The nobat and the Orang Kalau of Perak
W. Linehan’s 1951 article examines the nobat—the royal musical ensemble of Perak—and its hereditary keepers, the orang kalau, arguing that they constitute a living remnant of a pre-Islamic Brahminical or Buddhist cult in which the musicians originally served as priests, rhapsodists, and genealogists. Drawing on the Malay Annals, the eighteenth-century Misa Melayu, earlier colonial-era accounts, and his own 1949 interviews with the band’s leaders, Linehan traces the institution from its legendary origins in ancient Malay courts to its diminished but still respected position in mid-twentieth-century Perak.
Summary
Linehan’s central argument is that the nobat and its attendant rituals represent a survival of an ancient religious cult that predates Islam in the Malay world. The nobat—comprising the negara (kettledrum), two gendang (drums), a silver nafiri (trumpet), and a serunai (clarionet)—was an essential possession of Malay royalty from the earliest periods, and a ruler could not be properly installed without the beat of the nobat. The Malay Annals record that the privilege was first conferred on Seri Benian of Bentan and subsequently extended to the founder of ancient Singapore, while the Misa Melayu documents its use in Perak for mourning, proclamation, and the conferral of sovereignty on subordinate rulers such as the Raja of Selangor.
The most significant interpretive contribution of the article is Linehan’s etymological argument that the man—the staves of tunes played on solemn occasions—derive from the Sanskrit mantra, meaning magical incantation. He supports this by noting that in Cham the word man (from Sanskrit mantra) specifically denotes a formula of incantation, and that the beman (the tax levied for the privilege of the man) is transparently bea-man, “the dues for the man.” In this reading, the man were originally intoned formulas recited to the accompaniment of the instruments; when Islam replaced the older religion, the verbal formulas were discarded but the instrumental accompaniment persisted. Similarly, the name orang kalau itself may derive from the Cham word kalau (Malay pulau, “island”), suggesting “Men of the Island(s),” or alternatively from the Malay galur (genealogy, pedigree), rendering them “men who have to do with the genealogies.”
Linehan also addresses the sacred character of the instruments, which Wilkinson described as “haunted” and associated with guardian spirits (jin kerajaan). Only the orang kalau may touch or play them; transgression risks death or disease through the power of the spirit within. The negara drum is identified as the most important instrument, a view corroborated by the Malay Annals (where it is the privilege most jealously withheld) and by a Kedah account. Linehan speculates that the negara and the large single-faced gendang raya signal drums of the Malay peninsula may be successors of great bronze-age drums, linking the nobat tradition to a deep prehistoric substrate.
Key Findings
- The Misa Melayu (p. 155) records 16 tunes for the Perak royal band: the original 8 “came out of the sea” and the other 8 were added by Perak.
- The orang kalau levy a tax of 25 cents per year on every Perak family (kelamin); the chief, the Dato’ Setia Guna, may fine any prince or chief who crosses the fowl-feather boundary around the instrument kiosk at $25 (p. 61).
- Wilkinson’s account specifies nine items in the nobat: four “haunted” instruments (the nobat-drum, the nafiri, and two negara kettledrums), four “unhaunted” instruments (two fifes and two drums), and the conductor as the ninth (p. 62).
- The gendang raya from Bachok, Kelantan (Perak Museum, Pk. Mus. 1/51) measures 57 cm in height with a 72 cm buffalo-hide face, made of merbau wood with rattan binding and painted magic designs including a human figure symbolising the drum’s guardian spirit (p. 67).
- The Malay Annals record that Sultan Muhammad Shah (fl. c. 1420s) prescribed specific instrument combinations for receiving envoys of different ranks: the full negara drum and white double-umbrella for Pasai (equal rank), only gendang and serunai with yellow umbrella for lesser senders (pp. 58–59).
- The band now numbers fourteen players, but only six instruments retain real significance, with the negara drum occupying the centre of the ensemble (p. 66).
Conclusion
Linehan concludes that the orang kalau and their nobat are the representatives of an ancient, well-nigh forgotten cult whose religion was a form of Brahminism or Buddhism. In pre-Islamic days they were priests, rhapsodists, and keepers of royal genealogies; today, though still respected—especially at a Sultan’s coronation—their former importance has “sadly dwindled.” The nobat thus stands as a material and performative link to the religious and political culture of the pre-Islamic Malay world.
Context
- Primary sources include the Malay Annals (Raffles No. 18 text, Winstedt edition, 1938), the Misa Melayu (18th-century Perak history), and oral interviews conducted in July 1949 with the orang kalau leadership, including the present headman Muhammad Hashim bin Chu and the pawang Haji Mat Drus bin Kechil.
- The article’s historiographical contribution lies in its etymological identification of man with mantra and its argument for a Brahminical-Buddhist origin for the nobat cult, building on and extending the earlier descriptive accounts of Winstedt (1929) and Wilkinson (1947).