Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c20.s5.17

v2.c20.s5.17

As already said above, the beginnings of this literature may be traced to the period when Central Java was the political centre of the island. The earliest book that we may definitely refer to this period is an Old-Javanese version of a Sanskrit work, Amaramālā,² which like Sanskrit Amarakośa, and other Indian lexicons, contains synonyms of different gods, goddesses, and other animate and inanimate objects. This work was written under the patronage of king Jitendra of the Śailendra dynasty. Unfortunately this king is not known from other sources, and so we cannot trace his relationship to other kings of this well-known dynasty of Central Java.