Parameswara was the name of tradition gives a prince of the city-state of Palembang in South Sumatra in Indonesia who have fled the city after an attack in 1377 by the Kingdom of Majapahit of East Java , to King Hayam Wuruk’sreign (reign 1350-1389). The prince would then have won Tumasik (now Singapore ) and the Malay Peninsula , where he founded Malacca .
Another interpretation of the available sources says that at the death of Hayam Wuruk in 1389, the ruler of Palembang repudiates his status as vassal of Majapahit. At that time, Ming China restored the trading system (which it continues to regard as an exchange between a tribute paid by its ” barbarian ” vassals and gifts to them) as well as the ban on Chinese traveling to Southeast Asia . The Prince of Palembang hoped to take advantage of the need of foreign merchants (that is, of India and the Middle East) trading with China from a port in the region, a role that century Sriwijaya (name of Palembang at the time). The Javanese would have driven him from Palembang. The prince would then have won Tumasik then Malacca on the Malay peninsula, which he would not then be the founder.
References
- Denys Lombard , The Javanese Carrefour
- MC Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1300 , Stanford, 1994
- Oliver W. Wolters, “Indonesia – The archipelago and its early historical records” in Encyclopaedia Britannica