Rigel Kent

In Fascicle 7 , in an entry dated between 16 July 1330 and 14 August 1330 1 , we were told that during the time of Nhân Tông 仁宗時 (r. 1278 - 1293, 1293 - 1308), envoys from Temasik 冊馬錫 came to offer tribute. They sought someone who could understand their language but found no one, except for Prince Chiêu Văn 昭文王, who was capable of communicating with them. 仁宗 時， 冊馬錫 國使來貢，求能通語者不可得，獨 日燏 能之。 The personal name of Prince Chiêu Văn was Trần Nhật Duật 陳日燏 and he was the sixth son of Trần Thái Tông and the uncle to Nhân Tông. The polyglot attributed to his language ability to his constant interactions with foreign ambassadors during his father's reign. His nephew, Emperor Nhân Tông, even half-jokingly memorialized: Uncle Chiêu Văn must be a descendant of the natives, which is why he is skilled in the languages of various countries. 或問其故，曰： 太宗 時北國使至，因與之遊，故少通其語耳。仁宗嘗曰： 昭文 叔蓋蕃落人後身，故善為諸國語。 Now, we ...

The text quoted in the opening chapter of Kwa et al. (2019) is an English translation 1 of a place description from Wang (1350). The toponym assigned by the Yuan Chinese traveler was Panchu 2 班卒 and it is not explicitly related to Temasik or medieval Singapore. Panchut ڤنچت is a Malay word cognate 3 with panchit ڤنچت and panchar/panchor ڤنچر . If one is allowed to hallucinate, these words may be tied to pancha , the Sanskrit word for ‘five', when we consider the following usages, which invoke radiating or flowing material from a datum. Kilat memanchar hujan tak lalu Dendritic networks of electric discharge Otaknya pun berpancharan Semisolid material exploding from a point source Panchor larangan Bathing pond with natural moving water, reserved for the blue-blooded Panchoran ayer Water flowing out from a conduit and pipeline A seastar has fi...