Article

The founder of Malacca

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

The founder of Malacca

P. V. van Stein Callenfels published this article in 1937 as a corrective to Sir Richard Winstedt’s History of Malaya, arguing that Winstedt had overlooked a critical datum in the Portuguese sources that, when combined with the Javanese Pararaton, allows a more precise identification of the circumstances under which Parameshwara fled Java and founded Malacca around 1401.

Summary

Callenfels takes as his starting point the two earliest Portuguese accounts of Malacca’s founding: the 1557 narrative of d’Albuquerque’s son and de Barros’ 1553 version. While Winstedt had dismissed the Javanese ruler “Pararisa” of de Barros as the Majapahit emperor Bhra Hyang Wishesa (r. 1389–1428), Callenfels draws attention to a detail Winstedt missed: d’Albuquerque names Parameshwara’s father-in-law as “Bataratamurel,” which he identifies with the Bhatar Tumapel of Javanese history. This, combined with de Barros’ reference to a dynastic war as the cause of Parameshwara’s departure from Java, provides the key to dating the event.

The core of the argument rests on the Pararaton, the Javanese dynastic chronicle edited by Brandes in 1896. Callenfels reconstructs the succession crisis following the death of Hayam Wuruk in 1389: the emperor Bhra Hyang Wishesa (a son-in-law of Hayam Wuruk) clashed with Wirabhumi (Hayam Wuruk’s son by a concubine, who held eastern Java as a quasi-vassal kingdom). The Pararaton records that Bhre Tumapel and Bhra Parameshwara initially remained neutral, then intervened on Wishesa’s side, leading to Wirabhumi’s defeat and death in 1406. Callenfels demonstrates that the Bhra Parameshwara of the Pararaton—who married Dewi Suhita and died in 1446—cannot be the same person as the founder of Malacca, since the Ming Annals already record a chief “Paili-su-ra” (Parameshwara) at Malacca in 1403, before the final phase of the civil war.

He therefore concludes that the Parameshwara of Malacca was a different Javanese nobleman, probably of the imperial house, who left Java during the initial troubles of 1401, reached Singapore, murdered his host, and was driven out by the overlord of the murdered chief around 1402–1403. He then settled at the mouth of the Malacca river, where Chinese envoys found him in 1403 as a petty chief under Siamese suzerainty. A postscript adds that Gaspar Correa’s Lendas da India independently confirms both the Javanese origin of the founder and the pre-existence of a Proto-Malay fishing settlement at the site.

Key Findings

  • The Ming Annals record that in 1403 Malacca already existed as a Siamese tributary, its chief named “Paili-su-ra” (Parameshwara), but it was not yet an independent kingdom (p. 164).
  • The Pararaton dates the final war between Bhra Hyang Wishesa and Wirabhumi to the Saka year 1328 (A.D. 1406), in which Wirabhumi was killed and decapitated (p. 162).
  • The Ming Annals report that in 1405–1406 the two Javanese kings made war on each other; the eastern king was defeated and 170 of his followers were killed by Chinese imperial envoys present in the country (p. 163).
  • The Bhra Parameshwara of the Pararaton married Dewi Suhita (empress 1429–1447) and died in 1446, a full generation after the founding of Malacca, proving he is not the same individual as the Malaccan founder (p. 164).
  • The Sadeng insurrection of 1331, in which an earlier Bhre Tumapel played a role, is excluded as a possible trigger for Parameshwara’s flight because it would place a 69-year gap between his departure from Java and his settlement at Malacca (p. 165).
  • Gaspar Correa’s Lendas da India describes Malacca as a pre-existing village of “poor fishermen” who dried and salted fish, called “Malagas,” into which the Javanese fugitive settled and intermarried with the locals (p. 166).

Conclusion

Callenfels’ definitive takeaway is that de Barros’ version—a Javanese nobleman driven from Java by civil war—is nearest to historical truth, and that the specific war in question is the Majapahit succession conflict of 1401–1406. Parameshwara was almost certainly a Javanese nobleman of the imperial house (though a Sumatran origin cannot be entirely excluded) who married a Javanese princess, left Java around 1401, and established himself at a pre-existing Proto-Malay settlement on the Malacca river by 1403.

Context

  • The article draws on the Pararaton (Brandes edition, 1896), the Ming Annals (via Groeneveldt’s compilation), and the Portuguese sources of d’Albuquerque, de Barros, Diego de Couto, Gohinho de Eredia, and Gaspar Correa.
  • Historiographically, the piece represents a moment of close collaboration between Dutch-Indies and British-Malayan scholarship on early Javanese and Malay history, and it anticipates later refinements in the chronology of the late Majapahit period.

References