The Badang-Endau transpeninsular shortcut

If (you are born in Batu Pahat) or if (you have a wife from Batu Pahat), then (you might want to read this short article to entertain yourself or your wife).

Batu Pahat is called Padram in ancient times and it is one of the earliest landmark you can find in old maps see, for instance, Maps of Malaya and Borneo: Discovery, Statehood and Progress. This two-kilogram coffee table book showcases the map collection the present Sultan of Selangor and his childhood friend Richard Curtis of Malay peninsula, such as this one:

Barent Langenes's Descriptio Malaccae, Amsterdam, 1598 (87 mm × 106 mm). This map is derived from Jan Huygen van Linschoten's earlier map of 1595. Clearly visible in the map is the transpeninsular riverine network connecting Muar and Pam (Pahang). The second transpeninsular shortcut connecting Batu Pahat and Endau, however, is not shown in the map. Apart from Muar, Sincapura (Careful: This is not the modern island-state of Singapore. In medieval Malay world, Sincapura is actually Johor Lama) and Padram (Batu Pahat) are clearly marked in Langenes's depiction of present-day Johore.

Padram is an old Portuguese word for rock (or batu in Malay) and it is closely related to its modern cousins such as pedraas in Ilha das Pedras, the Portuguese toponym of present day Pulau Upeh. The small laterite-rich island was quarried by the Portuguese and the lithoderivatives was extensively used in the built environment of medieval Malacca. In the early 19th century, we have a theory which says that Batu Pahat was the source of the laterite stones. Famous examples of laterite-based constructions by the Portuguese are the pentagonal wall of Malacca and the triagular wall of Muar. See for instance, Peter Borschberg's Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka area and the adjacent regions, 16th to 18th century or petroAs in petroleum. Yes, petroleum is a made-up word from rock and oil, petro + oleum. The word was first made up in 1348, according to OED, 500 years before black gold is commercially drilled in mid 19th century. All of them are in turn, derived from the Greek word pétra. In Vieyra's Portuguese-English dictionary, the following definition is given:

Padram. a post or pillar erected on which they engrave an inscription, as discoverers used to do in those countries they newly discovered.
Anthony Vieyra Transtagano (1773) A dictionary of the Portuguese and English languages, Vol. I, J. Nourse, London.

Petrus Bertius's Descriptio Malaccæ, 1616 (105 mm × 130 mm). This map shows the transpeninsular riverine network connecting Padram (Batu Pahat) and Faon (Pahang).

I use the adjective old to quantify the linguistic age of the word padram because you will not get anything if you try to use Google to get an English translation of padram. However you can eventually find some if you look hard enough on the internet. In the English translation of Luís de Camões's Os Lusiadas by Richard Burton, for instance, we have:

. . . at Sam Braz the navigators planted a Padram and a Cross made out of a mizen-mast: both were pulled down before the ship left the coast by the negroes, who showed the usual signs of treachery. Da Gama remained at Sam Braz nearly a fortnight, and left it on Conception Day (Frid. Dec. 8).
Richard F. Burton (1881) Camoens: His life and his Lusiads, Volume II, Bernard Quaritch, London.

There is a reason why Batu Pahat is marked on the maps used by ancient travellers. The word Batu is a reference to Batu Pahat's Bukit Banang. Bukit Banang is the highest point in Batu Pahat, it is clearly visible from the mercantile vessels traveling along the Straits of Melaka.

This 2016 clip was made by the Singapore Government to commemorate her 51st birthday. Badang was a legendary ‘Hercules' in the medieval Malay world. In Sejarah Melayu, Badang's place of origin was the area near Sungai Batu Pahat, and he was recruited by the ruler of Sincapura, because he was famous for his muscle power and lifting strength.

Now the word banang itself is also very interesting. It is an archaic Malay adjective used to describe large objects, it is possible that the word is an etymological cousin of padram (if you try to munch the word padram very quickly in your mouth, maybe you will see my point).

A small section highlighting Muar, Badang, and Simhapura. From the map produced for King Manuel I of Portugal in 1519 - just 8 years after the Portuguese capture of Malacca. The cartographers were Pedro Reinel, Jorge Reinel, Lopo Homem and Antonio de Holanda.