The name “Malaya”
C.O. Blagden’s short note examines the earliest recorded use of the name “Malayu” and its geographical referent, drawing primarily on the 7th-century writings of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I Tsing.
Summary
Blagden argues that I Tsing’s references to the Mo-lo-yu country, recorded during his visit to the Malay Archipelago in A.D. 671–2, place the name in a specific territorial context: a region in central Sumatra, immediately west or north-west of Sri Bhoja (Palembang), situated approximately on the Equator and with a coastline on the Straits opposite modern Malacca (p. 212). The language of this country was the Malay lingua franca of the Archipelago, known to Chinese authors as the “K’un-lun” language, a term derived from Pulau Condor and extended loosely to the islands generally (p. 212).
Blagden concludes that in I Tsing’s time the Malay country par excellence was in central Sumatra, a fact he notes agrees with native Malay tradition deriving the origin of many Peninsular Malays from the old Central Sumatran state of Menangkabau. He adds that I Tsing’s account, while throwing no new light on the etymology of Malayu, confirms that the word carried a local significance denoting the particular region from which a large part of the Malays of the modern Tanah Melayu trace their origin (p. 213).