The Talang Tuo inscription is a 7th-century

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 ...

inscription discovered by Louis Constant Westenenk on 17 November 1920, on the foot of Bukit Seguntang near

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

. This inscription tells about the establishment of the bountiful Śrīksetra park awarded by Sri Jayanasa the king of Srivijaya, for the well being of all creatures. The inscription was discovered in good condition with clearly inscribed scripts. Its size is 50 cm × 80 cm. It is a stone block and it is dated from 606 Saka (corresponds to 23 March 684), written

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 ...

in Old Malay. The inscription consists of 14 lines. Van Ronkel and Bosch are the first scholars who translated the inscription. Their work was published in ''Acta Orientalia''. Since 1920, the inscription has been stored in National Museum of Indonesia,

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 ...

, under inventory number D.145.

Content

The writings on the Talang Tuwo inscription:

Translation

The translation according to

George Cœdès George Cœdès (; 10 August 1886 – 2 October 1969) was a 20th-century French scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history. Biography Cœdès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish émigrés. In fact, the family was ...

Old Malay vocabulary

The inscription is among the earliest evidence of written archaic Old Malay language. Many words are still recognizable and intelligible with Modern Malay (including

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

and

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

variants). The most significant differences are found in verbal affixes. While modern Malay and Indonesian use the prefix di- to mark passive, in Old Malay we find ni-. The same holds for the active prefix men- corresponding to Old Malay mar- or ma-. The modern possessive and object suffix -nya corresponds to the Old Malay -na. Old Malay words and their modern Malay and Indonesian counterparts are listed below, followed by their English gloss. * = = moon * = ''tatkalanya'' = while, during * = ''ini'' = this * = ''temu'', ''bertemu ''= meet * = ''diperbuat'' = performed * = ''sebanyaknya'' = amount of * = ''ditanam'' = planted * = ''di sini'' = here * = ''nyiur'' = palm tree * = ''enau'' = Arenga plant * = ''rumbia'' = Arenga fibers * = ''dengan'' = with * = ''dimakan'' = being eaten * = ''buahnya'' = fruits * = ''tetapi'' = but * = ''rajin'' = diligent * = ''tahu'' = to know (knowledge) * = ''aur'' = aur (a type of bamboo) * = ''buluh'' = vines, may also means bamboo * = betung (a type of bamboo) * = ''telaga'' = pond, small lake * = ''punyanya'' = belong to * = ''marga'' = clan * = ''suka'' = happiness, like * = ''air'' = water * = ''diminumnya'' = being drink * = ''sebanyaknya'', ''sebanyak-banyaknya'' = as many as possible * = ''buatnya'' = for them * = ''huma'' = dry rice field or orchard * = ''menghidupi'' = to bring life * = ''perkara'' = issue, problem * = ''barang'' = item * = ''buatannya'' = made * = ''curi'' (''pencuri'') = steal (thieve) * = ''membangun'' = built * = ''

hyang ''Hyang'' ( Kawi, Sundanese, Javanese, and Balinese) is a representation of the Supreme Being, in ancient Java and Bali mythology. This spiritual entity can be either divine or ancestral. The reverence for this spiritual entity can be found ...

'' = spirit or gods * = ''tetapi'' = but * = ''rancak'' (preserved in Minang) = beautiful, good * = ''rupa'' = look, form * = ''laki-laki'' = man/men

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Talang Tuo Srivijaya Inscriptions in Indonesia 7th-century inscriptions National Museum of Indonesia History of Sumatra Malay inscriptions

Content

Translation

Old Malay vocabulary

See also

References