Page 30 - Hikayat-Patani-The-Story-Of-Patani 1

A SHORT HISTORY OF PATANI 21

and need not be repeated here;114 but its main themes require emphasis.
The most consistent feature of this period was the great political turmoil,
centring on the office of the prime minister — thus reinforcing Ger-
vaise’s statement reproduced above. Whether or not the rulers of the
dynasty really came from the royal line of Kalantan (and Kalantan’s
history during this period is at least as confused as that of Patani115),
they very obviously were just as much figurehead rulers as the queens
they succeeded. It is notable that each change of ruler during the Kalan­
tan Dynasty was accomplished after consultation with the notables of
the state;116 and notable too that the bendaharas and their rivals seem
regularly to have preferred ruling in the name of a king to taking power
in their own hands.117
In terms of the tentative chronology put forward below,118 the
Kalantan Dynasty ruled in Patani for 41 years. There were eight rulers
during this period — one of whom was a queen from outside the family
— and ten different bendaharas who served a total of fourteen different
terms; figures which surely reflect serious political difficulties, as does
the reign of Raja Dewi as queen from 1707 to 1716. At several points
in this period it is possible to identify pro-Thai and anti-Thai factions;
but on the whole the conflict would appear to have reflected personal
ambitions and personalities rather than great cultural or political issues
(with the notable exception of the rebellion against a Thai governor and
bendahara around 1700).119 The Thai, both from the capital in
Ayudhya and from Thai provincial centres neighbouring Patani, fre­
quently were on both sides of the conflict in Patani; a fact which is not
surprising in a period when Thai central control was weak, and the
southern provinces in particular were giving the capital a great deal
of trouble. As in Cambodia at the same time, the situation was ripe for
outside interference, encouraged by local contenders for power and made
possible in the absence of serious warfare with other major powers.
This was a situation, however, which could not last indefinitely: its
toll in human life and economic disruption must have been severe. It
would appear that the Kalantan Dynasty finally failed Patani. Baginda,
whose second reign probably was from 1721 to 1728, was the last ruler

114 An attempt at reconstructing this period is given below, Chapter VI, section
23—25,28.
315 Cf. Rentse, 1934; Mohd. Taib Osman, 1961.
116 E.g., HP text, pp. 74—77.
117 HP text, pp. 77—78.
118 See below, Chapter VI, section 23—25, 28. A survey is given in Table 2.
118 HP text, p. 85.