Sibuhuan southwards
By E. Edwards McKinnon
At least two routes allowed access to the Padang Lawas from the south. The first, and probably major, route passed through what is now Padang Sidempuan and from there southwards through the valley of the Batang Angkola. A second route appears to have run from near Sibuhuan in the Padang Lawas across the mountains into the Angkola valley near Si Abu. From Si Abu, the route then ran southward through Bonan Dolok to Penyabungan and Kotanopan in the valley of the Batang Gadis where it cross the mountains by Muarasipongi to Rao. The modern road follows essentially the same route.
There may have been yet another route leading northeast from Rao into the Padang Lawas. To the south, an alternative route appears to have linked Rao with Muara Takus in the valley of the Batang Mahat, a tributary of the Kampar kan. At Rao, the main route enters the valley of the Batang Sumpur, a tributary of the Sungei Rokan Kiri. It then passes through Tanjung Medan and Lubuk Sikaping via Bonjol into Minangkabau territory. From Bonjol, it seems that there were two alternative routes southwards. One followed approximately the route of the modern road whilst the second ran via Kota Tinggi and Paya Kumbuh to Bua. From Bua it was possible to gain access to the headwaters of the Batang Hari and proceed downstream to Muara Tebo and Muara Jambi.
Archaeological evidence for a southward connection from Panei through Minangkabau to the Jambi area may be divided into three distinct geographical sections. The first is that covering the valleys of the Batang Angkola, Batang Gadis and the Batang Sumpur as far south as Lubuk sikaping on the northern boundary of the Minangkabau heartland. The second is the Minangkabau ara itself, and the third is the Batang Hari valley. The following notes detail the archaeological data concerning the area between Panei and Minangkabau.
Batu na Dua
Some five kilometers north of Padang Sidempuan on the route linking the Batang Angkola valley with Pagarutan and the Padang Bolak, a stone lotus cushion was discovered. No other artifacts have come to light in this area. (1)
Pijor Koling
At Pijor Koling, a short distance south of Padang Sidempuan, there was formerly a brick ruin which has long since been destroyed. (2) No details regarding the exact location of the ruin or of the building itself are available. It presumably stood on the bank of a tributary of the Batang Angkola which flows through Pijor Koling.
The name Pijor Koling is of interest. The word Pijor means to heat iron to a temperature at which it can be worked. Koling is presumably a local derivation of Keling, a name commonly applied to South Indians. The name would therefore appear to infer that Pijor Koling was an iron working site inhabited by Indians of Dravidian origin.
Simangambat, Si Abu
At Simangambat, some fifty kilometres south of Padang Sidempuan, are the remains of a Siva sanctuary thought to date from about the eighth or ninth century CE. The shrine is situated on the west bank of the Aek Muara Sada, a small tributary of the Batang Angkola. This stone and brick built shine, which measures approximately five metres square, stood within a courtyard encompassed by an earthen wall some twenty four metres square. The entrance of the sanctuary appears to have been on the east, facing the stream. In front of the entrance are the foundations of a natural stone pendopo measuring 4 X 6 metres. A Ganesa image, now in the Musium Nasional Jakarta, and stonework carved in relief in Javanese style were discovered at this site. (3)
A pass in the mountains linked the Si Abu area with that around Sibuhuan in the Padang Lawas, only a short distance to the east.
Bonan Dolok
At Bonan dolok, three kilometers south of Simangambat, a second Ganesa image in east Javanese style, a lotus cushion and other fragments of stone relief work were discovered in the latter part of the nineteenth century. These finds infer the existence of a second Saivite shrine in the Si Abu area. (4) No date has been postulated for the Bonan dolok remains, though they may be assumed to be roughly contemporary with those at Si Mangambat.
Penyabungan
A small bronze image of an elephant with two women on its back, apparently the pommel of a staff, was recovered from a river at Penyabungan. (5) Schnitger notes that the elephant, which carries a flower bud in its trunk, is similar to fragments which he recovered from the candi at Bara in the Padang Bolak. (6)
Other fragments of statuary from Penyabungan were collected by the Dutch authorities and deposited at Si Abu. (7)
Tano Bato
Some twenty kilometers south of Penyabungan, at Tano Bato, a bronze image of Kubera and an elephant image were discovered. (8) Tano Bato lies at the foot of the Sorik Merapi volcano, just off the main road to Penyabungan to Kotanopan.
Sorik Merapi
Formerly three brick graves and four small inscribed pillars were to be found at the edge of the crater of Sorik merapi, just west of Kotanopan. Aninscription on one of the pillars, which is written in Old Malay and Tamil appears to date from the Saka year 1164 (1242 CE). (9)
Kotanopan (Hutanopan)
"Hindu antiquities" were said to have once existed in the kampong of the Yang dipertuan, the local chief. They had, however, already disappeared by the late nineteenth century. (10) A bronze lamp in the form of a kinnari, a bird with a woman’s head, was recovered from the Aek Singengu, a tributary of the Batang Gadis, just above Kotanopan. (11)
Lubuk Layang (Kubu Sutan), Kec. Rao Mapatunggal, Kab. Pasaman
An inscription discovered at Kubu Sutan, Lubuk Layang, on the north bank of the Sungei Sibinail, a tributary of the Baang Sumpur, may relate to the ruins of a candi that came to light in this area. The inscription concerns a sanctuary devoted to "the ancestors," mentioning specifically Bijayendrawarman and Jayawarman and the great Buddha. It is written in Old Javanese characters and is thought to be dated to the eleventh century CE. (12)
- See: NGB 1899, p. 121; OV 1914, p. 105.
- See: NGB 1871, p. 72; OV 1914, p. 105.
- NBG 1888, p. 66; Van Ophysen, "Oudheden," pp. 48-49; NBG (1889), p. 14; NBG 1892, p. 52; Van Stein Callenfels, "Rapport," p. 65; Bosch, "Verslag," p. 134; Schnitger, "De Temple van Simangambat." pp. 334-36.
- NBG 1888, pp. 66, 155-56; Van Ophuysen, "Oudheden"; NBG 1890, pp. 78, 105; NBG 1891, p. 96; OV 1914, p. 106; Schnitger, Archaeology of Hindoo Sumatra p. 14.
- Van Stein Callenfels, "Rapport," p. 65, plate 1.
- Schnitger, Archaeology, p. 14.
- Van Stein Callenfels, "Rapport," p. 65, plate 2.
- NBG 1866, p. 264; NGB 1867, p. 79; NGB 1890, p. 78; NGB 1891, p. 96; OV 1914, p. 107.
- OV 1914, p. 108; L.C. Damais, "Etudes d’Epigraphie Indonesienne," III, BEFEO 46, 1. (1952), p.101.
- NBG 1862, p. 103.
- NBG 1891, pp. 41, 96. The bronze kinnari was recovered from the Aek Singengu just above Kotanopan. It was suggested that it may have been washed down by a flood from Simpang Tolang, where a landslide had occurred just a few days previously.
- Satyawati Suleiman, The Archaeology and History of West Sumatra. Jakarta: Bulletin of the Research Centre of Archaeology of Indonesia No. 12, (1977), p. 6 and plate 3. See also: Budi Istiawan, "Prasasti Lubuk Layang Tinjuan Paleografis dan Epigrafis" Amogahapasa 1,1. 1994. pp12-18.
