whom they called Raksasa. It has been suggested that the latter were the mountain-people in the Pasemah country, who were clearly 'Indonesian' in civilzation. Who then were the former? The whole story of Indianization, where it can be traced with certainty, is one of acceptance by 'Indonesians' of the Indian civilization. We find a continuance of pre-Hindu 'Indonesian' beliefs during the period of Indianization and even vestiges of them existing to this very day, as Sir Richard Winstedt has emphasized so aptly.28 He draws attention to the shamanism of 'Indonesian' peoples and the way in which ideas connected with the 'Indonesian' magician ruler are still to be found in Malay and Minangkabau conceptions of royalty. The present Batak region in Sumatra is contained within the parallels of 4oN and 1o50'N. The point of ingress into it is Tapanuli Bay and, if Indian penetration into Sumatra came from the west coast of the island, this bay, which is the first fully sheltered anchorage to be reached from India, can be assumed to have been the earliest point of penetration. Lake Toba, the heartland of the Bataks, lies to the north-east of this bay with the Karo Mountains immediately to the north of the lake. The other most important Batak region, the district of Padang Lawas, lies parallel with Tapanuli Bay but much further inland to the east. The Batak country continues in the south to the regions of the Natal tribes and the Great and Little Mandating tribes, all of whom have been influenced very much by the Minangkabau to their south. We have no means of knowing exactly what the ancestors of the Bataks were like, but they would appear to have been 'Indonesians' who received Indianization, and so to have followed the general pattern. When the Bataks were conquered by the Dutch in 1907, they were headed by a divine chieftain known as the Singa Maharadja, who appears to have held no temporal power but to have been a master priest or magician king.29 The similarity between the houses of the Toba Bataks and those depicted upon a Dong-s'on drum has been remarked, together with the same resemblance in the case of Minangkabau houses.30 Professor Cole says in regard to Batak religious beliefs, "Direct questioning usually leads to high beings bearing Sanskrit names. They are considered powerful and enough interested in human affairs to appear at times in the ceremonies or sacrifices, but in general they are remote from everyday affairs. Among them is a creator, a trinity, and a lesser group classed together under the term debata": 31 and of these last one is the Demon Huntsman, who is known to the Proto- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 28 The Malays (London, 1950); The Malay Magician (London, 1951). 29 Fay-Cooper Cole, The peoples of Malaysia (New York, 1945), pp. 271-74. 30 Winstedt, The Malays, p. 162. 31 Cole, op. cit., pp. 274-75. |