Gangga Negara is believed to be a lost semi-legendary

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

kingdom mentioned in the

Malay Annals The ''Malay Annals'' (Malay: ''Sejarah Melayu'', Jawi: سجاره ملايو), originally titled ''Sulalatus Salatin'' (''Genealogy of Kings''), is a literary work that gives a romanticised history of the origin, evolution and demise of the gr ...

that covered present day

Beruas Beruas (alternative spelling: Bruas) is a small town and mukim in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia. Name Beruas is named for a local mangosteen-like tree, '' Garcinia hombroniana'', the "seashore mangosteen", called in the local Malay diale ...

Dinding The Manjung District, formerly Dindings, is a district in the southwestern part of the state of Perak, Malaysia. The district is well known for Pangkor Island, an attraction in Perak and the home of the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM), Lumut Naval Ba ...

and

Manjung The Manjung District, formerly Dindings, is a district in the southwestern part of the state of Perak, Malaysia. The district is well known for Pangkor Island, an attraction in Perak and the home of the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM), Lumut Naval Ba ...

in the state of

Perak Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

with Raja Gangga Shah Johan as one of its kings. Researchers believe that the kingdom was centred at Beruas and it collapsed after an attack by King

Rajendra Chola I Rajendra Chola I (; Middle Tamil: Rājēntira Cōḻaṉ; Classical Sanskrit: Rājēndradēva Cōla; Old Malay: ''Raja Suran''; c. 971 CE – 1044 CE), often referred to as Rajendra the Great, and also known as Gangaikonda Chola (Middle Tami ...

Coromandel Coromandel may refer to: Places India *Coromandel Coast, India **Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements ** Dutch Coromandel *Coromandel, KGF, Karnataka, India New Zealand *Coromandel, New Zealand, a town on the Coromandel Peninsula *Coro ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, between 1025 and 1026. Another Malay annals Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa known as Kedah Annals, Gangga Negara may have been founded by

Merong Mahawangsa Merong Mahawangsa is a legendary warrior and a ruler who is said to be the first king of Langkasuka, or modern day Kedah. His tale is mentioned in the Kedah Annals, where it mentions him as a hero who became the first king of Langkasuka. The leg ...

's son Raja Ganji Sarjuna of

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area ...

, allegedly a descendant of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

or by the Khmer royalties no later than the 2nd century.

Origin

Gangga Negara means "a city on the Ganges" in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, the name derived from

Ganganagar Sri Ganganagar is a planned city and the northernmost city of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Rajasthan, near the international border of India and Pakistan. It is the administrative headquarters of Sri Ganganagar district. ...

in northwest India where the Kambuja peoples inhabited. The Kambujas are an Indo-Iranian clan of the Indo-European family, originally localised in Pamirs and Badakshan. Commonly known as Hindu traders, they built their colonies in Southeast Asia around 2,000 years ago at the Mekong valley and also at the Malay archipelago in

Funan Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...

Chenla Chenla or Zhenla (; km, ចេនឡា, ; vi, Chân Lạp) is the Chinese designation for the successor polity of the kingdom of Funan preceding the Khmer Empire that existed from around the late sixth to the early ninth century in Indoc ...

Champa Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd cen ...

, Khmer,

Angkor Angkor ( km, អង្គរ , 'Capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura ( km, យសោធរបុរៈ; sa, यशोधरपुर),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-Engl ...

Langkasuka Langkasuka was an ancient Hindu-Buddhist kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula. The name is Sanskrit in origin; it is thought to be a combination of ''langkha'' for "resplendent land" -'' sukkha'' for "bliss". The kingdom, along with Old Ke ...

Sailendra The Shailendra dynasty (, derived from Sanskrit combined words ''Śaila'' and ''Indra'', meaning "King of the Mountain", also spelled Sailendra, Syailendra or Selendra) was the name of a notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-century ...

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

, etc. Historians found the Kambuja traders travelled from Gujarat to Sri Lanka and then to Ligor (Nakhon Sri Thammarat) of the northern Malay peninsula, overland to Thailand and Cambodia.

Beruas

The first research into the Beruas kingdom was conducted by Colonel James Low in 1849 and a century later, by

H. G. Quaritch Wales Horace Geoffrey "H.G." Quaritch Wales (1900–1981) was educated at Charterhouse School, and Queens' College, Cambridge. He was an adviser to Rama VI and Rama VII of Siam from 1924 to 1928. He is the author of the study ''Siamese State Ceremonies' ...

. According to the Museum and Antiquities Department, both researchers agreed that the Gangga Negara kingdom existed between 100–1000 CE but could not ascertain the exact site. For years, villagers had unearthed artefacts believed to be from the ancient kingdoms, most of which are at present displayed at the

Beruas Museum The Beruas Museum ( ms, Muzium Beruas) is a museum in Beruas, Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia. The goal of the Beruas Museum is to collect history and artifacts related to the lost kingdom of Ganga Negara and Beruas. History In 1991, a histo ...

. Artefacts on display include a 128 kg cannon, swords, kris, coins, tin ingots, pottery from the Ming Dynasty and various eras, and large jars. They can be dated back to the 5th and 6th century. Through these artefacts, it has been postulated that Pengkalan (

Ipoh , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Ipoh in Perak , pushpin_map = #Malaysia#Asia#Earth , pushpin_mapsize = 275px , pushpin_map_caption = Ipoh in Malaysia , coordinates ...

Kinta Valley The Kinta Valley is a conurbation in central Perak, Malaysia, surrounding and including the state capital Ipoh. Historically the Kinta Valley was very rich in tin, and their mines have been among the most productive in the world. The valley is ...

Tanjung Rambutan Tanjung Rambutan ( Jawi: تنجوڠ رمبوتن; ) is a small town in Kinta District, Perak, Malaysia. It is on the Ipoh to Butterworth railway line, Tanjung Rambutan railway station. Ulu Kinta Mental Hospital The Ulu Kinta Mental Hospital or ...

Bidor Bidor (Chinese: 美羅) is a town and mukim in Batang Padang District, southern Perak, Malaysia. Geography Bidor is located 59 km southeast from state capital Ipoh and 116 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur. It is south of Tapah, north of ...

and

Sungai Siput Sungai Siput (U) ( Jawi: سوڠاي سيڤوت; Tamil: சுங்கை சீப்புட்) (English: Snail River) is a town and mukim in Kuala Kangsar District, Perak, Malaysia, covering 155.141 hectares, 61.5% of the total area of Ku ...

were part of the kingdom. Artifacts also suggest that the kingdom's centre might have shifted several times. Gangga Negara was renamed to Beruas after the establishment of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

there.

Beruas tree

The district of Beruas has found some royal Acehnese gravestones and this evidence has it linked to another historical source that a

Samudera Pasai The Samudera Pasai Sultanate (), also known as Samudera or Pasai or Samudera Darussalam or Pacem, was a Muslim harbour kingdom on the north coast of Sumatra from the 13th to the 16th centuries CE. The kingdom was believed to have been founded ...

prince from

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

named Malik rested at a ''

'' tree, this tree gave the area its name where it can still be found in the nearby villages of Pengkalan Baru and Batang Kubu.

Gallery

File:GanggaNegaraStatue001.jpg, A photo taken from the National History Museum of Kuala Lumpur. An 8th-9th century bronze standing 8-armed Buddhist Avalokitesvara statue found at Anglo Oriental,

, Perak tin mine in year 1936. 79cm height. File:GanggaNegaraStatue002.jpg, A 6th century Buddha statues (left) found at

Ipoh , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Ipoh in Perak , pushpin_map = #Malaysia#Asia#Earth , pushpin_mapsize = 275px , pushpin_map_caption = Ipoh in Malaysia , coordinates ...

. A 9th century

priest teacher statue (right) found at Jalong, Perak.

References

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External links