The early archaeology of Srivijaya

Changing circumstances in the history of the Ancient World during the 6th and 7th centuries CE brought about a steady increase of Asian maritime trade, to the detriment of the overland Silk Route. The reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties and the demise of the Persian long distance trade exerted a great impact on Southeast Asian's burgeoning kingdoms. A huge Chinese market opened with empty niches for Southeast Asian traders and their goods. Indian Ocean commodities in demand in China could be replaced by Indonesian resins and aromatics. Camphor, oleo-resins, and benzoin from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula soon became standard trade commodities alongside spices and pepper. Southeast Asian shippers, heirs to a mature technical tradition, had centuries-old skills in constructing large trading vessels which plied routes from China to India.

A variety of small kingdoms in Java and Sumatra, probably spearheads of intense commercial activities, sent a flurry of embassies to China. One of them must have been the Vaishnava settlement unearthed at Kota Kapur (Bangka). Malayu was another one: it was situated along the Batang Hari river, in Jambi province. After 670, however, the fever suddenly abated and only one kingdom which Chinese written sources identify as Shilifoshi was sending embassies. Chinese texts soon described this kingdom as one of the major trading operators of the South Seas.

Simultaneously, the name of this polity appeared in texts written by Chinese Buddhist monks. On their way to India to collect canonical texts needed to codify the Chinese practice of this religion, they travelled on Southeast Asian-owned ships, often stopping in Shilifoshi, sometimes remaining for years to learn Sanskrit, residing in a large religious community of local and Indian colleagues. The famous monk Yijing spent some ten years there between 671 and 695. He wrote about the city of Srivijaya, where "there are more than a thousand Buddhist priests whose minds are bent on study and good works; their rules and ceremonies are identical with those in India".

In 1918, George Coedès took the brilliant step of linking these foreign sources to a group of stone inscriptions, written in Old Malay language and in Pallava Indic script. These inscriptions, carved between 683 and 686, told of a polity named Śrīvijaya, for which Shilifoshi was a regular transcription. Most of these crucial records were found at Palembang, now capital of South Sumatra Province; others were recovered from the southern tip of Sumatra, the island of Bangka and the upper reaches of the Batang Hari. Palembang thus emerged as a centre of political power, epitomized by the text of the beautiful Sabokingking inscription (first read by J. de Casparis in the 1950s), enclosed by an arc of nearly identical texts. Meanwhile, explorers discovered Buddhist and Hindu statues scattered in Palembang and its vicinity. By combining the evidence of local inscriptions and statuary with evidence from foreign sources, Coedès concluded that the centre and birthplace of prosperous Srivijaya could only have been located at Palembang.

No recollection of the name Srivijaya existed in oral traditions from South Sumatra, or for that matter from anywhere in the Malay realm. However, chronicles compiled at Melaka a few hundred years after Srivijaya's demise in the late 13th century preserved memories of a nameless kingdom said to have prospered near Palembang and Seguntang Hill (a hill in Palembang which still holds supernatural significance for local residents). These stories functioned as origin-myths for the Malay people, but they fit so well into the topography of modern Palembang, and the recent archaeological and historical discoveries relating to Srivijaya, that it is difficult not to associate them with an actual historical process and with memories of the formative stages of a state such as Srivijaya, which grew prosperous by controlling the crossroads of the major sea-routes of ancient Asia.

For a long time, however, Palembang stubbornly refused to provide enough solid evidence to confirm that this site had played a major role in Asian history. Over the years, other sites, mainly on the isthmus of the Malay Peninsula, yielded enough archaeological vestiges (trade goods, inscriptions, statuary) to lay claim to the status of Srivijaya's capital. This situation nurtured vigorous scholarly debate.

It was only in the 1980's that archaeologists started unearthing substantial evidence of economic and religious activity in Palembang during the period of Srivijaya's prominence as attested in foreign sources (7th to 13th centuries). New inscriptions and statues were found during archaeological surveys and excavations, at times also during construction work in the city. For the earliest phase of Srivijaya, though, evidence other than inscriptions and statuary remains scarce. A few dates resulting from radiocarbon analysis of charcoal and wood samples recovered in the deepest layers of archaeological sites indicate that people had settled in Palembang sometime between the late 6th and the 9th centuries. Trade had also taken place there: remains of ships dating to the 6th-7th centuries were found, one of them at the foot of Seguntang Hill, all built with Southeast Asian techniques, thus clearly indicating local economic activities. For a variety of reasons, identification of confirmed archaeological sites of this early period in Palembang remains ambiguous: at this time the Chinese ceramics which serve so well as archaeological markers do not yet appear outside of China in significant numbers; their absence does not facilitate the work of archaeologists in a very disturbed environment: early sites on Bukit Seguntang are known to have been dug up over the past century and other probably early sites were destroyed in the eastern suburbs of Palembang when a modern fertilizer factory was built in the 1960s. Considering the fact that the modern city of Palembang, now over one million inhabitants, is steadily encroaching upon the few remaining surrounding areas where sites may still exist, archaeologists have little chance of ever uncovering a reasonably complete picture of this earliest phase of Srivijaya's development.

Research on the ecology of the Palembang area, however, brought to light evidence that proves that one of the principal exports of Srivijaya, the benzoin, grew in close vicinity to the capital city; and the latter’s growing population had no trouble feeding itself, as it lay not far from the sago forests along the delta of the Musi (the South Sumatran environment was never favourable to intensive rice growing).

Archaeological research carried out far upriver along the Musi and Batang Hari river basins brought to light new temples and related Buddhist statues dating from the 7th or 8th century, which appears to indicate that the occupation of these areas, and therefore the control of the flow of gold and forest products from the highlands was effective very early in Srivijaya’s history.

The Era of Raja Balaputradeva

Early Śrīvijaya, known by the Chinese as Shilifoshi, sent the last of a series of embassies to China in 742 CE. For the next hundred years, no clear indications of any activities by this kingdom have been found in South Sumatra. The kingdom, however, did not disappear. An inscription at Nakhon Si Thammarat, in the isthmian region of the Malay Peninsula, dated 775, mentions that several Buddhist sanctuaries were founded by a king of Srivijaya, whose daughter Tārā married a king of Java, member of the Śailendra family, and begot a younger son (Bālaputra). A Buddhist prince called Bālaputradeva was defeated in battle in Java around 832; he was probably the same person as the one mentioned in 775. Soon after this setback, the name Bālaputradeva appears again, this time in an inscription from Bengal, northeast India, which states that he ruled over Svarṇadvīpa, the "Island of Gold", a common Indian name for Sumatra, and that he had a sanctuary built in the famous Buddhist centre of Bengal, Nalanda. Thus, while the Hindu Sañjaya enforced their rule in Java at the expense of the Buddhist Śailendra, Bālaputradeva emerged in Sumatra as a Śailendra king ruling over Srivijaya.

Recent archaeological excavations at sites in western Palembang, south of Seguntang Hill, bring evidence of commercial activity during the 9th century, particularly trade with China. During the second half of the 9th century, precisely when Bālaputradeva appears in Sumatra, economic activity seems to have reached a new peak. Other excavations at the heart of modern Palembang brought to light a riverine settlement prominent during the 9th to 11th centuries, as evidenced by the large quantities of Chinese ceramics unearthed there.

The pinnacle of prosperity: the 10th century

We now enter the most prosperous period of Srivijaya's history, when the power and fame of the mahārāja of Srivijaya attained their greatest height. Arab merchants and Baghdad geographers always mention him among the powerful rulers that thrived upon the wealthiest maritime trade routes of the times. He is then said to rule over Kedah, on the Malay Peninsula, where contemporary archaeological sites have indeed been found. In 942, he also appears to have established domination over western Java. Conflicts with Java occur repeatedly during the 10th century, which most probably had to do with the control of the route to the spice islands of eastern Indonesia. The Chinese received numerous embassies from the Malay rulers of Sumatra, now using the term Sanfoqi to designate this restored Srivijaya.

Buddhism was still practiced in the Srivijaya kingdom. During this period, Buddhist temples were also built on behalf of the mahārāja of Srivijaya, in China and at Nalanda, in India. But recent archaeological research has also brought to light a complex of Hindu temples dedicated to the god Shiva, at Bumiayu, upriver from Palembang on the Lematang River. Construction of these temples began in the 10th century. A number of other sanctuaries, both Buddhist and Hindu, have been located along the valleys upstream from Palembang, as far as the foot of the Barisan mountain range.
This no doubt indicates that the political and economic centre at Palembang exerted a measure of influence over the whole vast Musi River Basin. This region yielded forest products (timber as well as oleo-resins) and alluvial gold. The Srivijaya rulers appear not to have satisfied themselves with simple entrepôt trade in the harbours of western Indonesia. They fed local products into the maritime network, from their own hinterland in south Sumatra, as well as from other regions of Sumatra, Malaysia, west Java, and probably Kalimantan. Recent 9th and 10th century shipwrecks found in the Java Sea, on the route between South Sumatra and Java, now provide a glimpse of the consignments being exported from Srivijaya, with vast quantities of Chinese ceramics forming the bulk of the payload.

Due to the paucity of written sources, the structure of the Srivijaya state is not well known. Srivijaya appears to have primarily a confederation of city-states, most of them harbours, with direct territorial control limited to the immediate environment of the ruler's abode; the control of the hinterland, by rule of force or by alliance, however, also appears to have been a prerequisite to the economic power it yielded. Srivijaya, furthermore, commanded an even vaster sphere of economic influence. The accumulated prestige and profits of an intricate web of kinship, religious and political ties to most of western Indonesia accrued to the centre as though drawn by a magnet. The repeated building of temples by Srivijayan rulers in more distant regions marked the limits of their sphere of commercial entreprise: in India, the transfer of sanctuaries from Nalanda to Negapatnam thus followed the 11th century shift of power from the Palas of Bengal in the northeast to the Colas in the south.

Srivijaya's decline and the rise of competitors at sea

This flourishing state of affairs, however, appears to have attracted the attention of rising neighbouring powers. Twice, in 1017 and 1025, fleets of the South India Chola kings raided the harbours under the control of Srivijaya in the Straits of Melaka and appear to have captured one king of Srivijaya, after which the Chola appear to have led an active role in Sumatran politics for the rest of the 11th century, and no doubt encouraged the increased presence of Tamil merchant guilds in the region. These guilds left behind inscriptions in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.

The Chinese used more peaceful means to extract a larger share of the profits generated by Indonesian commerce. Unified under the Song Dynasty in the 11th and 12th centuries, China concentrated much of her massive economic power on a robust maritime commercial expansion, building its first overseas merchant navy as it went and thus taking a far more active part in the South China Sea trade. This is also a time when Javanese influence appears to have increased in South Sumatra, to judge from the statues of East Javanese style associated with the 11th century additions to the temple complex at Tanah Abang.

Srivijaya's economic clout deteriorated under the blows received from both east and west, probably causing shifts in political authority. In the last quarter of the 11th century, the political centre moved from Palembang to Jambi. Within the new limitations, nevertheless, Srivijaya maintained a steady economic pace throughout the 12th century.

Srivijaya at Malayu-Jambi: Twilight of a maritime power

A kingdom called Malayu, probably situated in the area of modern Jambi, had made a brief appearance in Chinese sources in the mid-7th century CE; a few decades later this kingdom was probably absorbed by the expanding kingdom of Srivijaya, focused on Palembang. Malayu reappears in 1030-31 in a Chola inscription which contains a list of the ports in the Straits of Melaka raided by the South Indian fleet. A large stone makara found in Jambi, inscribed with the date corresponding to 1064 CE, was no doubt part of a large Javanese-style temple. This bears testimony to the reemergence of a significant power in Jambi, with a strong link to Java, in the 11th century.

However, the name San-fo-qi continued to be used by the Chinese to designate the Sumatran realm now centered at Jambi, perhaps indicating that the rulers there sought to reinforce their claims over the former allies of Palembang by seeking to cloak themselves with the prestigious mantle of Srivijaya. Jambi sent many ambassadors to China, another sign of an ambitious polity, and also succeeded in securing continued support from the Chola kings for a temple in South India established decades earlier, when Srivijaya dominated the region from its base in Palembang. In establishing an economically vibrant kingdom on the banks of the Batang Hari basin, the rulers exemplified the readiness of the maritime population to respond and adapt their activities to changing economic conditions.

Though much remains to be done before the archaeology of Jambi during this late Srivijaya period is understood, we can conclude that Jambi maintained its preeminence through the 12th and into the 13th century. Temples at the extensive complex of Muara Jambi were enlarged during this period, bearing testimony to the kingdom's prosperity. This Buddhist centre, now largely restored, comprises nine main brick temples and a multitude of smaller buildings distributed along a five kilometers long stretch of the Batang Hari's left bank. Candi Gumpung, among the largest of these, yielded a masterpiece of Indonesian sculpture. The East Javanese style of this statue depicting Prajñaparamita, the Buddhist deity of divine knowledge, attests the likelihood that close political and religious bonds with the kingdom of Singasari were established in the 12th century.

Large amounts of Chinese ceramics dating mainly from the 12th to the 14th centuries were found in Muara Jambi and other sites along the Batang Hari. One particularly important area is found halfway between Muara Jambi and the present coastline, at the junction of the Batang Hari and its tributary the Kumpeh, where large deposits of sherds, many of Chinese origin, are exposed along the river banks. Bricks of large dimensions mark the presence of an early building, probably a temple.

Other isolated sites are found upstream in the Batang Hari hinterland, where some Buddhist statuary has been discovered. Further north, along the Upper Kampar river, the small group of stupas at Muara Takus also testifies to the vigor of Buddhism in Sumatra at this time.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the old centre of Srivijaya at Palembang, although now a dependency of Malayu-Jambi, continued to perform a role as a trading port. Archaeological excavations at Palembang have yielded Chinese sherds from this period also.

As the 13th century began, however, forces of decay seem to have been at work in the realm of Srivijaya. Chinese sources tell us that the king of Srivijaya now had to use naval forces to coerce passing ships into his harbours, a possible sign of his diminishing appeal to traders and of the rise of competing ports. On the Malay Peninsula, the kingdom of Tambralinga now possessed sufficient independence to send its own fleets across the Bay of Bengal on two occasions to invade Sri Lanka. These ill fated expeditions crippled Tambralinga's power and paved the way for the southern expansion of the Thai kingdom of Sukhotai. The Chola of Southern India, possibly as a follow up of their military raids of the preceding century, also appear to have played an increasingly active role in the region. At Kota Kandis, not far from where the Batang Hari flows into the Straits of Melaka, a bronze statue of undeniable Southern Indian origin was unearthed. It dates back to the late 13th century and substantiates this close relationship of Malayu-Jambi with the Chola rulers. These would pave the way to the establishment of Indian merchant settlements in harbours along the Straits of Melaka.

The western half of Southeast Asia now enters a long period of complex political and economic relations between India, Sri Lanka and China, during which the regional power balance undergoes radical shifts. During the 13th century, as the Thai kingdoms enforced their authority over much of the Malay Peninsula, the East Javanese seized the opportunity offered by Srivijaya's waning control over sea routes to attain political ascendancy over Sumatra. King Kertanegara of Singasari sent an army to Malayu in 1263. Javanese statues began to appear in the upper Batang Hari, brings evidence of cultural and political hegemony. For reasons not yet fully understood, the ancient Malay centre of political power which had occupied a coastal position for centuries, now began to move inland to the Minangkabau highlands, heralding Srivijaya's final demise.