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

RBVlEW ARTICLES 239
Bandon, while Locac itself, or Lokok as the Chinese called the place in
this period, was Lopburi. Malaiur, about a hundred miles to the southeast
of Pentan, was Nakorn Sri Thammaraj (see also under 1295). As it is
necessary to locate the key names correctly for this post-Sri Vijaya period
to have any semblance of sense, I will return to this subject later.
After Malaiur, Marco Polo wen ton to the island of Java the Lesser
(Java Minor) which is some 100 miles southeast of Pentan (Bandon).
The text says "after leaving the island. of Pen tan, and sailing 100 miles
to the southeast one finds the island of Java the Lesser. But you must
understand that it is not so small but that it bas a compass of 2,000
miles". Polo visited six of the eight kingdoms in this island. To me,
Java the Less, 100 miles southeast of Bandon, was Malaya, but the
experts, who take Pentan to have been Bintan for no particular reason
that I can see except that the sounds of the two names are similar,
identify the island as Sumatra. One mastermind bas this to say about
Java Minor:
"Having arrived at the western end of the sea route to the
south of the Malay Peninsula, and having made his rather confused
allusion to Malayu, Polo now speaks of Java the Less by which,
following the Arab pra~tice of applying the name Java to both Java
and Sumatra, and failing to appreciate that Malayu was on this
same island, he can only mean Sumatra."
in this year.
(b) The East Javanese king, Krtanagara of Singhasari, died
Before his death, the king had mutilated the face of _an
envoy sent by Kublai Khan, and the Emperor sent a punitive expedition
to avenge the insult. Meanwhile Krtanagara bad been murdered by
Jayakatvang, the governor of Kadiri, who became king. However Prince
Vijaya, Krtanagara's son-in-law, managed to escape. The Chinese forces
were frustrated when they arrived in Java to find that the king they bad
come to punish was already dead;
Vijaya contacted them for help in
driving Jayakatvang from the throne. This done, Vijaya turned on his
allies, defeated them and became king under the title of Krtarasa
Jayavarddhana, with his capital at Majapahit.
The rei~n of this kin~
-.