BACK IN 2022, we and a team from Gerila Sejarah Pulau Pinang (GSPP) decided to further explore the history of the Malay community in Penang by directing our attention to several historical areas on the mainland, or what we call “seberang”. The area around Sungai Dua has been known for important historical anecdotes concerning the 1700s to the 1800s; it was there that Malays, led by Tunku Sulaiman, the son of Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah of Kedah (r.1778-1797) coordinated many interactions among various Malay sultanates, Siam and the British.

The Tunku’s settlement at Kampung Kota (Permatang Pauh) was where his administration as the Raja of Perai, Karangan and Kulim—appointed during the rule of Sultan Dhiauddin Mukarram Shah II of Kedah (r.1797-1803)—was based. Remnants such as the “tanah raja” royal grant land at Kampung Seberang Terus inherited by his relatives, the royal “Nisan Aceh” gravestones from that period, and the graves of Tunku Sulaiman himself and his relatives at Kampung Kota, are still there. However, not many realise the significance of the surrounding hills. These overlooked and guarded what was then the southern most outpost of the Kedah Sultanate.

Most important of these were Bukit Kota (or Bukit Jelutong) and Bukit Indera Muda, situated several hundred metres south of the settlement. These acted as geographical barriers and watch posts, especially against the Siamese upriver and the British troops downriver. They provided the area with general security, connecting it along traditional riverine routes with Teluk Ayer Tawar, another site of power during the Kedah-Siam War (1821-1842); it is situated at the estuary of Sungai Perai, with the Sungai Muda political nexus branching through Sungai Kerih at Kampung Lembah Raja.

Our initial exploration at Bukit Guar Ipoh found remnants of granite mining from the colonial period. Located at the hill section toward the west, the find may be linked to the mineral origin for the Nisan Aceh gravestones we found earlier.

We were even more delighted to discover more historical artifacts scattered across Bukit Kota and Bukit Indera Muda. Local villagers informed us that Bukit Kota still has remnants of Tunku Sulaiman’s fortification, albeit that they have largely weathered away—the materials used for the palisade were wood and bamboo.

Seats Of Power

Political centres of early kingdoms in the region were often located on hills overlooking estuaries. This was both a strategic and symbolic choice—consider Palembang, Singapore and Melaka. The combination of maritime access and elevation projected both worldly authority and a sense of cosmic alignment.

As explained by John N. Miksic in his doctoral dissertation, Archaeology, Trade, and Society in Northeast Sumatra (1979), similar patterns are found across the region, including in Kedah and West Sumatra. This suggests a shared cultural logic where high ground easily served as a marker of legitimacy and stability for a seafaring civilisation.

This was not a rigid model, and people in the archipelago adapted this principle to local geography and changing political needs. But while places like Bukit Kota and Bukit Indera Muda may differ in landscape from Melaka or Palembang, they carried the same symbolic reasoning. Elevated ground anchored political presence and cultural identity. This practice may reflect Malayo-Polynesian notions of associating hills with ancestral authority and continuity.

Indera Muda: Traces of an Older Political Order

Until 2024, we explored Bukit Indera Muda in several surveys with the cooperation of Kampung Kepala Bukit villagers. We had discovered remains of the old settlement which, based on old Muslim graves from the early to the mid-1800s, confirmed the connection with Kampung Kota. In 1869, Siam granted British Penang the remaining Kedahan territories on the mainland supposedly owned by Tunku Sulaiman, which lay to the east of Kampung Kota and its two initial boundary markers, Bukit Kota and Bukit Indera Muda.

Since then, the role of Kampung Kota and its surroundings as an autonomous fief of a Kedahan prince—which had always appeared as “Tunku Sulaiman’s Residence” in British colonial maps from as early as 1820s—gradually dwindled to vanish totally from cartography records by the 1890s.

The Sumatran Connection

More interestingly, the existence of an early settlement at Bukit Indera Muda may actually have predated Tunku Sulaiman. The hill named “Indera Muda” is believed to be related to another leadership present in the area led by a nobility vested by the Kedah Sultanate before the 1800s with administering or developing authority. The name Datuk Indera Muda was a well-known name adopted by a class of Batu Baran nobility from northern Sumatra (Melayu Batu Bara). Many of them such as Datuk Jenaton (or Jannatun) were responsible for early settlements in Penang.

He settled in the Batu Uban area around 1749, and was known as Datuk Indera Muda of Batu Bara before abdicating in favour of his son, Datuk Indera Muda Datuk Pambasar Baramban, whose position was later inherited by his grandson, Datuk Indera Muda Hussin. Upon visiting the court of Kedah after defending Penang against marauding pirates, Datuk Jenaton was granted 40.47ha of land stretching from Batu Uban to Gelugor by Sultan Muhammad Jiwa (r.1710–1778). Similar grants were vested at around the same period by Kedah to Nakhoda Nan Intan and Nakhoda Kechil who were based around Tanjung Penaga (George Town and its vicinity). They were of Minangkabau descent, and from Batu Bara.

A letter sent to Francis Light by a certain Datuk Raja Lela Muda, a Kedahan noble administering the lower reaches of Sungai Perai, substantiates the Batu Baran connection. According to an official seal found in another corresponding letter, he was indeed the father of a certain Seri Pekerma Wangsa Datuk Kaya Batuah of Batu Bara. There is therefore a possible relation to the Datuk Jenaton family or the Sumatran political network in Penang and Seberang Perai. The letter, although undated, may be assigned to the period Light was in charge in Penang, i.e. between 1786 and his death in 1797.

Trade, Pepper and Politics

These Batu Barans were known as merchants active especially in handling pepper—it is not by chance that pepper plantations were recorded around hilly lands around Bukit Indera Muda (stretching all the way to the Bukit Mertajam area). As trajectories inspired by or even as direct successors to these pioneer works, the enterprise continued under the British and was further developed by Chinese workers in the 19th century.

A Socio-political Continuum

If we recall the role of Tunku Sulaiman in Kampung Kota (and Bukit Kota) and the network of groups of diverse origins (but largely Batu Baran Sumatrans from Batu Uban, Gelugor and Jelutong), and connect these to the attempt by Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin (r.1803-1821, 1842-1845) to regain Perai in 1791 and Tunku Muhammad Saad’s (Tunku Sulaiman’s son in law and successor) resistance in 1838 against Anglo-Siamese incursions, we can catch a glimpse of some socio-political continuum between inhabitants on the mainland and the island.

References

1. Ahmad Murad Merican (2020), Batu Uban, Tanjong dan Bagan: Pengkisahan Lisan, Pulau Pinang, Penerbit USM.

2. Ahmad Murad Merican (2015), Batu Uban Sejarah Awal Pulau Pinang, Kuala Lumpur, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

3. Mahani Musa (2011), Melayu-Muslim dalam Sejarah Georgetown, Kuala Lumpur Kementerian Penerangan, Komunikasi & Kebudayaan Arkib Negara Malaysia.

4. Muhammad Haji Salleh (2010), Sejarah Awal Pulau Pinang, Pulau Pinang, Penerbit USM.

5. Abdul Aziz Ishak (1983), Mencari Bako, Kuala Lumpur, Penerbit Adabi.