Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c11: Appendix B
Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c11
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Appendix B
c11.1
THAT the alphabets of the Inscriptions of Java and Sumatra present many points of similarity with old Indian and Pali alphabets was early noticed[^6), and traditions pointed to Kaliṅga as the source of the old civilization of Java, but proof of the true origin of the Kawi and Javanese alphabets has only lately been furnished by the discovery of the late Dr. Cohen Stuart that two Sanskrit inscriptions in W. Java are in
c11.2
[^1): Thus Durgācārya (on Yāska, Naig. ii., 2) says: Ekeshu deçeshu prakṛitaya eva dhātuçabdānām bhāshyante vikṛitya ekeshu | dhātor ākhyātapadabhāvena yaḥ prayogaḥ sa prakṛitiḥ | namībhūtasya tasyai ’va yaḥ prayogaḥ sā vikṛitiḥ ||”. There is no question of meaning here but of form merely. [^2): See the article by me (on a passage in Kumārilasvāmin’s “Tantravārttika”) in the *Indian Antiquary*, vol. i. pp. 309-10. [^3): The Sanskrit-Malayāḷam alphabet, as adapted to Malayāḷam uses g, j, d, to express ɣ, ǰ, ð. [^4): In Telugu ḻ is always expressed by ḍ; *e. g.* Coḍa=soḻa. [^5): It may perhaps be well to remark that the Tamiḷ people (as Mr. F. W. Ellis first noticed) have always put their language and literature on a level with the Sanskrit, calling their own tongue Tĕṉmŏḻi (southern speech) and the Sanskrit Vaḍamŏḻi or northern speech. [^6): Raffles, (“Java”, i., p. 371) noticed the almost complete identity of the Kawi and the *square* Pali characters. F. W. Ellis, about the same time, drew attention to the resemblance between the Grantha-Tamiḷ and Java alphabets, but, rather hastily, assumed the first to be the source of the last. Friederich, (“Over Inscriptiën van Java en Sumatra”, p. 78) compared the old Kawi alphabet with the Cālukya. Mr. K. F. Holle has now in the press a very complete collection of the Alphabets of the Archipelago compared with those of India—“Tabel van oud en nieuw-Indische Alphabetten.” sm. folio, Buitenzorg (Java), 1877.
c11.3
a character identical, so to speak, with that of the Veṅgi inscriptions¹; these very interesting lines are in Sanskrit verse, and are engraved on rocks at Tjampea and Djamboe, places not far from Buitenzorg. They apparently are intended to record a conquest or taking possession of the country by engraving the impression of the king's feet on a rock, and these lines explain who it was that did so—Pūrṇa Varmā.
c11.4
¹ See his paper in the "Bijdragen" (1875) with Profr. Kern's note following, and also: "Over het opschrift van Djamboe" ("Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Konink. Akademie van Wetenschappen", Afd. "Letterkunde". 2de Reeks, D. vi.) [^2): I much regret that want of time prevented me from visiting the place; with a little trouble, the inscription might probably be read from the rock itself, as the letters appear to be very large. [^3): Collected in Lassen's I. A.—K.
c11.5
An inscription in a character nearer that which I have termed "Eastern Cera" (Pl. xii.) and which is a development of the Veṅgi character, occurs at a place called Kĕbon Kopi. It is probably of the same nature as the two already mentioned, as near it are representations of an elephant's foot-prints. This inscription is not legible in the photograph given in the "Oudheden van Java" (No. 12), and is evidently much weatherworn[^2).
c11.6
These three inscriptions are, unquestionably, the oldest that have been as yet found in the Sunda Islands. Profr. Kern puts the first at about 450 A. D., and it appears to me probable that the third may be of about 600 A. D. With these inscriptions in view, it is impossible to doubt the general truth of the Java tradition which derives the civilization of the islands from Kaliṅga[^3), and this is rendered more certain by the name Pūrṇa Varmā; for varmā was in general use as a title by the Veṅgi and Pallava kings, and by them only, of all the dynasties then reigning in India which could possibly have fitted out an expedition to Java. The title 'varmā' is (according to Hindu law-books) a proper one for Xattriyas; but it was very little used in S. India, except by the Veṅgi-Pallavas.
c11.7
But it appears to me that a close consideration of these inscriptions will make it possible to define still more precisely the relation between the character we find in them, and those used in Eastern India.
c11.8
I have already mentioned (p. 36) that the Veṅgi dynasty which ruled on the Telugu sea-coast, and the Pallavas of the Tamiḷ coast near what is now Madras, were probably of the same family. For many reasons, which would take too much space to give here, it appears to me that the territory of these kings extending from the borders of Orissa down to near Madras constituted the three Kaliṅgas, mention of which often occurs, and except Conjeveram be allowed to be one, it seems impossible to make up the number; for Veṅgi proper was the most northern, and between these (according to Hiouen Thsang) was only one kingdom which must answer to the Nellore country.
c11.9
Admitting then that Kaliṅga extended even into the Tamiḻ country¹, it is possible to look there for the type of character which represents the original of the Djamboe inscription, and, in fact, the earliest Pallava character suits this purpose even better than that used in Veṅgi. The two (as I have already said²) do not differ sufficiently to constitute separate varieties of the developments of the ‘Cave’ character, though the writing of the earliest Pallava inscriptions presents some slight, yet peculiar, variations. These are: 1) the tendency to put a round dot at the top of the strokes which end vertically, where the Veṅgi has an angular mark (p. 17); 2) the letters in the Pallava character are slightly more round than those of the Veṅgi; 3) the letters are less regularly formed in the last than in the former.
c11.10
¹ With the narrow meaning generally given to ‘Kaliṅga’ it is impossible to explain many facts. At Singapore I found the Klings to be all Tamiḻ people, mostly from the upper Tamiḻ coast, though many came from the Tanjore coast. The early Portuguese writers (in the 16th century) make it plain that this was the case even then: Correa (“Lendas”, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 264) says that in 1511 the chief of the Klings at Malacca was Nynapam (*i. e.* Nainappan) which can only be a Tamiḻ name. Pulicat was, then, the chief port of trade with the Straits. A Kling told me (1876) that the only Telugu people he knew of in the Straits were convicts from India.
c11.11
² Above pp. 16-17 and p. 37.
c11.12
Now if the character used in the W. Java inscriptions be compared with that of the Veṅgi and Pallava inscriptions, it will at once be seen that it is nearest to the last. The Java character has the peculiar small m used for a final m (*i. e.* with virāma), and we find this also in both the Veṅgi and Pallava characters, and in them only.
c11.13
For these reasons, it appears to me that the source of the primitive Hindu civilization in Java must be looked for in the N. Tamiḻ coast, rather than in Kaliṅga proper, or the Telugu sea-coast; to seek it in Bengal is out of the question, and it is also impossible to seek it directly in Western India, though that is the ultimate source of all S. Indian civilization of which we have any traces.
c11.14
The Gupta and Valabhī characters are now well known, but though a general resemblance, such as exists between all the Indian alphabets of the 5th century A. D., can at once be traced between them and the character of the W. Java Sanskrit inscriptions, this entirely fails in respect of details, which must be, in this case, the means of determining the exact origin of the character in question.
c11.15
That S. India is the source of the early civilization of Java, is also established by other facts:
c11.16
1) The civilization of Java is Sanskrit, as was that of S. India, but Sanskrit words occur in Dravidianized tadbhava forms rather than in their original shape as might be expected³.
c11.17
³ *e g.* Bramban; Citrāxan; Bhūriçravan; -an is the Tamiḻ formative for proper names. So also -ramyan, çighran etc. seem to be Dravidianized forms. I must remark that Profr. Kern does not accept a S. Indian origin of the Javanese civilization, though he admits Dravidian influences. I take the above words from the “Zang xv. van ’t Bharata-Yuddha” by Prof. Kern.
c11.18
2) Dravidian words occur in Kawi and Javanese, and these are, apparently, all Tamiḻ¹).
c11.19
¹ *e. g.* tiṅghal, taṅgal.
c11.20
3) The architecture of the temples in Java is South-, not North-Indian in style.
c11.21
From the W. Java inscriptions there exists a very complete series of inscriptions with dates down to modern times²), and a close examination of these will show that the Kawi and, hence, the modern Javanese alphabets came from the W. Java (or Pallava) type.
c11.22
² The most important are those published by Cohen Stuart ("Kawi Oorkonden"). The chronological order is: No. xviii. = ç. 746; ii. = 762; xxv. = 779; xxiii. = 784; xi. = 800; xiv. = 803; xv. = 804; ix. = 808; xxiv. = 828; i. and xx. = 841; vii. = 853; xxii. = 861; iv. = 945; xxviii. = 1216; iii. = 1316; xxvii. = 1371. There is an inscription of ç. 1265 in the Z. d. d. M. G. vol. XVII.
c11.23
In this respect the Brambānan inscription (No. xxvii. of Cohen Stuart) is very important, for it shows the derivation of the peculiar Kawi 𑼒 (= k) which might seem at first sight to be nearest to the old Pali square form. In this inscription this letter has the form 𑼏, and this is merely a development of 𑀓 which occurs in the Pallava inscriptions. This development is also apparent in inscriptions at the Djeng and Djogja (Holle, "Tabel" pp. 4-5).
c11.24
The other letters do not need any remark, for the gradual changes in form are evident; but it is necessary to notice a remarkable additional letter which was very early added to express a sound not marked in the Indian prototype, viz., ⊕ for the short ĕ. The presence of this sign in Kawi is the more remarkable, as it was, till quite recent times, not marked in the Prakrit or Dravidian alphabets, all which languages possess this sound. This letter occurs, however, in the earliest Kawi inscriptions, or from the 8th century A. D.; and is, evidently, a modification of the mark for the short i, and is not, therefore, of Indian origin. For, if it were, a modification of the mark for ē would have been used, as is now done in the Dravidian languages.
c11.25
The development of the Kawi-Javanese alphabet into the actual forms as used in Java, Bali and elsewhere, was very slow compared with that of the Indian alphabets, for several centuries; and the current alphabets do not appear to be older than the 15th or 16th century.
c11.26
It is impossible for me here to even attempt to consider the exact origin of the many different alphabets in use in the Malay Archipelago; as regards many, it seems probable that the question can never be solved; for old specimens of writing seem to be entirely wanting. But there can be no doubt that it will be possible to trace the development of some in a perfectly satisfactory manner, and the necessary materials will be found in Mr. K. F. Holle's excellent "Tabel van oud en nieuw-Indische Alphabetten" (1877).
c11.27
At present it does not appear necessary to distinguish between the varieties of the Kawi alphabet, except so far as the Java and Sumatra types are concerned: the last are slightly archaic as compared with the former1). Considering the number of flourishing kingdoms that existed in the Island of Java before the Muhammadan invasion, and the great extent of the Island, it seems most probable that several types of the Kawi alphabet will be discovered to have been in use in different parts2), but, at present, the materials necessary to decide this question are imperfect. The places where several inscriptions were discovered is, unfortunately, unknown, and most of those in existence are from the east part of the Island. But with the great progress of archæological and scientific research in Netherland's India, this blank will not long remain.
c11.28
1) See the Inscriptions of Batoe Beragong (ç. 1269) and Pagger Roejong—both from Sumatra, in Friederich's Essay. Both these Sanskrit inscriptions have been satisfactorily explained by Profr. Kern (Bijdragen). The alphabets of Sumatra were first given by Marsden in his work on that island (1783). Since then Müller is the chief authority on this subject, but Holle's work will supersede all earlier essays.
c11.29
2) Holle (*u. s.*) distinguishes two types, viz., the E. and W. Java.
c11.30
These questions, however, do not form part of the scheme of this book, and beyond the mention of the immediate origin of the Kawi or old Javanese alphabet, do not, strictly speaking, relate to S. India.
c11.31
The most superficial observation will now suffice to make it clear that the old Cambodian alphabet is very near the E. Cālukya character; this fact was first noticed by Dr. R. Rost, but materials for the history of the Indo-Chinese alphabets are, as yet, wanting.