The Minto Stone or Sangguran Inscription, known in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

as Prasasti Sangguran, is a , tall

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

found in

Malang Malang (; ) is a landlocked List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of Singhasari, Singhasari Kingdom. It is the second most popul ...

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

province. In 1812,

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...

, then Lieutenant-Governor of the island of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, removed it along with the so-called "

Calcutta Stone Calcutta Stone or known in Indonesia as Pucangan Inscription is an ancient Javanese inscription written in Sanskrit and Old Javanese, dated from 1041 CE during the reign of king Airlangga of the Kahuripan kingdom, that explains some events and the r ...

" as a token of appreciation to his superior, then British Governor-General of India,

Lord Minto Earl of Minto, in the County of Roxburgh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1813 for Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Baron Minto. The current earl is Gilbert Timothy George Lariston Elliot-Murray-Kynynm ...

. It consequently became part of the Minto family estate near

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one of ...

Roxburghshire Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh ( gd, Siorrachd Rosbroig) is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Berw ...

, Scotland. The inscribed stone is dated to (2 August) 928 CE and mentions the name of a Javanese king, Sri Maharaja Rakai Pangkaja Dyah Wawa Sri Wijayalokanamottungga (Wijayaloka), who then ruled the Malang area. The statement is a grant of rights (''sima'') to the local ruler and it ends with warnings to anyone wanting to uproot it, cursing that they would meet a horrible death (struck from all sides, beaten, nose cut, head split, liver ripped etc.). According to Indonesian historians, the stone is an important artifact and a crucial source of information. It contains elements about the

Mataram Kingdom The Mataram Kingdom (, jv, ꦩꦠꦫꦩ꧀, ) was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu–Buddhism, Buddhist kingdom that flourished between the 8th and 11th centuries. It was based in Central Java, and later in East Java. Established b ...

in Central Java and the shift of power that consequently took place to East Java. Sri Maharaja Rakai Pangkaja Dyah Wawa Sri Wijayalokanamottungga is better known in Indonesia as Dyah Wawa (r. 924—929). He was the last ruler of Mataram. His successor,

Mpu Sindok Śrī Mahārāja Rake Hino Dyaḥ Siṇḍok Śrī Īśānawikrama Dharmottuṅgadewawijaya (also known as Dyah Sindok, Mpu Sindok or Sindok) was the last king of the Sanjaya dynasty who ruled the Kingdom of Mataram from Central Java, reigned from ...

(r. 929—947), moved the court from Central Java to East Java in 929. The reasons for this move are still unclear. Demands for the repatriation of the stone from Scotland to Java, in Indonesia, have been made since 2004. The stone is on private property; it was last photographed in 2011, at which time the repatriation talks were still ongoing.

Sources

Further reading