National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

gives صموطره Šumuṭrah (var. صموطره Šumuṭrah). As the name of the whole island, Šumuṭrah
occurs in Ibn Maǧid (1462 and 1490) and in Sidi 'Ali Čelebi (1554); cf. Fe, 734, and JA, 1917, I,
334-335. In 1595, the Āin-i-Akbarī have the abnormal spelling سامطرای sāmatrāī or sāmutrāī, « of
Sāmatrā (or Sāmutrā ?) »; cf. Hobson-Jobson², 867; Fe, 545.
The first dated native mention is in the form « Samudra », a state named along with « Lamuri »
in the Nāgarakrētāgama of 1365 (cf. Fe, 652).
A king of San-fo-ch'i (Palembang-Jambi) who sent an embassy to China in 1017 is called
霞逸麻勿陀蒲迷 Hsia-ch'ih-su-mu-ch'a-p'u-mi, which FERRAND restored first into Haji
Sumuṭabhūmi = Haji Sumutrabhūmi, and, later on, into Haji Sumatrabhūmi, interpreting it as
« King of the Land of Sumatra ». This shows, according to FERRAND, that, already in 1017, when
there was no question of the state of « Samudra » east of Achin, the name « Sumatra » was used as
a designation of the whole island (JA, 1917, I, 331-335; 1919, I, 277-278; 1922, II, 19-20). But
勿 wu is *miuot; in spite of all of FERRAND's later argumentation, the normal restitution is Haji
Sumuṭabhūmi, or, with the cerebral value of Malay dentals, Haji Sumutrabhūmi. There is still
nevertheless a certain element of uncertainty, as we have here to accept p'u with its old value as
beginning with an aspirate sonant b'-, while the same character p'u, in 1225, represents, according
to FERRAND, the Indonesian title pu or mpu, Čam pō, and, if so, would seem to be then used, as it
was a little later under the Mongol dynasty, to represent a surd initial (cf. JA, 1922, II, 9; but the
same p'u transcribes bu in other names of the same work).
Granting the near certainty of FERRAND's restoration of the title as Haji Sumutrabhūmi, his
conclusion that it implies the use of the name of Sumatra or Sumatra as a designation of the whole
island of Sumatra does not necessarily follow. The current opinion is that Sumutra, Sumatra,
represents etymologically Skr. samudra, « ocean ». Starting from that etymology, ROUFFAER
proposed to see in the king of 1017 a king of Tumasik or Tĕmasik, i. e. Singapore, as Tĕmasik
or Tumasik is an infixed form of Malay tasik, « sea » (cf. Bijdragen... van Ned.-Indië, Vol. 77 [1921],
75; Fe, JA, 1922, II, 19-20). I am not prepared to accept ROUFFAER's view. A king of San-fo-ch'i
must be a king of San-fo-ch'i (Palembang-Jambi), not of Singapore. But it is enough that the
suzerainty of that king should extend, or claim to extend, over the whole island and a great part of
the Malay Peninsula to permit him to take the high-sounding title of « King of the Ocean Lands »;
the title does not necessarily imply a general name for the island of Sumatra, nor has it anything to
do with the particular state of « Sumatra » in the north-western part of the island (but cf. « Samu-
dradvīpa » in a Skr. text not later than the 11th cent., quoted by S. LÉVI in JA, 1918, I, 85).
It is true that FERRAND denies any connection between Skr. samudra and the name of the king-
dom or of the island of « Sumatra ». His reasons are that all islands being in the ocean, « ocean »
cannot become the specific name of any of them, and also that all Chinese transcriptions show su
for the first syllable and ma for the second (JA, 1919, I, 278; 1922, II, 19-20). But he does not
offer any explanation of « Sumatra ». CŒDÈS has already refuted the first argument (BEFEO,
XXIII, 469-470). As to the second, FERRAND forgets that the Chinese transcriptions are not alone,
and that, for a kingdom in Malay territory, the form Samudra of the Nāgarakrētāgama of 1365
cannot be tacitly thrown overboard. Moreover, in the West, we seem to find an -a- in the first
syllable in Conti, in Fra Mauro and in Girolamo da Santo Stefano, and we have it certainly in the
15.