SUMANTU, the collector of the bynms of the Atharva Veda, a pupil of Vyasa. Surnantu is mentioned in the Hindu Puranas as a descendant of Vasishta. Ile is said to be the author of a work on civil law. His doctrines were, that there is in nature an uncreated seed, from which all beings spring.-1Vard, iv. p. 52.
SUIsIATRA, a great island at the opening of the Eastern Archipelago. Nicol° de Conti, of Venice, returned from his oriental travels in 1449, and communicated to the secretary of Pope Eu genius v. a consistent account of what he had seen. After giving a description of the cinnamon and other productions of Zeilatn, he says he sailed to a great island named Sumatra, called by the ancients Taprobana, where he was detained one year. His account of the pepper plant, of the durian fruit, and of the extraordinary customs of the Batech or Batta people, prove Min to have been an intelligent observer. Sumatra was shortly after visited by Odoardus Barbosa, who wrote a journal of his voyage in 1516, in which Ile speaks of Sumatra with great precision. The productions of the island, he says, were chiefly exported to Catai or China. From Sumatni lie proceeded to Banda and the 'Moluccas, front thence returned by Java and Malacca to the west of India, and arrived at Lisbon in 1508.
Sumatra consists of a rectilinear belt of eleva tion, stretching frotn the parallel of Penang to that of Bantam, and shutting in the Malay Penin sula and China Sea from the Indian Oceati. Its extreme length is about 925 geographical miles, and average breadth rather more than 00 mile% The gross estimate of Lieut. Melville van Carnbee is 8035 leagnea = 128,560 English square geo graphical miles. The islands on the west coa.st give a further surface of 1300U miles. Its S.W. coast ha.s a narrow tract of low land, beyond which the mountains suddenly rise.
Talang, . . . 11,820 ft. Indrapura, esti Singalang, . . 9,534 „ mated at . . 12,253 ft.
Merapi, . . . 9,570 „ Luse, territory Sago, about . . 5,862 „ of Acheen, Ophir, . . . 9,770 „ 3° 4IY N., . . 11,2.10 „ Kalabu (west of Lombok, accord Rau), . . . 5,115 „ ing to Melville Seret Merapi, . 5,860 „ van Carnbee,
Pitya Keling, . 680 „ by triangula Luba Raja, . . 6,234 „ tion, about . 12,363 „ The island is divided into a number of petty states, the chief of which are Acheen, Deily, Lang kat, and Siak. British political relations with Acheen date as far back as 1602 ; the various attempts, however, which were made to establish a factory at Acheen) failed. In 1815 a revolution broke out, and the reigning sovereign, Jowhar Shah, a dissolute prince, was deposed, and Syl ul-Alam Shah, the son of a wealthy merchant. who was related to the royal family, was raised to the throue. After protracted negotiations, how ever, the ex-raja was restored, through the media tion of Sir Stamford Raffles, and a treaty was concluded with hitn. 1Vith Delly, Langkat, and Siak, treaties exist, but after the treaty with the Dutch, of 1824, the diplomatic connection of the British with Sumatra ceased. In Sumatra island there are at least 15 nations, and the total population has been variously estimated at from 2,500,000 t,o 7,000,000.
Netherland India, has the following settlements on the coasts of Sumatra :— 1171(1 Tribes.—There are two races, at the opposite extremes of the civilisation of the island. The one is a half - wild people, the scattered reimisnts of the aboriginal inhabitants. In the north, they are known under the name of Orang Lubu ; the /3attas describe them as having in habited Pettibi before they occupied it (Willer, Tigd. v. N. Ind. 8th y., 2d part, p. 402). They are found up the 3fandan above Sink (.1. Ander son, Mission to Sumatra, p. 349). In the south, they aro mentioned under the name of Orally, Kubu by Marsden and other writers who resided on the west coast ; and we know, from information received from Malays, that they are found in the interior on ascending most of the large rivers whose embouchures are on the east coast. Major Studer, in his account of Palembang, gives a par ticular description of the Orang Kubu, who in condition and habits entirely agree with the wilder tribes of the Malay Peninsula. The same remark applies to the Orang Gunong of Banka.