Epigraphy 6

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SOUTH-INDIA IN OLD-JAVANESE AND SANSKRIT INSCRIPTIONSAuthor(s): HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARReviewed work(s):Source: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Deel 125, 2de Afl. (1969), pp. 193-206

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SOUTH-INDIA IN OLD-JAVANESE ANDSANSKRIT INSCRIPTIONS*

The art ofwriting inmany places of South-East Asia is generallybelieved to have been derived, to use a generic term, fromsouthern India. Epigraphists have designated this script as 'Vengi',be knownin native parlance as Aksara Buddha or Buddhist writing. In broadterms, the phrase signifies pre-Muslim writing.2 An episode, however,in the history of the Old-Javanese palaeography was the introductionof the Pre-N?gar? script in the late eighth centuryA.D. The script hasbeen used in the Sanskrit inscriptions ofKalasan,3 K?lurak,4 Plaosan,5Sajivan,6 etc. It also emerges in the script of Sumatra and Cambodiafor a brief spell of time, presumably due to the influence of the P?lamonarchs of Bengal and the Sailendra monarchs of theMalayo-Indonesian world. The Pre-N?gar? script of the 8th century and the* This article was originally read as a paper at a meeting of the II InternationalConference: Seminar of Tamil Studies, which held its session at Madrasbetween the 3rd and 11th January 1968.1Vide Kern, VG VII, pp. 67 ff.;Krom, HJG, p. 5. The latest edition is byde Casparis inTBG 81 (1941) pp. 499 ff.A revised editionof the inscription

by the present author is to be found in the R. C. Majundar Felicitation Volume.(For abbreviations, see at the end of this article.)2 Gonda, Sanskrit in Indonesia, p. 32.3 Bosch inTBG 68 (1928) pp. 3-16, 57-62 and Pl. II.

4 Ibid., pp. 17-56.5 De Casparis, Prosasti Indonesia II pp. 175 ff.6 Ibid., Vol. I pp. 21-22. For a general study of the pre-N?gar? inscriptions,one can profitably consult these volumes.

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194 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARProto-Bengali script of the 13th- 14th century 7were however severelylimited in regard to time and space and do not appear, at the presentstage of our knowledge, to have permanently affected the evolution ofa national script for important members of the Austronesian familyof languages. The modern Javanese script is the successor of the OldJavanese script as found in the Dinaja inscription referred to>above.The Pallava-Grantha character, as adapted in Java, led, I believe,to the evolution of national scripts in several islands in the vicinity ofJava. Such, for instance,was the case in regard to Sundanese, Madureseand Balinese scripts. The Sumaitran script of the Middle Ages is alsobelieved to have developed out of this script. The Batak handwritingof Central Sumatra is merely a variation of the Javanised Pallavascript. The simplification introduced into the Batak writing is believedby Gonda 8 to have been due to thewriting materials used, for instance,tree bark or sap-wood. The R?jang and Lampong scripts of SouthSumatra also bear remarkable affinity with the Javanised PallavaGrantha character. Kern thought that the ancient alphabets of theBugis and the Macassars of Celebes were evolved out of an ancientcommon Malay or Sumatran script of the same family.According tosome scholars, the old Filipino and old Tagalog scripts seem also to bederived fromDravidian sources.9 A thorough study of the palaeographyof South-East Asia is thus absolutely necessary to determine the natureand extent of the infiltration of the art ofwriting from India and theexact provenance thereof.These preliminary observations are necessary for an intelligentappreciation of the contribution made by southern India in the evolutionof the Old-Javanese script.De laVall?e-Poussin had once described palaeography as une petitescience conjecturale. In the absence of directly dated inscriptions, it isno doubt difficult to establish a firm framework for the study of history,but as matters stand now, the palaeography of the earliest epigraphs,7 Such Proto-Bengali scripts are to be found on the back of some sculpture ofEast Java and in some terra-cotta votive tablets of Burma. I read these

inscriptions about thirty years back, but I have not noticed any comprehensivestudy on the subject. As centres of Buddhist learning in eastern India werebeing destroyed by Muslim invaders towards the beginning of the thirteenthcentury, the sudden appearance of Proto-Bengali scripts in Java and perhapsin some other places of S.E. Asia may indicate the dispersal of Buddhistsfrom Bengal to this region. A thorough study of the subject would behighly desirable.8 Op. Cit., p. 32.9 Ibid. See also Tamil Culture XI (1964) pp. 58-91.



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196 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARBorneo and southern India, as far as this has been made, reveals thefact that these inscriptions fromwestern Java have probably to> e placedin c. 450 A.D., though there are advocates to place them in the 6thcentury A.D. It is difficult to be dogmatic about this date, as therewas not much change in Pallava-Grantha characters between 400 and750 A.D. Of the four records under review,11 the oldest character hasbeen used in theCi-arutan inscription.With it, fair similarity has beenmaintained by theTugu inscription,which has the additional advantageof being dated in the 22nd year of the king. The K?bon Kopi andthe Jambu inscriptions, on the other hand, betray a somewhat laterdevelopment of the script, as we find herein vowel-strokes developedinto ornamental curves. It is however possible that this variation isdue to the decorative style ofwriting of the copyists employed.In 1933, a very short inscription was found incised on a megalithicboulder at Rambipuji near the Lumajang-Lamber road in a corner ofEast Java.12 The script is in the same style as in the records ofwesternJava referred to above and thus pertains to the 5th centuryA.D. It readsthus:

PA-RVVA-TE-sVA-RA i.e. Lord of themountain.The occurrence of this record on a boulder which may perhaps beimagined to represent a miniature-hill may refer either to Siva whois universally recognised as the Lord of the Mountain, or may evensignify a sanctified object of indigenous popular worship, as foundinvoked in the imprecatory formula of the Old-Javanese inscriptions.It is no doubt hazardous to determine the age of this inscription onthe basis of only five letters, but they resemble the scripts of the5th century A.D. to be found in tracts dominated by the Pallavas. Ifthis view be deemed to be correct, itwould naturally signify that therewere several waves of migration from the tracts where the Pallavaslived. Viewed in a broad context, itwas a big movement, which spreadout over two or three centuries in considerable parts of South-EastAsia. The history of the art and architecture in South-East Asia lendsgeneral support to this view, unless new discoveries change or modifythe present interpretation of facts.The script of both Java and South India was evolving. It is therefore11 These inscriptions were edited, amongst others, by J. Ph. Vogel in Pubi. Oudh.Dienst I (1925) pp. 15-35, with plates. "Latest edition by H. B. Sarkar inJAS I (1959) pp. 135 ff.12 Stutterheim n BKI 95 (1937) pp. 397-401.



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SOUTH-INDIA IN OLD-JAVANESE AND SANSKRIT INSCRIPTIONS 197

difficult to say, on the basis of inscriptional data, whether the flourishingof the cultural life of Central Java is to be attributed mainly to> theimmigration of Javanised South Indians from thewestern part of Java,where therewas already a South Indian settlement in the 5th centuryA.D., oir to fresh influx ofmigrants from the Pallava tracts of southernIndia. It is always a risky job to come to a definite conclusion on thebasis of a short text or of a few letters!.We have therefore to realiseour limitations in this regard, particularly because there is a gap ofover 250 years between the series ofWest Javanese inscriptions andtheTuk Mas inscription.The Tuk Mas inscription is incised on a detached boulder at thefoot of the volcano ofMerbabu.13 It is written in Sanskrit verses in

Upaj?ti metre describing the sanctity of theGanges. It is undated, buton palaeographic grounds it has been placed14 in c, 650 A.D., whilethe following Canggal inscription ofKing Sa?jaya is dated in 732 A.D.15Thus there is a gap of about 80 years between the two' inscriptions.Both the Javanese inscriptions referred to above are written in thePallava style.Kern has already observed that the script of the Canggalinscription has also been used in theHarth Khiai inscription of Cambodia and in theUruvalli copper-plates of thePallavas.16 If it is possibleto imagine, on the basis of palaeography, the composition of theHinduised society in the region of Tuk Mas, we can postulate thatthere were immigrants from the Pallava-tracts of southern India andif the religious symbols depicted by the side of the inscription be anyguide, therewere Vaisnavas and Saivas in that region. The followingCanggal inscription, also written in Pallava style, as stated before,indicates that, within 80 years, the Saiva influence predominated. Itwould however be risky to say that the Saivism, as reflected in theCanggal inscription, was directly derived from the Saivism of the TukMas region and not from India. The problems are so complex andthe data someagre that one must hesitate to express any opinion.The Canggal inscription is an important one and in verse 7 it referstoKuf?jaraku?jadesa. The older school of scholars took it to be a placelocated in the borderland between Tinnevelly and Travancore andsupposed that a temple dedicated to Siva was shifted, as itwere, from13Vide in this connexion .C. Chabra in JASBL I (1935) pp. 34-35.14 Krom, op. cit., p. 103.15Latest editionbyH. B. Sarkar inJAS I (1959) pp. 183 ff.16 VG VII, pp. 123 ff. For linguistic peculiarities of this inscription, see speciallypp. 125-127.



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198 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARthat place to Java. King Sa?jaya, who set up the Sivalinga on theVukir-hill in Central Java and recorded that event in this inscriptionwas therefore believed to have dynastic or other connexions with theregion called Ku?jaradari, which lay, according to the Brhatsamhit?,17between Kach and Tamraparni. It was also celebrated as a place whereAgastya-worship was prevalent. The seer Agastya made a deep impacton the religious life of South-East Asia in ancient times and a templewas dedicated to him inJava as early as 760 A.D.18 All these indicationsmight tempt

one to postulate that the origin of the first importantdynasty of Mataram, its Siva and Agastya worship have ultimatelyto be traced to southern India. The position was somewhat changedwhen the text was proposed to be read as: sr?mat ku?jaraku?jadesanihitarn gang?dit?rth?vrtani. Scholars then tried to find out Ka?jaraku?ja in Java itself, though without success. It seems tome that thetranslation of the text iswrong and that verse 7 should be translatedas follows :

"There is a great island called Yava, abundantly supplied with ricegrains and other seeds and rich ingold-mines. That (island) is acquiredby the immortals (by mantras) and other means ; where there is awonderful place dedicated to Sambhu, a heaven of heavens surroundedby theGang? and other holy resorts and laid in a beautiful woodlandhabitated by elephants, existing for the good of theworld."19This translation puts an end to the romance of Ku?jaraku?ja buteven then the connexion with southern India is unmistakable. SouthIndian people have also found elaborate mention in a record from the9th century A.D. I refer to the Jaha inscription of 840 A.D.20 As theCanggal inscription is dated in 732 A.D., there would appear to be agap in our knowledge of South-Indians in Java for a little over 100years. This Jaha inscriptionmentions theKling people. The inscriptionis believed by many scholars to be unauthentic,21 but it seems to>methat when attempt was made in the Singhasari-Majapahit period toadapt the older charters to the idiom of contemporary Java, the copyistsor editors of the old charters might have committed mistakes on accountof their ignorance or illegibility of the same. These mistakes do notnecessarily signify that the original charter was fabricated. An indirect

? XIV : 16.18 F. . 1 above and Poerbatjaraka, A gostya in den Archipel (1926) pp. 43 ff.19 H. B, Sarkar, op. cit. (see note 15).20 C. Stuart, KO II.21 Pararaton, 1st edn. (VBG 49) pp. 94-98; revised edn. VBG 62, pp. 112-116.



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support to the proposition regarding the familiarity of the name comesfrom the Chinese annals. In theNew History of theVang dynasty(618-906 A.D.), we come across the name of a kingdom called Ho-ling,which is usually believed to be the Chinese transcription of the famousname Ralinga and is generally located in Central Java, though therewere advocates to place it in theMalay Peninsula.22 It seems that theemergence of Ho4ing = Kalinga synchronised with waves of freshimmigration through some ports ofKalinga, but it does not necessarilymean that all of these immigrants were Kalinga people

23 In any case,emigration through the ports of Kalinga must have been heavy, as itsucceeded in establishing a new settlement in Central Java or rechristening an old State of that region under a new name. Ho-linghad an importance of its own, but this is not the place to discuss thematter in detail.24 In the Jaha inscription stated above, in themarginof plate no?. 5b, in the 3rd and 4th lines,we read the following statement :

"C?mpa, Kling, Haryya, Singa, Gola, Cvalika, Malyal?, Karnak?,Reman, Kmir ..The names are striking and refer toCampa (Annam), Kalinga, ?rya,Simhala, Gauda, Colika, Malayala, Karn?taka, R?m?n and Khmer.The names which are doubtless South Indian include Kalinga, Colika,Malayala and Karn?taka. Assuming that the charter is genuine, itwould appear that the people of theKalinga-tracts between theMa?anad! and the God?var?, the Cola people, the people of the Malabarcoast and Ca?ara had come into prominence in Java towards themiddleof the ninth century. A.D. Among other people referred to in thecharter, the ?ryas appear to signify either theAryans of northern Indiaor Hindus of non-Dravidian stock living in southern India. In theBrhatsamhit? (XIV), a place called Aryaka is located between Ceryaand Ceylon. Of these names, Kling became the moist famous. As apersonal or place-name, it did not disappear from the inscriptionalrecords of Java. As a matter of fact,we find, among the hundreds ofproper names in the charters of Central Java,, only one person bearingthe name of Si (i.e. Sri) Kling. He was associated with the foundationof a Siva-temple.25 Kling as a place-name did not also disappear from22Kg. Schlegel inToung Pao I, pp. 9 ff. II pp. 273 ff. Moens in TBG 77pp. 350 ff. For discussion regarding difficulties in locating the place, videDamais in BEFEO XLVIII (1957) pp. 612 and 644; Coed?s, Les EtatsHindou?s?s, etc. (1964) p. 151.23 Gonda, op. cit., pp. 25 ff.24 The data have been discussed in detail by Damais, op. cit., pp. 612 and 644-45.25 Text inBEFEO 47 (1955) p. 24.



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200 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARthe inscriptions of Java, as later testimony would demonstrate. Weshall discuss these data in due course.

If we turn from Central Java to the eastern part of the island, itwould appear that the people of that region had also come into contactwith the people from southern India. An inscription of king Airlangga(1019-42 A.D.) refers to the fact that people from various countrieshad come to his kingdom through ports situated on the river Brantas.The river had burst its banks at Varingin Sapta (mod. Varingin pitu)and caused great miseries to the people and Airlangga had to builda dam to stop it. It caused great joy toi the foreign merchants andcaptains of ships who thronged the port ofHujung Galuh.26 Who theseforeignerswere has been referred to in several Old-Javanese charters.27Among the foreigners,we come across the names of people who hailedfromKling, ?ryya, Gola, Singhala, Karnataka, Colika, Malayala, Pandikira, Dravida, Campa, Remen and Kmir. Some of these places arealready mentioned in the Jaha inscription described above. If we compare the two lists, itwould appear that the present list is somewhatdifferent from the earlier one and cannot therefore be called stereotyped.The new names introduced here are those of Pandikira and Dravidaand the order of names are not exactly similar. The Pandikiras obviously refer to the P?ndya and theKera people and they still survivein the Malay Pendekar.28 Thus we have here precise data from theinscriptions bearing on the ethnic groups of people from southern Indiawho had gone to Java and possibly other places of Indonesia forcommercial or other purposes. Of these names, Karnataka, calledKarnnake in Old-Javanese charters, became so popular in Java thatpeople are found in the foundation-charters to bear names like K?rnnakendra and K?rnnakesvara.29 Goods coming from foreign countriesare also referred to in an inscription dating from the reign of the sameking Airlangga : "... yan pavlivli bh?nda adgan ri par?d?sa...", thusreferring to saleable commodities which came from foreign lands.I have already mentioned which these foreign lands were. I made athorough search of the Old-Javanese inscriptions hitherto publishedfor any trace of themerchant-guilds of southern India like the n?n?desis,26 OJO no. LXI.27 Ibid., nos. LVIII, LIX and LXIV.28 For general discussion of these names, vide Kram, op. cit., p. 264 & 265 ;

Kern, VG III, p. 71; VII, p. 30; Ferrand, Relations de voyages et TextesG?ographiques Arabes, etc., I, p. 97; R. C. Majumdar, Suvarnadv?pa I p. 271;Coed?s, op. cit., pp. 268-9.29 OJO no. LVIII, dated 1135A.D.



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for instance, but without any success. It is however unthinkable that,after penetrating into the markets of Sumatra in 1088 A.D., as theLovu Tuvu inscription indicates,30 such merchant-guilds would notextend the field of their operations to themore prosperous neighbouringisland of Java. The Cola-raids of earlier decades must also have madeadditional contribution to the creation of a favourable climate.But the joy of the foreignmerchants referred to in the inscriptionof king Airlangga mentioned above did not necessarily mean that theywere always welcome in at least some of the freeholds established forreligious purposes during his reign. In fact, restrictions were putin themovement of such foreigners, including South Indians, in suchfreeholds.31Merchandise from foreign lands, beyond a certain limit,was expressly forbidden from the religious foundation ofVimal?sramain East Java.32 Although the South Indians were not alone in this

discriminatory arrangement, the very fact of restriction implies thatthey came in large numbers. All these records have been from theresidency of Surabaya. Consequently, the Brantas river and the KaliMas were the principal

means for the transportation of merchandisefrom southern India into the interior tracts of eastern Java. Thetributaries like theKali Konto and theKali K?ling further served aschannels for the introduction of South Indian goods into the hinterland.The very name of Kali K?ling is suggestive.Whatever may be the circumstances leading to the emergence ofHo-ling as a kingdom in Central Java or to the occurrence of Klingin the epigraphy and geography ofEast-Java, one should not lose sightof the fact that the termKling (? Kalinga) had the same adventure asthe Greek word Iawones, a term which was used by the Indians todenote any Greek, subsequently theMuslime and even theEuropeans.33The commercial activities of theOrang K?ling i.e. the people ofKalinga,which denoted, in a general way, the Tamils, South Indians and eventhe Indians in general, were greatly responsible for the popularity ofthe name in the epigraphy of Java. One should have expected, in thiscontext, the inclusion ofmany Tamil loan words in the Old-Javanesevocabulary. Excepting one case of Pr?krt intrusion, there is not a singlenon-Sanskritic Indian word in the charters of Central Java numberingover one hundred. Unless some obscure words in the charters ofEast3? .A. . Sastri in TB G 72 (1932) pp. 314 ff.31 OJO nos. LVIII, LIX and LXIV.32 OJO no. CXII.33 Gonda, op. cit., pp. 25-6 and f. . 15.



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202 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARJava conceal any word of South Indian origin, the charters are writteninOld-Javanese with a liberal dose of Sanskrit words, especially at thepreamble or beginning. Tamil loan-words in Indonesian vocabularyhowever increased considerably between the 15th and 19th centurieson account of the commercial activities of theTamil people. The Hinduand theMuslim Tamils of the port regions ofMalacca and the adjacentareas who kept their accounts in Tamil were mainly responsible forthis state of affairs. These loan-words in theMalayo-Indonesian vocabulary belong to the domain of trade and commerce.From the Orang Keling, let us now return to the time of kingAirlangga. I do not wish here to refer to themilitary expeditions ofthe Colas against the Sailendra empire of Sumatra and Malaya, asthese lie outside the scope of the present paper, but I have to referto an interesting phenomenon which has so far baffled the scholars.As I have said before, inscriptions of the time of king Airlangga referto many people from southern India thronging in the port-areas ofeastern Java. This reference occurs when the Sailendra empire wasbeing convulsed by theCola-invasions. Ifwe think of these two phenomena together, itmay not be impossible that the phrase haji vuravarian vijil sangke lvar?m i.e. the king of Vuravari, when he came fromLvar?m,34 occurring in an inscription of king Airlangga, but referringto the destruction of Dharmmavamsa and his kingdom in the year1007 A.D., may refer to a kingdom in southern India, thus being theprecursor of themore adventurous Cola-invasions of subsequent times.The word Vuravari inOld-Javanese means 'clearwater', while Lvar?mmay signify 'sweet water'. Although some scholars have triedto tracethe name in some rather obscure localities in Java and Malaya,35I should like to point out certain strange coincidences, which may temptus to seek for the land in southern India. I refer to a kingdom calledBaruvara in some inscriptions from theMysore area,36 but since thekingdom in question has not been placed in the list in any sense ofgeographical sequence, it is difficult toi establish its exact location. Ifthis be in southern India and Vuravari be the corrupted form of Baruvara, a search should be made for the exact location of this ephemeralkingdom. The way in which it has been mentioned in the Mysoreinscriptions seems to indicate that itwas not a very insignificant kingdom, though it did not long survive. The second coincidence is the34 OJO no. LXII.35 Vide Krom, op. cit., pp. 239-40.36 Ep. Carmtica IV, Hg. 17; VII, sk. 118.



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claim ofRaj ar?ja I to have conquered in 1007 A.D. 'ships (at) KandaharSalai... and twelve thousand ancient islands of the sea.' 37Whetherwe hold the view that these 12000 islands refer to the Maldives38or these and other islands, it is strange that the dates coincide withthe destruction of the kingdom of Dharmmavamsa in eastern Java.Can all these strange coincidences signify thatR?jar?ja I and the kingof Baruvara collaborated in naval expeditions and that,while the kingof Baruvara destroyed the kingdom of Dharmmavamsa, the Colamonarch led naval expeditions against other islands? The only otherpowerful king who could have destroyed the kingdom of Dharmmavamsa was the Sailendra ruler of Sumatra and Malaya, but he hasnowhere been mentioned. Besides>, the ultimate defeat and death ofthe king of Vuravari at the hands of king Airlangga preclude thispossibility. This major enterprise from southern India, which wastemporarily crowned with resounding success, but ultimately provedto be very costly for the king of Vuravari, seems to' be echoed inanother inscription of king Airlangga.39 The relevant portion of thetext reads as follows:

8. Bh?ratavarsa, kapva pranata mastaka sahanikanang musuh parangmukha sa... ri paradv?pa paramandala ...I should like to translate the passage thus : "Bh?ratavarsa, all heads(bowed down) in obeisance, along with enemies fully disinclined (tofight)... from other islands and other circles..This passage has not received adequate attention from scholars, butthe use of the word Bh?ratavarsa, followed by expressions denotingdefeat of enemies, seems to be significant from the point of viewelaborated above. It was the victorious conclusion of the war whichenabled him, I believe, to describe himself as ratu cakravartti, LordParamount, in the line immediately following. I therefore offer atentative suggestion, thatHaji of Vuravari is the same as the king ofBaruvara in southern India; that he and R?jar?ja I undertook overseasexpeditions in 1007 A.D. ; thatwhile the latter conquered other islandsof the Indian Ocean, the king of Baruvara destroyed the kingdom ofDharmmavamsa, but he was ultimately defeated by king Airlangga.This exploratory invasion by the king of Baruvara paved theway for37 Ibid., Vol. IX, nos. 128, 130, 131, 132 of Channapatna. Taluq. Translationpp. 159-161. Vide in this connexion, R. C. Majundar, op. cit., p. 171 and

Coed?s, op. cit., p. 261.38 .A. N. Sastri, The Colas (2nd ed.), p. 183 and f.n. 72 with references thereinand hisHistory of ?rlvijaya, p. 79, note 13.39 OJO no. LXIV, Face A, line 8.



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204 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARthemore successful naval expeditions of the Cola monarchs. The slightdifference in the names of Vuravari and Baruvara need not be aninsuperable objection, as the experience from different inscriptionsproves that almost all geographical names from India have got corruptedin Java. However, in view of the paucity of the data, all questionsarising out of this proposition can not be adequately answered now,but I offer this suggestion for a study of the problem from a new pointof view. If this interpretation be correct, one can understand why kingAirlangga put restrictions

on the trade of foreigners in the templezone,which no other previous or succeeding ruler of Java had ever done.I have already referred to the fact that the country ofKalinga figuresin the inscriptions of king Airlangga. The name did not disappear fromthe inscriptions of Java. A juru kling i.e. a headman of Kling ismentioned in an inscription dated 1194 A.D.40 The name also appearsin an inscription from Jiju in theMojokerto division of the residencyof Surabaya; the inscription is to be dated in the last quarter of the15th century A.D.41 Here king Girindravardhana has been designatedBhat?re Kling i.e.Lord ofKling. The name is reminiscent ofKalinga ofIndia, but both the references seem toi indicate the principality lying totheNorth-West of K?diri by the side of the river Kali K?ling.42For about three centuries after the reign of king Airlangga, theinscriptions of Java do not reveal any story of contact with South India.That is, to a great extent, understandable, as almost all theOld-Javaneseand Sanskrit inscriptions of Java are charters connected with thefoundation of freeholds for deities. Obviously there was hardly anyscope to refer, except very casually and rarely, to political and commercial affairs of the State. Not until we come to 1314A.D., when the Blitarinscription 43was issued under the orders of king Jayanagara, do we findany data connecting Java with South India. In this and the Sidot?ka40 OJO no. LXXIII.41 OJO no. XCIV. In this connexion, I must express my thanks to the Editorsfor kindly inviting my attention to an inscription from 1447 (sakavars?t?ta

1368) published in the Jaarboek Bat. Gen., 1938, pp. 117-18, where Gir?ndravardhana has been described as bhatt?reng kling (i.e. king of kling) andKamalavarnnadev? as bhattara ring kalinggapura (i.e. Queen of Kalinggapura).It appears from the contemporary records that Kling and Kalinggapura weretwo of the several administrative units in the Majapahitan empire of thattime. The popularity and importance of the name Kling-Kalingga is thusdemonstrated once again.42Verbeek, NBG (1889) pp. 10ff.43 OJO no. LXXXII. This inscription is badly damaged, but the name alsoreappears in the Sidot?ka inscription. The latter inscription has been editedand translated by H. B. Sarkar. In JGIS II (1935).



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inscription of 1323 A.D., we find the king assuming the curious titlesr? Sundara P?ndyadev?dh?svaran?ma-r?j?bhiseka Vikramottungadeva.A nobleman also bears in the Sidoteka inscription the name of Sundar?dhir?jad?sa. Another surprising thing is that the seal mark of the kingwas minadvaya or two fishes,which was also a P?ndya-custom. At thepresent state of our knowledge, it would be too much to read anypolitical significance in the matter, but one may perhaps admit thatthephenomenon demonstrates close contact, be it cultural or commercial,with southern India. This contact continued unabated at least up to1365 A.D., because theN?garakrt?gama,44' which was composed in thatyear, refersto merchants and Br?hmanas coming from Karn?taka andGauda. The Buddhist monk Buddh?ditya of Sadvih?ra inK?nc? (Conjeeverum) and the Brahmin Mutali45 Sahrdaya came to the Javanesecourt ofHayam Vuruk. The former composed a Bhog?vali in Sanskritslokas, while the latter paid "praise in slokas".46K??c? referred to in the N?garakrt?gama is thrice mentioned inanother inscription from Jiju, which is to be dated in the last quarterof the 15th century A.D.47 One of these references pertain to sanghyang dharma ring ka?ci, thus a religious foundation at Ka?ci, butthe drift of the passage indicates it to be a place located somewherein the subdivision ofMojokerto>, and not toK?nc? of southern, althoughthe need for further clarification of thematter still remains.

These are all the data we can possibly have from a study of theOld-Javanese and Sanskrit inscriptions of Java. Unless we supplementthese data f om other sources, our study of the sub ject of overseastrade and cultural contact ofTamil-India with what was once a GreaterIndia is likely to be blurred in many respects. These other sourcesinclude literary and inscriptional data from both India and Indonesia,thewritings of western and Arab, including Persian, geographers, thetravels of Chinese pilgrims, relics of sculptural and architectural art ofthe mainland of India and South-East Asia, the whole range of itspalaeography, social customs., myths and legends, historical traditionand folk-tales, the names of localities, rivers and hills, loanwords, etc.It is a stupendous task which must necessarily spread over years.48

HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKAR44 83 : 4.45 Supposed by Kern to be the equivalent of Mudaliyar.46 93 : 1.47 OJO p. 224.48 Cf. Gonda, op. cit., p. 24.



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206 HIMANSU BHUSAN SARKARPostscript:

I am thankful to theEditors for invitingmy attention toB. Schrieke'sRulers and Realm in Java (Indonesian Sociological Studies, Vol. II,1957) pp. 213-15, where the author has discussed the question of thelocation of Vuravari. Since it was not my intention to discuss allthe suggestions made regarding the location of this place, I merelyreferred to Krom's HJG in passing. I should have possibly referredto the names of Rouffaer and Schrieke in this connexion in the footnote.In any case, since I have been offered an opportunity to revert to thesubject, I should like to observe that, with the available data, it ishardly possible to come to any definite conclusion regarding the locationofVuravari. It has been known for a long time that there are severalVuravaris in Java and Malaya/Sumatra. It is doubtful if any one ofthem can be proved, apart from the inscription of King Airlangga,to have been a kingdom in the beginning of the 11th century A.D. Asmatters stand now, the history of theVoravari of 1360 (Rouffaer inBKI, 77, 1921 pp. 22 & 168) and of theVorah-Varih of the 18th and19th centuries, as mentioned by Schrieke, can not be pushed back atpresent to the time ofAirlangga. I doi not, of course, wish to meanthereby that there could not be any kingdom of that name in Java or

Malaya/Sumatra in the early eleventh century A.D., but that thepresent data are too meagre to support that view. As against thesedifficulties, I have invited attention to the advantage of the claim of acontemporary kingdom Baruvara from Southern India at a timewhenthe naval arms of the Colas were already conquering islands in theIndian ocean in 1007 A.D.

H. B. S.ABBREVIATIONS

Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.Krom, Hindoe-Javaansche Gesehiedenis, 1931.Journal of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.Journal and Proceedings Asiatic Society of Bengal (Letters).Journal of the Greater India Society, Calcutta.Cohen Stuart, Kawi Oorkonden.Notulen van het Bataviaas Genootsehap van K. enW.Brandes-Krom, Oud-Javaansche Oorkonden.Tijdschrift v. Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van het Bat. Gen.Verhandelingen van het Bataviaas Genootsehap.Kern, Verspreide Geschriften.

BKI,HJG,JAS,JASBL,JGIS,

KO,NBG,OJO,T BG,VB G,VG,

Documents

Epigraphy 6