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ABSTRACT
This article examines two objects of Malay royal regalia: the Perak betel-box known as the puan naga taru and the Riau emblem known as the cogan. Drawing on Hobsbawm and Ranger’s articulation of ‘invented tradition’, and on Amoroso’s of ‘traditionalism’ with reference to Malay kingship, detailed comparison of the textual and material records is adduced to argue that the physical objects themselves are likely to be much younger than the traditions underlying them. Colonial officials who documented regalia objects and collected information about them were also implicated in the traditionalising process. Nineteenth-century beliefs and practices about the potency of royal regalia are contrasted with those current in the present day, where the regalia objects are more desacralised than ever before.
ABSTRAK
Artikel ini mengkaji dua alat kebesaran diraja Melayu: sebuah bekas sirih negeri Perak yang dikenali sebagai puan naga taru dan sejenis lambang negeri Riau yang dikenali sebagai cogan. Berdasarkan penjelasan Hobsbawm dan Ranger tentang ‘tradisi ciptaan’ (‘invented tradition’), dan pada konsep ‘tradisionalisme’ (‘tradisionalism’) yang dianjurkan oleh Amoroso berkenaan kerajaan Melayu, perbandingan terperinci rekod-rekod teks dan kebendaan dikemukakan untuk berhujah bahawa objek-objek fizikal ini mungkin jauh lebih muda daripada tradisi yang mendasari mereka. Pegawai-pegawai kolonial yang mendokumentasikan alat-alat kebesaran dan mengumpul maklumat mengenainya turut terlibat dalam proses tradisionalisasi ini. Kepercayaan dan amalan abad kesembilan belas tentang kuasa alat-alat kebesaran diraja dibandingkan dengan yang ada pada masa kini, di mana alat-alat kebesaran ini semakin dianggap sebagai tidak sakral lagi.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 ‘I learnt this from H.H. the late Sultan himself, and here record it, because it has sometimes been asserted that H.H. the Sultan claimed to have slain these ninety-nine men with his own hand, which H.H. assured me was not the case’ Skeat (Citation1900: 40–42).
2 As noted on the official palace website : ‘The Yogyakarta sultanate’s collection of carriages shows that the Yogyakarta Sultanate was engaged in global relations, following trends that were developing in Europe at that time’ (Koleksi kereta kasultanan Yogyakarta menunjukkan bahwa Kasultanan Yogyakarta terlibat dalam pergaulan global, mengikuti tren yang berkembang di Eropah pada masanya). <https://www.kratonjogja.id/kagungan-dalem/5-kereta-kereta-pusaka-keraton-yogyakarta/>
3 See photograph of Sultan Idris, Raja Chulan, and Hugh Clifford, outside Westminster Abbey, on the occasion of King Edward VII’s coronation. V&A Museum Collection. <https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O53206/national-photographic-record-and-survey-photograph-stone-benjamin-sir/>
4 This is unfortunately beyond the scope of this article. However, I am grateful to IMW’s anonymous reviewer for the very pertinent observation that perhaps the only set of regalia that can be claimed to be fully desacralised is that created for the very recent tradition of the office of Yang Dipertuan Agong, established by the Constitution of 1957.
6 One set of the electrotypes are now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. <https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O470914/betel-box-elkington--co/> After some items were burgled from the Raffles Museum, new reproductions were produced by Elkington & Co.
7 As Gallop (Citation2013a: 145) notes with respect to the name of the Perak seal, ‘there is a worrying circularity to their [Wilkinson and Winstedt’s] treatment of the name of the sacred piece of wood . . . all the variant names of the seal encountered in the different recensions of the Sulalat al-Salatin were probably simply different scribal corruptions of the original Minangkabau kamat/gamat, until a consensus emerged around the name kempa, which already conveyed the meaning of a pressing or sealing implement. But as can be seen from the accounts by Wilkinson and Winstedt above, the terms kamat, gamat, kampit and gempita are used almost interchangeably, and thus we find in his dictionary that Winstedt (Citation1959: 90) explains gamat with kamat, kampit, gempita, and under kempa he equates cap kempa with cap gempita (Winstedt Citation1959: 152). In his great Jawi dictionary of 1903, Wilkinson (rather hopefully) derives kempa from the Persian for ‘a seal of state’ (Wilkinson Citation1985: 534), but this word is in fact unknown in Persian’.
8 Something similar is suggested in the case of the Balinese kris studied by Lene Pedersen (Citation2008: 214–237), which is alleged to be Majapahit and is mentioned in Balinese historical sources, but where there is no way of establishing the correlation between the name and the object.
9 The Pahang cogan appears to have been made in the 20th century, and to be derived from the Riau one.
10 In Hikayat Iskandar Dhu’l Qarnayn, it seems to be a metal weapon: ‘Maka ujar rakannya itu, “Berapakah ada senjata yang hendak kau tikamkan akan Raja Iskandar itu.” Maka dikeluarkannya suatu cogan, tiga penjuru matanya tajam,” 312:21). In the Bustan al-Salatin, parts of which are from 17th-century Aceh, the cogan again appears to be a metal object (‘daripada cogan emas yang beralam keemasan, dan beberapa daripada cogan suasa yang beralamkan zarzari dan makhmal,’ BS.R 2/13:241). In Hikayat Seri Rama, it may be a sort of flag or banner, since it is listed after pennants made from gold-embossed silk (‘beberapa-beberapa panji-panji daripada sutera dewangga yang keemasan dan beberapa coghan’, 673:11). All the references in this note are derived from the Malay Concordance Project (MCP, <https://mcp.anu.edu.au>), and use the referencing system described for each text on that website.
11 See for example Emperor Akbar II’s procession pictured in the British Library, BL Add Or 888. <http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/addorimss/a/019addor0005475u00059ve0.html> For a brief overview of Persian influences in insular Southeast Asia see R. Michael Feener and Chiara Formichi (Citation2015: 6–8).
12 For example: Salasilah Melayu dan Bugis (Riau, 1865), Syair Raja Damsyik (Riau, 1864), Hikayat Johor serta Pahang (Johor, 1917). A large number of uses come from Hikayat Hang Tuah, which is very widespread but has obvious affiliations with the Johor-Riau-Melaka region. See cogan on <mcp.anu.edu.au>
13 ‘terdirilah cogan alam, alamat raja-raja berangkat berarak yakninya cogan itu bendera besar’, 54:1, MCP.
14 For example, ‘Ada cogan Engku Puteri Raja Hamidah di Museum Linggam Cahaya,’ Batam Pos, 7 July 2018 and Aswandi Syahri and Raja Murad (Citation2006). I thank Jan van der Putten for providing me with a copy of the latter publication.
15 It is not mentioned, for example, in the description of the seizure of the regalia in Raja Ali Haji’s Tuhfat al-Nafis (Matheson and Citation1982: 328).
16 ‘. . . as a proof of his [Sultan Mahmud’s] attachment and intention that Tuankoo Houssain should succeed to the crown, the Sulthaun caused him to hoist the royal standard, he himself displaying the white flag which is emblematical of a retirement from the cares and anxieties of empire. He further invested him with the grand seal of the empire, termed in Malay, “Chap de Rajah” which seal Tuankoo Houssain uses to this day’, P.J. Begbie (Citation1834: 73).
17 ‘segala negeri yang di dalam daerah tanah Melayu,’ see Appendix for full text and translation.
18 ‘yang mempunyai tahta kerajaan negeri Johor dan Pahang serta daerah takluknya,’ British Library MSS Eur.F.148/4, f. 105.
19 ‘dari hal hal asal usul Melayu dan tanah-tanah Melayu’, 364:10, via MCP. Anthony Reid (Citation2001: 304) similarly notes that ‘tanah Melayu’ may be influenced by English usage.
20 ‘gebermen Holanda sudah muafakat perbahagian tanah di bawah angin antara Sultan Husain dengan Sultan Abd al-Rahman, iaitu masing-masing ada perbatasannya, iaitu mana-mana pihak tanah Melayu orang-orang kulit hitam di kanan kapal anjiman pergi ke negeri Cina, iaitu hak bahagian gebermen Holanda dan mana-mana yang sebelah kirinya hak bahagian gebermen’ via MCP.
21 ‘istana kuning cara Olanda’, LUB Klinkert 138, ff. 100, 11.
22 ‘Cogan alamat ada terdiri / Batang bertatah intan baiduri’ (Syair Raja Damsyik, 1390c). See MCP. It should be noted that the text is a fictional work about the Raja of Damascus, and that practically everything in such texts is jewel-encrusted.
23 They did manage to bring the nobat instruments, a set manufactured during the period of Dutch control, to Singapore. This then passed to the Terengganu court in 1917. See Raja Iskandar ( Citation2022: 49).
24 ‘dipetjat Belanda’, quoted in Matheson (Citation1986: 37–38).
25 Perak regalia <http://sembangkuala.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/the-perak-regalia-2/> Comment by Raja Zarith, 16 December 2009.
28 See for instance <https://www.astroawani.com/foto-malaysia/pertabalan-dymm-paduka-seri-sultan-perak-xxxv-2371/berkenan-berangkat-4-26318>
29 ‘Banyak aksesori sultan perak ni’ Din Dang30, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq3PtaiaYak>
30 For wider analysis of the neo-sultanate movement in Riau, see Alan Darmawan [Citation2024, article in this issue], and his doctoral dissertation (Darmawan Citation2021).
31 Pers. comm., Alan Darmawan, 19 September 2019.
33 Muzium Alat Kebesaran Diraja <http://www.museums.gov.bn/Bangunan%20dan%20Galeri/Muzium%20Alat%20Kebesaran%20Diraja.aspx>
34 With thanks to Jessica Rahardjo for invaluable assistance with deciphering and translating the Arabic. Arabic text and translation are italicised in the transcription.
35 Redundant yā in the inscription.
36 See L. Massignon (Citation2012).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mulaika Hijjas
Mulaika Hijjas is Senior Lecturer in South East Asian Studies at SOAS University of London. She is the principal investigator for the Leverhulme Research Leadership Award 'Mapping Sumatra's Manuscript Cultures', which is investigating manuscript libraries in Palembang, Aceh and Minangkabau. Email: [email protected].