Purnawarman or Purnavarman is the 5th-century king of Tarumanagara, a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Indianized kingdom Greater India, or the Indian cultural sphere, is an area composed of many countries and regions in South and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Indian culture, which itself formed from the various distinct indigenous cultures ...

, located in modern-day

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 ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

and Banten provinces,

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 ...

. Purnawarman reigned during the 5th century, and during his reign he created several stone inscriptions. According to these inscriptions he embarked on hydraulic project and also identified himself to

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

, which indicates him and his kingdom were adhering

Vishnuite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

faith. King Purnawarman established a new capital city for the kingdom, located somewhere near present-day Tugu (North

) or Bekasi. His name in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

means "perfect shield" or "complete protector". Later series of Tarumanagaran kings are only known from their names, all bears the name ''warman'' (

: ''varman'' means "shield" or "protector") which suggests that all of them belongs in the same dynasty.

Historiography

Purnawarman is the most well known ruler among Tarumanagaran kings, mostly because he extensively created numbers of stone inscriptions, proclaiming his deeds and feats. He left seven memorial stones with inscriptions bearing his name spread across today Jakarta, Banten and West Java provinces. These seven inscriptions areː # Tugu inscription # Ciaruteun inscription # Kebon Kopi inscription #Jambu inscription #Pasir Awi inscription #Muara Cianten inscription #

Cidanghiang inscription Cidanghiang inscription, also called Lebak inscription, is an inscription from the Tarumanagara kingdom, estimated to be from the 4th century CE. The inscription was found in 1947 on the bank of Cidanghiang River in Lebak village, Munjul district, ...

The Tugu inscription, which is written in

Pallava script The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha, is a Brahmic scripts, Brahmic script, named after the Pallava dynasty of South India, attested since the 4th century AD. As epigrapher Arlo Griffiths makes clear, however, the term is misleading as not all o ...

and is a few years older than the Ciaruteun inscription, is considered the oldest of all the inscriptions. There are more stones with inscriptions from the time of king Purnawarman, some close to Bogor city. They are Muara Cianten, Prasasti Pasir Awi, Cidanghiang, and Jambu inscriptions. Cidanghiang inscription sits further to the west at Lebak in the Pandeglang area, consisting of two lines, proclaiming Purnawarman as the example for rulers around the world. Jambu inscription, with a two-line inscription in

Pallava The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as fe ...

and

, bears the large footprints of the king. The inscription translates as: The Wangsakerta manuscript, which experts believe to be a 20th-century forgery, notes in parwa II sarga 3 (page 159 – 162) that under the reign of King Purnawarman, Tarumanagara held control over 48 small kingdoms with area stretching from

Salakanagara The Salakanagara Kingdom is the first historically recorded Indianised kingdom in Western Java. The kingdom existed between 130-362 AD. Claudius Ptolemaeus (160 AD) wrote about Java in his book, ''Geographie Hypogenesis''. He mentions the name o ...

or Rajatapura to ''Purwalingga'' (current city of

Purbalingga Purbalingga ( Javanese: ꦥꦸꦂꦧꦭꦶꦁꦒ) is a town and district in Central Java Province of Indonesia and the seat of Purbalingga Regency Villages The district includes 11 urban villages (''kelurahan'') and 2 rural villages (''desa'') ...

in Central Java Province). Traditionally Cipamali river (Brebes river) was the border between Sunda and Java. However, this claim is not reliable because the Wangsakerta manuscript is not an authentic historical source.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Purnawarman Indonesian Hindu monarchs Tarumanagara Brahmic scripts Tamil language