100-1476 - Takola (T'iu-ku-li)
Three early petty kingdoms can be located with certainty: Lang-ya-siu, Tan-mei-liu, and T'iu-ku-li. Takola (T'iu-ku-li) was situated on the west coast of the Isthmus of Kra. One kingdom or city-state to merit individual discussion is that known as Takola . Whether all the references are indeed to the same place is still a matter of debate. The author of the Geography clearly intended his readers to conceive of Takola as a trading center on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, and at the head of a bay or estuary between two promontories.
The early history of the area is wrapped in deep mystery. After the Mon descended tribes came the Indii traders and colonists, and it was probably from that period that the tin mines, on the West coast of the Malay Penisula, and very likely also on Junk-ceylon Island, began to be worked. As regards the latter we have no positive proof, but it can hardly be doubted that the natural riches of the island could escape the notice of those shrewd miners who at so remote an age developed those of the neighbouring Takopa district immediately to the north of it.
By reason of its position on the old sea route to Further India that crossed the Bay of Bengal further to the north, and then skirted the West coast of the Malay Peninsula for its whole length down to the Straits, Junk-ceylon could certainly not escape becoming well known to the early navigators, at least by existence, if not by name. For indeed, no specific mention of it is to be found in the accounts of adventurous seafaring men and traders of those periods. These appear to have had only one designation for the region, including the island and the districts to the north of it as far as the Pak Chan inlet, and that designation was Takola or Takkola, suggested by the principal seaport and trade-mart in that region, of which the present Takopa, in Siamese Takua-pa, is the historical continuation.
This countiy or seaport of Takkola is referred to as early as the very dawn of the Christian Era iu the famed Pali treatise titled "Milinda Paflha," or "The Questions of King Milinda" (VI, 211). Towards the middle of the second century AD Ptolemy mentions not only Takola as a mart situated on the West Coast of the Golden Khersonese (Malay Peninsula) in a position approximately corresponding to Takopa; but also a cape to the south-west of it. The site of the Takola of Ptolemy, which was known even to the Portuguese of the sixteenth century as Tagula, though since then it has entirely disappeared from maps and knowledge.
There seems to be no reason for doubt that this region and seaport of Takola correspond to the Kalah Island (in reality Peninsula) of the early Arab navigators described about AD 880-916 by Abu-zaid as an emporium of trade for eaglewood, ivory, sapanwood, al-kall (tin), etc., and clashed by him among the possessions of the Zabej Empire. Ibn Khurdadbih, writing in about 864 says, however, that it belonged to the Jabah of India, by which name he means, I think, Pegu. It seems therefore pretty certain that Junkceylon, although well known to the early navigators who often had to sail past its western and southern coasts, was considered by them practically as part and parcel of the Takopa district, and accordingly they did not trouble about finding out what its special native designation was; or, even if they eventually learnt it, of putting it on record.
Judging from the only ancient inscription that has so far turned up in the neighbouring Takopa district, the main bulk of settlers from India in those parts must have been Dravidians, hailing from Kalinga and more southern districts on the East coast of India where Tamil was spoken. Although these adventurers formed the ruling and trading classes of the population, they do not seem to have founded any important State in this particular region which appears to have remained until the middle of the eleventh century, or thereabout under the sway of Pegu, a kingdom likewise founded by immigrants from Kalinga, that had grown very powerful under their civilizing influence.
When that kingdom was overthrown by the Burmese from Pagan in 1050-1057 and converted into a dependency of theirs, it is possible that the ruler of Ligor ( Nagara Sri Dharmaraj ) on the other side of the Malay Peninsula took advantage of that opportunity in order to annex Junkceylon and the neighbouring districts on the mainland, for—judging from extant records—Burmese domination on the West Coast of the Malay Peninsula did not at the period in question extend any further south than Tenasserim1; whereas, on the other hand, Ligor is known to have then had sway over the whole southern portion of the Peninsula as far down as the Straits. This State was itself, however, a more or less nominal dependency of Kamboja.
Some argue that this "Taikkula" is the modern "Ayetthima," and identify it as the "Takola" of Ptolemy, the "Takala" of the Chinese Annals, and the "Gola-mattikanagaram" of the Kalyani inscription of Pegu (1476 AD). The famous Kakula (probably the Takola of Ptolemy), Kala or Kalabar must have been the western or Sunda port, of which the Chinese appear to have preserved the name in Ka-la-pa.
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