Dear Friends,
Kelantan-born researcher, Rabiatul Adawiyah Yusoff (Ruby) presented a stimulating and compelling illustrated talk on ‘Royal Women, Royal Destinies: Female Voices in Malay Court Narratives’ at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indian Cultural Centre (NSCBICC) on 3 May, 2024. The talk was well attended by a multi-racial audience and opened the NSCBICC to many Malay audience who might not have come, otherwise.
HE Shri BN Reddy, High Commissioner of India to Malaysia and guest of honour gave an excellent opening speech that set the tone of the evening by presenting an overall glimpse of the well documented royal politics, intrigues and lifestyle of India involving queens and princesses. The stories of Indian medieval queens and princesses of the Indian subcontinent are aplenty as it was once teemed with royal houses before the Republic of India’s consolidation.
As for the Malayan counterpart, there were few scholars and scribes to document ours. The peninsula was the entrepôt for not only the archipelago but became the busy market-expo for traders from the East and West. Traders come and go. The peninsula was a couldron of the flotsam and jetsam of diverse cultures as traders ply the trade and waited for the monsoons.
References could only be gleaned from historical footprints of Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern sources. There were little from indigenous archives and narratives until much later.
The Malay medieval archival narratives were written much later by royal scribes whose roles were to glorify their royal masters. They were all males.
Ruby commenced her talk making sure her audience understood several fundamental Malay feudal concepts such as ‘daulat’, ‘derhaka’, ‘tulah’ and ‘kerajaan’ as these defined the covenant and relationship between Ruler and the ruled (ra’ayat).
Quoting her research source from medieval Malay literatures such as the Tuhfat al-Nafis, Sejarah Melayu, Hikayat Siak & Patani and others Ruby mentioned that women
existed then in the panorama of Malay patriarchal system of the period, but were never given the chance to play the main roles.
Women, as everywhere, (as also in the Indian counterpart, regardless of royal or non-royal blood), had to tread their steps carefully and plot their strategies within dangerous palace intrigues and corridors of power, to chart a favourable destiny.
Fundamentally, Malay women were ‘used’, or ‘pakai’, in the total sense of the word; their graceful demeanour, beauty and feminine sexuality were available to be exploited within the scheme of power intrigues. The present awareness and understanding of morality and female rights were absent or different then.
Many of the women had come to terms with their destiny (Silenced & Consenting voices) but a few were strong and smart enough (Dissenting voices) to secure powerful positions as the force behind the throne.
Ruby quoted an instance when Tun Kudu, a consort of Sultan Muzaffar Shah of Melaka (Muzaffar Shah’s mother was Tun Ratna Wati, an Indian aristocrat and sister of Tun Ali) was given to the old Bendahara Tun Ali (Tamil Muslim) to appease a potentially intense power struggle between the Malay and ‘Tamil Muslim’ bendahara families.
There were also the dissenting voices from strong Malay queens such as Putri Sa’adong, Putri Gunung Ledang and Tun Fatimah who somehow, and eventually, meted their revenge. Many just disappeared without a trace in the annals of history, as in the case of Putri Sa’adong.
The women’s ultimate power was that it was they who will give heir to the throne. Thus, palace intrigues ultimately centred on how a queen or even a minor consort or gundek, could secure an heir to the throne.
As a researcher, Ruby commented that she was not there as a feminist, but her role was to bring to the fore the story of her subjects and the subtext of their scant narratives.
Ruby did not need notes as she had total mastery of her topic with an assured command of English. It was sheer delight as she sailed through her lecture.
Some Valid questions were asked:
What was Islam then in the context of Muslim women and the Shariah Law? Were the laws as rigid as they are now, especially in the East Coast States? For instance, it is evident that the Kelantan women were far more emancipated then.
Also, were there any true past Malay heroines and queens, who, sexuality aside, lived selflessly and used their position for the betterment of their ra’ayat?
Were there any Malay heroines of the past at all who attempted to alleviate the suffering of the common people?
Do scribes, then, only write about court intrigues and power struggles?
Interesting questions indeed! Certainly, there are loopholes in laws and they are ‘bendable’. It seemed that ‘Boleh’ concept was well acquainted in past Malay society even then. Even the sacrality of Malay ruler-ra’ayat covenant was transgressed and ‘Raja adil, raja di sembah…’ as in the case of the cruel Sultan Mahmud mangkat di julang case, which ended the true-blooded Malaccan sultan lineage.
The unscrupulous could always get away with their ways even then. (But Ruby, do the Malays then believe in ‘karma’?)
As far as heroes and heroines are concerned, they are always there in our midst. The true ones do not offer their services to be written for public consumption, and as such their existence and ‘jasa’ might not be recorded for posterity.
However, it is also true that Malay history needs more solid researchers (not the ‘kangkung’ variety) to unearth and discover our real heroes and heroines buried in the cobwebs of history and time.
Sutra.