Lamuri site in Aceh: Observing a broken historical storyline

Hundreds of years ago, Arabs traded horses all the way to Tamil Nadu, in South India. They came from Hurmuz, Kis and Aden with ships full of horses and other merchandise. Kayalpattinam at that time was a large port city on the east coast of India. This is the famous Pandya port there.

The Pandyas were a powerful kingdom in Tamil Nadu in the 13th to early 14th centuries. Their domains ranged from Quilon on the Arabian Sea and along the Coromandel coast to Nilawar (Nellore) on the northern bank of the Pennars. However, the power of the King of Tamil Nadu was not confined to the mainland. He is also a sea lord, and actually controls countless sea fleets. Under the flag bearing the fish, the king's fleet could sail as far north, and his command was honored in Ceylon and other islands.

The Pandya dynasty greatly promoted trade with Arabia. When King Boochakravarthy chose the port of Kilakarai as his trading center, he asked some of the Arabs to settle there. Even before that, the Arabs had received the undivided attention of the Pandya kings.

Due to the sincerity of the Arabs' devotion to the Pandya kings, they were later appointed as royal officials. One of them was Malikul-Islam Jamaluddin, who was previously the emir in Qis (Kis), then became head of the merchants and importer of horses for the Pandya court. The Pandya king then handed over to him the reign of Kayalpattinam.

Raj Sundara Pandyan (Jatavarman Sundara Pandiyan II) was one of the Panca Pandya who reigned from 1276 to 1292. During his time, Malikul-Islam Jamaluddin was appointed ambassador for the Pandya kingdom in China. His diplomatic mission in 1286 was crowned with success. Because of this, the King then entrusted him to lead the conquest campaign of Ceylon. Jamaluddin's campaign succeeded in raising a fish flag in Ceylon.

Kayalpattinam now has many mosques. The majority of the Muslim population belong to the Shafi'i school of thought and follow the Qadiriyyah and Shaziliyyah sects. Most Muslims are matrilocal residents. And it's all the same thing as in Aceh, north of the island of Sumatra.

From a geographical standpoint, after passing through the island of Ceylon and crossing the Indian Ocean, the mainland of Aceh from the west to the northeast is the first land that sailors from South India will see.

But have the ships with the flag bearing the fish under the command of Malikul-Islam Jamaluddin arrived in this land?

At this point, history has been broken!

We only find traces dating back a century or so after that. The traces were left by those who have never known who. There are no historical documents that tell about them.

They seemed to leave and only left the graves with the tombstones. Only through the tombstones do we find their astonishing artistry as well as some information on characters and dates.

From their time to the present, history too has been broken. We found evidence of life dating from the 15th century in a hilly area near the Krueng Raya bay in Aceh, which is now known as the Lamuri site--an ancient name for which the evidence was found. But still it is a broken history. Like a broken historical tombstone!

Source:

• My original post on www.mapesaaceh.com.

• Kayalpatnam on en.wikipedia.org