none of them could have sailed against the wind. The Periplus, the Chinese records and the Arab ones show that they used only the favouring monsoons and land breezes. We know, fortunately, what an Indian commercial ship of the second century A.D. looked like, since it is depicted upon the coins of the Andhra King, Yajna Satakarni, c. A.D. 170-199. She is roomy and round-hulled with two tall masts carrying large, square sails suspended from a yard at the top of the mast, and could not have sailed against the wind. The same type of ship appears on Pallava coins some centuries later, but no sails are shown on these. 21 The Malabar coast was the scene of a most active sea-trade during the early centuries of the Christian era and was more handy for sailing down to the west coast of Sumatra than was the Coromandel coast. The voyage by the outer route in the open sea westward of the islands, though requiring navigational care, was suitable for the coastal voyaging which the ancient seamen preferred. The little port of Sibolga lies in a cove at the north-eastern end of Tapanuli Bay, where there is the best and most sheltered anchorage north of Padang. Tanjong Batu Buro, at the northern entrance to the Bay, is a mark of considerable height, and Lake Toba, the heart of the Batak country, lies behind the Bay with easy land passage to it from Sibolga. Padang possesses in its Road the best and most sheltered anchorage on the west coast, marked by Mount Talkang, 8,520 ft. high, and Padang Hill, 1,056 ft. It would have been an excellent anchorage for the ancient Indian ships, though not suitable for modern needs. There is easy access by land from Padang into the Padang highlands and to Bukit Tinggi (Fort de Kock), the real cradle of the Minangkabau people. Upon a priori reasoning, therefore, Sibolga and Padang would be the points from which Indian intrusion into Sumatra came, and the Malabar coast would be the place from which the intruders sailed. The Minangkabau have a general tradition that their parent stock came from South India and landed up on the west coast of Sumatra, and they have a system of mother-right which is foreign to Malay life in general and suggests outside influence from a people such as the matriarchal Nairs of the Malabar coast. Turning now to the description of Malayadvipa, it should be noted first that Agastya was the patron saint of Tamil civilization.22 His name is preserved in that of the mountain which Kalidasa called Agastakuta and which is known today as Agastya Malai. This is the ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 21 For reproductions of these Andhra and Pallava ships see Schoff, op. cit., p. 244. 22 See K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, "Agastya", Tijdschrift voor Indiiche Taal-etc. (Batavia, 1936), vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 471-545 and A History of South India (Oxford, 1955), pp. 66-74. |