The Tugu inscription is one of the early 5th century

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 arou ...

inscriptions discovered in Batutumbuh hamlet, Tugu village, Koja, North Jakarta, 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 ...

. The inscription contains information about hydraulic projects; the irrigation and water drainage project of the Chandrabhaga river by the order of Rajadirajaguru, and also the water project of the Gomati river by the order of King

Purnawarman Purnawarman or Purnavarman is the 5th-century king of Tarumanagara, a Hindu Indianized kingdom, located in modern-day West Java, Jakarta and Banten provinces, Indonesia. Purnawarman reigned during the 5th century, and during his reign he creat ...

in the 22nd year of his reign. The digging project to straighten and widen the river was conducted in order to avoid flooding in the wet season, and as an irrigation project during the dry season. In 1911 by the initiative of P. de Roo de la Faille, the Tugu inscription was moved to Museum Bataviaasch genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (now

National Museum of Indonesia ) is an archeological, historical, ethnological, and geographical museum located in Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, right on the west side of Merdeka Square. Popularly known as the Elephant Museum ( id, Museum Gajah) after the elepha ...

) with inventory number D.124. The inscription was carved on a round egg-like stone measuring about 1 metre.

Content

The Tugu inscription was 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 ...

, arranged in the form of

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 ...

Sloka with Anustubh metrum, consisting of five lines that run around the surface of the stone. Just like other inscriptions from the Tarumanagara kingdom, the Tugu inscriptions do not mention the date of the edict. The date of the inscriptions was estimated and analyzed according to paleographic study which concluded that the inscriptions originated from the mid 5th century. The script of the Tugu inscription and the Cidanghyang inscription bear striking similarity, such as the script "citralaikha" written as "citralekha", leading to the assumption that the writer of these inscriptions was the same person. The Tugu inscription is the longest Tarumanagara inscription pronounced by edict of Sri Maharaja

. The inscription was made during the 22nd year of his reign, to commemorate the completion of the canals of the Gomati and Candrabhaga rivers. On the inscription there is an image of a staff crowned with

Trisula The ''trishula'' () is a trident, a divine symbol, commonly used as one of the principal symbols in Hinduism. In Nepal and Thailand, the term also often refers to a short-handled weapon which may be mounted on a ''daṇḍa'' "staff". Unlike ...

straight to mark the separation between the beginning and the end of each sentence.

Original script

''pura rajadhirajena guruna pinabahuna khata khyatam purim prapya candrabhagarnnavam yayau''//
''pravarddhamane dvavingsad vatsare sri gunau jasa narendradhvajabhutena srimata purnavarmmana''//
''prarabhya phalguna mase khata krsnastami tithau caitra sukla trayodasyam dinais siddhaikavingsakaih''
''ayata satsahasrena dhanusamsasatena ca dvavingsena nadi ramya gomati nirmalodaka''//
''pitamahasya rajarser vvidaryya sibiravanim brahmanair ggo sahasrena prayati krtadaksina''//

English translation

"Long ago, the river named Candrabhaga had been dug by a noble Maharaja that have strong and tight arms, Purnawarman, to channel (water) flow to the sea, after the canal flow by his famous royal palace. In the 22nd year of His Majesty King Purnawarman's throne (reign) that shines brightly because of his intelligence and wisdom and has become the royal flag (leader) of all kings (and now) he ordered to dig the river (canal) with beautiful clear water, (the canal) named Gomati, after the canal flow through the middle of the residence of the noble elder (King Purnawarman's grandfather). The project was started in a fortunate day, date 8 half (moon) dark of the citrā asterism of the Phālguna month, and (the project) only took 21 days, with the canal is 6122 bows long. The ceremony was performed by

Brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru o ...

with 1000 cows given as the gift."

References

# C.M. Pleyte, "Uit Soenda’s Voortijd" Het Daghet 1905/1906:176-dst. # H. Kern, "Een woord in ‘Sanskrit opschrift van Toegoe verbeterd" TBG. LII. 1910:123 # N.J. Krom, "Inventaris der Hindoe-oudheden" ROD 1914, 1915:19 (no.35) # Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis, ‘s-Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhof 1931:79-81 # J.Ph. Vogel, "The Earliest Sanskrit Inscriptions of Java" ROD. 1914, 1915:28-35; plate 27 # F.D.K. Bosch, "Guru, Drietand en Bron" BKI 107, 1951: 117-134. Juga terjemahan bahasa Inggris "Guru, Trident and Spring" dalam Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology, The Hague : Martinus Nijhof, 1961:164-dst # J. Noorduyn and H.Th. Verstappen, "Purnavarman Riverworks Near Tugu" BKI 128, 1972:298-307. # L.Ch. Damais, "Les Ecritures d’Origine Indienne en Indonesie et dans le Sud-Est Asiatique Continental’ BSEI XXX(40) 1955:365-382. {{authority control Sanskrit inscriptions in Indonesia 5th-century inscriptions Tarumanagara Brahmic scripts Tamil language Inscriptions in Indonesia National Museum of Indonesia North Jakarta