Kedah, Malaysia’s oldest state, might be named through an ancient epic tale

The birthplace of notable Malaysians such as Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Dr. Mahathir, Kedah is known as the oldest state in Malaysia, with evidence of civilization there dating back 1,500 years ago.

And being as old as it is, Kedah went by many, many names.

Early names were either based off of iron or elephants

Thanks to its strategic location, Kedah started off in recorded history around 2 AD serving as the first Southeast Asian landfall for Indian sailors at the time after crossing the Bay of Bengal. They eventually settled there, building a port for trade, and in the process, cultivated a strong Hindu-Buddhist influence in Kedah.

The first mention of Kedah’s old name ‘Kadaram/Kataha’ comes from ancient Indian literature. In the Tamil poem Pattinappillai, there is a mention of goods from Kadaram “heaped together in the broad streets” of the Chola capital, while Indian epics described Kataha as ‘the seat of all felicities (great joys)’. The reason behind this name may lie in the fact that Kedah was a source of iron; ‘Kadaram’ translated from Sanskrit to Tamil means ‘smelting place/iron’.

Another theory is that it originated from the word ‘ditch/elephant trap’ (‘Khedda’), given the abundance of elephants in the area. Which, if you think about it, also kinda sounds like the Malay word for elephant ‘gajah’, of Sanskrit origin (‘gaja’/गज). In fact, the royals of the Langkasuka kingdom (of which Kedah and Southern Siam were a part of) used to ride on elephants:

“Thereupon King Marong Mahapodisat [son of Merong Mahawangsa] made his son mount the elephant Gemala Johari…” – Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Chinese and Arab traders later helped evolve the name to Kedah

Being a hub of regional trade, merchants from faraway lands like China and the Arab lands plied their trade in Kedah. One notable case is that of the famous Chinese-Buddhist pilgrim Yijing/I-Ching, who, having studied Sanskrit, transcribed ‘Kataha’ as ‘Chieh-Cha/Kie-Tcha’ in Chinese.

Later on, when Kedah became part of the Srivijaya kingdom, more trade began flooding in, including from Arabs, who used names such as ‘Kilah’ and ‘Kalah-bar’ to describe Kedah. Not long after, a Hindu by the name of Merong Mahawangsa is said to have taken over Kedah, calling it Langkasuka, before naming it ‘Kedah Zamin Turan’ (Persian for ‘Kedah, Land of the Descendants of Turan’), which historians believe may point to Merong’s possible Persian ancestry. It’s no longer called that, but still, cool to know.

Anyways, after writing this article, someone pointed out that we did have another more comprehensive article on how Kedah got its name, so you can check it out through this link if you want to know more. Or, if you want to discover more interesting origins of our other states’ names, pick one from the list below!

Kedah | Terengganu | Kelantan | Perlis | Johor

Selangor | Penang | Perak | Pahang | Malacca

Negeri Sembilan | Sabah | Sarawak | Federal Territories