These Survive: Language Resources: Indonesia (fwd)

[Waruno Mahdi]

> you could be interested or could help.  "These Survive" is a project in
> which I'm attempting to list surviving long writings in all languages
> from AD 1000 or earlier.  For now, I'm trying to find out which
> languages I need to research, and to find tools to do the research with.

The general problem with early records of writing in Indonesia is that
original records were apparently made on palm leaves, a very perishable
medium particularly in tropical conditions. A second problem is that
collectioning manuscripts was not acculturized here until quite recently,
so that records were only saved when some direct interest of the keeper
existed. This meant that records of e.g. a rival or preceding ruling
dynasty might not generally be considered worth keeping, or might even be
willfully destroyed.

> ACHINESE
>
> My initial sources say this literature began in the 13th or 14th century
> AD.  I don't know that this is reliable.

This is probably correct, but one must beware that much early literature
and other writing in early Acheh was not in Achehnese, but in Malay.
The oldest inscription I know of is the Minye Tujoh inscription, and
it is in Malay:

   Stutterheim, W.F., 1936, A Malay _sha'ir_ in Old-Sumatran characters
      of 1380 A.D., Acta Orientalia 54:268-279.
   Harrison, G.E., 1951, A Malay Poem in Old Sumatran Characters, Journal
      of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 24/1:162-165.

Malay was used in official writings and scholarly literature in Acheh
till well into the 17th - 18th centuries, so that it is quiet possible
that earliest survivng manuscripts in Achehnese are only from the
18th century.

There has been some recent archaeological work done in the region
which may have unearthed new eipgraphic records, but I am not quite
uptodate on the literature in this matter.

   Mark Durie <mark_durie at muwayf.unimelb.edu.au> is sure to know more...

> BALINESE
>
.......
>I have no information on when this literature began.

The standard source seems to be (I haven't seen it):

   Goris, R., 1954, Prasasti Bali I & II. Bandung: Masa Baru

I know of Copper-plate inscriptions in Balinese since the 11th century
A.D., but this is perhaps not the earliest date. I'll try to find
more info and will be back later if I find anything.

>BATAK
>
>I have no information on when this literature began.

Batak literature is only known, I think, since the 19th century,
but it is probable that it already existed for some centuries before that.
You muight like to consult the following people who probably know more:

         Uli Kozok <uli.kozok at auckland.ac.nz>

         Geoff Woollams
         School of Humanities (G319)
         Queensland University of Technology
         2 George St
         Brisbane, QLD 4000  Australia
         Ph. 61-7-3864 1755, Fax  61-7-3864 4719
        (sorry, I don't have his email address)

> JAVANESE
>
> This literature definitely begins (at least in inscriptions) no later
> than AD 809, perhaps in the 8th century AD.  The following *Primary

The Dinaya inscription, being in Old Javanese is dated 760 A.D. in:

   Krom, N.J., 1913, (ed.) Oud-Javaansche Oorkonden. Nagelaten Transscripties
      van wijlen Dr. J.L.A. Brandes. Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch
      Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen deel 60/1.
      Batavia: Albrecht / 's Hage: Nijfoff.

You'll certainly want to read the following very informative book:

   Barret Jones, Antoinette M., 1984, Early Tenth Century Java from
        the Inscriptions, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk
        Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 107,
        Dordrecht/Cinnaminson: Foris.

If you are in to French, you might also like to consult

   Damais, Louis-Charles, 1952, Etudes d'epigraphe indonesienne - III,
      Bulletin de l'Ecole Franc,aise de l'Extreme-Orient 46:1-105
     (list of inscriptions with dates, some corrected, mostly Old
      Javanese; "c," stands for "c" with cedille)

   Damais, Louis-Charles, 1952, Etudes d'epigraphe indonesienne - IV,
      Bulletin de l'Ecole Franc,aise de l'Extreme-Orient 47:7-270 (looks
      like an update of the Brandes epigraphica javanica editted by
      Krom referenced above)

>MADURESE
>
......
>Bibliography*, but does not provide any chronological information,

Sorry, I have no further material on this at the moment, but may manage
to dig up some stuff in the next few days....

>MALAY
>
.........
> Nothing I've seen says "The oldest datable Malay inscription is from ..."
> or anything like that.  I'm reasonably sure some Malay writing survives
> from before AD 1000, but have not seen anything resembling a bibliography

You quessed right...
Oldest inscriptions in Old Malay are from the second half of the 7th century
A.D. (they are in Pallava-script based so-called Old Sumatran script):

   Coedes, George, 1930, Les inscriptions malaises de C,rivijaya,
      Bulletin de l'Ecole Franc,aise de l'Extreme-Orient 30:29-80.

   Casparis, J.G. de, 1956, Selected Inscriptions from the 7th to,
      the 9th Century A.D., Prasasti Indonesia vol. II, Bandung:
      Masa Baru.

The oldest Arabic-script based Jawi-script Malay inscription is the
Trengganu inscription of the 14th century (alternative readings of
the damaged text permits dating either at the beginning or the end
of the century):

   Paterson, H.S., 1924, An Early Malay Inscription from Trengganu,
      Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
      2:252-258 (important comments by C.O. Blagden on pp. 258-263).

That's however not in Indonesia, but in (West) Malaysia.

Oldest Latin-script Malay (print) publication is from 1623 (a catechism
in Low Malay by Sebastiaen Danckaerts), not counting a 1611 ABC-book
(for learning the alphabet) of Albert Ruil, and a bilingual Dutch & Malay
language primer (to teach Dutch to Malay-speakers) of the same author
of 1612.

> MINANGKABAU
>
......
> I have no information on how old this literature is.

The Kubur Raja inscription of King Adityawarman, being from the late 14th
century, is not in Minangkabau, but in Sanskrit.
There's another early inscription (even earlier?) but I've waylaid my copy
of the article somewhere, but it is in any case not in Minangkabau
either. The court language in the kingdom remained Malay, apparently right
up to its dissolution in the 19th century. I am not aware of any Minangkabau
literature in Minangkabau (i.e. not in the local court-dialect of Malay)
from before the 19th century.

> SUNDANESE
>
> Uhlenbeck's book, cited under Javanese, explicitly says the oldest
> inscriptions date to the 14th century AD, so unless I hear otherwise
> I'm going to go with that.

Earlier inscriptions in West Java (where Sundanese is/was spoken) were
either in Sankrit or in Old Malay. But besides inscriptions there is
still the Sundanese royal annals: the _Carita Parahiyangan_, which is
pre-Islamic. This probably means it is from before the 16th century.
Some passages in the annals which treat considerably earlier periods
(e.g. those refering to the exploits of King Sanjaya - of Central Java -
who ruled in the 8th century A.D.) obviously quote older sources which
must not necessarily have been in Sundanese as well.

=======

One important language you seem to have missed is BUGINESE, spoken
in South Sulawesi. Oldest surviving manuscripts are from the early
17th century. The Buginese (and closely related Makassarese) script
is Indic-based (i.e. not Arabic-based) and Buginese literary tradition
goes back to pre-Islamic times. So the beginnings of Buginese literature
can be safely assumed to be from before the 17th century.

One Buginese surviving map appears to include the North coast of Australia
(known to the Buginese and Makassarese by the name of _Marege'_, where the
apostrophe stands for glottal stop).

Two languages in the South of Sumatra: REJANG and LAMPUNG, have scripts
that resemble that of Batak (mentioned above). I'm not sure how old these
literature traditions are, but possibly comparable with that of Batak.

Then there is a BIMA(-NESE) script (the language is spoken in West Sumbawa
in the Lesser Sunda Islands), said to no longer be in use, tabulated
together with many other Indic-based scripts of Indonesia in:

   Holle, K.F., 1877, Tabel van Oud en Nieuw-Indische Alphabetten.
      [Batavia]: Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten & Wetenschappen.

Since it was no longer used in the 19th century, its use must have then
extended in an earlier period.....

Finally, I don't know how far back SASAK (spoken on the island of Lombok,
immediately East of Bali) literary tradition goes.

========

The Austronesian language with the oldest written record is not a language
of Indonesia. It is CHAM, spoken by a minority in Cambodia and the South and
Central region of Vietnam. Oldest inscriptions are from the 2nd century A.D.

I don't have a representative bibliography, but the following references
I happen to have at hand may be useful:

   Majumdar, R.C., 1932, La paleographie des inscriptions du Champa.
      Bulletin de l'Ecole Franc,aise de l'Extreme-Orient 32:127-139.

   Finot, M.L., 1904, Notes d'epigraphie - XI, Les inscriptions de My-so+n,
      Bulletin de l'Ecole Franc,aise de l'Extreme-Orient 4:897-977
      (where "o+" is a Vietnamese-script "o" with superscripted "comma" at
      upper right like a "tail").

Note that not all inscriptions of the Chams are in Cham. Many are Sanskrit.

That's all for the moment. I might have some additions in the next days.
Apologies to those for whom this has perhaps already got too long.

Regards,   Waruno

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Waruno Mahdi                  tel:   +49 30 8413-5411
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