Raja Melewar, the wayfaring king of Rembau (1773)

. . . we got today some tin on board in small square pieces. The tin from Selangor is considered superior to that of Junk Ceylon (Phuket), but that in the Kingdom of Rembau is considered to be the best, and is paid with the highest price. . .

J. G. König (1779/1894) Voyage from India to Siam and Malacca in 1779 (translated from his Manuscript in the British Museum), Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 26(3), p. 88.

. . . bahawasanya selaras dengan Perkara 11 Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Sembilan 1959, Kami Yang Teramat Mulia Undang Yang Empat dengan kuasa yang ada pada Kami dengan ini mengisytiharkan secara kebulatan bahawa Kami berkenan memilih dan melantik Yang Amat Mulia Tunku Panglima Besar Negeri Sembilan Tunku Dato' Seri Nadzaruddin ibni al-Marhum Tuanku Jaafar sebagai Duli Yang Maha Mulia Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan Ke-12 berkuatkuasa serta-merta . . .

The Malays always employ quasi-sanskritized words when they want to say something really serious. For example, in the Declaration signed on 19 April 2026, by Dato' Haji Mubarak bin Thahak (Dato' Klana Petra), Undang Luak Sungei Ujong; Dato' Maarof bin Haji Mat Rashad (Dato' Mendika Menteri Akhir al-Zaman), Undang Luak Jelebu; Dato' Muhammed bin Haji Abdullah (Dato' Johan Pahlawan Lela Perkasa Sitiawan), Undang Luak Johol; Haji Abdul Rahim bin Haji Yasin (Dato' Sedia Raja), Undang Luak Rembau, they used the opening word bhava-sa-nya بهواسڽ (= verily, of a truth = sa-sungguh-nya). In signatorial page, Rembau is shown to occupy the lowest position among the four territorial chiefs, despite her traditional status as Tanah Kerajaan (the place where the first Yamtuan was installed, i.e. Penajis, Rembau). This arrangement was noted by E. Birch in 1906 when the Tuanku Muhammad ibni Tuanku Antah was installed. In the 1898 declaration, the Dato' Klana Petra and the Dato' Bandar of Sungei Ujong were both considered as the co-Undang for the territory of Sungei Ujong (In the 2026 declaration, the role of the Dato' Bandar was reduced to a mere witness). The following ordered list was observed by Birch when the Malay noblemen enter the coronation hall of Tuanku Muhammad: (1) Dato' Klana (2) Dato' Bandar (3) Dato' Jelebu (4) Dato' Johol (5) Dato' Rembau (6) Tunku Besar Tampin (7) Dato' Ulu Muar (8) Dato' Terachi (9) Dato' Jempol (10) Dato' Gunung Pasir (11) Dato' Inas (12) Dato' Gemencheh (13) Dato' Muda Linggi.

. . . Bekas Undang Luak Sungei Ujong, Mubarak bin Thahak sudah diberhentikan sebagai penyandang pesaka YTM Dato' Klana Petra sejak 13 Mei 2025 dan sidang Dewan Keadilan dan Undang pada 17 April 2026 telah menasihat untuk menerima pemberhentiannya. Justeru, tindakan Mubarak menandatangani dan membacakan pengisythiharan menurunkan DYMM Yang di-Pertuan Besar Tuanku Muhriz ibni al-Marhum Tuanku Munawir hari ini di Balai Undang Luak Sungei Ujong sebagai tidak sah kerana beliau sudah tiada kuasa dari segi adat dan perlembagaan. Ibu Soko-Ibu Soko Klana Hulu dan Anak-anak Waris Klana Hulu tidak pernah memberi mandat kepada beliau berbuat demikian. Tindakan Mubarak itu penderhakaan terhadap DYMM Tuanku Muhriz dan sewajarnya diambil tindakan undang-undang . . .

Counter-statement issued on 19 April 2026, by Sarifah Norzaidah al-Qadri. She is the Yang Mulia Telaga Undang of Sungei Ujong. Telaga Undang is the house or place where the Dato' Lembaga, the hereditary lineages of the negeri, and the senior matriarchs (Ibu Soko) of the inland lineages (the Hulu Klana lineage and the Hilir Klana lineage) deliberate on matters of custom and religion in the Luak of Sungai Ujong. The Telaga Undang of Sungei Ujong must be situated in one of the houses of the senior Ibu Soko of the Hulu Klana lineage.

In Eredia's map (1602), the following locales are identified as the settlements of Inner-Melaka: SVNEVJON (Sungei Ujong), TRIAN (Triang), PENAGIM (Penajis), PONGOR (?), ROMBO (Rembau), PVLO (Pulau Sebang), NANI (Naning), MACHAT (Gemencheh), BATAM MALACA (Batang Melaka), IOL (Jol/Johol জল, Water/headwater), IOMPOL (Jempol), SARTIN (Serting), LUCOT (Lukut), LINGUE (Linggi), SVCAMANANTI (Sukhamananti). Penagim is likely a portuguese corruption of পুঞ্জিি (Puñji), which is simply the Indic word for shire or settlement (e.g. খাসিয়া পুঞ্জি Khasia Puñji = Khasia village). The name of the river was corrupted into Sungai Penagis, but it was changed again to Sungai Linggi (the left tributary) and Sungai Rembau (the right tributary), likely because the word najis is awkwardly similar to njs نجس in Arabic. Today, the name is fossilized in the name of a village named Kampung Penajis, located approximately 2 km from the tomb of Raja Melewar.

The first five kings of Rembau were all imported from Pagar Ruyung. The real names of these Minangkabau princes are likely lost but we were told that they are to be addressed as

1. Raja Melewar (d. ?)
2. Raja Adil (d. 1795)
3. Raja Hitam (d. 1808)
4. Raja Lenggang Laut (d. 1824)
5. Raja Labu (e. 1832)

The reason why the importation of Sumatran princes was paused or halted remains unclear. E. Sadka suggests that court politics were responsible for bringing this tradition to an end and she wrote (1960):

. . . the inevitable happened; there were royal efforts to establish a dynasty in Negri Sembilan and minor dynasties in Rembau and Jelebu.
These attempts involved the aspiring Yamtuans in endless conflicts with the territorial chiefs . . .

Raja Melewar was said to have been enpatriarched (dipertuan) at Penajis during the reign of Mahmud III (r. 1770 – 1811). His tomb remains visible today, located within 100 meters of the right fork of Sungai Penajis and not far from the Astana Raja.

Tanah mengandung Sri Menanti
Tanah kerajaan di Penajis
Balai melintang di Sungei Ujong
Balai bertingkat di Johol
Yang mengatur bilang adat di Jelebu
Yang mengukurkan di Rembau

The exact time when the palace was relocated from Penajis to Sri Menanti is not something we can trace with certainty, but it is unlikely that it happened during the reign of the wayfaring king. It should be carefully noted that the name of the royal city is pronounced Soghi Monanti. This pronunciation is surprisingly close to the spelling used by Eredia (1602).

Yamtuan Abd al-Rahman يمتوان عبد الرحمن, the grandson of Yamtuan Antah. His grandfather, in turn, was the grandson of Raja Lenggang, the son-in-law of Raja Hitam.
The Yamtuan on the banknote of Malaysia was not directed related to Raja Melewar since we can only trace his ancestors up to the second Yamtuan. Although Raja Hitam married a princess of Raja Melewar, their union did not produce any female offspring. The 29.8-year-old visited Wembley 100 years ago and was attracted by the English ambiance. He asked his father, Yamtuan Muhammad, to allow him to study law. Three years later, Yamtuan Abd al-Rahman was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1928. Tuanku Muhriz ibni Tuanku Munawir ibni Tuanku Abd al-Rahman, who was urged to step down by Mubarak Thahak on 19 April 2026, was the only son of Tuanku Munawir (who was the eldest son of our first Agong).

In this 1875 map (published by the Surveyor-General's Office in Singapore on 1 October 1875), only the state of Rembau was marked (alongside the states of Johore, Muar, Salangore, Perak, Queda, Pahang, Tringanu, Kelantan, Patani), apparently the toponym Negeri Sembilan was still not in used, at least not in British map. The state of Muar was originally occupied by the royal family from the House of Hussein, but it was absorbed into Johore after the Jementah civil war of 1879. Although Perlis was divorced from Queda in 1842 when the first king from the House of Jamal al-Lail was installed by Siam, the state of Perlis was not marked in this map.

In Eredia's map, the toponym is spelt SVCAMANANTI (Sukhamananti). Probably the original Indic form (সুখ + মনন্তী, Abode of bliss) of the name was corrupted when it was transcribed from Indic script to Arabic script. In one of Tengku Antah's old seal (AH 1293, c. 1876/77), the name of his capital is spelt SRIMUNANTI (سري مننتي, Sri Mnnti), with the vowel u explicitly rendered in the seal.

1. English approximations of these names are:
   
   
   • The Wayfaring King
     Rex Viator
   • The Black King
     Rex Ater
   • The Impeding King
     Rex Caesura
   
   Lewar (ليور) or melewar (مليور) means to fly about in large numbers, of birds; to dart about, of large numbers of any animals or bird or fish, e.g. (see Wilkinson (1901), p. 630) Banyak burung terbang melewar, bermain di taman dewa dewata (Many birds are wheeling about the sky, disporting themselves in the gardens of the gods). It is likely that the importation of Raja Melewar to Rembau was accompanied by large number of his followers.
   
   
   
   Also Raja Melewar brought with him, a strand of hair, which is now a part of the royal regalia of the state. The hair is jealously guarded and placed inside a brass batil باتل (finger bowl), which in turn is placed inside a small and locked safe box known as peti benian (see P. L. Burns (1971) Papers on Malay subjects, p. 373).
   
   Lenggang (لڠݢڠ) has two meanings (p. 602): (a) rocking, swaying; the rolling of a boat; swingging the arms when walking (b) a short pause. The second meaning, found in both Herman von de Wall's and H. C. Klinkert's Malay-Dutch dictionaries, is a better fit for the context of our story.
   
   
   The word benian is of Indic origin. Peti benian (বাণিজ্য bāṇijya) is technically a merchant's coffer or a trader's cash box. The word batil باتل is a Malay word and it is not related the quasi-similarly sounding Arabic word باطل.
   
   
2. Emily Sadka (b. 1920, d. 1968) was the PhD thesis supervisor of William R. Roff (b. 1929, d. 2013). W. R. Roff (1965) The origins of Malay nationalism, 1900 - 1941. PhD Thesis, Australian National University. Sadka's analysis clearly did not include Raja Adil and Raja Labu. After the death of Raja Lenggang in 1824, there was a temporary power vacuum of 2 years before the the arrival of Raja Labu. Raja Labu returned to Sumatra after 6 years of turbulent and disorderly reign.
   
   
3. The orthographically correct way to spell Penajis is ڤناجيس and it is to be pronounced penajeh in local dialect. The spelling is likely locked before the Malay corpus in Negeri Sembilan was enriched by Arabic vocabularies since the toponym is awkwardly similar to njs نجس in Arabic (e.g. Zakiah Hanum spelt the word as Penjis in her Asal-usul negeri-negeri di Malaysia).
   
   
4. During the installation ceremony, the new king must stay motionless at the center of the pancapersada for several hours, as the Orang Empat Astana (the Four Princes of the Palace) circle around him. This ritual serves to honor and elevate the Yamtuan to the status of the Lord of Meru, the Indic Olympus.