Dalam

The Dalam was the official residence of the Sultan of Acheh — the royal palace around which the capital Banda Acheh was organised. C. Snouck Hurgronje notes that the Dutch incorrectly termed it Kraton (from the Javanese word for palace), while the Acehnese knew it as Kuta Raja (“the king’s fort”) — a name which, he observes, the Dutch improperly applied to the whole capital.

Surrounding Territory

About 24 gampongs adjoining the Dalam were administered by the Panglima Meuseugit Raya as an appurtenance of the principal mosque. These gampongs, mostly peopled by strangers or servants or slaves of the sultan, remained subject to the private lordship of the rajas but the major portion of the territory adjoining the Dalam was administered by the Panglima as an appurtenance of his mosque.

Court Life

During the brief period of prosperity of the sultanate, the court at the Dalam was the setting for elaborate ceremonial. The uleebalangs in the neighbourhood of the Dalam, together with distinguished ulamas, used to wait on the sultan during the course of the forenoon on the second or third day of feast months, being presented with articles of dress. The Teuku Kali Malikon Ade, as master of court ceremonies and on terms of greater intimacy with the royal family, would also present his felicitations on the actual feast day and receive a share of the royal slaughter. These visits and friendly meetings lasted about five days, during which men indulged excessively in gambling — strictly forbidden by Islamic law — while the village authorities were wont to shut their eyes to such transgressions.

Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Dalam

The Dalam (“interior”) was the residence of the Sultan of Acheh in Banda Acheh, and the political as well as ceremonial nucleus of the sultanate. The Dutch and other Europeans commonly, though incorrectly, termed it the Kraton; the Achehnese themselves also knew it as Kuta Raja, “the king’s fort,” a name which the Europeans in turn improperly applied to the whole capital. The word dalam in this usage is the same which appears in the styles of Malay courts throughout the Archipelago, signifying the inner precinct of the royal dwelling and, by extension, the seat of the court itself.

The nucleus of the capital

Before the Achehnese War of 1873 and after, the Dalam formed the nucleus of a number of fine and prosperous gampongs. The centre of these, with its mosque and market-place, was called Banda Acheh — “the capital or trading mart of Acheh” — and gave the tone to the whole country in matters of custom, dress and speech. The most important of the surrounding gampongs were Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lam Bhu, Lueng Bata, Lam Seunong, Ateung, Batoh and Alura’sa. Their inhabitants, with their language and customs, were distinguished by the epithet banda — town-bred, civilized. The Dalam itself, however, was set apart from all of them: it was the residence of the sovereign and the place where the principal acts of state were performed.

Ceremonies of installation

In the neighbourhood of the royal abode and of the bale ròin, in which the sultan received his guests, was a square space surrounded by a low wall. Inside this there was a platform, also square, composed of stones somewhat roughly piled together, to which access was given by a flight of steps. This platform, called branda seumah or prana seumah, was used only for coronations; at ordinary times it was neglected, so that anyone passing through the Dalam or Kuta Raja would hardly notice it. A debate lasting some weeks was first held by the three panglima sagi and other influential chiefs — in consultation, so far as they thought necessary, with the kalis and ulamas — to determine the most suitable candidate for the vacant throne. When their final decision had been sealed by the payment of the “wedding” presents to the three panglimas, a favourable day was fixed for the ceremony, and the new sultan was conducted to the branda seumah for his installation.

The court and its weakness

Even at the height of the sultanate, the Dalam was less a centre of regular administration than the seat of a court clique. The “feeble Dalam that subsisted in the capital in former days” is contrasted by Snouck Hurgronje with the personal authority of the great hereditary chiefs; in times of comparative order, the panglima sagi was and still is a mere uleebalang like the rest, and it is only in wars and other crises that the inherited influence of the court reasserts itself. Intoxicating liquors, though forbidden by Mohammedan law, were always to be found in the Dalam; Sultan Ibrahim Mansur Shah (1858–1870) was reported to have murdered his own child in a fit of drunken frenzy, and the intemperate use of strong drink in the neighbourhood of the royal stronghold appears to have assumed great proportions before the commencement of the war.

The Dalam and the calendar

The Dalam retained a number of ceremonial functions connected with the religious calendar of the sultanate. A number of guns from the Dalam at sunset on the last day of the fasting month used to convey the superfluous announcement that the first day of the feasting month had begun; guns used to be fired in the Dalam on the uroe raya from 4 A.M. till the afternoon. On the second or third day of the new month, the uleebalangs in the neighbourhood of the Dalam together with some ulamas of distinction used to wait on the sultan during the course of the forenoon, on which occasion they were presented with some articles of dress. The direct participation of the Dalam in the annual market — by Snouck’s time reduced to certain traditional customs — kept alive a feeble reminiscence of the part once played by the sultan’s court in the pepper-trade of the kingdom.

Old cannons and historic relics

When the sultans of Acheh sought to defend themselves against the Dutch, old cannons were dug up out of the ground in the Dalam and loaded with an extraordinary collection of projectiles, which on various occasions proved more fatal to the Achehnese gunners than to the enemy. Among the historical relics of the Dalam was a certain cannon, before the coming of the Dutch the principal piece in its defences, to which a popular legend attached. It was near the Dalam, too, that a number of religious instructors from Syria were said to have settled, giving their village the name of Bitay (the Achehnese pronunciation of Bayt), in remembrance of their native land.

Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Kuta Raja

Kuta Raja — literally “the king’s fort” — is the Achehnese name for the residence of the Sultan of Acheh in Banda Acheh. The same residence is also called the Dalam by the Achehnese; the Europeans, both Dutch and British, improperly applied the name Kuta Raja to the whole capital, and the Dutch colonial government retained it as the official name of the town after the conquest.

The residence and the town

In Achehnese usage, Kuta Raja is the inner royal residence — what the Dutch called the Kraton, though Snouck Hurgronje observes that this term is incorrectly applied: “The Dalam or residence of the Sultan, which we incorrectly term Kraton, and which is also known as Kuta Raja or ‘the king’s fort’ (a name which we improperly apply to the whole capital) formed before our war with Acheh the nucleus of a number of fine and prosperous gampongs.” The centre of those gampongs, with its mosque and market-place, was called Banda Acheh and gave the tone to the whole country in matters of custom and dress. The most important of these villages were Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lam Bhu, Lueng Bata, Lam Seunong, Ateung, Batoh and Alura’sa.

The coronation platform

In the neighbourhood of the royal abode and of the bale ròin in which the sultan received his guests was a square space surrounded by a low wall. Inside this there was a square platform, composed of stones somewhat roughly piled together, to which access was given by a flight of steps; at the side of this branda seumah was a small wooden gallery supported on posts. The platform was used only for coronations, and was suitably decorated on these occasions; at ordinary times it was neglected, so that “anyone passing through the Dalam or Kuta Raja would hardly notice it.” A debate lasting some weeks was first held by the three panglima sagi and other influential chiefs — in consultation with the kalis and ulamas — to determine the most suitable candidate for the vacant throne; when their decision had been sealed by the payment of the “wedding” presents to the three panglimas, a favourable day was fixed for the ceremony.

Burong Srabi and the gampong Kaje’e Jat’oe

Kuta Raja is mentioned as the locality of one of the principal episodes in the legend of Burong Srabi, the most dreaded of the burongs or female spirits that prey upon pregnant women and women in childbed. According to the legend, the body of Rabiah (Si Rabi) — slain by her lover as the two fled down the river towards the West Coast — was found near the gampong of Kaje’e Jat’oe, “just about where the hospital at Kuta Raja now stands,” and was pulled out of the water by the people of that gampong. The Kuta Raja hospital thus serves Snouck Hurgronje as a topographical landmark in fixing the site of an old Achehnese legend.

Under Dutch rule

After the Dutch conquest of the sultanate, Kuta Raja (in Dutch spelling Koetaradja) became the seat of the colonial government of Acheh. The town is repeatedly mentioned in the later pages of The Achehnese as the scene of festivals and ceremonies introduced or modified under Dutch rule. The Hasan-Husain feasts, which the purified Islam of Mecca had banished from the East Indies, “may now be witnessed year by year at Kuta Raja,” Snouck remarks, “for the most part got up by the Padang people who have settled there. Some Klings and Hindus take part in them, but the Achehnese…” The “anniversary” of a saint, observed with a kanduri and the recitation of the fatihah, was likewise occasionally celebrated in Kuta Raja in Snouck’s day.

Sources

De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapters II, III, IV, IX. pp. 9–10, 14, 18, 49.

De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 13-26.

Over de eerste expeditie tegen Atjeh: Een antwoord aan Generaal de Stuers, G. G. Booms, ‘s-Gravenhage: A. van Hoogstraten & Zoon, 1875, pp. 8-15; Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 7-12, 20-35. De Kleine Oosterling — Iets uit de Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië. Leesboekje voor de Lagere Scholen, door J. Wijma, Tweede Druk (Kampen: Laurens van Hulst, 1901), Lessen 3, 37, 38. 20260707_232246_DLP-55-De_geschiedenis_van_het_Nederlandsche_Korps_Mariniers_van_1665_1945_OCR.txt, p. 122. Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 24, 27, 32–50, 58–60, 89, 96, 99–107, 111, 116–118, 121–128, 131–135, 219–223, 266–273. De verovering van Atjeh’s groote Missigit by J.F.D. Bruinsma, Sneek, 1889. The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 97.

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

The Sultan’s palace/inner court at Koeta Radja; contact with the Dalam was not very close for the Gajos, even though they paid war contributions when messengers came with the Sultan’s seal. Radja Kemala of Alaslanden visited the Sultan in the Dalam.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 97.

Source

The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906. Chapter I, §§ 2–8, pp. 23–193.

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