Kantoli was an ancient kingdom suspected to be located somewhere between

Jambi Jambi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the east coast of central Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of i ...

and Palembang in southern

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

around the 5th century of the

common era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

. The Sanskrit name for this polity is Kuntala. Chinese records indicate that " Sanfotsi was formerly called Kantoli" and this as well as the location of the kingdom have led historians to consider Kantoli as the predecessor of

Srivijaya Srivijaya (), also spelled Sri Vijaya, was a Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia) that influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important ...

. Srivijaya was referred to as Sanfotsi by the Chinese. During the reign of the

Liu Song dynasty Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties peri ...

in south China, Kantoli sent several embassies to China. Trade between the two kingdoms were established and this granted Kantoli with great wealth through heavy dependency on volume from China. With the conquest of south China by the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

, volume of trade dwindled due to the new ruler's austerity. The emperor banned all luxurious items in the courts which coincidentally were supplied by many, including Kantoli. Sri Varanarendra, king of Kan-t'o-li, sent the Hindu Rudra on an embassy to China between 454 and 464. His son, Vijayavarman, did the same in 519.

Origins

According to S.Sartono (1992), there were difficulties for merchant ships to dock at the port of Muara Tebo as a result of

siltation Siltation is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary o ...

in the bay. As a result, the port could no longer function as an ocean port. Koying State, the ruler of the Wen Bay region, was thus forced to move the trading port to the East Coast of what is now the Kuala Tungkal area. Ultimately, Koying State released the east coast area and encouraged the formation of a new government called Kantoli (Kuntal). This occurred around the 5th century of the common era. Following the formation of Kantoli, the new kingdom maintained good relations with Koying.

References

Precolonial states of Indonesia {{Indonesia-stub

Origins

See also

References