The Sri Bija Diraja is entrusted overlordship of Singapura

Historical sources provide glimmers of insight into Singapore’s political system during the period between 1300 and 1600. The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) mentions five kings, the first of whom, Sri Tri Buana, was the first Malay ruler to use the title Maharaja and to be enthroned with the use of the sacred musical instruments known as nobat. Chinese sources of the 14th century note that Temasek had a “ruler”, but do not describe his government. With the founding of Malacca in 1400, Singapura’s role in the Malay Annals changed from the capital to the domain of the son of an official with the title Sri Bija Diraja; apparently Singapura had been Sri Bija Diraja’s fief as well. The Sri Bija Diraja held an important office: Laksamana, commander of the sultanate's maritime forces.^[1]

Hang Tuah, the most heroic figure in Malacca, held the office of Laksamana. Thus the greatest hero in the Malay Annals was directly associated with Singapura. During the reign of Sultan Mansur Shah, one of Malacca's most glorious periods, Singapura was mentioned as possessing 40 cruisers large enough to have three masts each.^[2] Singapura was apparently the most important source of naval strength at the time, perhaps a result of the large number of Orang Laut (“Sea People”) who lived in Temasek and on neighbouring islands. Malacca, on the other hand, did not have an indigenous seafaring population.

The name Singapura disappears from the Malay Annals in the 10th chapter, during Mansur Shah’s reign. It is replaced by Ujung Tanah, which means “Land’s End”, and included Malacca’s domains in the southern Malay Peninsula and Bintan.

Portuguese sources provide a different story about early Singapore. Tomé Pirés, a Portuguese apothecary and author who played an important role in Malacca after the Portuguese conquest of the city in 1511, compiled an important report on Malacca and its surrounding territories. He had access to numerous sources which no longer exist. Pirés’s account claims that Malacca was founded not by Iskandar Shah (as the Malay Annals had recorded), but by Parameswara, whose name does not appear in the Malay Annals. According to Pirés, Parameswara was a Sumatran noble who fled to Singapore from Palembang when it was attacked by Java. Eight days after arriving, Parameswara assassinated the local chief, who was known by the title Sang Aji.^[3] The title sengaji was used as the equivalent of “prince” on the island of Bima until 1917.^[4] João de Barros, another Portuguese, wrote in 1553 that Parameswara fled from Palembang to Temasik, killed a ruler named Sangesinga, and ruled for five years with the help of the Orang Laut or Çelates (name is derived from the Malay word selat which means “strait”), who were hated by the people of Singapura.

Pirés listed three kings with the title Sang Aji: the rulers of Palembang, Pontianak, and Singapura. All were vassals of Java, but the Singapura ruler was said to have married a daughter of the Siamese king, as well as a Patani noblewoman. Thus the Singapura ruler would have been related by marriage to both Ayutthaya’s king and the Patani Malay nobility.

When Pirés arrived in the region, the Çelates were the only people who lived in Singapura. He provides the following description of the island: “The Synggapura channel. It has a few Çelates villages; it is nothing much. From there onwards the said kingdom does not extend any further on land. This canal is a thing of little importance – I mean the people who live there”.^[5] Çelates Bajaus lived near Singapura and Palembang, and were always seen in the company of Parameswara. They held the hereditary offices of Bendahara and Laksamana. In the 17th century, the Sea People of Singapura had a chief who went by the high-sounding title of Raja Negara Selat. The title means “king of the country [or town] of the Straits”.^[6]

References
1. Sejarah Melayu, or, Malay Annals. (1970). (C.C. Brown, Trans.) (pp. 117–8). Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. Call no.: RSING 959.503 SEJ.
2. Sejarah Melayu, or, Malay Annals, 1970, p. 67.
3. Pirés, T. (1944). The Suma oriental of Tomé Pirés, an account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan, written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, and The book of Francisco Rodrigues, rutter of a voyage in the Red Sea, nautical rules, almanack and maps, written and drawn in the East before 1515 (A. Cortesao, Trans.) (p. 232) [Microfilm: NL 14208 (Vol. 1), NL 26012 (Vol. 2)]. London: Hakluyt Society.
4. LeBar, F. M. (Ed.). (1972). Ethnic groups of insular Southeast Asia. (Volume I:  Indonesia, Andaman Islands, and Madagascar) (p. 71). New Haven:  Human Relations Area Files Press. Call no.: RSEA 301.20959 ETH v.1.
5. Pirés, 1944, p. 262.
6. Andaya, L.Y. (1975). The Kingdom of Johor, 1641–1728: A study of economic and political developments in the Straits of Malacca (pp. 256, 259, 264, 281, 288). Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.