Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 64/The Kota Kapur (Western Bangka) Inscription
The Kota Kapur (Western Bangka) Inscription.
By C. O. Blagden.
In Part 67 of the Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië Professor Kern has edited and discussed the above-named document, which though discovered some 21 years ago had not previously been explained. It is on a stone pillar which was removed to the Batavia Museum shortly after its discovery. The writing, which is well preserved, is in an early Southern form of the Indian alphabet presenting no serious difficulty to the decipherer. The language is an archaic form of speech allied to Malay. The date, given in the inscription itself, falls probably in the year 608 Saka expired (A.D. 686-7); but the first of the numeral figures in which it is expressed is somewhat doubtful. The form of the alphabet generally is however quite consistent with this relatively high antiquity, and assuming the date to be correctly read, this inscription ranks among the oldest Indonesian records that have been discovered hitherto.
The interpretation offers many difficulties, for there are a number of words in the inscription which have not been identified with modern equivalents. But the general purport is pretty clear and amounts, in short, to this. Sri Wijaya, ruler of a country named Parāwis, wherever that may have been, after having as it appears punished or raided the rebellious land of Jāwa (which may be Java or else some part of Sumatra, perhaps), sets up this inscription to warn his subjects against treason, disobedience, and various other offences (including sundry forms of evil-working charms, poisoning, etc.). On those who do such things or who damage the inscribed stone he invokes a deadly curse. On his loyal and faithful subjects of the land of Parāwis he calls down various blessings.
The chief interest, however, of the document consists in the language in which it is framed. I extract a number of words by way of illustration, most of which may be readily compared with Malay. Of the spelling I need only say that n = our ng; ñ = our ny; s is a Sanskrit sibilant pronounced like the English sh; h = final h.
Nouns (simple): hamba, kāyet (= kait, "hook"), uran (= orang), sumpah, dātu (=dato’), wā̄tu (= batu), tuwa (= tuba), wulan (= bulan); (in phrases): di dalanña (=di-dalam-nya), wanuaña (= běnua-nya); (compound): kasīhan (= "love-charm"), kadatuan (="kingdom"), parsumpahan. Note the use of the formatives -an, ka—an, and par—an (modern kĕ—an, and pĕr—an). The prefix ka- is also used by itself, like the kĕ- of the modern kĕhĕndak, kĕkaseh.
Verbs (simple): pulan, wuatña (= buat-nya); (compound): in m-, mulan (from pulan, as modern minta’ from pinta’, mohon from pohon); in ma-, masākit (= "to make sick "); in man-, etc. (= modern meng-, etc.), mañuruh (= menyuroh), mañapik (from a word tāpik also found in this inscription and apparently meaning "chastise" or something of that kind); in man—i, manujāri (= "to speak with"); in mar—i, marjjahāti (= "to do harm to." from jahat, "evil," which also occurs; mar- is more or less represented by the modern běr-, which occasionally survives in the more archaic form měr-, as in mĕrapi, though here its force is rather adjectival); in maka-, makagila (= "to make mad"), makamatai (either from mata or else from matai, an older form of mati). Even more interesting are the passive verbs: in n-, nwari (probably a passive from wari modern běri) ;in ni-, niujāri (= "to be spoken to"), nisuruh, nipāhat (= "was chiselled"), miwunuh (= "was killed," from wunuh modern bunoh), nigalarku (= "were appointed by me"); in -in-, winunu (for winunuh, from wunuh).
Articles: di, diy, "in, to, at" (also din = di + the article n, which is found in Old Javanese, etc.); ka; dnan (= dengan)[1]; tīda (= modern tidak: apparently the -k in this word is not original, any more than in datok = dātu); jānan (= jangan).
Pronouns: āku, -ku (enclitic), 1st. person; kita (used apparently for the 2nd. person plural); iya, ya, -ña (enclitic), 3rd. person; yan, iyan, relative, the former also used as a definite article (ya appears to be similarly used); ini, "this," inan, "that."
Note also sawañakña (= sa-banyak-nya) which occurs in the phrase tathāpi sawañakña yan wuatña jāhat, "but as many of them as do evil"; and the word gran, which may be the stem of the modern gĕrangan.[1]
It will be noticed that many of the above words have w which modern Malay has replaced by b. Javanese often retains the old w, as in watu, wulan. Another point of interest is the shifting of the stress in consequence of the addition of a suffix (or even an enclitic), as shown by the long vowels of the forms kasihan, manujāri, wanuāña, etc. This is an old Indonesian law which has been somewhat obliterated in modern Malay as spoken in the Peninsula, but the standard Malay spelling attests its former prevalence.
The inscription contains a large proportion of Sanskrit words, showing that Hindu influence was already pretty strong at this period. Some of these words are still current in Malay: the following are examples:—bhakti, dewata, mahardhika (now used in a modified form with the sense of "free"), mūlāña (= mula-nya with the enclitic pronoun), drohaka, tathāpi, mantrā (for mantra), dosāña (= dosa-nya), tatkālāña (= tatkala-nya), wala (= "army, forces," cf. modern balatantěra), bhūmi. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of the language of the inscription is the peculiar passive in ni-, which is completely wanting or lost in Malay. The Malay passive in di- is however somewhat analogous, for both di and ni are found as prepositions in various Indonesian languages. The passive in -in-, though hardly traceable in Malay, has of course a very wide range in Indonesia and is evidently a very ancient formation.