The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

HEVIEW ARTICLE 309
"By the year 1373, San-fo-tsi was divided into three states
and their rulers, named Tam-ma-sa-na-ho, Ma-na-ha-pau-lin-pang
and Seng-ka-liet-yu-lan sent envoys in 1373, 1374 and 1375 respectively."
In this period Nissamka Alakesvara, or Alakesvara Ill, or Alagakkonara
(A-lie-ku-nai-eul in Chinese) was the most powerful personage
in Ceylon. He was called Sri Lankadhisvara, the Lord of Sri Lanka,
and he died sometime between 1382 and 1392. I do not know how to
play the Chinese wordgame, in fact I do not even know what the rules
of the game are, whether one uses the Tang pronounciation, or the Ming,
or modern pronounciations of the Chinese names that crop up so blithely
in the English texts. For all that I venture to submit the following
identifications of the three names above:
Tam-ma-sa-na-ho = Dbarmasoka (Chaiya or Nakorn)
Ma-na-ha-pau-lin-pang =Something of Palembang
Seng-ka-liet-yu-lan = Nissamka Alakesvara (Rayigama)
If these suggestions are in any way plausible, than the three parts
that San-fo-tsi broke into were the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Ceylon.
This was not conducive to any very strong control of the trade route
through the Malacca straits.
So the Emperor Yung-lo decided to do something about it. First
an embassy under Yin Ching was sent to the Malay Peninsula in 1403.
Yin Ching arrived at Malacca, which at the time was trying to set itself
up as an independent state. The local chieftain, Paramesvara, took the
opportunity to ask for Chinese protection, which was given, and in a
very short period the Chinese built up Malacca into the most important
entrepot in Southeast Asia, taking the place of Kedah and Muara Takus,
the two control points of the Malacca Straits in the heyday of Sri Vijaya.
In short, the Straits was now controlled from one place, a place located
in the middle of the Straits instead of from the top and bottom as in
former times.
Then the Emperor had a fleet of sixty two vessels built which he
put under the command of Cheng Ho, a Muslim eunuch. Over a period
of thirty years, Cheng Ho, or rather the fleet, made seven expeditions