John Crawfurd's description of Singapore Stone and Fort Canning Hill
(Monday, 4 February 1822) On the stony point which forms the western side of the entrance of the salt creek, on which the modern town of Singapore is building, there was discovered, two years ago, a tolerably hard block of sand-stone, with an inscription upon it.
One part of the Singapore Stone, currently on display at the entrance of the National Museum of Singapore. Other pieces of the original epitaph are believed to be at the Indian Museum of Calcutta. The epitaph was destroyed by the British in 1843 but a few fragments with inscriptions were rescued and shipped to Royal Asiatic Society in Calcutta for decipherment.
This I examined early this morning. The stone, in shape, is a rude mass, and formed of the one-half of a great nodule broken into two nearly equal parts by artificial means; for the two portions now face each other, separated at the base by a distance of not more than two feet and a half, and reclining opposite to each other at angle of about forty degrees. It is upon the inner surface of the stone that the inscription is engraved.
The Singapore stone was a sandstone epitaph erected at the mouth of Singapore River. It was discovered in June 1819 by a number of Bengali sailors instructed by Captain William Lawrence Flint (1791-1828) to clear the jungle around Singapore River. This hand-drawn paper map of Singapore is a part of Bute Collection. In this map, Rocky Point (lower part of the map) is the “stony point which forms the western side of the entrance of the salt creek", as described by Crawfurd.
The workmanship is far ruder than any thing of the kind that I have seen in Java or India; and the writing, perhaps from time, in some degree, but more from natural decomposition of the rock, so much obliterated as to be quite illegible as a composition. Here and there, however, a few letters seem distinct enough. The character is rather round than square. It is probably the Pali, or religious character used by the followers of Buddha, and of which abundant examples are to be found in Java and Sumatra; while no monuments exist in these countries in their respective vernacular alphabets.
The only remains of antiquity at Singapore, besides this stone, and the wall and moat before mentioned, are contained on the hill before alluded to. After being cleared by us of the extensive forest which covered it, it is now clothed with a fine grassy sward, and forms the principal beauty of the new settlement.
The original site of the Singapore Stone is now occupied by a statue of singa laut.
The greater part of the west and northern side of the mountain is covered with the remains of the foundation of buildings, some composed of baked brick of good quality. Among these ruins, the most distinguished are those seated on a square terrace, of about forty feet to a side, near the summit of the hill. On the edge of this terrace, we find fourteen large blocks of stand-stone; which, from the hole in each, had probably been the pedestals of as many wooden-posts which supported the building. This shows us, at once, that the upper part of the structure was of perishable materials; an observation which, no doubt, applies to the rest of the buildings as well as to this.
Within the square terrace is a circular inclosure, formed of rough sand-stones, in the centre of which is a well, or hollow, which very possibly contained an image; for I look upon the building to have been a place of worship, and from its appearance, in all likelihood, a temple of Buddha. I venture farther to conjecture, that the other relics of antiquity on the hill, are the remains of monasteries of the priests of this religion.
The apocryphal burying-place of Iskandar Shah. This recent reconstruction has 20 timber-supporting pedestals (not 14, as described by Crawfurd). Instagram photo by ikayulpratiwi
Another terrace, on the north declivity of the hill, nearly of the same size, is said to have been the burying-place of Iskandar Shah, King of Singapore. This is the prince whom tradition describes as having been driven from his throne by the Javanese, in the year 1252 of the Christian era, and who died at Malacca, not converted to the Mohammedan religion, in 1274; so that the story is proabably apocryphal.
Over the supposed tomb of Iskandar, a rude structure has been raised, since the formation of the new settlement, to which Mohammedans, Hindus, and Chinese, equally resort to do homage. It is remarkable, that many of the fruit-trees cultivated by the ancient inhabitants of Singapore are still existing, on the eastern side of the hill, after a supposed lapse of near six hundred years. Here we find the durian, the rambutan, the duku, the shaddock, and other fruit-trees of great size; and all so degenerated, except the two first, that the fruit is scarcely to recognized.
Copper coins bearing the characters Yuanfeng tongbao 元豐通寶, written in seal script. Yuanfeng is the second regnal name of Emperor Shenzong 神宗 (r. 1067 - 1085).
Among the ruins are found various descriptions of pottery, some of which is Chinese, and some native. Fragments of this are in great abundance. In the same situation have been found Chinese brass coins of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The earliest is of the Emperor Ching chung, of the dynasty of Sungchao, who died in the year 967. Another is of the reign of Jin-chung, of the same dynasty, who died in 1067; and a third, of that of Shin-chung, his successor, who died in 1085.
The three Song emperors named by Crawfurd are Shenzong 神宗 (r. 1067 - 1085), Yingzong (r. 1063 - 1067), and Zhenzong 真宗 (r. 997 - 1022.). We are not able to find a corresponding Song emperor whose year of death is 967. Crawfurd's Ching chung is most likely a reference to Zhenzong.
The discovery of these coins affords some confirmation of the relations which fix the establishment of the Malays at Singapore, in the twelfth century. It should be remarked, in reference to this subject, that the coins of China were in circulation among all nations of the Indian islands before they adopted the Mohammedan religion, or had any intercourse with Europeans. They are dug up in numbers in Java, and are still the only money used by the unconverted natives of Bali.
J. Crawford (1828) Journal of an embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China; exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms, Henry Colburn, London, pp. 45 - 47. Crawfurd's original entry is coloured in grey. My annotations is shown in black.
This I examined early this morning. The stone, in shape, is a rude mass, and formed of the one-half of a great nodule broken into two nearly equal parts by artificial means; for the two portions now face each other, separated at the base by a distance of not more than two feet and a half, and reclining opposite to each other at angle of about forty degrees. It is upon the inner surface of the stone that the inscription is engraved.
The workmanship is far ruder than any thing of the kind that I have seen in Java or India; and the writing, perhaps from time, in some degree, but more from natural decomposition of the rock, so much obliterated as to be quite illegible as a composition. Here and there, however, a few letters seem distinct enough. The character is rather round than square. It is probably the Pali, or religious character used by the followers of Buddha, and of which abundant examples are to be found in Java and Sumatra; while no monuments exist in these countries in their respective vernacular alphabets.
The only remains of antiquity at Singapore, besides this stone, and the wall and moat before mentioned, are contained on the hill before alluded to. After being cleared by us of the extensive forest which covered it, it is now clothed with a fine grassy sward, and forms the principal beauty of the new settlement.
The greater part of the west and northern side of the mountain is covered with the remains of the foundation of buildings, some composed of baked brick of good quality. Among these ruins, the most distinguished are those seated on a square terrace, of about forty feet to a side, near the summit of the hill. On the edge of this terrace, we find fourteen large blocks of stand-stone; which, from the hole in each, had probably been the pedestals of as many wooden-posts which supported the building. This shows us, at once, that the upper part of the structure was of perishable materials; an observation which, no doubt, applies to the rest of the buildings as well as to this.
Within the square terrace is a circular inclosure, formed of rough sand-stones, in the centre of which is a well, or hollow, which very possibly contained an image; for I look upon the building to have been a place of worship, and from its appearance, in all likelihood, a temple of Buddha. I venture farther to conjecture, that the other relics of antiquity on the hill, are the remains of monasteries of the priests of this religion.
Another terrace, on the north declivity of the hill, nearly of the same size, is said to have been the burying-place of Iskandar Shah, King of Singapore. This is the prince whom tradition describes as having been driven from his throne by the Javanese, in the year 1252 of the Christian era, and who died at Malacca, not converted to the Mohammedan religion, in 1274; so that the story is proabably apocryphal.
Over the supposed tomb of Iskandar, a rude structure has been raised, since the formation of the new settlement, to which Mohammedans, Hindus, and Chinese, equally resort to do homage. It is remarkable, that many of the fruit-trees cultivated by the ancient inhabitants of Singapore are still existing, on the eastern side of the hill, after a supposed lapse of near six hundred years. Here we find the durian, the rambutan, the duku, the shaddock, and other fruit-trees of great size; and all so degenerated, except the two first, that the fruit is scarcely to recognized.
Among the ruins are found various descriptions of pottery, some of which is Chinese, and some native. Fragments of this are in great abundance. In the same situation have been found Chinese brass coins of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The earliest is of the Emperor Ching chung, of the dynasty of Sungchao, who died in the year 967. Another is of the reign of Jin-chung, of the same dynasty, who died in 1067; and a third, of that of Shin-chung, his successor, who died in 1085.
The three Song emperors named by Crawfurd are Shenzong 神宗 (r. 1067 - 1085), Yingzong (r. 1063 - 1067), and Zhenzong 真宗 (r. 997 - 1022.). We are not able to find a corresponding Song emperor whose year of death is 967. Crawfurd's Ching chung is most likely a reference to Zhenzong.
The discovery of these coins affords some confirmation of the relations which fix the establishment of the Malays at Singapore, in the twelfth century. It should be remarked, in reference to this subject, that the coins of China were in circulation among all nations of the Indian islands before they adopted the Mohammedan religion, or had any intercourse with Europeans. They are dug up in numbers in Java, and are still the only money used by the unconverted natives of Bali.
J. Crawford (1828) Journal of an embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China; exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms, Henry Colburn, London, pp. 45 - 47. Crawfurd's original entry is coloured in grey. My annotations is shown in black.
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