Kebonkopi II inscription or Pasir Muara inscription or Rakryan Juru Pangambat inscription is the oldest inscription that mentioned the

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

Sunda Sunda may refer to: Europe * Sunda, Faroe Islands India * Sunda (asura), an asura brother of Upasunda * Sunda (clan), a clan (gotra) of Jats in Haryana and Rajasthan, India Southeast Asia * Sundanese (disambiguation) ** Sundanese people ...

'' dated from 854 Saka (932 CE), discovered in Kebon Kopi village,

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide. near

Kebon Kopi I inscription Kebon Kopi I also known as Tapak Gajah inscription (elephant footprint inscription), is one of several inscriptions dated from the era of Tarumanagara Kingdom circa 5th century. The inscription bearing the image of elephant footprint, which was ...

, and named as such to differ it from this older inscription dated from

Tarumanagara Tarumanagara or Taruma Kingdom or just Taruma is an early Sundanese Indianised kingdom, located in western Java, whose 5th-century ruler, Purnawarman, produced the earliest known inscriptions in Java, which are estimated to date from around ...

era. Archaeologist F. D. K. Bosch, that had studied the inscription, wrote that this inscription was written in

Old Malay Malay was first used in the first millennia known as Old Malay, a part of the Austronesian language family. Over a period of two millennia, Malay has undergone various stages of development that derived from different layers of foreign influence ...

, stated that a "King of Sunda has been reinstalled on the throne" and interpreting this event took place in the year 932 CE.Guillot, Claude, Lukman Nurhakim, Sonny Wibisono, (1995), ''La principauté de Banten Girang'', Archipel, Vol. 50, pp 13-24 Unfortunately this inscription was lost, stolen during the tumult of early World War II around the 1940s.

Location

Kebonkopi II inscription was discovered in Pasir Muara hamlet, Ciaruteun Ilir village, Cibungbulang,

Bogor Regency Bogor Regency (Indonesian: ''Kabupaten Bogor'') is a landlocked regency (''kabupaten'') of West Java, Indonesia, south of DKI Jakarta. Covering an area of 2,986.20 km2, it is considered a bedroom community for Jakarta, and was home to 5,427, ...

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

, in the 19th century during the forest clearing to make way for a new coffee plantation. This inscription is located approximately 1 kilometre from the

(Tapak Gajah inscription).

Content

Transcription:

Translation:

Interpretation

The inscription chandrasengkala (

chronogram A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals (such as Roman numerals), stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words ''chronos'' (χ� ...

) written 458 Saka, however some historians suggested that the year of the inscription must be read backward as 854 Saka (932 CE) because the Sunda kingdom could not have existed in 536 CE, in the era of the Kingdom of Tarumanagara (358-669 CE). This inscription was written in

Kawi alphabet The Kawi or or Old Javanese script is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to encode Kawi/re ...

, however curiously the language being used is

. Bosch proposed that the use of Old Malay suggests

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

n influence on Western Java. He also draw comparison between the period of 932 CE of this inscription with the year 929 which coincide with the shift of political center of

Medang Kingdom The Mataram Kingdom (, jv, ꦩꦠꦫꦩ꧀, ) was a Javanese Hindu–Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established by King Sanjaya, the kingdom was rule ...

from Central to East Java. French historian, Claude Guillot from

École française d'Extrême-Orient The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...

proposed that the Kebonkopi II inscription was a declaration of independent (possibly from Srivijaya) of the newly established

Kingdom of Sunda The Sunda Kingdom ( su, , Karajaan Sunda, ) was a Sundanese Hindu kingdom located in the western portion of the island of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering the area of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Centra ...

. Australian historian

M. C. Ricklefs Merle Calvin Ricklefs (17 July 1943 – 29 December 2019) was an American-born Australian scholar of the history and current affairs of Indonesia.Anthony Reid, 'Merle Calvin Ricklefs, AM July 17, 1943 - December 29, 2019', Emeritus' (The Australi ...

also supported this suggestion in his book ''A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200''. The name of Sunda was first mentioned in this inscription. However, this inscription stated ''“berpulihkan hajiri Sunda”'', can be interpreted that previously there had been a king of Sunda before, and his office (authority) was finally restored. While the name ''"Pangambat"'' means "hunter", thus can be interpreted that the King was a skillful hunter. Other inscription that mentioned the toponymy ''Sunda'' was

Sanghyang Tapak inscription The Sanghyang Tapak inscription (also known as Jayabupati inscription or Cicatih inscription) is an ancient inscription dated from 952 saka (1030 CE), consist of 40 lines requiring 4 piece of stone to write on. The inscription mentioned about ...

I and II (952 Saka or 1030 CE), and

Horren inscription Horren inscription is a copperplate inscription measuring 32.6 cm length, 10.6 cm width, discovered in Southern Kediri, in Campur Darat village, Tulungagung, East Java. Initially this inscription was thought to originated from Majapahit p ...

(Southern Kediri) dated from

Airlangga Airlangga (also spelled Erlangga), regnal name Rakai Halu Sri Lokeswara Dharmawangsa Airlangga Anantawikramottunggadewa (born 1000/02 in Bali, Indonesia – died 1049 in Java), was the only raja of the Kingdom of Kahuripan. The Kingdom was ...

reign in East Java .

References

Sources

* Guillot, Claude, Lukman Nurhakim, Sonny Wibisono, "La principauté de Banten Girang", '' Archipel'' Volume 50, 1995, halaman 13-24 * Ricklefs, M. C., ''A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200'', Palgrave MacMillan, New York, 2008 (terbitan ke-4), {{ISBN, 978-0-230-54686-8 Sunda Kingdom Kebonkopi II 10th-century inscriptions

Location

Content

Interpretation

See also

References

Sources