DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - History of Chitty Melakas (Straits born Hindus)

**Lillie_Steins** · 11-25-2005, 03:39 PM

A comparatively neglected and fast dwindling ethnic minority community is the Chitty Melakas or Malacca Straits-born Hindus (locally known as Peranakan).

They are the descendants of traders from the Coromandel Coast in Southern India who visited Malacca from the fifteenth century onwards.

Like the first Chinese settlers, these Hindu traders married Malays, Chinese, Javanese, and Bataks, creating a unique new culture. While many Chitty Melaka have now settled in other parts of Malaysia as well as in Singapore, the culture's historical centre is Kampung Chitty, Gajah Berang, near Malacca.

There are estimated to be about 50,000 Chitty Melakas in Malaysia and about 5,000 in Singapore.

related web sources :

http://peranakan.web1000.com/IndianPeranakans.htm

http://www.geocities.com/mlkachittii1u2/dpage6

Read Chitty as Chetty (or Shetty) and it would start making sense. The population was part of large contingents of Chettis (merchants, traders, money lenders) who travelled from South India to China taking with them large amounts of goods and bring back large amounts of goods from China and Sri Vijaya.

The Mallacca Straits was part of the Sri Vijayan Empire which was on the way from South India to China. One route was to go from Kaveripumpattinam to Kadaram (modern Kedah state in Malaysia) and then go down the straits. The other way is to overland the goods at Kadaram and take it through South China Sea.

In the same area, you will see large archaelogical finds in the Bujang Valley (Kedah province); temples, habitation, pottery, etc.

The history of such trade and settlement is way before the 15th century. We are told it is the 15th Century because that is when the European started coming there (Portugese and Dutch). As usual, we discard our own inscriptional (see http://inscriptions.whatisindia.com), literary, and archaelogical evidence and rely heavily on western sources.

Rgds, Aravind Sitaraman

11-25-2005, 03:39 PM	#2
Lillie_Steins Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 4,508 Senior Member	A comparatively neglected and fast dwindling ethnic minority community is the Chitty Melakas or Malacca Straits-born Hindus (locally known as Peranakan). They are the descendants of traders from the Coromandel Coast in Southern India who visited Malacca from the fifteenth century onwards. Like the first Chinese settlers, these Hindu traders married Malays, Chinese, Javanese, and Bataks, creating a unique new culture. While many Chitty Melaka have now settled in other parts of Malaysia as well as in Singapore, the culture's historical centre is Kampung Chitty, Gajah Berang, near Malacca. There are estimated to be about 50,000 Chitty Melakas in Malaysia and about 5,000 in Singapore. related web sources : http://peranakan.web1000.com/IndianPeranakans.htm http://www.geocities.com/mlkachittii1u2/dpage6 Read Chitty as Chetty (or Shetty) and it would start making sense. The population was part of large contingents of Chettis (merchants, traders, money lenders) who travelled from South India to China taking with them large amounts of goods and bring back large amounts of goods from China and Sri Vijaya. The Mallacca Straits was part of the Sri Vijayan Empire which was on the way from South India to China. One route was to go from Kaveripumpattinam to Kadaram (modern Kedah state in Malaysia) and then go down the straits. The other way is to overland the goods at Kadaram and take it through South China Sea. In the same area, you will see large archaelogical finds in the Bujang Valley (Kedah province); temples, habitation, pottery, etc. The history of such trade and settlement is way before the 15th century. We are told it is the 15th Century because that is when the European started coming there (Portugese and Dutch). As usual, we discard our own inscriptional (see http://inscriptions.whatisindia.com), literary, and archaelogical evidence and rely heavily on western sources. Rgds, Aravind Sitaraman
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