earliest known record of mercury in ritual gold alloy is a 12th-century Indian alchemical text, supporting direct Indian influence on the ritual objects (p. 71).

Conclusion

Both Kedah sites are re-dated to the 12th–13th century AD, contemporary with the trading settlement at Pengkalan Bujang, and their coexistence reflects the religious pluralism expected of a mixed Indian-Chinese entrepôt community rather than a sequential Buddhist-then-Hindu occupation.

Context

  • The study draws on the excavation records of H. G. Quaritch Wales (1940) and A. Lamb (1960), with new x-ray fluorescence spectra obtained with the assistance of Mr. M. Haukka, Geology Department, Melbourne University; financial support came from the Australian Research Grants Committee (p. 75).
  • The article extends Treloar’s earlier 1968 argument (JMBRAS 41, p. 193) for a 12th–13th century date for CBBP by supplying the direct metallurgical link to Site 10, thereby challenging the foundational chronology of Wales’s 1940 Kedah report.

References