Malaka, the tree and its fruit

The opening paragraph in Eredia's Description of Malacca (1613) is loaded with valuable data:

Malaca significa Mirabolanos, fructa de hua arvore plantada ao longo de hum ribeiro chamdo Aerlele, que dece das fontes do outeyro de Buquet China pera o mar, daquella costa de terra firma de Viontana . . .

J. V. G. Mills (1930) translation of this passage is now about 90-year-old and is therefore a little terse, partly because it retains Eredia's toponyms (see Figure 1) in their archaic forms: “Malaca means Myrobalans, the fruit of a tree growing along the banks of a river called the Aerlele, which flows down from its source on the hill of Buquet China to the sea, on the coast of the mainland of Ujontana."

Figure 1. Eredia's map of the city of Melaka. Eredia must have seen the Mirabolanos trees and probably also tasted the fruit. Note that Eredia's interviewee emphasized the fruit and not tree of Malaka, which is probably an indication that the local population appreciated the medicinal properties of the fruit. Furthermore, Eredia was not merely repeating the phoneme /malaka/ but instead he matched it with a Latin word /mirabolanos/, a sister species. In the book, he depicted Ribeiro de Airlele as a small stream flowing from Bukit Cina to the Strait of Melaka. The now extinct Air Leleh stream, used to broad enough to justify the construction of bridges. Eredia's reference to Air Leleh gives us a clue that the Malaka trees were grown or cultivated only in specific locales (and not everywhere). It was probably an imported plant and not naturally occuring species. Tome Pires, who wrote Suma Orientalis, nearly 100 years before Eredia, mentioned that the orang selat visited Parameswara with a fruit basket and the king was reported to have said: you already know that in our language a man who runs away is called a Malayo, and since you bring such fruit to me who have fled, let this place be called Malaqa, which means ‘hidden fugitive' . . . One can readily understand why Pires's account (as told to him by the Javanese, who was probably not Malay-friendly at the time when Pires interviewed them) was not fully adopted in Sejarah Melayu. The Javanese were obviously joking derogatorily when they associate malayo with fleeing, but Pires entered the half-joke in his book anyway.

The following is my attempt to render the text with modern toponyms and Linnaean binomial name, for modern readers:

Malaca means Myrobolano emblica, fruits of a tree growing along a small stream called Ayer Leleh, which flows from the sources of Bukit Cina to the sea (Strait of Melaka), on the coast of Thai-Malay peninsula (Ujong Tanah).

Figure 2. The pelanduk story in Sejarah Melayu. Raffles MS18, p. 49 . . . berjalan berbalik dari sana terus ke pantai, pada satu sungai, Bertam namanya. Maka Sultan Iskandar berdiri di bawah sepohon kayu, maka baginda pun berburu, maka anjing diterjangkan oleh pelanduk putih. Maka titah Sultan Iskandar Shah: Baik tempat ini, sedang pelanduknya lagi gagah, baik kita perbuatkan negeri. Maka sembah orang besar-besar: Benarlah, tuanku, seperti titah Duli Yang Dipertuan itu. Maka disuruh baginda perbuatlah negeri pada tempat itu. Maka titah Sultan Iskandar Shah: Apa nama kayu tempat kita berdiri ini? Maka sembah orang sekalian: / M-LA-K ملاک / namanya kayu ini. Maka titah Sultan Iskandar Shah: Jika demikian, Mlaklah nama negeri ini. Maka Sultan Iskandar Shah pun diamlah di Mlak. Maka Sultan Iskandar Shah pun memerintah kan istiadat kerajaan . . .

The name of Malaka (ملاک) can of course also be found also in Sejarah Melayu (see Figure 2), but the focal point was moved and we are asked to focus on the tree under which the king was standing, when one of his hunting dogs was kicked by an albino mousedeer. This adjustment was probably necessary since emphasis on fruit did not flow very well with the story, likely adapted from a similarly sounding folktales.

The fruit is also known in China, for it was mentioned by the Chinese monk named Xuanzang (602 - 664) 玄奘 in his Great Tang Records on the Western Regions 大唐西域記

阿摩落迦，印度药果之名也。

And together with haritaka 訶梨 and bibhitaka 毗梨, they are collectively known as triphala (三果 or 三勒, see Figure 3) in both Buddhism and the traditional Indian medicine system known as Ayurveda.

Figure 3. Medieval magic drug-combo. Triphala in Indian/Buddhism tradition: Haritaka, bibhitaka and amalaka.

The name amalaka is likely of Indian origin, given how the fruit is revered in the Indian culture. If this is true, we can deconstruct amalaka to a-mala (a = without + mala = impurity) and ka (fruit). Note that the other two members of Triphala can be broken down in a comparable manner: Harita (green) + ka, and bibhita (fearless) + ka.

$$ \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{Æ}\\ \textrm{M}\\ \textrm{L}\\ \textrm{K} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{e}\\ \textrm{mb}\\ \textrm{li}\\ \textrm{ca} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{a}\\ \textrm{m}\\ \textrm{la}\\ \textrm{ki} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{a}\\ \textrm{m}\\ \textrm{la}\\ \textrm{ka} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} {\scriptsize\textrm{阿}}\\ {\scriptsize\textrm{摩}}\\ {\scriptsize\textrm{落}}\\ {\scriptsize\textrm{迦}} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{a}\\ \textrm{m}\\ \textrm{la}\\ \textrm{} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} {\scriptsize\textrm{菴}}\\ {\scriptsize\textrm{沒}}\\ {\scriptsize\textrm{羅}}\\ {\scriptsize\textrm{}} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{}\\ \textrm{ma}\\ \textrm{la}\\ \textrm{ka} \end{vmatrix} \approx \begin{vmatrix} \textrm{}\\ \textrm{ba}\\ \textrm{la}\\ \textrm{kka} \end{vmatrix} $$

Figure 4. Phoenetic cousins: ÆMLK, emblica, nellikai, amalaka, 阿摩落迦, amalaki, amla, 菴沒羅, malaka, balakka

Since amalaka is a foreign word in non-Indian cultures, it can be rendered in many ways (see Figure 4). Ng (2011) believes Carl Linnaeus was responsible for the latinization of amalaka to emblica when he wrote his Species Plantarum (1753). Ng was probably misinformed, since Linnaeus was merely reusing Bauhin's emblica and Zanorii's nellika (Tamil, nelli = நெல்லி, see Figure 5).

Figure 5. References cited in Species Plantarum. Carl Linnaeus (1753) parked emblica under the Phyllanthus genus (Phyllanthus with pinnate, flowering leaves, a tree-like stem, and a berry-like fruit. Habitat in India) and listed it as the sixth species. The species was listed as Gaspard Bauhin in his Pinax Theatri Botanici (1623) as Myrobalanos emblica, which Linnaeus cited as one of his reference. The German botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius listed the species also as Myrobalanos emblica (Herbarium Amboinense 1740). In Hendrik van Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus (1678), amalaka (nellikai) tree (maram) was corrupted to nelli-camarum, it was likely to have influenced John Ray, who published Historia Plantarum in 1686, who continued the same corruption without correction. Jacobi Zanorii (1675), however, referenced only the fruit and cited it as nellika in his Historia Botanica. Ng (2011) pointed out that Phyllanthus emblica is a actually non-native tree in the Malay archipelago and its malay cousin is actually named Phyllanthus pectinatus, first described by J. D. Hooker in 1890 (see Flora of British India 5(14), p. 290): Branchlets scurfily tomentose, leaves \(\tfrac{1}{3}\) in. distichously close-set linear-oblong obtuse coriaceous incurved when dry with recurved margins nervelesss, fruit turbinate \(\tfrac{1}{2}-\tfrac{3}{4}\) by \(\tfrac{1}{3}-\tfrac{1}{2}\) in. P. emblica, Wall. Cat. 7903 G. Perak, King's Collector; Singapore, Wallich; Malacca, Griffith (Kew Distrib. 4799), Maingay (Kew Distrib. 1352). Very similar to P. emblica, but differing in the scurfy rusty branchlets and form of the fruit. In Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits and Federated Malay States 1(13), H. N. Ridley (1902) equated malakka with P. pectinatus when he wrote: The Malakka, P. pectinatus a small or medium sized tree with feathery foliage has somewhat similar fruit, but it is inferior as the amount of flesh on the comparatively large stone, is less. It is eaten by natives, and is common is our woods. In fact, Ridley had earlier in 1897 associated both P. emblica and P. pectinatus with Malaka: From this plant Malacca is said to be named. The two species mentioned are hardly distinct, but the latter is the commoner form. The timber is of good quality and the fruits are eaten. Another commonly cited synonym is Emblica officinalis (Josphe Gaertner, 1788): Flowers distinct by sex on the same plant. Male flower has 6 sepals, 0 petals, 3 stamens. Female flower has both sepals and petals, as in the male. Ovary superior. Style three, bifid. Drupe-like capsule, three-lobed: Seeds solitary or paired.

In fact, the data from OED (see Figure 6) shows that the use of emblicos | emblick predates even Bauhin. Ng, who is trained in taxonomy, also believes that the species of the tree cited by Parameswara was Phyllanthus pectinatus and not Phyllanthus emblica. His claim is that P. pectinatus is a native phyllanthus and P. emblica is an imported version and the naturally occuring tree invoked by Parameswara should be the former.

emblic (ˈɛmblɪk)
Forms: 6 emblico, 7 emblick.
[ad. med.L. emblica, -icus, ad. Ar. amlaj a. Pers. āmleh, cf. Skr. āmalaka of same meaning.]
The fruit of Emblica officinalis, a tree of the family Euphorbiaceæ, whose flowers are aperient, leaves and bark a remedy against dysentery. Also emblic myrobalan.

• 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. iii. iv. (Arb.) 151 Mirobalanes‥which the phisitians caule Emblicos and Chebulos.
• 1678 Salmon Lond. Disp. 136/2 The five sorts of Myrobolans‥the Emblick purge Flegm and Water.
• 1708 Motteux Rabelais ii. xiv, A Boxfull of conserves, of round Myrabolan plums, called Emblicks.
• 1811 Hooper Med. Dict., The emblic Myrobalan is of a dark blackish grey colour.

Figure 6. OED's definition of emblic. Emblic is likely a loan word from India. The word was first mentioned in the English-speaking world by Richard Eden (1555) when he published his ‘Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, Etc.'. In the book, Eden equated mirobalanes with emblicos and chebulos. Assocation of emblic with myrobolans/myrabolan/myrobalan is repeated by Salmon (1678), Motteux (1708), and Hooper (1811). Myrobalano, on the hand, is a composite word (Latin = myrobalanum, Greek = μύρον (unguent) + βάλανος (acorn) = µυροβάλανος). Myrobalan is the European lookalike of emblic, but they are biological different from each other.

Ng's theory can be immediately rendered weaker if we introduce the fact that the romantic pelanduk story is unlikely to be original but a story borrowed from Hikayat Raja Pasai or a similar Ceylon folktale. Actually we can manufacture another romantic alternative to explain the origin of the placename. For instance, it is completely reasonable for Parameswara's advisors to choose amalaka since it is closely associated with gods. In Malay/Indonesian language, the fruit-shaped dome found on top of Indian temples is also called amalaka:

noun. Architecture. hiasan puncak di bawah mahkota berbentuk piringan batu pada menara utama bangunan candi Hindu yang menyerupai teratai (sebagai singgahsana untuk dewa) atau melambangkan matahari (sebagai pintu gerbang ke syurga)

It is clearly an auspicious name since it is a throne for the deities (singgahsana untuk dewa) or the gateway to heaven (pintu gerbang ke syurga).