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CLASSICAL CIVILISATIONS OF SOUTH EAST ASIA
Reflecting the breadth of The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies coverage of South East Asian civilisations over the years, with particular emphasis on history, religion, literature and arts, this book presents the work of some of the most eminent scholars who published in the Bulletin, and whose importance is borne out today by the frequency with which they are cited in contemporary studies on South East Asia. The collection provides a multifaceted and representative picture of the classical civilisations of South East Asia which will be of interest for comparative and cross-disciplinary studies in this field. This is the first book to trace the history of British South East Asian studies in their international context. It also provides a number of historical and literary documents and translations of great scholarly value. Vladimir Braginsky is Professor of South East Asian languages and cultures at SOAS, University of London. He is a specialist on Malay and Indonesian religious, traditional and modern literatures, and comparative literature, and has published a number of books on these subjects.
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CLASSICAL CIVILISATIONS OF SOUTH EAST ASIA An Anthology of Articles Published in The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Compiled and Introduced by Vladimir Braginsky
~l Routledge
iii ~
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2002 by RoutledgeCurzon Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Editorial matter © 2002 Vladimir Braginsky Contributions © 2002 the authors Typeset in Saban by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton
All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Classical civilizations of South-East Asia: key papers from SOAS/edited by Vladimir Braginsky. p. em Includes bibliographical references and Index. I. Braginskii, V. 1. II. University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies. DS523.2.C532002 959--dc21 2002075176
ISBN 13: 978-0-700-71410-0 (hbk)
CONTENTS
Introduction
1
RELIGION
1. Bauddha brahmins in Bali C. Hooykaas 2. A new look at Sdsanava1'{lSa V.B. Lieberman 3. The dewatau sotapan: a Mon prototype of the 37 nats H.L. Shorto
49 56 69
HISTORY, HISTORICAL SOURCES
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Tambralinga O. W. Wolters The Malay founder of medieval Malacca R.O. Winstedt Malay history from Chinese sources R.O. Winstedt Banten and the Dutch in 1619: six early 'pasar Malay' letters M. C. Ricklefs North-western Cambodia in the seventh century o. W. Wolters Some Sanskrit inscriptions of Arakan E.H. Johnston The Kyaikmaraw inscriptions H.L. Shorto The 32 myos in the medieval Mon kingdom H.L. Shorto Collaborateur versus Abstentioniste (Tuong versus Tri): political polemic in poetic dialogue during the French acquisition of southern Viet-Nam J.H.C.S. Davidson
84 105 109 111 120 150 179 186
206
LITERATURE AND ARTS
13. The story of Sudhana and Manohara: an anlysis of the texts and the Borobudur reliefs Padmanabh S. Jaini
v
249
CONTENTS
14. Further light on Sir Richard Winstedt's 'undescribed Malay version of the Ramayana' E.CC. Barrett 15. Three old Achehnese manuscripts P. Voorhoeve 16. The date of the SOAS manuscript of the Sjair perang Mengkasar R. Jones 17. The Song of the Three Mons J.A. Stewart 18. Three 'immortal' Burmese songs Hla Pe, A.J. Allott and J. Okell 19. Country life in Burmese literature C W. Dunn, Hla Pe and ].A. Stewart 20. Mahorasop in a Thai Manorii manuscript E.H.S. Simmonds 21. New evidence on Thai shadow-play invocations E.H.S. Simmonds
275 288 299 302 309
322 332 345
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
22. A Chinese vocabulary of Malacca Malay words and phrases E.D. Edwards and co. Blagden 23. A Chinese vocabulary of Cham words and phrases E.D. Edwards and co. Blagden 24. Tangut or Proto-Burman C.H. Luce 25. Three Mon-Khmer word families H.L. Shorto 26. Achinese and mainland Austronesian H.L. Shorto 27. The structure of the word in Old Khmer ].M. Jacob
398 437 441 449 471
INDEX
489
APPENDIX APPENDIX
1 Briefly about the authors 2 Articles and notes on South East Asia published in BSOAS in 1918-1990
Vi
363
509 519
INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH INTO THE CLASSICAL CIVILISATIONS OF SOUTH EAST ASIA AT SOAS AND IN BSOAS':Vladimir 1. Braginsky
The themed anthology presented here is composed of articles by scholars who worked at various times at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London. These articles - published in the Bulletin of the School (BSOAS) between the 1930s and the early 1980s - are devoted to various aspects of civilisations of South East Asia from the middle of the first millennium A.D. until the early 19th century, i.e., the period referred to as classical in the title of the book. The term 'classical' is not satisfactory in every respect (an article has even been written expressly attempting to prove that it is inappropriate for South East Asian civilisations at all, see Aung-Thwin 1995), so that such terms as 'traditional', 'pre-modern', 'pre-colonial' would probably better characterise the contents of the anthology. However, the term 'traditional' is, as a rule, used in combination with the word 'culture' and not 'civilisation', whereas the terms 'pre-modern' and 'pre-colonial' only serve to place the civilisations of the region in dependence on certain processes in the West and do not in the least characterise those civilisations' own content and meaning, which remain hidden behind the inexpressive prefix 'pre-'. At the same time, the term 'classical' has long ago acquired a broader sense in which it is applied not only to ancient Greece and Rome, but also to India and China or to Iran and the Arab countries at the age of their highest achievements, which laid the foundation for their subsequent development. It is exactly in this sense, conditional and metaphorical as it is, that this term is used in the present anthology. It goes without saying that, just like other journal publications that were never intended to be compiled into a book, the articles which make up this 1
INTRODUCTION
anthology are no more than separate, random pieces of the mosaic of British research on classical South East Asia. Nevertheless, alongside their persisting scholarly value, these pieces of a mosaic are interesting also for the reason that, even with many gaps, they form a pattern of sorts, which reproduces the characteristic outline of the British 'tradition' in this field as well as the history of its rise at SOAS in the 1950s-1970s and its abrupt fall in the 1980s. In order for the reader to be able to discern this pattern more clearly, the author of this introduction might have turned, indeed, to an analysis and assessment of the articles themselves. However, it seemed more reasonable to leave the judgement of them to the reader and only to help him fill in the numerous gaps in the pattern by placing the articles into three contexts, or rather perspectives, in which they can be viewed. The first of these perspectives is the significance of the study of classical South East Asian civilisations as such; the second is the history of their study at SOAS against the background of their investigation in the UK in general; the third is the prospects for these studies and the role which the British 'tradition' could play in them.
The first perspective: significance 'Southeast Asia is to anthropologists what the Galapagos Islands were to Darwin.' James Scott
South East Asia - a vast area of the globe with a territory about 4600 thousand square kilometres and a population of almost 450 million - is one of the oldest cultured areas of the oikoumene and, at the same time, one of the most rapidly developing regions of the modern world. It is not only one of the earliest centres of metallurgy, the domestication of rice, wet rice-growing and transoceanic navigation, but also more recently the homeland of famous 'economic tigers' which - though with their whiskers somewhat burnt by the economic crisis - are now bracing themselves for a new leap forward. Between these two poles there stretches the eventful history of South East Asian civilisations, in the course of which the peoples of the region have made a great and unique contribution to many domains of world culture, be it architecture, literature and music or the representative and theatrical arts. No doubt, intrinsic stimuli for these impressive cultural developments existed deep within early South East Asian societies themselves. However, the broad and ramified external ties of the region served as a powerful 'resonator' for its socio-cultural progress. For South East Asia played the key role within the maritime trade-network which, beginning in the epoch of antiquity, linked together almost the entire civilised oikoumene, being no less important than the famous Silk Road in this respect. In that age of 'globalisation before globalisation', rises and falls experienced by the trading
2
INTRODUCTION
network depended directly on the Malays and Mons, the Javanese and Chams, who acted as 'gate-keepers', suppliers of valuable local raw materials, and carriers on the way from Rome (later Cairo and Istanbul, Venice and Lisbon) to China. Their activity affected considerably the economic situation and world prices at both ends of Eurasia. Equally important, however, is the fact that the same network and its local ramifications opened access to the religious doctrines and cultural values of the external world - India and Ceylon, Islamic East and China - for the peoples of South East Asia. This resulted in the renowned openness of the region's civilisations and, at the same time, was conducive to their multifaceted mutual ties which, until the 17th century, 'continued to be more influential than those beyond' the region (Reid 1988:7). Two salient features of the classical civilisations of South East Asia cannot fail to attract our particular attention. On the one hand, they reveal a bewildering diversity - ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural- which manifests itself so vividly and persistently that, in a paradoxical way, it can serve by itself as a defining characteristic of the region (Reid 1993:3). Originating as early as the prehistoric age and markedly strengthened by the middle of the second millennium A.D., this diversity not only imparted peculiar identities to individual civilisations of the region, but also transformed it into a sort of 'Asia in miniature'. On the map of the region, we can find all the principal religious-cultural complexes of Asia: Hindu and Buddhist, Islamic and Confucian-Taoist, and on the borders between them, the great religio-cultural syntheses of the continent: Hindu-Muslim and Taoist-Buddhist (Chan, Thien in Vietnam). If we add to this the predominantly Christian Philippines, South East Asia will appear as the whole world in miniature. At the same time, none of these complexes represented, in South East Asia, an exact replica of its Indian, Chinese or Arab-Persian prototype. In each case, the indigenous cultural code, indigenous conceptions and beliefs, idiosyncrasies and needs served as decisive factors in both the choice from a broad range of foreign 'offerings' and the peculiar transformation of what was chosen, its adaptation or, as o. Wolters felicitously phrased it, 'localisation'. On the other hand, behind the staggering diversity of South East Asian civilisations, we can discern numerous traits of their no less evident unity. The latter arises from the racial and partly linguistic affinity of the peoples of South East Asia and the mutual influence of their languages, as well as by their primaeval kinship, which manifests itself in many domains of spiritual, social and material life and in resemblances between their interwoven historical fortunes. A number of recent researches l by linguists, archaeologists and anthropologists allow us to speculate about a certain 'core', i.e., the deepest common basis of the civilisations of the region. Having been formed in the prehistoric epoch (probably still in South-South East China, the primaeval homeland of South East Asia's ethnic groups), the 'core' owed its origin to the genetic relationship of many of these groups, as well as to their close inter-ethnic contacts. The joining of the early polities of South East Asia
3
INTRODUCTION
to the Hindu world (the process of their formation shows manifold common features too, see, e.g., Hagestijn 1989; Wisseman Christie 19952 ) also greatly contributed to the unity of the region, now in the historical era. 3 The localisation of Indic religious, judicial, political and cultural institutions enriched and somewhat transformed the primaeval 'core'. At the same time, this process gave the 'core' its final shape and provided it with sufficient endurance to support, directly or indirectly, the integrative trends that marked the whole pre-modern history of South East Asia, even when centrifugal tendencies began to dominate (after the 13th-15th centuries).4 The common features shared by traditional South East Asian polities have been summarised in the challenging model suggested by O. Wolters (1994, 1999). The foundation of this model, according to him, is 'presentmindedness', i.e., the fact that it was 'now' that mattered, while the past 'was pertinent only when it was ... relevant to specific contemporary needs'. The features of this model, directly determined by this fundamental characteristic, are the importance of being up-to-date, or contemporary (hence the openness and tendency to appropriate necessary skills from the outside world), 'the sense of being an integral part of the whole of the known world', not only of 'one's own patch of territory', and the emphasis on 'person' and 'personal achievement' (the concept of the 'man of prowess'). The model also includes such common characteristics of the region as the idealisation of the leader as the teacher of good behaviour, usually understood in religious terms; a relaxed exercise of power and multi-centrism; the undisturbed position of ethnic groups on the periphery of major polities lacking 'borders' (the mandala); and a special kind of 'centre-periphery' interdependency, manifesting itself through specific economic networks and ceremonial overlordship. Although, if considered one by one, these features are hardly peculiar to South East Asia alone, their configuration, in Wolters' opinion, is 'distinctively South East Asian' and still perceptible in modern countries of the region, though in a modified form. The common features in the domain of classical South East Asian art (particularly of Hindu inspiration, see Bosch 1960) and literature are no less obvious than those in the socio-political domain. The scepticism sometimes shown in this respect seems hard to justify, as it is mostly based on an overestimation of the disintegrating role of ethnic languages and an underestimation of the unifying functions of supra-ethnic languages (whether sacral, like Sanskrit, Pali and Arabic, or mediating, like Malay) as well as of the bilingualism typical of linguistic, and consequently literary, 'border-lands'. At its earliest stage (on the eve of the Christian era) it was a common primaeval 'core' of similar mythological cycles S and genres of oral folk literatures, which had emerged in the process of the desacralisation of those myths, that integrated the region. Among the earliest oral genres - which form the deepest layer of the later narrative literature of the South East Asian peoples - we can mention archaic fairy-tales and epics imbued with motifs of
4
INTRODUCTION
magic, as well as tales about animals and farcical stories about simpletons and cunning tricksters. No less deep a layer of the later written lyrical poetry was made up of erotic songs consisting of two parallelistic pairs of verses and sung alternately by a youth and a girl or by two halves of a choir. Such songs which go back to a common prototype have been retained in the folklore of the Malays, Javanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Visaya (in the Philippines) until the present day. At the stage of the reception of Indian or Chinese impact this 'core' reacted to influences in a comparable way, thus preserving the regional unity. It was precisely in the period of the adaptation and localisation of Indic religions and civilisation (7th-13/14th centuries) that the literary cultures of South East Asia achieved the peak of integration. Judging by Cham and Khmer versified epigraphy and Old Javanese religious treatises and kakawinpoems, Indian mythological and religious treatises, philosophical and didactic works, great epics (the Mahabharata and Ramayana), 'framed tales' and refined courtly Sanskrit epics were well-known in the early states of the region. Although local writers followed Indic models, even at that stage common features of the local literary 'core' displayed themselves in the recurrent appearance of local mythological motifs in epigraphic texts; in an obvious preference for popular versions of the Ramayana, filled with reminiscences of chthonic and agrarian cults, rather than its classical version; and in the specific interpretation of Indian plots in Old Javanese poems, with their local concept of time and descriptions of local landscapes. The splitting of the region into separate literary sub-regions (Vietnamese, Burmese-Thai-Cambodian, and Malay-Javanese) around the 15th century, which considerably weakened its unity, by no means brought an end to it. Alongside the 'core' - with its influence on literary developments -literary ties and common typological features of South East Asian literatures became instrumental in maintaining unity at that stage. For instance, across the whole of South East Asia, were spread Javanese romances about a courteous 'knight', Panji Inu Kertapati, which - together with plots from the Ramayana and Jataka - formed one of the major sources for narratives and theatrical performances. Well known from the Philippines to Champa was the 'Tale of [the Prince] Indraputra', a Malay love-and-adventure romance. At the same time, there existed works which connected with each other all the literatures of either the 'Burmese-Thai-Cambodian' sub-region (e.g., the deeply 'localised' Fifty Jatakas) or the 'Malay-Javanese' sub-region (e.g., the also 'localised' Tale of Amir Hamzah). Typological features of traditional literatures also strengthened the unity, or rather the 'similar appearance', of South East Asian literatures of that period. These included hierarchical systems of similar genres, identical throughout the region; the religious establishment and the palace as the main centres of literary activity; the predominance of poetry as the means of literary expression; the adherence of men-of-Ietters to two patterns of literary 5
INTRODUCTION
development at the same time, one of them being high literature in the canonical language (e.g., Pali, Arabic, Chinese) and the other, the popular literary tradition, which brought with it many properties of orality in the presentation, 'consumption' and composition (terms from Sweeney 1980) of written literary works. By making literatures more transparent to each other and more mutually-understandable, these common typological features considerably supported the centripetal trends caused by the literary ties. 6 It goes without saying that the above-mentioned models of the political and artistic culture of South East Asia (since the latter model seems to be applicable, mutatis mutandis, to various arts) are no more than the first steps towards a comprehension of its regional unity in the classical period and are open to criticism. Nonetheless, in combination with historico- (or rather prehistorico-) linguistic, archaeological and anthropological similarities, they, even now, permit us to perceive some integrating substratum underlying the diversity of South East Asian civilisations - some configuration of common features, which P. de Josselin de Jong (1984:240) preferred to call the 'basis for comparison' and not the 'structural core'. It is exactly this diversity coupled with the 'basis for comparison' that turns South East Asia into the ideal object for comparative researches which, in the long run, promise not only a deeper cognition of this part of the world per se, but also the elaboration of new methods in the many-sided and inter-disciplinary comparative study of civilisations generally. No doubt the words by J. Scott that 'South East Asia is to anthropologists what the Galapagos Islands were to Darwin' are applicable not only to the anthropological or religious (see Reynolds, F. 1992:65) domain, but to the study of the classical civilisations of Asia as a whole. Such properties of classical South East Asia as its 'openness' and, as a result, its likeness to an 'Asia in miniature' are particularly significant for comparative study. Thanks to the constant and mostly peaceful contacts of the region with the religio-cultural complexes of the outer world, as well as to the interaction of these complexes with the local substratum and with each other inside the region, South East Asia proves to be an extremely promising field for the study of diverse forms of the interface between civilisations. The patterns of ties and influences, borrowings, transformations and multifarious cultural syntheses, elaborated on the basis of the rich, though 'observable', evidence of South East Asia, could contribute considerably to the interpretation of similar phenomena in the pan-Asian context. However, the comparative study of the 'open' civilisations of the region is essential not only for theoretical but also for practical reasons. Its role is significantly increasing in the contemporary multi-focal world with its obvious tendency to cultural cross-fertilisation and its equally obvious reluctance, in the age of globalisation, to recognise the Western cultural model as the one and only example to follow.
6
INTRODUCTION
Be that as it may, the significance of the study of classical South East Asia is by no means limited to the contribution it could make to the development of comparative studies, whether regional or global. The reason is that no sound research on contemporary processes in the region can ignore the underlying traditional culture, the type of personality that has been formed in it, and the system of values determining the behaviour of this type of personality in any sphere of human activity. For, it is no secret that even the most recent phenomena of South East Asian history, economy, politics, and culture are none other than the outcome of a synthesis of traditional and modern components, the former originating in classical civilisations and the latter emerging in the process of Westernisation. Moreover, it is the traditional component that determines both the peculiarity of these phenomena and their differences from their Western counterparts. The inter-relations between the traditional and the modern in this synthesis have an extremely complicated and contradictory character. On the one hand, it is obvious that the share of the modern (Westernising) component in the synthesis is steadily increasing, particularly since globalisation has given this 'levelling' trend a new impetus. On the other hand, it was precisely in the second half of the 20th century that the opposite, neotraditionalist trend began to rise in power, just as across the entire postcolonial world, the neotraditionalist trend in South East Asia was brought to life by 'spiritual decolonisation' and the search for national identity. In a nutshell, it reveals the aspiration of some South East Asian intellectuals - who more often than not were educated in the West or along Western lines - to return to the reconsidered and reassessed values of their traditional cultures and, supported by them, to resolve the problems of the spiritual and material development of their societies, which seems to them insoluble in the framework of fundamentally non-traditional Western approaches (see Braginsky 2000: 273-306). If we add to this that the 'low version' of traditional culture is still wide-spread among the mass of the population, it will become clear that attention to classical civilisations is indispensable for any study of South East Asia, including those on contemporary issues. For the heritage of classical civilisations - be it the religiously based systems of values that influence economic development, or the nationalistic ideologies (or rather 'mythologies') that affect political thinking - continues to persist as a living and active force in the region. But it is not only the needs of scholarship and its impact on the development of the region that matter here. As has already been noted, it is precisely the traditional component of the synthesis which determines the uniqueness, the originality of South East Asia and therefore the humanitarian value of its experience. The experience of this 'Asia in miniature' is an inexhaustible source of alternative solutions to such problems as the spiritual and physical perfection of the human species, the restoration of its ties with an integral Universe and nature, which were lost by post-industrial Western civilisation, 7
INTRODUCTION
the revival of inter-personal relations and the overcoming of mutual alienation. It is for this reason that such a great interest is shown now in traditional Eastern religions, philosophical systems, literatures and sciences (particularly medicine and psychology). In all these domains, the heritage of classical South East Asia has already influenced and is yet to influence the culture of the West, which needs the traditional East in no less a degree than Eastern culture needs the modern West. Suffice it to remind ourselves, for instance, of the influence of Malay pantun on the Romantics, of Balinese theatre on Artaud, of gamelan music on Debussy, and of traditional forms of Indonesian architecture on Dutch architects of the 20th century'? Particularly interesting in this respect is the considerable and persisting influence of Buddhist philosophy and Sufism on philosophical and aesthetic thought in the West (see, e.g., Clarke 1997). Por, although these spiritual doctrines were formed outside South East Asia, to both of them are applicable the words of c.P. Keyes (1992:18) that it was in the countries of the region that they 'developed in unique ways' and today represent very 'dynamic living traditions'; Buddhism even more so than 'in its country of origin' (Ibid.). Such is the scholarly and humanitarian significance of the researches on classical South East Asia, of which this book contains a small part. As we shall see, these researches could constitute the heart, as it were, of the interdisciplinary study of the region and - in spite of the not uncommon belief that they are too esoteric and lacking in practical value - it seems difficult to find another branch of knowledge about South East Asia, which could lay claim to greater practical value. That is, of course, if we cease to reduce the latter to only one, financial dimension.
The second perspective: history 'One feature (of the British approach; V.B.) which stands out is the desire ... for a broad understanding of the region as a whole.' Ralph Smith
South East Asian studies in the UK - although they are second to Middle Eastern or Indian and Chinese studies in their scope and significance - can boast of quite a respectable history which has its roots in the 16th-17th centuries. Interest in South East Asia - which was brought to life by the Epoch of Great Discoveries and dramatically increased after the establishment of commercial ties with it, the foundation of the East India Company and the beginning of colonial expansion in the region - was initially satisfied mainly by travellers, missionaries, officials and collectors of exotic objects of every description. It was they (e.g., Archbishop W. Laud or the official of the East India Company, W. Mainstone) who laid the foundation stones of future
8
INTRODUCTION
British collections of Malay (later also Burmese and Thai) manuscripts and artefacts as well as of European documents on South East Asia in Oxford, Cambridge, London, Durham and Manchester, which are among the richest and most representative in the world. 8 At the same time, the 17th century saw the earliest British works on South East Asia, primarily in the Malay field, the first of them being Dialogues in English and Malaiane Languages (1614) by the merchant A. Spalding. In the 1670s, there appeared several Malay dictionaries and grammars and the translation of the Gospels and Acts supervised by T. Hyde, an Oxford professor, a polyglot in Oriental languages and court interpreter. Interestingly, from Hyde's correspondence we learn that in the 1680s a certain Bishop Fell proposed the establishment of a sort of 'department' of Malay in the University of Oxford - probably the first, though unsuccessful, proposal of this kind anywhere in the world (see Jones 1984:127). In the 18th century, History of Sumatra (1783) by W. Marsden, an outstanding work for its time, saw the light of day. In the early 19th century it was followed by the famous History of Java (1817) by T.S. Raffles as well as the works of his close associates J. Leyden (On the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations, 1808) and J. Crawfurd (History of the Indian Archipelago, 1820, and A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries, 1856).9 Since in all these works history was understood in very broad terms - as a kind of cultural history, in fact - and the books of the two latter authors treated of the Malay world, Siam and Burma, we can see in them the distant ancestors of future British inter-disciplinary regional researches. Malay studies received a new impetus with the beginning of the colonisation of Malaya in 1874 and the establishment of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, its earliest offshoot in South East Asia, in 1877. The journal that was issued by the Straits Branch became a centre of gravity for the whole Pleiad of Malayists - such as W. Maxwell, W.G. Shellabear, R.J. Wilkinson, C.O. Blagden lO - crowned with 'the last and greatest of the British "colonial" scholars of Malaya', R.O. Winstedt (Bastin 1964:9). Although the first British contacts with Burma date back to 1587, the study of this country began somewhat later than that of the Malay world. In 1791 there appeared the Oriental Repertory by Alexander Dalrymple - the first collection of documents about British-Burmese relations and the history of Burma in the times of King Alaungpaya (1750s). By the efforts of the scholars of the first half of the 19th century-M. Symes,J. Crawfurd, H. Burney, G.T. Bayfield - knowledge of Burmese history not only considerably broadened, but also deepened from the period of Ava to the epoch of Pagan (see Hall 1961: 15 5-166).1 1 The discovery of Burmese historical literature, which made it possible to complement British accounts with indigenous data, was particularly conducive to this. As a result, 19th century researches in the history of the country culminated in the History of Burma by Arthur Phyre, the first Chief Commissioner of British Burma. This work published in 1883
9
INTRODUCTION
brought together his deep knowledge of Burmese culture, traditions and historical sources. It was based on a periodisation that is still acceptable and did justice to the role of Buddhism in Burmese history. According to H. Tinker (1961:267): 'he [Phyre; V.B.] identified himself with the Burmese outlook, so that his History of Burma is not a history of Burma through British eyes ... , but an account of the rise and fall of the monarchies of Burma, much as it is depicted in the Burmese chronicles'. Beginning in the early 19th century and onwards, a number of grammars, dictionaries and manuals of Burmese, compiled by British and American Protestant missionaries, saw the light of day, the earliest among them being the grammar by F. Carey (1814; for a bibliography, see OkeIl1996). Burmese Buddhism and literature also became objects of study at that time. Although initially literary studies were mostly limited to Burmese literature in Pali (the major work in this field was M. Bode's book The Pali Literature of Burma, 1909), from the 1930s a course in literature in Burmese was fully established at the University of Rangoon and Mandalay College (see Allott 1996:15). Originally Rangoon College (since 1920 the University of Rangoon), which was set up in 1880, represented the main and virtually the only centre of Burmese studies. No less important a role in their development was also played by the Burma Research Society, established in 1910 mainly by the efforts of J.S. Furnivall, a Cambridge graduate, colonial administrator and outstanding, versatile scholar. According to his design (shared by the cofounders of the Society U May Aung and C. Duroiselle), the research work of the Society was to embrace all the domains of Burmese culture - from history and religion to language, literature and art. Its journal, in its turn, was intended not only to publish the results of this research, but also to provide space for discussions and debates (see Allott 1996:10). Both British and Burmese scholars were united around the journal, among them such eminent researchers as Furnivall himself, G. Luce, a connoisseur of Burmese culture, history and linguistics, and the historian D.G.E. Hall. Early British researches in Thai (Siamese) subjects were more modest in their scope. Among them, we may mention the works, already noted, of Leyden and Crawfurd, particularly the Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China by the latter, as well as J. Low's survey On Siamese Literature (1829) and the book by J. Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam (1857). After a less than successful attempt by J. Fox (1828) at composing a manual of Thai language, B.O. Cartwright published in 1906 his somewhat better Elementary Hand-Book of the Siamese Language, to which, in the next year, he added A Siamese-English Dictionary. However, just as in Burma and Malaya, the establishment of the Siam Society in 1904, which also began to issue its journal, opened a more favourable perspective before British specialists in Thailand. Their fairly numerous publications in the journal (see Simmonds 1965) clearly confirmed this. 12
10
INTRODUCTION
At the early stages, British studies of South East Asian civilisations usually resulted from the efforts of individuals, not institutions, who worked singlehandedly, more often than not in South East Asian countries themselves. These scholars shared many common features in their life-style, manner of work and approach to the object of their research, yet it would be premature to view them as representatives of a clear-cut academic tradition. Nevertheless, elements of such a tradition were undoubtedly present in their studies. A graphic picture of the 'ecology' of South East Asian studies from the late 19th to the first third of the 20th century has recently been portrayed by B. Anderson (1992). The students of the region were usually colonial civil servants, highly paid and eligible for solid pensions. They lived for many years in the countries they studied, often married local women, befriended local connoisseurs of traditional culture, and published their works mostly in local journals like Journal of the Straits (later Malayan) Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of the Siam Society and Journal of the Burma Research Society. Most of the 'greats' were fluent in the contemporary mainstream vernaculars ... Access to people and materials was not a big problem because, after all, they were officials of an autocratic state. Life was generally predictable and its pace unhurried ... We know the fields in which they excelled: precolonial history, archaeology, epigraphy, philology, and linguistics; also, to varying extents, literary studies, ethnology, Buddhist and Islamic studies, economics, demography and rural sociology (Anderson 1992:26). To these we can add that many such British civil servant-scholars got their university degrees in Classical Studies. The shortcomings of their work, according to Anderson, were 'neglect of political science ... modern history, and sociology (outside the rural context)', hence 'innocence of sociological or political theory', and provincialism, i.e., insufficient knowledge about the achievements of their colleagues in other South East Asian colonies (Ibid.:27-28). It is exactly these scholars who have recently become the target of accusations of Orientalism, the latter being understood in Saidian terms as serving the interests of colonial powers. These accusations, though containing a grain of truth, are nevertheless quite far from 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth'. For, as Ruth McVey (1998:40-41) aptly remarked, their Orientalism (contrary to Said, she implies simply their Oriental researches) more often than not turned academic eyes away from colonial interests ... Rather, it (their Orientalism; V.B.) appealed because it fit into the philological tradition that was still powerful in European universities at the
11
INTRODUCTION
beginning of the century, and was thus linked to a tradition of study aimed at finding the roots of civilisation ... The scholar specialising on Southeast Asia was thus not just a 'resource person' for business and administrative interests; rather he possessed a special secret knowledge without which attempts at the solution of modern problems would be superficial and temporary. Moreover, their Orientalist discovery of the by-gone glories of ancient South East Asian civilisations - after only minor adjustments - served nationalist leaders well in the creation of their national ideologies and in the anti-colonial struggle. Let us, however, turn to the history of South East Asian studies at SOAS. As is well known, if the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (founded in 1784) 'begat' the Royal Asiatic Society (founded in 1823),13 then the Royal Asiatic Society 'begat' the School of Oriental (from 1938, and African) Studies. Such eminent scholars and Society members as Prof. Salmone, T. Arnold, M. MonierWilliams, H. Rawlinson, H. Yule, and G. Grierson were convinced that London was to become a centre of Orientalist research and education not inferior to Paris, Berlin and St. Petersburg. And it was their determination and consistency that in the end - after almost a century of relentless efforts - was crowned with the opening of the School on the 29th of January, 1917, its staff mostly consisting of teachers from King's and University Colleges (see Hartog 1920:20). Needless to say, the main role in the opening of SOAS was played by the pragmatic interests of the British Empire, first and foremost the necessity to instruct prospective colonial officials. As was noted in the conclusion of the Reay Committee, appointed in 1907 by the Treasury to consider the organisation of the School: There is urgent need for the provision of suitable teaching in London for persons about to take up administrative or commercial posts in the East and in Africa. A knowledge of the language, and some preliminary knowledge of the history and religions and social customs of the country to which they are appointed, is essential to such persons ... To meet the need referred to ... a School of Oriental Studies should be built up ... (quoted by Hartog 1920:11). The same pragmatic considerations were also emphasised in the Charter of Incorporation bestowed upon the School. Nevertheless, from the very beginning SOAS was intended as a centre of scholarly research, primarily in the humanities. As the first director of the School, the distinguished Iranologist E. Dennison Ross put it: The practical side will in no way prejudice the development of the purely academic aims of the School, for it is intended that it shall 12
INTRODUCTION
become a centre of Oriental research ... We shall in this way provide in one institution both for the practical and the literary branches of language study (Dennison Ross 1920:1-2). The Chairman of the General Committee, Rt. Han. Earl Curzon, also spoke, at the opening ceremony, about the intellectual mission of SOAS, which surpasses its purely utilitarian significance: 'But in my view this School ought to have much more than a merely instructional or utilitarian value. I hope as time passes this place will become a sort of clearing-house of ideas between East and West' ... , which - thanks to 'a knowledge of the character, the life, and thought' of Oriental peoples - 'bring into closer union what we may describe as the soul of the Eastern and Western world' (Anonymous 1920:30). The complicated and contradictory inter-relations between the utilitarian and scholarly functions of the School, persistent attempts to strike a balance between them and nevertheless their recurrent lack of balance - all this continues through the entire history of SOAS, both in the imperial and post-imperial periods. Nonetheless, the synthesis of these functions which the founding fathers of the School once dreamt of, has not been achieved until now. South East Asian studies were present at SOAS from the first year of its establishment, just as they were present in the very first issue of the Bulletin that the School commenced to publish. The original staff of specialists in South East Asia was small: e.O. Blagden, Reader in Malay, A.L. Hough, Lecturer in Burmese (who was replaced by W.A. Hertz in 1924) and S.H. Ray, Additional (i.e., occasional) Lecturer in Oceanic Linguistics, who worked at the School for only one year. The first Department of South East Asia and the Islands (1933-1935), which was headed by Blagden and included only one more specialist, the Lecturer (future Professor) in Burmese, ].A. Stewart, proved to be short-lived. However, the Department was the first institution of this kind in the UK. Interestingly, after the Department had been disbanded, South East Asian studies at SOAS did not decrease but, on the contrary, markedly increased in intensity. In 1935, R.O. Winstedt, then Lecturer (later Reader) in Malay, joined Blagden and Stewart and in 1941 the School employed E.].A. Henderson as the first full-time Lecturer in Siamese (she later became Professor of Phonetics).1 4 No less important a step taken by the School was the organisation of the Panel of Additional Lecturers in South East Asian languages and cultures, that immediately followed the disbandment of the Department. This step turned the School into the focus for the best British specialists in their respective domains. During the period of existence of the Panel (1936-1948),
13
INTRODUCTION
its staff numbered 26 South East Asianists - specialists in the Malay, Burmese, Shan, Chin, Khasi, Kachin and Thai fields and in languages of Oceania among them such famous scholars as the Burmanists Luce and Hla Pe, the Malayist O.T. Dussek, the Thailand specialists R. Le May and H.G. Quaritch Wales, the Oceanic linguist and anthropologist R.W. Firth and many others, to say nothing of above-mentioned Blagden and Winstedt who joined the Panel after their retirement. With the assistance of these scholars, such subjects as Burmese language, history, Buddhist law and economics, as well as the Malay, Shan and Siamese languages and Malayan history were taught at the School (see Scarbrough 1947:121). Alongside their teaching, South East Asianists, who either worked at SOAS or were closely related to it through the Panel, greatly contributed to regional research, particularly to the study of classical South East Asian civilisations (some of their articles published in BSOAS can be found in the present anthology). Among their works in this field, there were, for instance, the translation of the Burmese 'Glass Palace Chronicle' by Luce (in cooperation with Pe Maung Tin, 1923) and his works on classical history and epigraphy of the country;15 numerous publications by Blagden on Malay and Mon traditional cultures, particularly his editions of Mon inscriptions in Epigraphia Birmanica (1920, 1923, 1928, 1935); History of Malaya (1935) and History of Malay Literature (1939) by Winstedt; Buddha's Images in Siam (1938) by R. Le May; Ancient Siamese Government and Administration (1934), Towards Angkor (1937) and Researches on Ancient Indian Colonisation in Malaya (1940) by Quaritch Wales. Needless to say, this list is by no means exhaustive. Finally, we must mention the immense contribution of SOAS to the training of specialists in South East Asian languages for the military forces and intelligence, who were in such great demand during the Second World War. The political changes of the post-war period together with the experience of the war and the subsequent anticolonial movement led to a deeper understanding than before of the importance of Asia, and of South East Asia in particular, for British national interests. This, in turn, made it necessary to reconsider the concept of academic Oriental Studies - the task that was set before the specially appointed commission headed by Lord Scarbrough. The report composed by this commission in 1946 16 played an extremely important and stimulating role in South East Asian studies. The report began with an acknowledgement of the growing world importance of the East, wherefrom 'have sprung civilisations of great antiquity which are now renewing their ancient vigour by a process of cross-fertilisation with the civilisation of the West' (Scarbrough 1947:25-26) and, consequently, of the growing significance of Orienta list knowledge. Therefore, 'the establishment and maintenance of an academic tradition' was proclaimed in the report as 'the first and most important long-term objective' that British 14
INTRODUCTION
Oriental studies was to achieve. This tradition was understood as an ' [existing] over a considerable period of time ... succession of distinguished scholars who had established in their particular branch of studies a reputation for sound learning that had come to be recognised in academic circles at home and abroad .. .' (Ibid.:28). According to the commission, only strong 'university departments independent of undergraduate demand' were capable of establishing such a tradition. It was exactly they that could secure the proper balance between languages and related subjects, as well as between classical and modern studies. Oriental studies should be integrated with other kinds of humanities and receive substantially increased provision for research in literature, history, linguistics and in social sciences. In order that this ambitious project could be carried out, it was proposed to allocate considerable funds (in the form of special earmarked grants) for the training of gifted postgraduates who were to form the staff of prospective departments, for their fieldwork in Asian countries, for the invitation of teachers from those countries and for the library provision of the research. Along with this, there was proposed a kind of division of labour between the universities of London, Oxford and Cambridge. In London, SOAS was to concentrate on research in the humanities and courses related to language teaching, whereas to the London School of Economics (LSE) a similar role was allotted in the field of social sciences (lbid.:69-70, 119). As regards Oxford and Cambridge, they were intended to contribute respectively to the study of the history and anthropology of the East. All the above-mentioned proposals fully referred to the study of South East Asia - one of the four regions of the East listed in the report. In view of the established situation and the reluctance to scatter funds and posts, the commission recommended focusing South East Asian studies at SOAS. To stimulate research in and teaching of languages and culture-related subjects (which were to cover all the linguistic families and countries of the region, including French Indo-China and the Netherlands East Indies) as well as the history, religion, art and anthropology of these countries, it was suggested that the School should revive the Department of South East Asia and the Islands. Incidentally, the same suggestion was made earlier by the School itself. The creation of a genuine academic tradition and research became the main priorities in the work of the Department. With this in mind, within the period of about 16 years, the Department was to have trained a comprehensive staff, for which purpose 25 students hips for British postgraduates were allocated to it; the postgraduates were intended to join the staff after two years of fieldwork in the countries that they studied. In addition, the Department was provided with funds for the invitation of overseas scholars/teachers and native instructors from South East Asia as well as for the establishment of close scholarly relations with the Raffles College (Singapore), Rangoon University, the Netherlands Indian Institute (Batavia) and the Ecole Fran~ais d'Extreme Orient. Remarkably, the report set the task of surmounting the mutual 15
INTRODUCTION
isolation both of different domains in South East Asian studies (religious studies, archaeology, linguistics) and of different national traditions in these studies (British, French, Dutch). The report also proposed the serious discussion of 'a list of major problems for research over the whole field' and 'integrated courses in regional studies', thus broaching such subjects as the inter-disciplinary and even comparative investigation of the region (see Ibid.:120-121). In other words, the authors of the report envisaged, as it were, all the major tasks of South East Asian studies, tasks which have not lost their urgency to this day (see below). The recommendations of the Scarbrough Commission, though never implemented fully, exerted a strong, stimulating influence on the development of South East Asian studies at SOAS. In 1946, the Department of South East Asia and the Islands was re-established and headed by the Professor of Burmese, J .A. Stewart. 17 Now its staff numbered 9 specialists in the languages and cultures of Burma, Malaya, Thailand and Oceania, who were assisted by the impressive Panel of Additional Lecturers consisting of 15 scholars (among them Dussek, Firth, the future Professor of Burmese Hla Pe, Le May, Quaritch Wales, Winstedt, a.o., see Handbook 1999:60-62). However, a particularly great contribution to the formation of the tradition of British South East Asian studies - especially of their classical domain - was made by D.G.E. Hall, an outstanding historian of South East Asia. After a short period of learning Burmese at SOAS, he headed Department of History in Rangoon University, in 1921-1934, and returned to the UK as one of the very few established British South East Asianists. 18 From 1949 to 1959, Professor Hall managed not only to gather a strong team of historians of the region - including such scholars as CR. Boxer, CD. Cowan, H.R. Tinker, O.W. Wolters and M.C Ricklefs - in the Department of History of SOAS, but also to transform radically the Department of South East Asia and the Islands, the Head of which he had remained all those years. It was also Professor Hall who successfully resolved perhaps the most difficult problem faced by South East Asian studies both at SOAS and in the UK as a whole the lack of specialists in many major languages and cultures of the region. Hall recruited, for the work at SOAS, the eminent Dutch Indonesianist C. Hooykaas (in the same years, another Dutch scholar, the connoisseur of Indonesian epigraphy J.G. de Casparis also began work at the School), G.H. Luce, the specialist in art A.H. Christie and a few Burmanists (H.F. Searle, A.J. Allott) and Malayists (A.H. Hill, E.CG. Barrett, C Skinner). Some of them received their postgraduate education at SOAS and defended their Ph.D theses there. No less important a step was the training of a group of so-called Scarbrough postgraduates, who specialised in Mon (H.L. Shorto), Thai (E.H.S. Simmonds), Khmer (J.M. Jacob), Vietnamese (P.J. Honey) languages, literatures and cultures as well as in languages of Oceania (G.B. Milner 19 ). After preliminary training in linguistics and in their respective languages in the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics of SOAS and a 16
INTRODUCTION
subsequent period of study in South East Asia (sometimes, like for instance Jacob, also in European universities), all these postgraduates were appointed lecturers in the South East Asia Department. These measures secured for the Department, the staff of which increased to 14-17 members, probably the best coverage of South East Asian languages and cultures in Europe. The historians, philologists and scholars involved in culture studies, who were either recruited or trained at SOAS on Hall's initiative, formed a new generation of British academic specialists in South East Asia. This generation differed markedly from the civil servant-scholars of the past by their higher professionalism, more sound disciplinary background and better preparedness for a re-consideration of earlier, now obsolete, approaches to the region. This re-consideration, essential in the post-colonial period, was also initiated by Hall, particularly in his History of South East Asia which, for the first time, embraced the entire region at all the stages of its historical development, as well as in his seminars about the region's history.2o The whole spirit of this seminal book and these seminars was directed against Euro-centrism and the concept of South East Asia as merely a part of 'Greater India', and towards defining the salient features of the region that distinguished it from its neighbours, thus turning it into an individual, specific object of research. Hall's History and his seminars not only summed up the knowledge already gained, but also represented one of the first attempts to advocate comparative studies of the region's history. Finally, Hall considerably expanded the international links of British South East Asianists both with their European and American colleagues (the London-Cornell Project of 1962-1972 played an important part in this) and with scholars from the universities of South East Asia (primarily from the University of Malaya). The intellectual potential of the Department of South East Asia and the Islands, the foundations of which had been laid by Hall, was maintained during the next two decades (until the early 1980s), particularly in the long period when it was headed by Prof. E.H.S Simmonds (1966-1982).21 In those years, after a certain fluctuation, the Department numbered once again 16-17 members (among them four professors and two readers in Burmese, Mon-Khmer, Thai, Austronesian, Old Javanese and Vietnamese languages and literatures) and its Thai section was considerably reinforced. The scholars of the Department not only provided the linguistic basis for the emerging area studies programmes, but also greatly contributed to the co-operative researches, seminars and conferences organised by the Centre of South East Asian Studies, which had been established at SOAS by that time (see below). The results of the study of classical South East Asian civilisations by the staff of SOAS and scholars closely related to the School were quite impressive. Among their publications we may primarily mention fundamental works by historians: History of South East Asia by Hall (1955, 2nd enlarged ed. 1964), Old Burma - Early Pagan (1969) by Luce, Early Indonesian Commerce 17
INTRODUCTION
(1967) by Wolters, Jogyakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi (1974) and Modern Javanese Historical Tradition (1978) by Ricklefs; secondly, studies of South East Asian epigraphy: Dictionary of Mon Inscriptions (1971) by Shorto, Indonesian Paleography (1975) by De Casparis; and finally works on the archaeology, art and religions of the region: The Culture of South East Asia (1954) by Le May, The Mountain of God (1953) and Prehistory and Religion in South East Asia (1957) by Quaritch Wales, Agama Tirtha (1964) by Hooykaas. British archaeologists worked at that time in Malaysia and Thailand. A considerable contribution to research on classical South East Asia was also made by philologists, lexicographers and literary scholars at SOAS. The voluminous Burmese-English Dictionary occupies the place of honour among their works. Based on material drawn from hundreds of manuscripts and books, this dictionary was in the process of being compiled for several decades by the efforts of J.A. Stewart, C.W. Dunn, Hla Pe, H.F. Searle, A.J. Allott and J.W. Okell, but unfortunately remained unfinished (only six parts were issued between 1940-1981).22 In the same years there were also published studies and translations of the most important Malay chronicles - the 'Malay Annals' (1952) by c.c. Brown and the 'Tale of the Pasai Rajas' (1960) by A.H. Hill- and works about Old Javanese Ramayana (1955, 1958) by Hooykaas. Already in the 1980s a translation of the Khmer Ramayana (1986) by J. Jacob 23 and R. Jones' edition and translation of the Malay religious composition 'Tale ofIbrahim ibn Adham' (1983, 1985) were added to them. Finally, we should mention numerous articles on the philology, religion, art, literature and culture of the region written at that period by such SOAS scholars as Brown, Hill, Barrett, Shorto, Simmonds, Jacob, Christie, Jones, and others (some are included in this anthology), as well as dictionaries and grammars of South East Asian languages published by linguists of the SchooI.24 When turning to the works of the scholars of the 1950s-1970s, first and foremost of those from SOAS, we notice an extremely important phenomenon: it was exactly at that time that the foundations of the intellectual academic tradition of classical South East Asian studies - in the sense of the word defined above - were laid in the UK. We can trace, for example, the unquestionable influence of Hall upon the whole Pleiad of British researchers on the history of the region, that of Winstedt upon the next generation of Malayists (Brown, Hill, Barrett, and others), of Stewart and Hla Pe upon the younger Burmanists who worked on the Burmese-English Dictionary, and of Blagden and Luce upon the Mon studies of Shorto. Later, this new generation of scholars exerted no less deep an influence upon their successors in the field as, for instance, Simmonds upon the younger Thai specialists at SOAS (Manas Chitakasem, and others). This tradition which, in many cases, emerged in the process of direct tuition, not infrequently took the form of both acceptance and rejection of 18
INTRODUCTION
the teacher's ideas - so different were the radically changed demands of the time and so different in kind were the civil servant-scholars from the university professionals of the post-colonial age. Nevertheless, it was a tradition, for, either in positive or negative form, it invariably preserved a link with the knowledge transmitted by the teacher. A particularly important role in the shaping of the tradition was played by postgraduate education and supervision of doctoral theses written by British and overseas students at SOAS.25 Between 1960 and 1980, eighteen PhD theses on virtually all the major literatures as well as the theatre, religions and archaeology of classical South East Asia were defended in the Department of South East Asia and the Islands of the School (see Handbook 1999:65-67). When defining the salient features of the British tradition of South East Asian studies, which are typical, in particular, of the works on classical civilisations of the region, R. Smith (1986:20) refers to their 'pragmatism and desire for a regional perspective'. He understands the former in the sense that the 'British approach' begins by accepting the discipline of the available source materials and seeking to reconstruct situations or sequences to which they relate (or probably, in broader terms, to place them in the proper context; V.B.); and only afterwards risks a generalisation or two. The latter, according to him, is an attempt 'to combine international and national perspectives in the same piece of research and to refuse to acknowledge a watertight distinction between them'. For, any country of the region combines its own indigenous, specific features with those which result from its ties with 'the maritime world of Indian, Persian, Arab and Chinese, as well as Western, trades (and, we can add, religions and cultures; V.B.) - a world that is unintelligible if one studies only one country at a time' (Ibid.). Although Smith's definition primarily refers to historical research, it is applicable, mutatis mutandis, to other branches of British South East Asian studies too. At the foundations of the 'pragmatism' of the 'British approach' undoubtedly lies the above-mentioned, well developed philological tradition of the examination of both historical and literary sources, which was inherited from the initiators of South East Asian scholarship in the UK. At the same time, the 'regionalism' of the 'British approach' not infrequently revealed itself in the form of 'spontaneous' inter-disciplinarity and comparativism, for which the scholars of the 1950s-1970s - their greater disciplinary specialisation notwithstanding - were also largerly indebted to their predecessors and teachers. The reader of this anthology will encounter some traits of inter-disciplinary studies, based on a philological approach to the sources, more than once or twice (e.g., in the articles by Simmonds, Shorto' Wolters). In the works of the 19
INTRODUCTION
same authors - just as in those of a majority of South East Asianists at that time, especially historians and linguists - there also occur elements of the comparative approach. The latter found particularly clear expression during a number of conferences held at SOAS: Hall's above-mentioned series of seminars on history and historiography of South East Asia (Hall 1961), Colloquy on Early South East Asia (Smith and Watson 1979), conferences on the linguistic comparison (Shorto 1963, Milner and Henderson 1965). Thus, in the 1950s-70s SOAS became one of the major world centres for the study of the classical civilisations of South East Asia, in which a peculiar scholarly tradition with characteristic idiosyncrasies and orientations was being dynamically formed. However, in the 1980s this situation was radically and abruptly changed. The first, as yet relatively positive, signs of changes in academic policy made themselves felt as early as the beginning of the 1960s. They were caused by quite justified attempts both to find a better balance between pre-modern and modern aspects of research and teaching and to provide social sciences which had hitherto remained somewhat in the background - with an opportunity for healthier development. This programme of changes was articulated in the report of the Hayter Committee,26 published in 1961- in the period of the disintegration of the British Empire and the emergence of independent national states in its place.27 The programme preserved the scholarly orientation of the Scarbrough Report, by giving priority to the search for scientific truth and the task of research which, according to the authors, should not be confused with the burning political topics of the day (Hayter 1961:41). The report also emphasised the significance of pre-modern studies for the contemporary epoch, when nations had come on to the world arena, whose civilisations 'are far older and at least as distinguished as our own' and which challenged the idea of 'an undisputed pre-eminence' of Western European civilisation. As the authors of the report wrote: The reputation of the universities and the standing of Oriental ... studies would not be sustained without a sufficient core of scholars dedicated to the deepest study of the more distant past and of the great classical periods of literature and thought ... The SubCommittee does not wish to diminish the volume of these studies ... (Ibid.:49). Along with it, the changing political situation and growing public interest in new Asian states demanded much more attention to modern studies and social sciences than had been shown before. As a result, what really constituted the spirit of the report was an opposition of language departments to non-language, i.e., disciplinary, departments
20
INTRODUCTION
and a striving to develop the latter and in them, primarily, modern studies. Somewhat contradicting what has been quoted above, the authors of the report recommended that universities should 'reduce the insistence in language departments on philological studies' (Ibid.:9), since the need at the present time is not for many more linguists (these implied language specialists of every description; V.B.). It is for more historians, lawyers, economists and other social scientists to specialise in these areas, to permeate the universities with their ideas, and to give more students in their departments an opportunity to learn about the non-western world (Ibid.:49). Accordingly, the report provided for the reorientation of grants in favour of disciplinary departments and the creation of new posts either outside the language departments or, at best, jointly with them (Ibid.:52, 68). For the enlargement of modern researches, it was proposed not only to consolidate disciplinary departments, but also to establish - on the model of American universities - centres of area studies. This became the principal innovation of the report. 28 Such centres (with few staff and 'burdened' by teaching only at the postgraduate level) were intended to serve as an alternative to the strong inter-disciplinary departments of the Scarbrough Commission, which seemed quite 'exotic' in the structure of universities, because of their independence of 'undergraduate demand'. The main advantage of the centres was that their staff (linguists, historians, geographers, lawyers, economists, anthropologists) belonged to departments and to the centres at the same time, which allowed them, without losing contact with colleagues in their respective disciplines or with their disciplinary orientation, to concentrate their efforts on the inter-disciplinary, complex study of the region as a whole, first and foremost on its modern history, politics and other subjects of the social sciences. Thus the centres, united by area and language (to be more exact, a language expertise sufficient for the reading of source-materials), 'provided an excellent power-house to generate interest in these studies', 'broke down the barriers between the disciplines' and gave 'a great stimulus to modern studies' (Ibid.:57-58, 54). It was supposed that disciplinary studies, primarily modern, would be concentrated in non-language departments, and inter-disciplinary ones in the centres of area studies, both types of unit maintaining a close interaction. As regards language departments, the main load of undergraduate teaching was now intended to be laid upon them, in spite of the fact that they included specialists not only in languages, but also in other domains of Asian cultures and although the members of the Hayter Committee understood only too well that the elementary language instruction 'wastes the talents of highly qualified university teachers' (Ibid.:93). This load could not fail to have a baneful effect on the intellectual potential of these departments, which had
21
INTRODUCTION
already been considerably weakened by the above-mentioned restrictions in funds and staff. Another innovation recommended in the report was a kind of decentralisation of Oriental studies and the creation of regional centres in a number of British universities. It was suggested in particular that, for the more rapid development of South East Asian studies, centres should be established in the University of Hull and the University of Kent (Canterbury). These centres, however, were understood as purely disciplinary (to be more exact, interdisciplinary), as they were not intended to provide any language teaching, which remained the prerogative of SOAS. The establishment of regional centres (at Hull University in 1962, at SOAS in 1966, at the University of Kent in 1969) was undoubtedly a response to the needs of the day and could have given a fresh impetus to South East Asian studies. It is evident that - at the present stage of development in humanitarian and social disciplines - these studies can only evolve into something genuinely (not 'spontaneously') inter-disciplinary and comparative and overcome their insufficiently 'conceptual' and 'theoretical' (Smith 1986:20) approach to the region, if carried out by teams of researchers, not by individual 'loners', no matter how erudite they may be. It was just such teams - formed by and accommodated in the centres - that could have been an alternative to the allround scholars of the past (who were, incidentally, area studies people par excellence) and could have worked out an integral conception of the sociopolitical and historico-cultural evolution of South East Asia and its individual sub-regions. There were, however, not only pros but also many cons with regard to both the decentralisation of South East Asian studies and the separation of languages from disciplines, which led to the creation of centres involved in purely 'non-language studies'. It goes without saying that a historian needs a language to understand his sources, a specialist in political sciences needs it to read the indigenous press, an anthropologist, to interview his informants, etc. In this sense, non-language departments were always language departments as well. On the other hand, the language departments of SOAS were staffed not only with linguists and literary scholars but also with specialists in religion, art and culture, thus being simultaneously disciplinary, or nonlanguage, departments. However, there were two even worse circumstances. First, the centres did not have any clearly formulated research programmes focused on problems of a genuinely complex nature, which might have provoked the interest of specialists in different disciplines and could only have been resolved by their joint efforts. Being predominantly engaged in the organisation of extremely heterogeneous seminars, some more homogeneous 'round tables' and workshops and - what was considered the crowning achievement - international conferences,29 the centres never became a place of regular co-operative research work for scholars at either SOAS, Hull, or Kent. It was the lack of 22
INTRODUCTION
such well-planned programmes, coupled with the notorious reluctance of scholars in the humanities to work in teams, that made it impossible to achieve a balance between disciplinary research in the departments and interdisciplinary research in the centres. At SOAS, the hoped-for 'double loyalty' of the researchers remained a myth, since their ties with their respective departments remained much stronger than those with the centre. Second, although before the 1980s specialists in classical South East Asia did exist in the centres, particularly at SOAS,30 this did not lead to a sound discussion either on the significance of this field for the understanding of modern developments in the region 31 or on the methods and goals of interaction between classical and modern researches in the framework of interdisciplinary area studies. As a result, the opportunity was missed for a multifaceted study of South East Asia as an individual region with its own specific history and culture, that still in many ways determines its current socio-political and economic evolution. A justified attempt to get rid of the old imbalances between language and non-language disciplines, between the traditional and the modern, finally brought about a new and even sharper imbalance: the domination of the social sciences engaged in modern issues and the virtual destruction of what had been a successfully emerging tradition of the study of the classical civilisations of South East Asia. This imbalance, though noticeable in all the Centres, was particularly sharp at SOAS with its highly qualified specialists in the languages, history, cultures and other aspects of these civilisations and, consequently, with its particularly favourable prospects for inter-disciplinary research on South East Asia. However, even at SOAS, these prospects failed of realisation. On the contrary, ten years after the Centre had been established at the School, the study of classical South East Asia entered into its worst period, both at SOAS and in the UK in general. The external causes of these dramatic changes are well known. They were 'the speed of Britain's economic decline during the ... decade (1975-1985), and the swinging nature of the cuts imposed by the British Government on the level of funding available for higher education, especially in the humanities (emphasis mine; V.B.)' (Carey 1986:30) and, one might add, first and foremost in the study of pre-modern issues. Turning to SOAS, we may remark that, already seriously weakened by o. Wolters' departure for Cornell in 1963, the study of classical South East Asian history ceased to exist at the School at all after 'the resignation of Dr. J.G. de Casparis and Dr. Merle Ricklefs to take up chairs in Leiden and Monash in 1978 and 1979 respectively' (Carey 1986:31). A similar blow to the study of the traditional literatures and art of the region was struck by a series of retirements, both normal (though unreplaced) and forced early retirements. During the 1980s all the best SOAS specialists in these fields left the School. Among them were Professors Hla Pe, Simmonds and
23
INTRODUCTION
Shorto, R. Jones, A. Christie, and J. Jacob (Hooykaas had retired as early as 1970). The decline in British South East Asian studies was graphically summed up in a survey of the state of affairs in this field, compiled in 1989 for the Association of South East Asian Studies in the UK (established in 1969) (see King 1989). As the survey showed, history of classical South East Asia found itself in the most deplorable situation. In spite of P. Carey's attempts 'to avoid painting too gloomy a picture' (King 1989:49) by mentioning a number of scholars whose relation to history was, at best, indirect, he could not but acknowledge 'a particularly serious situation with regard to Indonesia' and extremely weak interest in the history of Burma and the Indo-Chinese states (Ibid.:56-57). Even more obvious, however, was the simple fact that on his quite modest list of historians proper holding posts in universities, he himself was the only one who, although he studied not classical Java but Java in the 19th century, at least viewed it in a Javanese perspective and on the basis of indigenous sources. All the other scholars listed were either historians of contemporary South East Asia or of Europeans and European companies in the region. As a result, whereas in 1973 the seminal international Colloquy on Early South East Asia (see Smith and Watson 1979) was held at SOAS with the participation of nine scholars from the School, no historians of the pre-modern age from either SOAS or elsewhere in Britain contributed to the Cambridge History of Southeast Asia published in 1992 (see Tarling 1992). The situation was not much better in the field of languages and literatures. By 1989 the Department of South East Asia of SOAS - always the main centre of such studies - had lost half of its staff (from 17 down to 8), thus returning to the figures of 1946-1948 (though without the assistance of a panel of additional lecturers, and without even one professor, but with a much heavier load of undergraduate teaching; from 1999 the Department numbers 8 academics again). Ancient languages virtually disappeared from the department's research agenda and the study of traditional literatures was not so much complemented as supplanted by that of modern literatures. According to E.U. Kratz, the then Head of the Department, all kinds of research - not only Khmer and Vietnamese, but also such long-established subjects as Malay (now in fact Indonesian) and Burmese - were 'restricted almost completely to meeting immediate requirements (i.e., the preparation of teaching materials; V.B.)'. The aspirations of scholars 'to pursue other serious, academic research ... free of the topical demands of the day' were almost totally blocked by the burden of their teaching responsibilities and the impossibility of 'intensive primary research ... in the countries in which they have a professional interest' (Kratz 1989:42-44). The same decline could be observed in the fields of archaeology and art. As I.C. Glover remarked, archaeologists of South East Asia 'are thin on the ground in Britain, and those with full-time paid posts are rare enough to be 24
INTRODUCTION
an endangered species ... teaching and research in South East Asian art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies has ceased ... ' (Glover 1989:27). R. Barnes echoed his concerns, stating that 'the study of South-East Asian art and architecture is currently a sadly neglected field in the United Kingdom.' (Barnes 1989:61). Some 'signs of life' could be noticed only in traditional ethnomusicology (Huges 1989:58-60). In that 'desperate situation' (Carey 1986:31), certain hopes were pinned on new committees which like that of Hayter could look 'into the plight of area studies in Britain and recommend reforms' (Ibid.). However, if the Hayter Report, despite all its shortcomings, had a scholarly and relatively balanced character, thus in one way or another providing for a golden age in classical South East Asian studies, subsequent official reports were quite different. The accent in them was finally shifted from such abstractions as research and the establishing of academic traditions to such more 'urgent tasks' as teaching (mainly undergraduate) and to revealing where (if anywhere) the practical use of Oriental studies lay. Such was, for instance, the Parker Report of 1986.32 Although not only promising a thorough investigation of the needs of Oriental studies in the future, but also calling the language departments of SOAS 'the nerve centre of linguistic and area expertise on Asia and Africa in the UK' and acknowledging the significance of linguistic and literary studies for the backing of area studies (understood completely in terms of modernity and social sciences), this report was, by and large, of a totally utilitarian nature. The use of Oriental knowledge (and consequently of SOAS) was defined in the report on the basis of a simple 'model'. According to it, language specialists who had access to primary sources were to provide specialists in area studies with the necessary information, while these, in their turn, were to support, by their writings, the work of practical organisations, business and press (Parker 1986:17-18). It is a little wonder, therefore, that the 1980s-1990s saw not simply an imbalance between the humanities and the social sciences in British South East Asian studies, but a total domination by the latter. For example, in 1988-1990, the UK could boast 72 specialists in the modern and contemporary history, economics, politics, sociology and law of South East Asia, whereas the number of scholars involved in all kinds of pre-modern studies was only 29, of whom more than one third constituted either retired scholars or those working outside the university system. A similar situation was (and still is) observable at SOAS - the traditional focus of the study of classical South East Asia. In 1999, only 6 of the 25 members of the Centre of South East Asian Studies specialised, at least partly, in traditional literatures and arts (two of them in ethnomusicology). By that time the Centre had lost all its historians of the region in the pre-modern era as well as all its specialists in religions of South East Asia.
25
INTRODUCTION
If we consider the decline in the classical-humane domain of South East Asian studies against the background of the unquestionable growth in the modern domain - the prime object of social sciences, then it becomes clear that the causes usually quoted to explain this decline are anything but sufficient. For, behind all these causes can be discerned a deepening deflation of humane knowledge per se, which is just as typical of the UK as it is of other Western countries, both in popular ideology and in the consciousness of many humane scholars themselves. On the one hand, the concept of humane knowledge as the summed-up historical experience of the humanity'S self-cognition - hence, a means of personality formation and a value by itself - is passing away (or rather, has passed away) from the popular ideology shared, among others, by political decision-makers and university bureaucrats. The humanities with their perennial and notorious 'inexactitude', their irritating penchant for 'overcomplicating everything', their 'daydreaming' and 'ivory towers', which are now assessed in purely utilitarian, if not market, terms, cannot, indeed, stand up to comparison with the modern-oriented social sciences that seem so obviously useful, rational and sound. The study of 'ancient epochs', whether in South East Asia or elsewhere, proves to be particularly vulnerable to such an approach. On the other hand, in the domain of scholarly consciousness itself, the understanding of humane knowledge as a search for the truth is being energetically ousted by the concept that it is merely a means of serving the interests of political power, whether national, imperialistic, colonial, or other. Thus, it is proclaimed, knowledge is no longer power but, on the contrary, power is, or rather 'orders', the knowledge that it needs. 33 Along with this, the idea of humane knowledge as a long tradition of the piece-by-piece accumulation, transmission and theoretical interpretation of all the evidence available is yielding to the notion that this knowledge is a kind of playground for individualistic theory-making, amazingly economical with facts, as bright as Ephemeridae and equally short-lived. Having an 'aesthetic' rather than epistemological value, such theories are particularly typical of literature and art studies, though not at all alien to the field of history as well. Needless to say that all these changes in the understanding and evaluation of humane knowledge are brought into being by the 'de-ontologisation' and 'de-historicisation' of the concept of personality and knowledge about it in contemporary Western culture. Both processes, although by no means recent in origins, achieved their peak precisely in the post-modernist era of 'electronic virtuality'. The post-modernist personality, including that of the scholarwhich has lost its ontological 'density', its ontological 'roots' but has acquired instead an inclination both for free, groundless, self-sustaining play and for the subjection of the personal principle to that of the impersonal, the mass (be it consumerism of various kinds, or the all-levelling cultural 'globalisation') - seems contradictory only at first glance. Similarly, a leap-frogging of
26
INTRODUCTION
individualistic theory-making and accusations of uselessness against humane knowledge (moreover, if it eternally serves the power) merely show two sides of the same coin. The decline of the authority of classical per se (i.e., Graeco-Roman) studies in the UK - probably the most characteristic and authentic manifestation of the British humanities - was also intimately connected with the deflation of humane knowledge. This fact is also of the utmost importance for the problem in question. For it was in exactly this complex of sciences - regional and inter-disciplinary in its essence; combining philology and history, philosophy and archaeology, literature and art for the sake of a holistic understanding of classical civilisations and their creators - that so many British South East Asianists of earlier generations were educated.
The third perspective: prospects The variety of South East Asia's civilisation, its possession of notable ancient and modern high cultures, can lead its specialists to take an active role in promoting cultural studies which would go beyond the national boundaries ... Ruth McVey
In the 1990s not only did British studies of classical South East Asian civilisations suffer a decline, but so did inter-disciplinary area studies in general, and South East Asian studies in particular, and consequently the centres concerned experienced a crisis. In 1991 the Centre of South East Asian studies in Kent ceased to exist. Its counterpart in Hull was in 1996 transformed into a department and in 1997 integrated into the Department of Politics and Asian Studies (though again as the Centre not without its own integrity).34 A little later the danger of disbandment began to threaten the analogous Centre at SOAS.35 The causes of this crisis lay in the same shortsighted administrative utilitarianism, as well as in the ongoing process of compartmentalisation of disciplines, their representatives looking with distrust at the works of regionalists, which were deemed insufficiently theoretical. Scant, if any, attention was paid to the well-known fact that many outstanding discoveries of the century were made exactly in 'inter-disciplinary space' and that a tradition of regional South East Asian studies (even if only 'spontaneously' inter-disciplinary and comparative, but capable of development on a more sound theoretical basis) had taken root in the UK. However, if we return, on a new level, to the conception of mutually-complementary disciplinary and regional studies, which was formulated as early as the Hayter Report, the significance of this conception today becomes quite obvious. Since the idea of establishing centres of area studies was imported to the UK from the USA, it seems reasonable to turn again to the American experience
27
INTRODUCTION
in this field. Moreover, a similar crisis of regional South East Asian studies was subjected to a thorough, in-depth analysis in the USA.36 Leaving aside political factors, there were two purely scholarly causes that brought about the crisis. The first and the more important of them was that, like their later British counterpart, American area studies, although conceived as interdisciplinary, were never given a clearly defined scholarly task. They possessed, by and large, a utilitarian character and were confined to the 'production' of such knowledge about the contemporary socio-political, economic and, to a lesser degree, cultural situation in South East Asian countries, as was essential for the pragmatic goals of the United States which was extending its influence in the region. Equally utilitarian was the study of South East Asian languages, which were to form a basis for area studies. No wonder that, from the very beginning, social sciences held complete sway over American area studies, putting in the shade the humanities, especially research in the pre-modern period. Moreover, unlike Europe, the USA could not boast of a wellestablished philological traditionY The importance of studies of classical South East Asian civilisations began to be comprehended only by the end of the Vietnam war, 'when reverses the United States suffered in Southeast Asia were by some influential people, attributed to the superficiality - spurious contemporaneity (emphasis mine; V.B.) - of American knowledge about the region' (Anderson 1992:27). The lack of inter-disciplinary focus and the unjustified reduction of the object of studies were the second cause of the crisis. Together with the unclear tasking of area studies, they caused a confrontation between the regional approach to South East Asia and the disciplinary approach. Understandable in terms of universities' competition for students and funds, but fairly fruitless in scholarly respects, this confrontation reached its peak in recent decades with the urgent need for academics to consider the process of globalisation. The proponents of either approach exchanged accusations of narrowness and inflexibility. The 'disciplinarists' (including the adepts of such new disciplines as postcolonial studies) accused the 'regionalists' of having no sound theoretical basis for their researches and referred to globalisation which had allegedly put an end to regional studies. The 'regionalists' replied that the theories of the 'disciplinarists' were based on 'Atlantic material' which was valid, at best, in the space 'from Moscow to San Francisco' and that they ignored data from other areas or forcibly fitted them to preconceived theories. They also pointed out that a tendency towards rapid obsolescence is naturally inherent (or 'in-built' as they put it) in limitless theorising, and contrasted the longevity of their accumulated empirical data to the leap-frogging of postmodernist theories replacing each other at dizzying speed. As far as globalisation was concerned, the 'regionalists' countered it with the equally clear quest for national identities and the growing interest of South East Asian 28
INTRODUCTION
nations in each other which, in the long run, could not fail to strengthen their regionalism and, consequently, the case for the regional approach. Although fairly futile, these polemics were not totally lacking in value, since they confirmed once again that the two approaches are mutually complementary rather than mutually exclusive. On the one hand, they showed that regional researches could become genuinely inter-disciplinary only when underpinned by the experience of well-developed disciplines with their theoretical and methodological apparatus, even if the latter was in need of regular re-consideration and correction. On the other hand, these polemics made it clear that the disciplines could not succeed in the construction of more reliable and long-lasting theories without both regional expertise and knowledge of the theoretical self-awareness - religious, philosophical, historical, cultural - of the indigenous traditions themselves, particularly if disciplines did wish to meet the requirements of the age of globalisation. Thus, in spite of the differences between the British and American approaches, in both cases the causes of the area studies crisis are similar, if not identical. The majority of discussants agree that this crisis can only be overcome if the 'old', utilitarian area studies are transformed into a genuinely scholarly, multi-faceted regional research, in which traditional and modern aspects, within the competences respectively of the humanities and of social sciences, are properly balanced. The renewed South East Asian studies are to be constituted as an intellectually viable 'interpretive community', that is, a community of scholars that generates and disseminates 'knowledge' in accordance with the rules of the profession. In order for this to happen, the academy must be prepared to accord such recognition; and South East Asian studies must be prepared to earn it (Reynolds F. 1992:60). To establish themselves as an 'interpretive community', South East Asian studies should begin with a comprehensive introspection, i.e., a thorough consideration of their genealogy and the legacy of the scholars who founded and advanced the intellectual tradition which we appropriate, challenge and revise ... whose works provide the basis for a common discourse which enables us to define our identity, to communicate among ourselves, and to advance (both by extension and by critique) a common cause (Ibid.:61). Incidentally, all this is remarkably reminiscent of the definition of 'academic tradition' in the Scarbrough Report. The next step is the initiating of the 'broadly envisioned, regionally oriented comparative research' without which South East Asian studies are in danger 29
INTRODUCTION
of remaining merely 'an institutional umbrella for a motley collection of disparate and peripheral special interests'. Comparison, which alongside the inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach is understood as the raison d'etre of regional studies, is to determine not only their object, tasks and goals, but also the principles of the regional-disciplinary interaction. It goes without saying that 'South East Asian studies ... must cultivate a positive relationship to the disciplines that constitute the social and human sciences, and to the theoretical reflection that is taking place within them'. At the same time, the most natural allies of the regionalists are the representatives of those disciplinary sub-groups who are exploring the theoretical foundations which are needed to ground and guide cross-cultural research, defending the importance of nonwestern studies, and formulating the specific kinds of research questions that can be pursued through the use of comparative methods (Ibid.:63). The priority of the comparative approach implies the great importance of translation in the renewed South East Asian studies, to be preceded by the careful selection of a corpus of representative religious, historical and literary works to be translated, which belong to both high and popular, oral and written traditions. These translations, on the one hand, will enable specialists in individual countries to switch to the level of comparative, regional studies. On the other hand, they will probably be able to convince colleagues from other 'interpretive communities' (Middle Eastern, South Asian, Far Eastern) that the cultural traditions of South East Asia are too rich and too dynamic to be afterthoughts in fields devoted to the 'great' traditions of the world. On the contrary, these traditions cannot be fully understood without taking into account their historical and contemporary manifestations in South East Asia (Keyes 1992:18). Moreover, the status of English as a kind of lingua franca of world scholarship makes it certain that the English-speaking countries, the USA among them, will playa particularly important role in the translation work. In turn, the need for translations and the growing amount of research published in languages of the region will demand a totally different linguistic training for South East Asianists. The current linguistic expertise, 'utilitarian in the narrowest sense', oriented mainly to the colloquial speech and to the 'most mundane and trivial facets of a language's real life' , will have to give way to a much deeper and sophisticated mastery of 'the written languages of the region, including the ability to write elegantly in them, and understand at least their modern literatures' (Anderson 1992:34, 36). 30
INTRODUCTION
Finally, the new inter-disciplinary, cross-cultural studies will only be able to succeed if carried out by teams of scholars, whether national or international, and for this purpose the participation of specialists from South East Asian countries themselves is absolutely essential. As B. Anderson has aptly remarked, like the earlier European researchers, most native scholars: are civil servants, and all, to different extents, understand their work as most relevant to a specific country ... , and, to a lesser degree, its neighbours. In this sense they are area studies people (emphasis mine; V.B.) ipso facto. They are immersed in the local culture, are fluent in local vernaculars, and have direct access to local religious life, folk traditions, and, often, pre-twentieth century literatures. But they are also, many of them, familiar in differing degrees with the work being published on their countries in the United States, England, Australia, Holland and Japan (Ibid.:36). To achieve unity and coherence, this team-research should be supported not so much by an abstract understanding of 'regionalist common cause', but by concrete 'general issues', sufficiently significant and many-faceted to become a focus of interest for specialists in different countries and disciplines. In the course of the discussion, a number of such 'general issues' ('intellectual anchors' as Keyes called them) were suggested, inter alia, those belonging to the domain of the humanities and - what is even more interesting to us to the study of the classical civilisations of the region. Let me mention only a few examples. Since religions played and still play 'a pervasive role in virtually every aspect of culture and society in South East Asia' and religious studies are based on an elaborate methodology oriented to the global perspective, F. Reynolds (1992:64-65) proposes comparative historico-religious research as one such 'intellectual anchor'. R. McVey (1998:54-55, 60-61) suggests that South East Asian studies should concentrate on the people of the region rather than on its geopolitical space. Being convinced that 'what matters are patterns of human conditions, perceptions, and experience', she considers that not South East Asia as such but South East Asians should become the main object of regional research and finds the focus of its investigation, by both the humanities and the social sciences in cultural studies. 'The older sources and understandings of knowledge, and the way in which these continue to affect the content and organisation of thought' are, in her opinion, one of the challenging aspects of the investigation in question. A similar 'general issue' has been proposed by C. Reynolds (1998:25-33), who sees it in the 'concept of selfhood' in South East Asia, which finds its reflection in literature, undergoes transformations in the course of reformist religious movements and is closely related to 'disciplines of the body'. 31
INTRODUCTION
It seems that the principal outcome of the American discussion on the regioncentred study of South East Asia - which articulated its comparative and inter-disciplinary nature much more emphatically and consciously than before - is the fact that the participants in the discussion succeeded in finding the focus of this field and in outlining its scholarly task. On the theoretical and methodological plane, regional studies could find their integrating principle in cultural studies. The latter are understood here as a kind of cultural anthropology with a pronounced historical dimension,38 which is oriented to the examination of both prehistoric and historical cultures, including modern. As their principal object, regional studies could choose the man or - to avoid the accusation of sexism - the personality of South East Asia in the dynamics of its self-awareness, reflected in indigenous ontological and social concepts of self, and in all the richness of its connections with God, the spiritualised Universe, socium, family, and ecological milieu. Remarkably, it is precisely in this way that the foundations of South East Asian studies are understood by many South East Asian scholars themselves (see, e.g., Saihoo 1984:11-23). With this approach acknowledged, the study of classical South East Asia could become not only a 'kernel', but also a model for South East Asian studies in general. The significance of those classical civilisations for comparative research and for the understanding of the specific character of the region and its sub-regions has already been discussed above. At the same time, the 'pervasive role' played by religions (Reynolds, F. 1992:65) in integrating each of these civilisations turns them into a rewarding object of inter-disciplinary studies. Needless to say, it is precisely these features that are indispensable to any regional research. No less important is the fact that a prototype of the approach suggested can be found in the tradition of British South East Asian studies themselves, particularly those of the pre-modern era. To define it in a short 'formula', the tradition of British research in classical South East Asia - which, inter alia, has found its expression in the majority of articles included in this anthology - represented the philologically-based study of traditional cultures of the region in their historical development. It goes without saying that the share taken by philology, culture studies (which includes religious studies here) and history varied greatly in the works of different scholars. The degree of competence in the methods and theories of each of these disciplines was also quite dissimilar. This particularly refers to the culture studies aspect, which was present in those works, so to speak de facto rather than de jure. Instead of the notion of an explicit cultural model, for instance, there existed only a mainly intuitive idea of the specific mentality of the culture in question which, objectified in the sum total of religious, philosophical and other writings, represented a kind of spiritual context of the text being studied. At the same time, clear distinctions between the mentality of the culture being researched and the culture of the researcher were not made, and the concept of culture was normally reduced to the totality of spheres of 'spiritual production', i.e., the art, literature, philosophy,
32
INTRODUCTION
sciences, etc. And yet, in spite of the obvious domination of philology in that 'spontaneous' inter-disciplinary complex, a 'proto-science' of culture also played a role of some importance in it. As has already been noted, the new South East Asian regional studies, if they do aspire to form an 'interpretive community' in its own right, will have to depend for support not on individual all-rounders as in the past, but on teams of scholars fully competent in their respective disciplines and well-aware of the task which each discipline is to fulfil within the co-ordinated interdisciplinary complex. Now, if we return to regional studies of classical civilisations, viewing them as cultural studies with the human personality of South East Asia as the principal object, then the correlation of cultural aspect and philology within them becomes the matter of primary importance. The polysemic and variously interpreted term 'culture' is understood here as a specific and self-reproducing 'medium', distinct from nature, artificially created and reproducing itself, which forms particular types of individuals and their communities, thus determining the character of their behaviour (including mental behaviour as a style of thinking and feeling).39 The functions of this formative 'instrument' are fulfilled by culture by means of a threetiered structural organisation. The highest, ideological, level is that of Weltanschauung, i.e., the level of the 'picture of the world' - the sum total of general ideas about the Absolute, the Universe, man, society, and their interrelations. The 'picture of the world' provides motivation for the next, axiological, level of culture, its system of values which, through a totality of prohibitions and injunctions, imposes certain behavioural patterns on the bearers of a particular culture which are actualised on the next, and lowest, of its levels - the behavioural level. This interpretation of culture lays no claims to either theoretical strictness or originality. Even if quite tentative, it, nevertheless, is convenient for our further exposition. However, in the case of the classical civilisations of South East Asia we are not dealing with just any culture but only with one of its historical types traditional culture which is oriented to self-identity and is, consequently, characterised by a high degree of unity and particularly stable methods of reproduction and translation. Even so, we can distinguish between at least two major stages in traditional culture itself, viz. pre-reflective and reflective traditionalism. The classical civilisations of South East Asia acquired their most articulated forms precisely at the second stage which, although it began at different times in different sub-regions, can be roughly dated to the first half of the second millennium AD. It is at that stage that, in the process of autoreflection, in the bosom of these civilisations was formed a cultural selfawareness, i.e., the sum total of a culture's ideas of itself, its structure and functions, which was committed to writing in varying degree of completeness. Therefore the general interpretation of culture suggested above should take a more particular form if applied to cultures of the reflective-traditionalist type, including those of South East Asia. These cultures are monocentric,
33
INTRODUCTION
authoritarian and canonical. The first two characteristics refer to the fact that the 'picture of the world' in such a culture is determined by the concept of the Absolute (God as the Highest Personality or the impersonal Supra-mundane Law). The third characteristic emphasises the fundamental importance, for a culture of this type, of the principle of 'rightness', 'propriety' or 'correctness', i.e., the correct arrangement of each component of the system of culture and of the system itself as a whole. This 'correctness' is ensured by the same notion of the Absolute, the creative and all-pervasive First Principle. In its turn the notion of 'correctness' engenders the strict systemic unity of culture and the intimate inter-relation of all its domains. Being understood as a mechanism for the moulding of man and society, the entire culture is directed to communication with them. For this reason, its every phenomenon can be considered as a meaningful text endowed with a definite form. As has already been noted, the British tradition of classical South East Asian studies (similarly to other European traditions) was based on the examination of primarily written texts, which constitute the object of study of the philological disciplines (philology proper, linguistics, literary scholarship, etc.). It seems that philology is to remain a foundation of the new South East Asian regional studies as well. The reason for this is not merely a striving to preserve continuity from old and to new (although this is also important, and the theoretical apparatus of philological disciplines is sufficiently elaborate), and is by no means an attempt to diminish the significance of the 'texts' studied by other disciplines: archaeology, ethnology, art criticism, musicology, etc. However, the point is that, because of the salient features of the word, it is verbal texts that playa unique role in the traditionalist-reflective cultures of South East Asia, and not only in them. On a superficial level it is clear that the word underpins virtually all other forms of traditional South East Asian art, be it a cosmological treatise determining the architecture of a temple or mosque, or a sadhana (verbal description) directing the work of a Hindu-Buddhist sculptor, or a 'literary scenario' underlying a series of temple-reliefs, or a prose or verse narrative on which a theatrical performance is based. Even more important, however, is the intrinsic ability of the word to describe the widest circle of objects, in fact, everything that is expressible at all. Thus the word acts as a mediator between all the other types of descriptions of reality, each of which uses different materials, for instance, between musical, representational, architectural, and mathematical descriptions. It plays the role of a translator, so to speak, from one 'language' into another. And finally, the word is the only means for the expression of the theoretical notions of different cultural domains about themselves, i.e., of their self-awareness. In virtue of all these functions of the word, it is the verbal projection of culture that is the most complete and reliable reflection of its structure. The uppermost, ideological (in our case, religious) level- with its overall 'picture of the world' and concept of the Absolute - which determines the 34
INTRODUCTION
principles of the culture, is represented by the texts of the religious Canon, commentaries on the latter, and scholastic philosophical works. The axiological level, on which, proceeding from the cultural principles, the rules for the functioning and reproduction of the culture are formulated, finds expression in all manner of learned and edifying treatises designed to explicate and motivate the system of values and to prescribe corresponding models of behaviour. Works at this level include texts on the proper spiritual and physical constitution of the human being as agent (works on ethics, psychology, medicine, etc.) and on the proper structure of his activities (works on etiquette, arts, crafts, etc.). Their sum total provides the recorded self-awareness of the culture. The third and final level is the behavioural. Corresponding to it in the verbal model of culture are various works characterised by a special, aesthetically marked structuring of the material. These works of fine literature also contain behavioural models, however this time not so much prescribed as realised in the actions of literary heroes. This is the level of implemented rules. 40 Even this extremely simplified verbal model of culture shows that it embraces the entire spiritual and psychic constitution of the human being. One could say that works of the ideological level appeal to the sphere of spiritual intuition, those of the axiological level to the sphere of discursive intellect (reason), and those of the behavioural level to the sphere of the emotions. As a result, a properly organised system of texts turns out to be anthropomorphic or - to be more precise - a sort of anthropomorphic 'mould' for 'casting' a human type matching the norms of the particular culture. It is only natural, therefore, that the philological examination of all kinds of verbal texts can provide historico-cultural studies of personality and society in South East Asia with invaluable and comprehensive factual material. For this, however, South East Asian philology itself must pass through a period of theoretical introspection, so that it can be transformed from the 'science of text editing' into the discipline studying the history of the formation, creative transformation and transmission of texts. This introspection will demand the following: particular attention to the problem of the interaction of the oral and the written principles in traditional South East Asian writings, which affects the stability and changeability of the text; fresh investigations into the specific relations in the triangle formed by writer (copyist), text, and reader {listener}; and the study of the changing semantic and formal 'overtones' of texts when they pass from oral into written literature or from literature into the domain of representative or theatrical arts (see, e.g., Teeuw 1991). At the same time, it is the job of philologists to increase considerably the number of text editions and especially translations of South East Asian works of all genres, without which comparative, interdisciplinary studies of the classical civilisations of the region are simply impossible. An internet bank of translations, on the lines of I. Proudfoot's internet concordance of traditional Malay literature, could be a useful aid in these studies. 35
INTRODUCTION
Research on the classical civilisations of South East Asia, with the culture studies-philological tandem as its basis41 and historicism permeating it, could, in its turn, play an integrating role within the complex of disciplines which the South East Asian regional studies must become. The knowledge of classical South East Asian man, his system of values, his social, political, and economic organisation, provided by experts in this field, would enable students of contemporary political science, economics, sociology and development studies to comprehend more deeply the traditional component in the traditionalmodern synthesis which is so characteristic of South East Asia today. The significance of this component - which manifests itself mainly through the system of values (see, e.g., Cauquelin et al. 1998:119-163) - still remains quite considerable. That is why Wolters was totally right, it seems, when he saw the preconditions of many current processes in the region in such traits of its traditional political culture as 'present-mindedness' and the striving for 'being up-to-date', the 'sense of being an integral part of the whole world' and the 'emphasis on personal achievement'. The revival of research in the classical civilisations of South East Asia demands not so much an increase in staff and expenses (although this is essential too) as the willingness of specialists on different countries of the region, representing different disciplines, to engage in regular team-work on carefully chosen and clearly formulated projects. The importance of classical South East Asian studies; the achievements that mark their more than two hundred year history in the UK, particularly at SOAS; the wealth of British collections of South East Asian manuscripts and artefacts - all these leave no doubt that studies in classical South East Asia deserve to be revived. Moreover, the new strategic plan of the School- formerly a major world centre of these studies - has once again proclaimed research as its highest priority and the development of 'scholarly synergies between region, language and discipline' as its special responsibility.
*** When selecting the articles for this anthology (a complete list of publications on South East Asia that have appeared in BSOAS, may be found in Appendix 2), the compiler has understood his task as two-fold. Firstly, he has attempted to include in the anthology those articles which have not yet lost their scholarly value and, at the same time, to reflect BSOAS's breadth of coverage with regard both to the number of countries of classical South East Asia and to the diverse aspects of their civilisations: their religions and history, epigraphy and philology, literatures, arts and linguistics. The articles are grouped in sections according to these headings. However, because of the above-mentioned inter-disciplinarity, the inclusion of some articles in particular sections is rather debatable. Secondly, in order to reflect in the anthology the history of classical South East Asian studies at SOAS, the compiler has tried to ensure that its eminent 36
INTRODUCTION
scholars (brief biographical data on whom may be found in Appendix 1) are represented in the best possible way. Hence, as a rule, though not without exceptions, full-fledged rounded articles, not brief notes, have been selected. At the same time, preference has not infrequently been given to articles containing publications of texts and particularly translations, since, besides the importance of translations discussed above, they usually become out-ofdate more slowly than studies and interpretations of historico-cultural phenomena. As regards linguistic articles, only those on historical linguistics, which are in one way or another related to traditional cultures and their interrelations, have been selected. As regards publications by scholars who have not been attached to SOAS at any time, only the article by P. Voorhoeve about certain Acehnese manuscripts has been included in the anthology. Incidentally, Voorhoeve also worked on SOAS's collection of manuscripts more than once and, together with Ricklefs, compiled a catalogue of the manuscripts in Malay and other Indonesian languages kept at the School (see Ricklefs and Voorhoeve 1977, 1982). Notes *
The author is sincerely thankful to all the colleagues who generously helped him with the materials essential for both this introduction and the section 'Briefly about the Authors': Mrs. A. Allott, Dr. R. Jones, Dr. E.U. Kratz, Prof. V. Lieberman, Dr. N. Phillips, Mr. J. Okell, Prof. C. Wright. While greatly contributing to the improvement of this work, they are of course by no means responsible for its faults. The author is also particularly grateful to Dr. N. Phillips who kindly took the trouble to edit the author's imperfect English.
1 For a general idea (controversial and unclear though it may be) of the linguistic situation in prehistoric and early historical South East Asia, as well as of the discussion about the primeval unity of some (if not the majority of) linguistic families of the region, see Coedes 1966:26-31, Benedict 1975, Dahl 1976, Shorto 1979, Blust 1987, 1988, Matissoff 1983. For a bibliography of older studies on similarities of a genetic and contact nature in the prehistoric cultures of the region, see Coedes 1968:261-265, for newer archaeological data on this issue, see, e.g., Smith and Watson 1979 (especially the general section, pp. 3-14) and Bellwood 1979. On some common anthropological features of South East Asia, dating back to the prehistoric era but persisting until much later times, see Coedes 1968:8-9 (partly out of date), Sharp 1963:9, Reid 1988:3-10; the idea of a common anthropological 'core' was also studied, on the more limited scale of insular South East Asia alone (though it is possibly applicable to some ethnic groups of the mainland, e.g., highland peoples of Burma and Laos, see Barnes 1985:90), by a group of Leiden anthropologists, see Josselin de Jong 1984 and the polemics between Barnes (1985) and Josselin de Jong (1985). On archaic religions of South East Asia, characterised, inter alia, by: beliefs in numerous spirits, an elaborate form of ancestor-worship, cults of chthonic deities and spirits of rice, fields and harvest, and by shamanistic beliefs, see Hoffer et al. 1975, pp. 35-294, 332-383,421-444,483-487,498-501; Stohr 1976. 2 For some common features of South East Asian political ideology, see, e.g., HeineGeldern 1942, Hagestein 1984, Josselin de Jong 1980.
37
INTRODUCTION
3 For the resemblances in the history of the region before the 15th century, see Deopik 1977, Lombard 1995, Wolters 1999. 4 Numerous resemblances (although differences too) in virtually all domains of South East Asian civilisations even in the 15-17th centuries are vividly described and studied in the book by Reid (1988), on historical similarities and differences, see also Lieberman 1993, Lombard 1995. 5 Among them there existed variegated myths about mutually-opposed though mutually-complementary parts of the integral cosmos, split into two halves; myths about an incestuous marriage between a brother and sister, the only human beings to survive after an all-devastating flood; myths about the deeds of twin brothers, more often than not rivals; about bird-maiden and usually benevolent dragons; and about sea maiden-serpents (nagi) wedding descendants of the Sun to initiate a clan of chieftains (later kings). For a good synopsis of literature on the affinity and common features of archaic South East Asian mythologies, see Parnickel 1982, summarising numerous works by V. Goloubew, J. Przyluski, P. Mus, W.H. Rassers, T. Pigeaud, G. Quaritch Wales a.o. See also a well-known, though somewhat out of date, survey of this kind by G. Coedes (1968:4-10 and notes on pp.261-267). 6 For more details and an extensive bibliography, see Braginsky 2001:65-82; on the 'unity in diversity' of traditional literatures of South East Asia, see also Parnickel 1977, Sarkar 1980, Reid 1988:215-235, Wolters 1999:68-87, 176-205, as well as Parnickel1980 (on literatures of insular South East Asia) and Osipov 1980 (on literatures of the mainland part of the region). 7 See Braginsky and Diakonova 1999:100-101, Artaud 1964:64-81, Howat 1994:46-57, Jessup 1994:93-106. 8 See Ricklefs and Voorhoeve 1977, Carey 1986:42-54 (with a detailed bibliography of catalogues and guides) and King 1989:62-64 (the paper by R. Barnes). 9 Leyden also published A Comparative Vocabulary of the Barma, Malayu and Thai Languages (1810) and translated into English the most significant Malay chronicle Sejarah Melayu (the 'Malay Annals', published in 1821); Crawford published A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language (1852). 10 For the biographies and scholarly contributions of British Malayists until circa 1915, see Jones 1984:135-144; among their most important works were Shellabear's editions of the 'Malay Annals' and the 'Epic of Seri Rama', the Malay Ramayana, as well as the Malay-English Dictionary (1901) in 2 volumes by Wilkinson and the series 'Papers on Malay Subjects', also initiated by him. 11 Their works included: An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava (1800) by Symes; Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava (1835) by Crawfurd; a series of articles by Burney, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vols IV-VI. Burney also presented a splendid collection of Burmese MSS to the India Office Library. 12 For early British Thai studies and their bibliography, see also Chitakasem 1996:320-323. 13 On the history and activities of the Royal Asiatic Society, see Pargiter 1923, Beckingham 1979. 14 For data about British South East Asianists at SOAS, see Handbook 1999:62-64 and below Appendix 1 ('Briefly About the Authors'). For the biography and works of Professor E.J.A. Henderson, who is not mentioned in Appendix 1, see Robins 1989 (with a list of publications compiled by H. Cordell). 15 For a bibliography of the works by Luce, see Shin et al. 1966:xi-xvi. 16 See Report of the Interdepartmental Commission of Enquiry on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1947; henceforth Scarbrough 1947.
38
INTRODUCTION
17 About his biography and scholarly activity, see C.W.D (C.W. Dunn) 1948, Dunn and Firth 1949-1950. 18 For his biography and works, see Cowan 1976, 1981. 19 About Professor G.B. Milner, who is not mentioned in Appendix 1, see Mara 1989 (with a list of publications compiled by H. Cordell). 20 The papers presented atthese seminars between 1956-1958 comprised the famous collection Historians of South-East Asia (Hall 1961 ). 21 For the biography and works of Prof. Simmonds, see Cowan 1987 (with a list of publications compiled by H. Cordell), Brown, I. 1996, Chitakasem 1996:336-337. 22 On the history of compilation of the Burmese-English Dictionary and its sources, see Stewart and Dunn 1940, Hla Pe 1976. 23 In 1996, Jacob published the first ever detailed introduction to traditional Khmer literature - the Traditional Literature of Cambodia. 24 See corresponding sections in Herbert and Milner [n.d.] and Kratz 1996. 25 Preponderant among these theses were the works of Malayists: the 'Poem of the Macassar War' (1961) by C. Skinner, 'Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri' (1966) by N. Al-Attas, 'The Rama Tree in the Wayang Siam' (1971) by P.L. Sweeney (the two latter works have played an important role both in their particular fields and in Asian studies generally), and Thai specialists: 'A Study of the Dramatic Poems of the Panji Cycle in Thailand' (1966) by Khomkhai Nilpaprasson, 'The SudhanaManohari Tale in Thai' (1972) by H.D. Ginsburg, 'The Nature of Nirat Poetry and the Development of the Genre' (1975) by Manas Chitakasem. For British Ph.D theses on South East Asia (accepted between 1965-1985) in general see Stephens 1986, for earlier theses, see Bloomfield 1967. 26 Its complete title is Report of the Sub-Committee on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African studies, here and henceforth the Hayter Report named after W. Hayter who headed the Committee. 27 For a brief analyses of the current international political and economic conditions as the Hayter Committee saw them, see Hayter Report p. 34-35,41-42,49-50. 28 A special section of the Hayter Report (pp.115-125) shows how deeply they impressed the members of his Committee. The bibliography of area studies in the USA is extensive. For a compact and thoughtful survey, see McVey 1998:39-44, also Szanton 1981 and Williams 1998; for British South East Asian area studies, see, e.g., Bassett 1981 (mostly about the teaching aspect). 29 Among fairly recent workshops held by the Centre of South East Asian Studies of SOAS and related, at least partly, to the classical period, we may mention 'The Canon in South East Asian Literatures' (1995, see Smyth 2000) and 'The Eurasian Context of the Early Modern History of Mainland South East Asia c. 1400-1800' (1995, see Modern Asian Studies 31, 3 (1997):449-762, introduced by V. Lieberman and, again, with no contributions by SOAS scholars at all). Probably the most impressive international conference, organised by the Centre in 1993, was that on Thai studies with its 400 participants; among other activities of the Centre we should mention its indirect involvement in the publication of two scholarly journals: Indonesia Circle (issued from 1973, and from 1997, Indonesia and the Malay World) and South East Asia Research (issued from 1993). 30 Those at SOAS have already been mentioned; in Kent B. Hooker, A. Milner and J. Bousfield were, to different degrees, engaged in pre-modern studies (law, history and Sufism, respectively). The first director of the Centre in Hull, M. Jaspan, was an eminent student of traditional cultures and literatures of Sumatra; besides him, associated with the Centre were, and still are, J. Wisseman-Christie and J. Marrison, honorary members (the former, at present, Honorary Professor) who studied early history and traditional literatures of maritime South East Asia,
39
INTRODUCTION
31 32 33 34
35
36 37
38 39 40
41
respectively. Nevertheless the Centre in Hull was always oriented, by and large, to modern studies. It is quite characteristic that, in the list of 7 scholars who received their degrees at Hull and secured academic jobs in the UK in the 1960s-1980s (see Carey 1986:38) there are no names of specialists in pre-modern South East Asia. On the Centres of South East Asian Studies in general, see Carey 1986:23-27,31-35, 1986a:62-66; King 1991:2-3; Centre 1993, 1999; on some developments in the fields of anthropology and archaeology in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which are partly relevant to the topic discussed, see Carey 1986:27-28, 1986a:70-74, 78-79. Incidentally, the interaction between the traditional and the modern became, in the same years, one of the key topics in French South East Asian studies, see Lombard 1981:55. It was entitled Speaking for the Future. A Review of the Requirements of Diplomacy and Commerce for Asian and African Studies. See Said 1978, Gordon 1980; for a typical example of the application of Saidian ideas to Asian studies, and South East Asian studies in particular, see Gerstle and Milner 1994 and some critical comments on the latter by Braginsky (1997). As we have already mentioned, the Centre in Hull was always modern-oriented; for instance, on the list of its staff in 1986, there were no specialists in pre-modern studies at all (see Carey 1986a:62-63; at that time these studies were represented only by the two associated, honorary members mentioned in note 30). At present the staff of the Centre includes 1. Caldwell whose main interests lie in the archaeology of South Celebes (Sulawesi). A thoughtful and detailed, though not particularly comforting, survey of the state of affairs in the regional centres of SOAS, including the Centre of South East Asian studies, and their prospects was presented by Dr. A. Turton at the discussion on SOAS Academic Priorities (Area studies and cross regional studies) which took place on December 2, 1998 (see Turton 1998). Anderson 1992, Keyes 1992, McVey 1995 and 1998, Reynolds, C. 1998, Reynolds, F. 1992, Wolters 1994 and 1999:206-225. As R. McVey (who, incidentally, worked at SOAS from the early 1960s till her early retirement in, typically, 1984) noted: 'History was pertinent insofar as it related to the struggle for independence and modernity. Language (understood as the national language) was an important tool, but only that: the US had no philological tradition, and 'Orientalism' (here simply traditional Oriental studies; V.B.) was seen both as irrelevant and ideologically suspect. Literature, art, etc. were cultural frills, useful merely to understand better contemporary popular attitudes, especially towards the great issues of modernisation and national unity' (McVey 1998:42). On contemporary trends in South East Asian anthropology and the growing tendency to combine anthropological and historical approaches, characteristic of it, see Shin Yoon-Hwan and Oh Myung-Seok 1998:184-189. For a more detailed exposition of the ideas expressed in the following several paragraphs, see Braginsky 2001:2-3, 25-29, 31, 50-54; on the anthropomorphism of traditional literatures, see Ibid.:206-266. For some examples of literary works representing each of the above-mentioned levels in the verbal models of classical South East Asian cultures (in its Vietnamese, Burmese-Thai-Cambodian and Malay-Javanese sub-regions respectively), see Braginsky 2001:75-80. A similar approach was characteristic of some works written in the 1980s by De Josselin de Jong (1980,1986), who called it 'textual anthropology'.
40
INTRODUCTION
References References include the works cited in both Introduction and Appendix 1: 'Briefly About the Authors' Allott, A. 1996. 'The Study of Burmese Literature - a General Survey', in Kratz 1996, pp. 7-56. Anderson, B.R. 1992. 'The Changing Ecology of Southeast Asian Studies in the United States, 1950-1990', in Hirschman et al. 1992, pp. 25-40. Anonymous 1920. 'The Opening Ceremony', Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 1,4:23-31. Anonymous 1957. 'Obituary. E.D. Edwards', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 2:108. Anonymous 1985. 'The Author', in Hla Pe 1985, p.215. Artaud, A. 1964. 'Sur Ie theatre Balinais', in Oeuvres completes. T. 4, pp. 64-81. Paris: Gallimard. Aung-Thwin, M. 1995. 'The "Classical" in Southeast Asia: The Present and the Past', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 26,1:75-91. Ba Shin, J. Boisselier and A.B. Griswold 1966 (eds). Essays Offered to G.H. Luce by His Colleagues and Friends in Honour of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. Vol. I. Ascona: Artibus Asiae. Barnes, R. 1989. 'Art', in King 1989, pp. 61-65. Barnes, R.H. 1985. 'The Leiden Version of the Comparative Method in Southeast Asia', Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 16, 2:87-110. Bassett, D.K. 1981. 'Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom', in Tunku Shamsul Bahrin et al. 1981:58-71. Bastin, J. 1964. 'Sir Richard Winstedt and His Writings', in J. Bastin and R. Roolvink (eds). Malayan and Indonesian Studies. Essays Presented to Sir Richard Winstedt on His Eighty-Fifth Birthday. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Beckingham, C.F. 1979. 'A History of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1823-1973' in Simmonds, S. and S. Digby (eds). The Royal Asiatic Society. Its History and Treasures, pp. 1-77. Leiden - London: Brill. Bellwood, P. 1979. Man's Conquest of the Pacific: The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania. New York: Oxford University Press. Benedict, P.K. 1975. Austro-Thai Language and Culture. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press. Bloomfield, B.C. 1967. Theses on Asia Accepted by Universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 1877-1964. London: Casso Blust, R. 1988. 'The Austronesian Homeland: A Linguistic Perspective', Asian Perspective (Honolulu) 26, 1. Blust, R. 1987. 'The Linguistic Study of Indonesia', ArchipeI34:27-48. Bosch, F.D.K. 1960. The Golden Germ. An Introduction to Indian Symbolism. 'sGravenhage: M.Nijhoff. Braginsky, V.I. 1997. 'Rediscovering the "Oriental" in the Orient and Europe: New Books on the East-West Cultural Interface', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60, 3:511-532. Braginsky, V.I. 2001. The Comparative Study of Traditional Asian Literatures. From Reflective Traditionalism to Neo-Traditionalism. London: Curzon.
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INTRODUCTION
Braginsky, V.I. and E. Diakonova 1999. Images of Nus an tara in Russian Literature. Leiden: KITLV-Press. Brown, I. 1996. 'Obituary Professor E.H.S. Simmonds. 1919-1994', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1:80-81. C.W.D. (=C.W. Dunn). 1948. 'Dr. J.A. Stewart, C.I.E., LL.D., M.C. (Died 1st May 1948)', Journal of the Burma Research Society 32:89-94. Carey, P. 1986. 'Maritime Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom: A Survey of Their Development, 1945-1985', ArchipeI31:19-54. Carey, P. 1986a. Maritime Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom. A Survey of Their Post-War Development and Current Resources. Oxford: JASO UASO Occasional Papers 6]. Cauquelin, J., P. Lim and B. Mayer-Konig 1998 (eds). Asian Values. An Encounter with Diversity. London: Curzon. Centre 1993. Centre of South East Asian Studies. [n.l.]: SOAS, University of London. Centre 1999. Centre of South East Asian Studies. [n.l.]: SOAS, University of London. Chitakasem, M. 1996. 'Coming to Grips with Thai Literature - Writings on Thai Literature in Western Languages', in Kratz 1996, pp. 320-358. Clarke, J.J. 1997. Oriental Enlightenment. The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought. London - New York: Routledge. Coedes, G. 1966. The Making of South East Asia. Transl. by H.M. Wright. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Coedes, G. 1968. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Ed. by W.F. Vella. Transl. by S. Brown Cowing. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. East-West Centre. (Originally published in French in 1948.) Cordell, H. 1976. 'Publications of D.G.E. Hall', in Cowan and Wolters 1976:2-27. Cordell, H. 1987. 'Publications of E.H.S. Simmonds', in Davidson, J.H.C.S. 1990 (ed.). Lai Su Thai. Essays in Honour of E.H.S. Simmonds, pp. 8-10. London: SOAS. Cordell, H. 1991. 'Publications of H.L. Shorto', in J.H.C.S. Davidson (ed.). Austroasiatic Languages. Essays in Honour of H.L. Shorto, pp. 3-5. London: SOAS, University of London. Cowan, C.D. 1976. 'D.G.E. Hall: A Biographical Sketch', in Cowan and Wolters, 1976, pp. 11-23. Cowan, C.D. 1981. 'Obituary Daniel George Edward Hall', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44, 1:149-154. Cowan, C.D. 1987. E.H.S. Simmonds: 'A Biographical Note', in Davidson, J.H.C.S. 1990 (ed.). Lai Su Thai. Essays in Honour of E.H.S. Simmonds, pp. 1-7. London: SOAS. Cowan, C.D. and Wolters, O.W. 1976 (eds). Southeast Asian History and Historiography. Essays Presented to D.G.E. Hall. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Dahl, O.c. 1976. Proto-Austronesian. Second Revised Edition. Lund and London: Curzon Press. (Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies. Monograph 15.) Davidson, J.H.C.S. 1991. 'Harry Leonard Shorto: a Biographical Note', in J.H.C.S. Davidson (ed.). Austroasiatic Languages. Essays in Honour of H.L. Shorto, p. 1. London: SOAS, University of London.
42
INTRODUCTION Dennison Ross, E. 1920. 'Introduction', Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 1,4:1-4. Deopik, D.V. 1977. 'Region Yugo-Vostochnoy Azii s drevneyshih vremen do XV veka' (The Region of South East Asia from Ancient Times to the 15th Century), in S.N. Rostovsky, E.O. Berzin, a.o. (eds). Yugo- Vostochnaya Aziya v mirovoy istorii (South East Asia in World History), pp. 13-26. Moscow: Nauka. Dunn, e.W. and J.R. Firth 1949-1950. 'Obituary. ].A. Stewart', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 13:259-264. Gerstle, D. and A. Milner 1994 (eds). Europe and the Orient. Canberra: The Humanities Research Centre. The Australian National University. Glover, I.e. 1989. 'Archaeology', in King 1989, pp. 27-30. Gordon, G. 1980 (ed.). Power/knowledge. Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, Michel Foucault. Brighton: Harvester Press. Hagestijn, R. 1984. 'Continental Southeast Asian Political Myths Compared', in Josselin de Jong 1984:152-166. Hagestijn, R. 1989. Circles of Kings. Political Dynamics in Early Continental Southeast Asia. Dordrecht-Providence: Foris. Hall, D.G.E. 1961 (ed.). Historians of South East Asia. London: Oxford University Press. Hall, D.G.E. 1961. 'British Writers of Burmese History from Dalrymple to Bayfield', in Hall 1961, pp. 255-266. Hall, D.G.E. 1980. 'Obituary. Gordon Hannington Luce', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43:581-588. Handbook 1999. Handbook of the Department of the Languages and Cultures of South East Asia and the Islands. London: SOAS. Harrison, B. 1961. 'English Historians of "The Indian Archipelago": Crawfurd and St. John', in Hall 1961, pp. 245-254. Hartog, P.]. 1920. 'The Origins of the School of Oriental Studies', Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 1,4:5-22. Hayter, W. et al. 1961. Report of the Sub-Committee on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. Heine-Geldern, R. 1942. 'Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia', Far Eastern Quarterly 2:15-30. Herbert, P. and A. Milner (eds) 1989. South East Asia. Languages and Literatures: A Selected Guide. Scotland: Kiscadale. Hinzler, H.I.R 1980. 'Bibliography of e. Hooykaas', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 136,2-3:207-214. Hirschman, e., e.F. Keyes and K. Hutterer 1992 (eds). Southeast Asian Studies in the Balance. Reflections from America. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Association for Asian Studies. Hla Pe 1985. Burma. Literature, Historiography, Scholarship, Language, Life and Buddhism. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Hla Pe 1976. 'A Short History of a Burmese-English Dictionary, 1913-1963', in Cowan and Wolters 1976, pp. 86-90. Hoffer, A., Prunner, G., Bezacier, E.K.L., Sarkisyanz, M. 1975. Die Religionen Sudostasiens. Stuttgart--Berlin-Koln-Mainz: W. Kohlhammer. (Die Religionen der Menschheit. 23.)
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INTRODUCTION
Howat, R. 1994. 'Debussy and the Orient', in A. Gerstle and A. Milner 1994 (eds). Recovering the Orient: Artists, Scholars, Appropriations, pp. 45-81. Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers. (Studies in Anthropology and History, Vol. 11.) Huffman, F.E. 1993. 'Introduction', in Jacob 1993, pp. ix-xv. Hughes, D.W. 1989. 'Music Studies', in King 1989, pp. 58-60. Jacob, J. 1993. Cambodian Linguistics, Literature and History. Collected Articles. Edited by D.A. Smyth. London: SOAS, University of London. Jessup, H. 1994. 'Netherlands Perceptions of Indonesia: Architecture and Social Values', in Gerstle and Milner 1994:71-91. Jones, R. 1984. 'Malay Studies and the British. I: An Outline History to the Early Twentieth Century', ArchipeI28:117-148. Josse1in de Jong, P.E. de 1980. 'Ruler and Realm. Political Myths in Western Indonesia', Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Afd. Letterkunde. Nieuwe Reeks (Amsterdam) 43,1:1-24. Josse1in de Jong, P.E. de 1984 (ed.). Unity in Diversity. Indonesia as a Field of Anthropological Study. Dordrecht-Cinnaminson: Foris. (Verhande1ingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 103.) Josselin de Jong, P.E. de 1985 'Rejoinder to Barnes. The Comparative Method in Southeast Asia: Ideal and Practice', Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 16, 3:197-208. Josse1in de Jong, P.E. de 1986. 'Textual Anthropology and History; the Sick King', in C.D. Grijns and s.o. Robson (eds). Cultural Contact and Textual Interpretation. Papers from the Fourth European Colloquium on Malay and Indonesian Studies, pp. 219-232. Dordrecht-Cinnaminson: Foris. Keyes, C.F. 1992. 'A Conference at Wingspread and Rethinking Southeast Asian Studies', in Hirschman et al. 1992, pp. 9-24. King, V.T. 1989. Research on South-East Asia in the United Kingdom. Hull: University of Hull. King, V.T. 1991. A Register of Current United Kingdom Research on Maritime South-East Asia: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam. Hull: University of Hull. Kratz, E.U. 1989. 'Languages and Literatures', in King 1989, pp. 37-48. Kratz, E.U. 1996 (ed.). Southeast Asian Languages and Literatures. A Bibliographical Guide to Burmese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Javanese, Malay, Minangkabau, Thai and Vietnamese. London-New York: Tauris. Kwon Tai-Hwan and Oh Myung-Seok 1998 (eds). Asian Studies in the Age of Globalisation. Seoul: Seoul National University Press. Lieberman, V. 1993. 'Local Integration and Eurasian Analogies: Structuring Southeast Asian History, c. 1350-c. 1830', Modern Asian Studies 27,3:475-572. Lombard, D. 1981. 'Southeast Asian Studies in France', in Tunku Shamsul Bahrin et al. 1981:50-57. Lombard, D. 1995. 'Networks and Synchronisms in South East Asian History', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 26,1:10-16. Mara, K.K.T 1989. 'G.B. Milner: a Biographical Note', in J.H.C.S. Davidson (ed.). Pacific Island Languages. Essays in Honour of G.B. Milner, pp. 1-6. London: SOAS - Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press (with a list of his publications compiled by H. Cordell).
44
INTRODUCTION
Marrison, G.E. 1996. 'Obituary. Dr. Petrus Voorhoeve', Indonesia Circle 69:176-179. Matisoff, J.A. 1983. 'Linguistic Diversity and Language Contact', in J. McKinnon and Wanat Bhruksasri (eds). Highlanders of Northern Thailand, pp. 56-85. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. McVey, R. 1995. 'Change and Continuity in Southeast Asian Studies', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 26, 1:1-9. McVey, R. 1998. 'Globalization, Marginalization and the Study of Southeast Asia', in Reynolds, C. and R. McVey 1998, pp. 37-64. Milner, G.B. and E.J.A. Henderson 1965 (eds). Indo-Pacific Linguistic Studies. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Okell, J. 1996. 'Burmese Language Study', in Kratz 1996, pp. 57-101. Osipov, Yu. M. 1980. Literatury Indokitaya. Zhanry, syuzhety, pamiyatniki (Literatures of Indo-China. Genres. Plots. Classical Works). Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Leningradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Pargiter, F.E. 1923. 'A Brief History of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1823 to 1923', in F.E. Pargiter (ed., comp.). Centenary Volume of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 1823-1923, pp. vii-xxviii. London: Royal Asiatic Society. Parker, P. 1986. Speaking for the Future. A Review of the Requirements of Diplomacy and Commerce for Asian and African Languages and Area Studies [n.l., n.p.]. Parnickel, B.B. 1977. 'Problema literaturnoy obshchnosti Yugo-Vostochnoy Azii (The Problem of the Literary Unity of Southeast Asia)', in S.N. Rostovsky, E.O. Berzin, A.R. Vyatkin (eds). Yugo- Vostochnaya Aziya: Problemy regionalnoy obshchnosti (Southeast Asia. Problems of Regional Unity). Moscow: Nauka. Parnickel, B.B. 1980. Vvedeniye v literaturnuyu istoriyu Nusantary IX-XIX vekov (An Introduction to the Literary History of Nusantara in the 9th-19th Centuries). Moscow: Nauka. Parnickel, B.B. 1982. '0 folklornom srodstve narodov Yugo-Vostochnoy Azii, (About the Affinity of Folklore of the Peoples of Southeast Asia), in N.I. Nikulin and Hoang Chung Tong (eds). Traditsionnoye i novoye v literaturakh YugoVostochnoy Azii (The Traditional and The New in Literatures of Southeast Asia pp. 26-47.). Moscow: Nauka, 1982. Parnwell, M.J.G. 1988. Register of Current U.K. Research on Mainland South-East Asia. Hull: University of Hull. Philips, C. 1995. Beyond the Ivory Tower. The Autobiography of Sir Cyril Philips. London - New York: The Radcliffe Press. Reid, A. 1988. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680. Vol. 1: The Lands below the Winds. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Reid, A. 1993 (ed.). Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era. Trade, Power and Belief. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Reynolds, C. and R. McVey. 1998. Southeast Asian Studies: Reorientations. The Frank H. Golay Memorial Lectures 2 and 3. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University. Southeast Asia Program Publications. Reynolds, c.J. 1998. 'Self-Cultivation and Self-Determination in Postcolonial Southeast Asia', in Reynolds and McVey 1998, pp. 7-35. Reynolds, F.E. 1992. 'Southeast Asian Studies in America: Reflections on the Humanities', in Hirschman et al. 1992, pp. 59-73.
45
INTRODUCTION
Ricklefs, M.e. and P. Voorhoeve 1977. Indonesian Manuscripts in Great Britain. A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Indonesian Languages in British Public Collections. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ricklefs, M.e. and P. Voorhoeve 1982. 'Indonesian Manuscripts in Great Britain: Addenda et Corrigenda', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 45:300-322. Robins, R.H. 1989. 'Eugenie J,A. Henderson: a Biographical Note', in J,H.e.S. Davidson (ed.). South East Asian Linguistics: Essays in Honour of Eugenie J.A. Henderson, pp. 1-9. London: SOAS (with a list of her publications compiled by H. Cordell). Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Saihoo, P. 1984. 'Thai Studies: A Thai Point of View', in Sophia Symposium. In Search of a New Ground for Asian Cultures. Area Studies and Southeast Asia. Proceedings, pp. 11-24. Tokyo: Sophia University. Sarkar, H.B. 1980. Literary Heritage of South-East Asia. Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Limited. Scarbrough, Earl of et al. 1947. Report of the Interdepartamental Comission of Enquiry on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. Sharp, L. 1963. 'Cultural Continuities and Discontinuities in Southeast Asia', Journal of Asian Studies 22,1:3-11. Shin Yoon-Hwan and Oh Myung-Seok 1998. 'Southeast Asian Studies Overseas: A Survey of Recent Trends', in Kwon Tai-Hwan and Oh Myung-Seok 1998, pp.173-192. Shin, B., J, Boisselier and A.B. Griswold 1966. Essays Offered to G.R. Luce by His Colleagues and Friends in Honour of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. Vol. 1. Ascona: Artibus Asiae. Shorto, H.L. 1963 (ed.) Linguistic Comparison in South-East Asia and the Pacific. London: SOAS. Shorto, H.L. 1967 'Obituary. Sir Richard Winstedt', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1:58-59. Shorto, H.L. 1979. 'The Linguistic Protohistory of Mainland South East Asia', in Smith and Watson 1979: 273-278. Simmonds, E.H.S. 1965. 'Tai Literatures: a Bibliography of Works in Foreign Languages', Bulletin of the Association of British Orientalists (N.S.) 3:5-60. Simmonds, S. 1985. 'Foreword', in Hla Pe 1985, pp. v-vi. Sirtjo Koolhof 1997. 'Bibliography of P. Voorhoeve', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde 153, 3:318-331. Smith R.B. and W. Watson 1979 (eds). Early South East Asia. Essays in Archaeology, History and Historical Geography. New York - Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. Smith, R. B. 1986. 'The Evolution of British Scholarship on South-East Asia: Is There a "British Tradition" in South-East Asian Studies?', in D.K. Bassett and V.T. King (eds). Britain and South-East Asia., pp. 1-28. Hull: The University of Hull. Centre for South-East Asian Studies. (Occasional Paper 13.) Smyth, D. 1995 'Obituary. Professor E.H.S. Simmonds', ASEASUK News 17:14.
46
INTRODUCTION
Smyth, D. 2000 (ed.). The Canon in South East Asian Literatures. London: Curzon. Smyth, D.A. 1993. 'Preface', in Jacob 1993, pp. vii-viii. Stephens, H.L. 1986. Theses on South-East Asia, 1965-1985, Accepted by Universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Hull: Centre for South East Asian Studies. (Bibliography and Literature Series. 1.) Stewart, J.A. and C.W. Dunn 1940. A Burmese-English Dictionary. From Material Supplied by A Large Number of Contributors. [n.p.]: University of Rangoon. Stohr, W. 1976. Die Altindonesischen Religionen. Leiden-Koln: Brill. (Handbuch der Orientalistik. Abteilung 3, Band 2, Abschnitt 2.) Sweeney, [P.L.] Amin. 1980. Authors and Audiences in Traditional Malay Literature. Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California. [Monograph Series 20.] Swellengrebel, J.L. 1980. 'In Memoriam C. Hooykaas. 26th December, 1902 -13th August, 1979', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 136,2-3:191-206. Szanton, D.L. 1981. 'Southeast Asian Studies in the United States: Towards an Intellectual History', in Tunku Shamsul Bahrin et al. 1981:72-87. Tarling, N. 1992 (ed.). The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Teeuw, A. 1991. 'The Text', in J.J. Ras dan s.o. Robson (eds). Variation, Transformation and Meaning. Studies on Indonesian Literatures in Honour of A. Teeuw, pp. 211-230. Leiden: KITLV-Press. [KITLV. VKI 144.] Teeuw, A. and E.M. Uhlenbeck 1997. 'In Memoriam Dr. Petrus Voorhoeve. 22 December 1899-9 February 1996', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 153, 3:311-317. Teeuw, A. and H.W. Emanuels 1961. A Critical Survey of Studies on Malay and Bahasa Indonesia. The Hague: Nijhoff. Thomas, F.W. 1942. 'Obituary Notices. Edward Hamilton Johnston, 1985-1942', in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2:263-267. Tinker, H. 1961. 'Arthur Phayre and Henry Yule: Two Soldier-Administrator Historians', in Hall 1961, pp. 267-278. Tinker, H. 1986. 'The Place of Gordon Luce in Research and Education in Burma During the Last Decades of British Rule. Professor G.H. Luce Memorial Lecture. 8th May, 1986', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1:174-190. Tunku Shamsul Bahrin, C. Jeshurun and A.T. Rambo 1981 (eds). A Colloquium on Southeast Asian Studies. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Turton, A. 1998. Area Studies and Cross Regional Studies. [n.l.]: SOAS (a discussion paper). Who Was Who 1952. Who Was Who 1941-1950. VolA. London: Adam and Charles Black. Who Was Who 1972. Who Was Who 1961-1970. Vol.6. London: Adam and Charles Black. Who Was Who 1992. Who Was Who 1981-1990. Vol.8. London: Adam and Charles Black. Williams, J.F. 1998. 'Asian Studies in the United States: a Review and Appraisal', in Kwon Tai-Hwan and Oh Myung-Seok 1998:35-56. Wisseman Christie, J. 1995. 'State Formation in Early Maritime Southeast Asia: A Consideration of the Theories and the Data', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 151,2:235-288.
47
INTRODUCTION
Wolters, O.W. 1994. 'Southeast Asia as a Southeast Asian Field of Study', Indonesia 58:1-17. Wolters, O.W. 1999. History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives. Revised Edition. Ithaca, New York-Singapore: SEAP and ISEAS (originally published in 1994).
48
BAUDDHA· BRAHMINS IN BALI By C.
HOOYKAAS
(PLATES I-V)
, Shaman, Saiva and Sufi' in 1925 urged R. O. Winstedt, M.A., D.Litt. (Oxon.), Malayan Civil Service, to write' a study of the evolution of Malay magic '.1 Hoping that Sir Richard Winstedt, K.B.E., C.M.G., M.A., D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A., might be interested in the non-brahmin bhujangga of Bali, these exorcist priests of th~ sengguhu caste, I wrote about them in the Festschrift published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford. 2 This time attention may be asked for the Balinese brahmin Buddhist priest, a special kind of priest of which only 17 representatives could be found in 1959 all over Bali and adjacent Lombok (ruled by Balinese princes, 1744-1894). Thus they were largely outnumbered by their Saivite colleagues-not to mention the non-brahmin pamangku, part-time temple or village priest, of which kind there may be thousands. The drawings accompanying this paper are more revealing than photographs 3 and realistic drawings 4 in that some of them express what cannot be seen but should be visualized. For though I witnessed the Buddhist priest's ritual between a dozen and a score of times, I never saw him wearing a headdress like that shown in figs. 1, 4, 19-21, nor expressing anger as illustrated in fig. 3. Ida Bagus Made Poleng from Tebes Aya near Ubud, himself a brahmin, made these drawings in the Buddhist priest's griya (from Sanskrit grha), or compound, of Gunung Sari (just outside the elbow made by the road between Ubud and Pliatan, the village famous for its gong 'orchestra' 5). When we lived in Ubud from October 1958 to August 1959, as the guests of Chokorda Agung, this Buddhist priest (who had happened to be the surya 6 1 Shaman, Saiva and Sufi, London, Constable and Co.; The Malay magician, being Shaman, Saiva and Sufi, revised and enlarged with a Malay appendix, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951, 1961. 2 Malayan and Indonesian studies: essaY8 presented to Sir Richard Winstedt on his 85th birthday, edited by Professor J. Bastin and Professor R. Roolvink. 3 e.g. in Bali, cults and customs, text by Dr. R.- Goris, photography by Drs. P. Dronkers, published by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia [1953], photographs 401, 404, 409. • The 60 drawings of Balinese brahmin priests and their mudra by Tyra de Kleen have been published three times at least. The Dutch and German editions, Mudras op/auf Bali, are accompanied by a rather technical text by P. de Kat Angelino with the co-operation of (the later: Professor Dr.) R. Ng. Poerbatjaraka, Folkwang Verlag, 1922/1933. The English edition has a new text written by A. D. L. Campbell of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Trubner, 1924. • cf. record BAM LD 339 (M): Bali, orchestre de gamelan et chanteurs de Pliatan, Indonesie; direction A. A. Gde Mandera, Argo Records, London. 6 (In Sanskrit, synonymous in the classical language with iiditya.) 'Sun.' Another word for Siirya is Aditya; the Saiva priest worships Sivaditya, Siva as the God of the Sun. This priest, during his ritual, invokes Siva to burn away his sins and impurities (dagdhi-kara'lJa), in this way becoming a worthy receptacle for the God. He then forces the God down into himself, thus becoming Sivaditya/Siirya. In Balinese daily life the Saiva priest as well as his Buddhist colleague are indiscriminately referred to as ' my Siirya '.
49
545
BAUDDHA BRAHMINS IN BALI
of our manservant) had already died and his son-himself still too young to become a priest 1 and now working as a teacher in Gianjar at 5 miles' distancegave us a whole sketch-book with drawings. We did not learn from him why they had been commissioned, but it will be clear that some of the drawings are not so much realistic as expressive of the priest's preoccupation and mood during his ritual (his feet are carefully enwrapped during the dangerous moments illustrated in figs. 3 and 20). The captions to these drawings were not to be had from the griya Gunung Sari; lowe them to my aged Buddhist informant Padanda Buddha Gede Nyoman Jelantik from the entirely Buddhist village of Bodha Kling, some miles distance from Eastern Karang Asem on the slopes of Bali's highest mountain peak, Gunung Agung. Unfortunately the old priest, who in the preceding months had gone through the Buddha-veda 2 with me and for me had copied his ritual, Purvaka-veda Buddha,3 was tired or less interested, so that up to the present day several drawings still lack captions. It is possible, however, to present here provisionally some drawings illustrating that essential fraction of the ritual when the priest prepares himself to put his mitre on his head. 1 A brahmin priest in Bali should have reached the age when the emotional storms of youth have passed. • The word veda in Bali is used for the songs of the Brahmin priests, as has been explained by Dr. R. Goris in his Ph.D. thesis, Bijdrage tot de kennis der Oud-Javaansche en Balineesche theologie, Leiden, 1926. Buddha-veda in Bali is the name of the death ritual of the Buddhist brahmin priest. In research this priest's manual must have been ill-starred. Goris in his Ph.D. thesis, Appendix I, pp. 136-49, dealing with the Balinese vedas, overlooks Buddha-veda, but this does not affect his results. K. C. Crucq in his Ph.D. thesis Bijdrage tot de kennis van het Balisch doodenritueel, 1928, dealt with only some 20% of the Balinese material available in Leiden in those days, by overlooking p. 260 in Dr. H. H. Juynboll's Supplement op den catalogus van de Javaansche en Madoereesche handschriften der Leidsche Universiteits-bibliotheek, II, Leiden, Brill, 1911, where Buddha-veda was rightly characterized. Sylvain Levi in his Sanskrit texts from Bali (Gaekwad's Oriental Series, LXVII), Baroda, 1933, presents Buddha-veda as his part IV, pp. 71-85, announcing it on p. xxix as containing 'the full daily worship of the Buddhist priest'. It is neither daily worship (but death ritual) nor full, because in this text edition it contains only the' Sanskrit' songs and mantras sung, spoken, muttered, or not to be revealed by the priest (tan kaveq,ar) and not the Old Javanese directions for his actions, though Levi did print their Saiva counterparts in his part I, Veda-parikrama, being the ritual of the Saiva priest. Moreover, Levi ends at a point in the Buddha-veda long before the end of the work. Finally I am not sure whether Buddha-veda and other treatises on Buddhist death ritual, composed by padandas, ordained priests, originating from the library of palm-leaf MSS (now) Gedong Kirtya, Singaradja, Bali, and accessible in typewritten copies in the library of the University of Leiden, are being used to the full extent for the investigation of the ritual concerning cremation and the subsequent festivals recurring thereafter called 8raddha, dealt with in that famous poem, Nagarakrtagama. To be complete in dealing with this subject: a second MS of the Buddha-veda has been incorporated in the Kirtya as No. 2255. The Leiden and the Singaradja MS appear to originate from the same source; even Levi's extract seems to be derived from it. a This manual deals with the daily ritual of the Buddhist priest; here too the directions for his actions are written in Old Javanese, his words for vedas and mantras in' Sanskrit '. As far as I know, this text is not yet available in public collections; it is my intention to publish both BV and PVB. The' Buddhist data from Balinese texts', being pp. 109-33 in F. D. K. Bosch, Selected studies in Indonesian archaeology (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Translation Series, 5), The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1961, form part of these texts.
VOL. XXVI. l'ART
3.
39
50
546
C. HOOYKAAS
'Before officiating the priest has to purify himself outwardly and inwardly; he begins his ritual by squatting facing the east before his utensils,! viz. ghafJ,tfi, 'bell', bajra' thunderbolt', dhupa' incense', dipa' lamp', s(i)vambha' waterpot', bija or ak§ata ' unbroken rice grains', pu§pa ' flowers'. He is clad in two plain white unsewn rectangular pieces of cloth and is bare-headed; the Saivite priest has his hair in a knot adorned with a small flower, but the Buddhist one has no knot and his hair is cut short in the neck. In the course of his ritual, when this is considered not to belong .to the ni§ta,2 lowest or usual class; he adorns himself with bracelets, ear ornaments, gafJ,itri 3 (a rosary of 108 beads, etc.), and bhava (mitre), coram publico, in doing so using the prescribed mantra and mudra. The Balinese, however, do not pay any attention to him, for he is a forlorn figure amidst the hubbub of the festival occasion, for an hour of which his specialist help is invoked. They are only interested in the holy water being prepared by this brahmin priest and are not aware of the Powers of Macrocosmos and Microcosmos, of Evil and Good, to whom in perfect concentration he addresses himself (figs. 1, 3, 4, 19-21). For editing the following fragment I used the Purvaka-veda Buddha, copied for me in an exercise book, hence quoted with page-numbers. We find it on pp. 6-7 ; the major part occurs again on pp. 36-8, in nearly exactly the same words. (A) Mvah amu§ti angranasika; mantra,' Nama Buddhiiya. Once more [he concentrates] by putting his hands together and looking at the point of his nose (fig. 4), with the formula: Honour be to the Enlightened One (fig. 19). (B) Ri wus mangkana masamadhi-traya pva sira, mantra,' ong svabhava-suddha sarva-dharma, svabhiiva-suddho 'ham; 4 ong svabhiiva-sunya sarva-dharma, svabhava-sunyo 'ham; ong prakrti-parisuddha sarva-dharma, prakrti-parisuddho 'ham. 5 Telas saha mudranya. Next he performs the concentration triad, using the formula: all the dharmas (constituent elements of the phenomenal world) are intrinsically pure, I am intrinsically pure (fig. 15) ; all the dharmas are intrinsically' void' (empty, unreal), I am intrinsically unreal; 1 So also regularly in the rituals in the Si'tdhana-rnltli't, e.g. (GOS, XXVI) pp. 51, 53, and frequently, with minor variations. The drawings in Tyra de Kleen's Mudras are incomparably better and fuller than the clumsy drawing in fig. 2 here. 2 Sanskrit ni~tya, or (more probably) nistha ? 3 Perhaps derived through a Middle Indian form, rather than directly from Sanskrit ga1'}ayitiki't. • Si'tdhana-rnltli't (GOS, XXVI), pp. 19, 26, 39, 58, 62, 72, etc. : 01/'1 svabhavasuddhalJ, sarvvadharmmalJ, svabhava-8uddho 'ham. a Si'tdhana-rnltli't (GOS, XXVI), p. 58 : sarvva evi'tmi dharmmi'tlJ, prakrtya svariipe1'}a parifuddhalJ, aham api prakrtipariBuddha ityi'tdikam i'tmukhayet. . . . sarvvadharmmaprakrtiparifuddhatam amukhikrtya sarvvadharmmasunyata1/'l dhyayat.
51
BAUDDHA BRAHMINS IN BALI
547
all the dharmas are by nature entirely pure, I am by nature entirely pure.! Finished; to be accompanied by the appropriate positions of the fingers (fig. 5). (0) Mvah temokena dasa-dik 2,' mantra,' ong Sang nama~ (Purva),' ong Nang nama~ (Agneya),' ong Bang nama~ (Dak§ina),' ong Mang nama~ (Nairrtya),' ong Tang nama~ (Pascima),' ong Sing nama~ (Viiyavya); ong Ang nama~ (Uttara),' ong Yang nama?~ (Aisanya),' ong Ing nama~ (Adhah),' ong Yang nama~ (Urdhva),' ong Ong nama~ (Madhya),' hung phat (ping 70).3
Next invoke the ten regions 2 as witnesses with the formula: honour be to Sang (east), Nang (south-east), Bang (south), Mang (south-west), Tang (west), Sing (north-west), Ang (north), Yang (north-east), lng (beneath), Yang (above), Ong (centre); seventy times hung phat (fig. 1). (D) M vah ngavetuang yak§a,' mvang mantra,' ong bajra-yak§a hung pOOt (ping tiga),' ong bajrangkusa (jah), ong bajra-pasa (hung), ong bajra-posta 4 (bang), ong bajra-vesa (ha) 5 " 1 Svabhava and prakrti are well known from Saivasiddhanta philosophy as dealt with by Zieseniss in BKI, XCVIII, 1939, 75-223, and Dvipantara-pitaka, vols. I, III, IV, VI, New Delhi, International Academy of Indian Culture, 1957-62. • The following ten points of the universe plus the centre have been borrowed from p. 8 ; in such-like manuals an explanation is not always given the first time it is needed. An explanation for the bijdkfaras, kernel syllables, is not to be found in previously published Buddhist texts from Indonesia such as J. Kats, Sang hyang kamahayanikan, 's-Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhoff, 1910, or H. Kern, De legende van Kuiijarakar1J,a (Verspreide Geschriften, 10), 's-Gravenhage, MartinW! Nijhoff, 1922. It consists of the quintuple syllables Sa-Ba-Ta-A-I, standing for Siva's five aspects, viz. Sadyojata, Bamadeva, Tatpur~a, Aghora, and iSana, followed by na-ma-Si-va-ya 'honour be to Siva' (this order is also followed in PVB, 1, 9 and-apart from one deviation-also on p. 31 in the Astuti Yama Raja stava, on which I am preparing a publication). Although the text runs: dasa-dik, with no. 11, Madhya, the centre, the supreme bijdk~ara ong is added. Eleven = eka-dasa, which word immediately reminds one of the well-known Eka-dasa-Rudra (cf. Dr. J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, 'The Dikpalakas in ancient Java.', BKI, eXI, 4, 1955, 356-84, esp. p. 382). 3 Hung phat is perhaps the most usual end of a mantra in the PVB. • After angkusa (for the god Indra; east) and pasa (Yama; south) one would expect the usual' weapons' or emblems for west and north. From the quotation in the next footnote, it appears that posta is a mispronunciation for sphota. • cf. Sadhana-mala (GOS, XXVI), p. 199: o'f(t vajrMtkusi akar~aya jalt, O'f(t vajrapasi pravesaya hu'f(t, O'f(t vajrasphota bandhaya va'f(t, O'f(t vajravesa vasikuru holt. The four bijdk~ara jah-hum-bam-ha (sic on pp. 6 and 36 of PV B) in the next line are summed up as jah-hum-bam-oh (PVB, 6, 36) (figs. 6-9). This discrepancy would greatly have puzzled and annoyed me, if in the Saiva-ritual I had not found consistently in one context the correct , Agni-Rudra' and as consistently in another context' A-ni-Rudra', which I consider to be an old mistake. The four bijdk~ara are found together in PVB, 13, after the four slokas of Sang hyang veda-mantra, also known as Datah arya after the four initial syllables, when in the final pake,tis, directions for sprinkling, the priest is instructed to say (or think) inter alia: Ong jah gang Jagat-kara1J,aya namah svaha 'Honour to the Cause ofthe World' ; ong hung Candra-Devata-Maha-Ganggaya namah 8valu'i ' Honout to the Moon-God-Great. Gangga (1) , ; ong bang Deva-.sakti Malu'i [1]; ong oh Sama-kara1J,aya [1].
52
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327
BANTEN AND THE DUTCH IN 1619: SIX EARLY' P ASAR MALAY' LETTERS
131
fleet under Coen, who then sailed for the Moluccas to assemble a larger fleet while the English and the Pangeran of Jayakerta jointly besieged the Dutch post, which was left in the charge ofPieter van den Broeck. On 22 January 1619, the . unwary van den Broeck and several companions were captured and held as hostages by the Pangeran of Jayakerta. But the anti-Dutch alliance was a fragile one: the Pangeran, the English, and the rulers of Banten could not agree among themselves, each wanting the Dutch fort. After some considerable confusion, at the end of January the Dutch remaining in the fort decided to surrender to the English and the Pangeran of J ayakerta to gain the release of the hostages. But Banten troops intervened to prevent the surrender; Banten clearly did not wish merely to exchange English for Dutch traders in J ayakerta. Dale withdrew and sought refuge aboard his ship, and the Pangeran of Jayakerta was obliged to turn the Dutch hostages over to the Banten troops, who sent them westward to Banten. Banten demanded that the Dutchmen remaining in the fort surrender, after which they would be allowed to depart. The Dutch agreed, and proceeded to celebrate their deliverance with days of prayer and nights of debauchery. On the evening of 2 February, Banten drove the unfortunate Pangeran of Jayakerta from his town and annexed it to the kingdom of Banten. Only Banten forces now remained around the Dutch fort. The Dutch did not leave their fort but, fearing treachery on all sides, decided to stay and defend it. On 12 March they renamed it Batavia, and so the place was known to Europeans until Indonesian independence after the second World War. For two months little happened. Then in May Coen returned from the Moluccas with a fleet of 17 ships. On 30 May he stormed the town of Jayakerta, drove'the Banten garrison before him, and reduced the town to ashes. Batavia was now a Dutch town. In June the Dutch sailed to Banten and Coen successfully demanded the surrender of van den Broeck and his fellow captives. But within a few days it was clear that a state of war existed between Banten and the Dutch. The result was a Dutch blockade of Banten which lasted for several years. The history of these events need not be reviewed here. The Dutch post at Batavia became the permanent headquarters of the East India Company and its commercial activities grew quickly as Chinese traders moved there from Banten. Batavia was the base of the Company's territorial expansion in Java later in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and consequently to a large extent the foundation of the Company's ultimate bankruptcy. The letters here were written in the last months of 1619, when Coen made a gesture towards peace negotiations with Banten. Coen's report to the Heeren XVII (the Directors of the East India Company) of 22 January 1620 16 describes his version of the negotiations. N iettegenstaende seer wel geweten hebben, dat het de hertneckicheyt van Bantam, soo lange connen, uytherden sal, jae dat de aenspraecke haer verharden 16 The letter can be found in both H. T. Colenbrander and W. Ph. Coolhaas (ed.), Jan Pietersz. eoen: Bescheiden omtrent zijn bedrijJ in lndie, 7 vols., 's-Gravenhage, 1919-53, I, 523; and de Jonge and van Deventer, IV, 196. There are some variations in the two readings of the document.
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M. C. RICKLEFS
en ons verachteren soude, hebben nochtans goetgevonden, die van Bantam, den vrede aen te bieden omme een yder sooveel mogelyck, vol te doen. Dese aenbiedinge hebbe den 21sten November passado, schriftelijk gedaen. Hierop is door den Pangoran Gouverneur en zynen broeder Pangoran Gabangh geantwoort, te vreden te wesen, dat wy daer souden handelen, gelyck ten tyde van W ittert en Verschoor gedaen wierd.
, Although we knew very well that the obstinacy of Banten would hold out as long as possible, indeed that the communication would make them firmer and set us back, we thought fit nevertheless to offer peace to them at BanMn in order to satisfy everyone in so far as possible. This offer we made in writing on the 21st of November last. Hereupon replied the PangeranGovernor [the regent Ranamanggala] and his brother[-in-Iaw 1] Pangeran Gabang that they were content if we were to trade there as was done in the times of Wittert and Verschoor.' The original correspondence in the Rijksarchief shows that there were three letters in response to this initial Dutch approach, all received at Batavia on 7 December. One of them, however, merely requested the return of the BanMn emissaries. All the letters suggest the low opinion of the Dutch held by the BanMn dignitaries, for none of them has the grandiloquent salutations which were normal in correspondence. These were brief, even rude, notes to an enemy. Furthermore, they did not, as Coen said, simply offer the status quo ante bellum, but also accused the Dutch of having been responsible for initiating hostilities. In the BanMn view, the Dutch had disrupted their trade and interfered with a vassal. Had the Pangeran of Jayakerta had an opportunity to debate this question, he would have pointed out to BanMn that things were not as simple as that. But his role was at an end; the dispute was now solely between the Dutch of Batavia and the rulers of BanMn. Fol. 326 (Javanese script) S~lrat Pangera,n Arya Ranamanggala, {latang akan Kapitan, lvJapon Kapitltn suruhan sarta ijengen surat, mangataken 17 mahu barijame, saparti awal zamiin 18 rJahulu, arJapon Kapitan jika ati betul, saparti zamiin Kapitan Witer, dan zamiin Kapitan Jam Bul, bahik, apa salahnya, Pangeran Ratu pon suka, sakarang aru biru pon, orang Walanda juga yang r/ahulu, bukan sabab Pangeran Ratu yang salah" 'The letter of Pangeran Arya Ranamanggala to the Captain [Coen]. There have been the Captain's eInissaries 19 with a letter saying you want to 17 Instead of the Malay causative suflix -kan, the scribe writes pepet in the final syllable as in the Javanese (krama) causative suffix -akin. 18 The scribe retains the Old Javanese character (obsolete in Modern Javanese except in the combination tal-ing-tarung for 0) to represent a long a in the final syllable. Thus the Arabic spelling (.jL.j) is preserved, whereas when jawi (Arabic) script was used in more modcrn Indonesian and Malay the word was often written .:r-~, reflecting the shift of the stress to the penultimate syllable in accordance with its pronullciation in Malay/Indonesian. Arabic z is represented by }vriting ja with three dots above it. 19 It appears that the writer has put the possessive before the thing qualified. The normal
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BANT~N AND THE DUTCH IN 1619: SIX EARLY 'PASAR MALAY' LETTER"
133
make peace like in former times. Now, Captain, if your heart is true, as in the time of Captain Wittert and the time of Captain Jan Willemsz. [Verschoor], all right, what is wrong with that? Pangeran Ratu would also like this. Now there is chaos. It was the Dutch who started this; it was not because Pangeran Ratu was in the wrong.' Fol. 325 (Javanese script) Surat Pangeran Arya Upapati, ijateng akin Kapitan, aijapon Kapitan suruhan sarta iJ,angen surat, mangataken 20 mahu bariJ,ame, saparti awal zaman if,ahulu, aiJ,apon Kapitan jaka ati betul, saparti zaman Kapitan W itar, dan zaman Kapitan Zarn Bul, bahik, apa salahnya, Pangeran Ratu pon suka, sakarang haru biru pon orang Walanda juga yang (lahulu, bukan sabab Pangeran Rattt yang salah" titi 21" , The letter of Pangeran Arya Upapati to the Captain. There have been the Captain's emissaries 22 with a letter, saying you want to make peace like in former times. Now, Captain, if your heart is true, as in the time of Captain Wittert and in the time of Captain Jan Willemsz. [Verschoor], all right, what is wrong with that? Pangeran Ratu would also like this. Now there is chaos. It was the Dutchmen who started this; it was not because Pangeran Ratu was in the wrong.' Fol. 324 (Arabic script) Surat Pangeran Gabang datang pada Kapitan Mur ada suruhan Pangeran namanya Si Anorn s. lea .1. ni. (uh s. b .l. d. ng panakatcan dtta jikalatt Kapitan suka kita minta pada Kapitan Mur. 'The letter of Pangeran Gabang to the Captain ~Ioor.23 There is an emissary of the Pangeran named Si Anom, [with] Si ... and Si ... his two companions. 24 If the Captain is agreeable, we ask them from the Captain Moor.' Coen's report of 22 January 25 describes the Dutch response. Waerop wyluyden den 9den December gerepliceerd hebben daermede genoecht te syn, mits dat ons door den jongen Coninck, den Pangoran Gouverneur en zynen broeder belooft werde voor te comen, datter door de Chinesen oj}' anderen geen monopolie gepleecht, de peper, off de prys van dien niet meer als Malay order would be 8!tr!than Kapitan (as in fo!' 324: a,da 81tmlian Pangeran). Similar constructions are found in Blagden, 92-5; in lines 1 and 10 of the first letter are found Raja Sultan Abu IIa,yat surat datang • .• , w~ich Blagden translates as • Letter of Sultan Abu Hayat to .• .' and ... bagaimana Raja Po'rtukal jong dan liarla dan lasykar ... , whioh he translates as • How shall the junks, goods and soldiers of the King of Portugal ... '. In the first case, however, a better translation might be • Raja Sultan Abu Hayat writes to ... " and other understandings are also possible for the second (e.g.•... how about it, King of Portugal, [if your] junks, goods, and soldiers ... '). 20 See p. 132, n. 17. 21 A Javanese word used to end letters. 22 See p. 132, n. 19. 23 Kapitan lrIur was the common form ofreference for J. P. Coen. In the much later Javanese texts of the Baron SakeJl(j.er myths, he is called Mur Jangkung (i.e. Jan Coen); see Ricklefs, 400 . .. Their names are not clear. The second is perhaps Si Beledang. 25 See p. 131, n. 16.
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voor desen opgehouden werde. Hierop is door den Pangoran en zynen broeder Pangoran Gabangh, weder gerepliceert, soo onder 't accoort eenich bedroch gemenght wiert, dat het dan geen vrede, maer veel eer oorloch wesen sowle, invougen dat ons neffens anderen den vryen handel niet hebben willen toeseggen; maar occasie soecken om ons te betrappen en in haer gewelt te becomen. , Whereupon on the 9th of December we replied that we were pleased therewith, provided that the young king, the Pangeran-Govemor [Ranamanggala], and his brother[-in-law 1] promised us to prevent the Chinese or others from carrying on a monopoly, and that the pepper or its price should not be boosted up to higher than before. Hereupon the Pangeran [Ranamanggala] and his brother[-in-law 1] Pangeran Gabang replied that if in the agreement any deceit were mixed then it would be no peace, but rather war, in such a manner that they did not want to promise free trade to us as to others, but seek opportunity to catch us and to get us in their power.' The Rijksarchief letters show that, again, there 'were three replies, all received on 26 December. The identity of Kyai Senapati, the writer of the longest letter, was discussed above. 26 In this letter particularly, Banten complaints about the Dutch conquest of Jayakerta and their blockade of Banten are clear. But the letters do not say what Coen reported to the Heeren XVII. They do not say that the Dutch would not be allowed free trade, although in fact this was the case, but rather that the Dutch would not allow others to trade freely in Banten. Nor do the letters mention war: they speak, more diplomatically, of one being' hurt' by the state of affairs. There are two possible explanations of these discrepancies. Either the translators in Batavia misunderstood the letters, which is quite possible, or Coen intentionally misled the Heeren XVII, which is not only possible but probable. In any case, what the Banten dignitaries thought of the Dutch is quite clear. Fol. 328 (Javanese script) Surat Pangeran Arya Ranamanggala, aiJ,apun Kapitan hanijak baijame biniyaga, sarat urang baijame biniyaga hanijak sama btul, jangan aija kuciwa, barangkala aija kuciwa bukan baiJ,ame namanya, manyakiti juga namanya" 'The letter of Pangeran Arya Ranamanggala. Now, the Captain wants to make peace and to trade. A condition for people to make peace and to trade is that their behaviour should be mutually correct. Let there be no shortcomings. Whenever there are shortcomings it cannot be called peace; to hurt is it called.' Fol. 329 (Javanese script) Surat Pangeran Arya Upapati, aiJ,apun Kapitan henijak barijame binihaga, sarat urang baijeme binihaga, Mnijak sama betul,jangan aiJ,a kuciwa, barangkala aija kuciwa bukan baijame namanya, manakiti 27 juga namanya" See p. 130 above. From Bakit. Rather than the normal Malay active prefix ending in ny, the scribe writes n, an older Javanese form (see the discussion in Prijohoetomo, Javaansche aprookkunst, Leiden, 1937,61). 26
27
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BANTEN AND THE DUTCH IN 1619: SIX EARI,Y • PASAR MALAY' I,ETTERS
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, The letter of Pangeran Arya Upapati. Now, the Captain wants to make peace and to trade. A condition for people to make peace and to trade is that their behaviour should be mutually correct. Let there be no shortcomings. Whenever there are shortcomings it cannot be called peace; to hurt is it called.' Fol. 327 (Javanese script) Surat Kiyahi Senapati, aijapun Kapitan mahu baq,ame biniyaga, bayik Pangeran Ratu pon suka, jika sama betul, asal ijahulu urang Walanda hanq,ak ijiambil uli urang Anggris geq,ongnya, Pangeran Ratu tulung tiif-a kasih ambil, ijibales uli ura[ng] Walanda hamba Pangeran Ratu ijibunuh, nagri Pangeran Ratu J ayakreta q,iambil, Kapitan Wano Baruku ijilepasken 28 q,ari paija masakatnya, dan urang Walanda yang ijipegeng uli urang Anggris barapa puluh q,ilepasken ulih Pangeran Ratu, dan urang Walanda aija if,i geq,ong nayik ka kapal, Pangeran Ratu tiyai/a mamegeng orang dan tiyaija mamegeng harta, ijibaJes ulih urang Walanda hamba Pangeran Raht q,ibunuh, q,ipegeng q,ipasung q,irampas, urang biniyaga tiif-a kasih masuk ijipageng if,ahulu Kapitan Wano Baruk, barkata paija Pangeran, urang Wa.landa hanif,ak bales bayik paq,a Pangeran, sakarang satu tiq,a aq,a tanif,a yang bayik. 'The letter of Kyai Senapati. Now, the Captain wants to make peace and to trade. All right, Pangeran Ratu also is happy, if there is mutual correctness. This began earlier when the building of the Dutchmen was going to be taken by the English; Pangeran Ratu helped and did not allow them to take it. This was repaid by the Dutch in the subjects of Pangeran Ratu being killed, and the country of Pangeran Ratu called J ayakerta being taken. Captain van den Broeck was freed from his troubles and the Dutchmen who were seized by the English-several tens of them 2 9 -were freed by Pangeran Ratu. And the Dutchmen who were in the building got on board ship, and Pangeran Ratu did not seize any people and did not seize any wealth. This was repaid by the Dutch in the subjects of Pangeran Ratu being killed, seized, fettered, and robbed. Traders were not allowed to enter [Banten] and were seized. Captain van den Broeck said to Pangeran [Ratu] that the Dutch would repay Pangeran [Ratu] well. Now there is not a single sign that is good.' Peace did not come between Banten and the Dutch; the struggle continued. These letters reveal something of the problems of communication between the two sides, notwithstanding the existence of a language which both could understand. The Dutch position in Batavia amounted, in the eyes of Banten, to a usurpation of territory belonging to themselves. It meant the establishment of a fortified European trading post beyond the control of any indigenous authority, which was a threat to Indonesian trade and to the power See p. 132, n. 17. There were apparently almost 100 of them in the end; see de Jonge and van Deventer, p. cxii. 28
29
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IV,
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BANT£N AND THE DUTCH IN 1610: SIX EARLY' PASAR MALAY' LETTERS
of the Indonesian rulers in Java. The greatest of the monarchs of the Mataram empire, Sultan Agung (1613-45), equally recognized the dangers of Batavia, and in 1628-9 twice besieged the Dutch post without success. The foundation of Batavia was a turning-point in Indonesian history: the way in which this event led to the disruption of Indonesian trade, the conquest of Banten, the permanent dismemberment of Mataram, and the collapse of the Dutch East India Company itself is a long and complicated story beyond the scope of this article. The ill-will generated by Batavia from its beginning as a Dutch post is well illustrated in these letters.
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NORTH-WESTERN CAMBODIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY By O. W. WOLTERS I In 1883 Hervey de Saint-Denys translated a passage from Ma Tuan-lin's Wen-hsien t'ung-k'ao, which mentions missions to China from Seng-kao it r.:J' Wu-ling ~ %,Ohia-cha j1m .?p, and Ohiu-mi 11£} ~. Ma Tuan-lin states that these countries were conquered by Ohen-la (Cambodia) after the yung-hui reign period (650-6).1 Historians of Cambodia have not given much attention to this passage. Aymonier suspected that Seng-kao was a variant form of Seng-chih it ffi~, Oh'ih-t'u's capital; believing that Oh'ih-t'u was in the lower Menam basin, he quoted Ma Tuan-lin as evidence of the extent of the Khmer empire in the middle of the seventh century.2 Pelliot, observing that Ma Tuan-lin had incorporated information from the Hsin T'ang-shu, promptly denied that Seng-chih and Seng-kao were identical places and concluded that Seng-kao could not be identified. 3 The Chinese records of seventh-century Cambodia have not been re-examined since 1903 and 1904, when Pelliot published his studies of Funan and the early historical geography of South East Asia,4 and Ma Tuan-lin's passage has rarely been noticed. Gerini in 1909 decided that Ohiu-mi, whose ruler sent a mission in 638, was a principality in south-western Cambodia. 5 Many years later Briggs, probably impressed by Ohen-la's power in the seventh century, suggested that these countries were far north in present-day Laos. 6 More recently, Professor Wheatley and the present author have drawn attention to Ohia-cha, another of the mission-sending countries of 638. Professor Wheatley was more cautious in identifying it with Kedah in the Malay Peninsula. 7 1 Hervey de Saint-Denys, Ethnogl'aphie des peuples etrangers a fa Chine, Geneve, 1883, II, 461 ; Ma Tuan-lin, Wln-h8ien t'~tng-k'ao (Wan-yu Wen-k'u edition), 2602. Saint-Denys translated' after the yung-hui period' as 'vers I'epoque des annees yong-lwei'. In this essay the expressions , Funan' and 'Chen-la', which are Chinese ones, are used only when quoting from Chinese sources or from studies by scholars who have accepted the expressions as representing political realities in Cambodia. Reasons will be given later in the essay why the author believes that Chinese nomenclature confuses rather than clarifies pre-Angkorian history. 2 E. Aymonier, Le Cambodge, III, Paris, 1904, 429-30, 439; 'Le Founan " JA, x" Ser., I, janvier-fevrier 1903, 132-3, 149-50; 'Le Siam ancien " ibid., mars-avril 1903, 190. 3 P. Pelliot, 'Deux itinemires', BEPEO, IV, 1-2, 1904, p. 290, n. 4; 403-4. Pelliot pointed out that the conquests, according to the text, took place after the 650-6 reign period. Ch'ih-t'u's position on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula is definitively established by Professor Paul Wheatley, The Golden Kher80ne8e, Kuala Lumpur, 1961, ch. iii. 4 P. Pelliot, 'Le Fou-nan', BEPEO, III, 2,1903,248-303; 'Deux itineraires', 131-413. 5 G. E. Gerini, Researches on Ptolemy'8 geofll'aphy of easte"n A8ia, London, 1909,202-6. 6 L. P. Briggs, The ancient Khnter empire, Philadelphia, 1951, 50, 54. Briggs assigned the conquests to the 650-6 period. 7 Wheatley, op. cit., 46, 278; O. W. Wolters, Early Indone-Bian commerce, Ithaca, 1967, 163. Ferrand also identified CMa-clta with Kedah; G. Ferrand, 'Le K'ouen-louen " J A, XI" Ser., XUI, mars-avril 1919, p. 249, n. I. Dupont, who was particularly interested in pre-Angkorian Cambodia, ignored these toponyms.
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The information, quoted by Ma Tuan-lin, also appears in the Hsin T'ang-shtl at the end of a miscellaneous section on Champa and several other countries. 8 , In the twelfth year of the chen-kttan reign-period (21 January 6388 February 639), the four countries of Seng-kao, W~t-ling, Chia-cha, and Chitl-mi sent tribute (to China). Seng-kao's location is exactly north-west of Water Chen-la (' Water' Cambodia), and its customs are the same as those of Httan-wang (Champa). Thereafter Chitl-mi's king, Shih-li-chitl-mo P ltl ~ .. (Sri Kumara), with Ftl-na's & »IS king, Shih-li-t'i-p'o-pa-mo P lU ~ It .. (Sri Devavarman), again sent tribute. Seng-kao and these countries were conquered by Chen-la after the ytlng-htli reign-period (which ended on 31 January 656).' 9 This passage, which does not appear in the Chitl T'ang-shtl or in other texts describing South East Asia during T'ang times,lo illustrates some of the difficulties caused by the compilers' intention of improving on the Chitl T' ang-shtl by increasing the factual contents without increasing the length of the text.H The reference to the conquests' after the y~tng-htli reign-period' is an unfortunate example of additional but condensed information. Part of the Hsin T'ang-shtl's information can, however, be verified by means of the Ts'ejtl yuan-ktlei, compiled about 50 years earlier.12 Evidently the large team of scholars, who produced the Ts'ejtl y'iian-ktlei, searched T'ang records for material on the' barbarian' countries, and the following two passages probably came from the source summarized in the H sin T' ang-shtl.
m
Hsin T'ang-shu (Po-na edition), 222C, 2a_ For the suggested reconstruction of ' Sri Kumara' and' Sri Devaval'man " see PelIiot, 'Deux itineraires', 404. A Ch'ih-t'~t Brahman was called Chiu-'lrW-lo ~ . . B = Kumiira; Sui-shu (Po-na edition), 82, 4b. 10 i.e. T'ang hui-yao, T'ung-tien, T'ai-p'ing yu-Ian, T'ai-p'ing huan-yu chi, and T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi. Ssli-ma Kuang ignores the missions of 638. The Wen-hsien t'uny-k'ao and the YU-hai (facsimile of an edition of 1337 in the National Central Library. Taipeh, 1964, 2898) quote the Hllin T'ang-shu. 11 See R. des Rotours, Le traite des exarnens, Paris, 1932,56--64, for the intentions and performance of the compilers. 12 On the TFYK see des Rotours, op. cit., 91-2, and Ssu-yu Teng and Knight Biggerstaff, An annotated bibliography of selected Chinese reference works, third ed., Cambridge, Mass., 1971, 89. Professor Hiraoka has noted that the 1642 edition of the T F Y K is frequently undependable; T. Hiraoka and others, ' To-dai shiryo ko', Kyoto DaigakuJinbun Kagaht Kenkyujo soritsu nijugo skfinen kinen ronbunshii, Kyoto, 1954, 676 ff. The present writer is grateful to Professor C. A. Peterson for calling his attention to the textual status of the 1642 edition of the TF Y K. This edition (Peking facsimile reproduction of 1960) is quoted below, but passages, for which parallel passages do not appear in texts other than the T F YK, have been checked against the Southern Sung wood-block print at the Seikado Bunko, Tokyo, by means of xerox copies kindly supplied by Professor Akira Nagazumi. The wood-block print is the oldest extant version of the TFYK and the earliest we can get to the original contents of the text. The passages in the 1642 edition which have been checked concern: the Funanese attack on Champa reported in 643 (999, 11721b), the missions ofChiu-rni and Fu-na in 671 (970, 11402b), Jayavarman 1's mission of 682 (970, 11403a), the Wen-tan mission of 717 (974, 11445a), the Chen-In mission of 750 (971, 11413b), the Wen-tan mission of 753 (971, 11414a), the Wen-tan mission of 771-2 (976, 11461 b), the Wentan mission of 798 (976, 11462b), and the Chen-la mission of 814 (972, 11417b). There are no significant differences between the Sung and 1642 texts. 8
9
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, In the first month of the twelfth year of the chen-kuan reign-period (from 21 January 638, to 19 February 638) the four countries of Seng-kao, Wu-ling, Chia-cha, and Chiu-mi sent envoys with tribute. They are all little countries of the southern tribes. Their obedience to China began from this time. Their dress and speech are similar to that of Lin-yi (Champa).13 In the eighth month of the second year of the hsien-heng reign-period (from 9 September to 8 October 671) Chiu-mi's king, Shih-li-chiu-mo, and Fu-na's king, Shih-li-t'i-p'o-pa-mo, each sent envoys with local products.' 14 The second of these passages does not appear in any other text, but it explains the Hsin T'ang-shu's statement that' thereafter' Chiu-mi and Fu-na sent tribute. This clarification is the limit of the textual control provided by the Ts'eju yuan-kuei. The dates of the conquests after 31 January 656, to which the Hsin T'ang-shu refers, could have been reported by the Khmer missions of 682 or 698 15 or even in the eighth or ninth centuries. Moreover, no texts are available for verifying a remarkable detail in the Hsin T'ang-shu's account of 8eng-kao, which is its location in terms of ' Water' Chen-lao The Chinese understood Chen-la to mean the expanding Khmer kingdom of the sixth and seventh centuries, which overthrew and absorbed its overlord, Funan, after a long series of campaigns,16 'Water' Chen-la, on the other hand, was an expression which appears in Chinese records only as a result of Chen-la's division after 706 into , Land' and' Water' Chen-la. 17 The term persisted until at least as late as 838.1~ The quest for the location of the place-names mentioned in the Ts'eju yiiankuei leads us to a region which will be defined as west or north-west of the TonIe Sap or, in more general terms, as north-western Cambodia in the sense of being in the north-western corner of Cambodia south of the Dangrek mountains. The place-name which take::! us most confidently to this region is Wu-ling ~ %. The T'ang officials understood the Wu-ling envoy in 638 to say that his country was called Mju-liang ,19 which represents' Malyang '.20 Malyang is first mentioned in Cambodian epigraphy in 893. 21 It was a pramiin, or a definable 13 1'FYK, 970, 1I398b. 141'FYK, 970, 11402h. '. T J!' Y K, 970, 11403a; 970, 11403b. 16 G. Cmdes, Tke india.nised states of Soutkea.s( :4sia, Honolulu, 1968,65-70; 72-3. 17 Cmdes, op. cit., 85. 1. TFYK, 995, 11688a. 19 B. Karlgren, GrammataSerica recensa (reprinted from BMFEA, 29,1957, and henceforth cited as GSR), l04a, 823a. 20 The equivalence of .liang and ·l!liing, the stressed syllable, is not in doubt. In connexion with the first double vowel, Mrs. Judith Jacob informs the author that' a variety of short vowels, a, i, and u, and sometimes both i and ?t, occur in both Old 1\Ion and Old Khmer in first short syllables. The writers were trying to indicate a neutral vowel for which they had no symbol '. Professor E. G. Pulleyblank informs the author that miu ~ is in the rising tone, which was used at this period to represent short vowels in foreign words, and miu would have been suitable to represent a neutral skwa, necessarily rounded after a labial in Chinese. The i in the transcription is not to be regarded as a distinct and separate' vowel'. 21 C. Cmdes, Inscriptions du Carl/badge (henceforth cited as lC), 1, 30.
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territory in north-western Cambodia. 22 The toponym also appears in Chou Ta-kuan's list of ' prefectures' in 1296. 23 Satisfactory evidence of the location of at least part of the area later known as ' Malyang , is provided by the Stu'ng Crap inscription of 1003, found near the Tano village between Battambang and Mong in the southern part of the modern province of Battambang. The inscription records the donation of land to a temple, and a royal official in Malyang was ordered to supervise the transaction. 24 The full extent of the territory is unknown. According to the Prasat Ta Kev inscription of the eleventh century, Vat Ek, a few miles to the north of the modern town of Battambang, was in the province of Bhimapura. 25 Malyang's later importance is not in doubt. Its sense of regional identity survived until at least the end of the twelfth century, when its inhabitants rebelled after the Chams sacked Angkor in 1177.26 One of the tributary states of 638 was therefore west of the TonIe Sap. Malyang's identification is the most certain among these principalities, and its ruler's initiative in 638 is the firmest basis for a construction of seventh-century Khmer history in the light of the Hsin 1"ang-shu's evidence. An attempt will be made, however, to retrieve the other toponyms mentioned in the Hsin T'ang-shu, being guided, where possible, by place-names appearing in the inscriptions. The next toponym to be discussed is represented by the Chinese transcription P'u-na M or Pj'1u-na,27 whose envoy came to China in 671. In the same year
ms,
22 I follow the most recent definition of the terms pramiin and vifaya, provided by Professor Claude Jacques in 'Etudes d'epigraphie eambodgienne: VII', BEFEO, LIX, 1972, 198-9. Pramiin is a geographical term, referring to definable territory, while vi,'aya is an administrative term, for which' province' may be cautiously used. Vi,.aya is an expression which begins to be used in the epigraphy of the second half of the tenth century. In the twelfth century Malyang was known as a vi~aya; 10, VI, 314. 23 Chou Ta-kuan, OhCn-lafeng-tu chi (Li-tai Hsiao-shih series, pen 31, no. 103, Shanghai, 1940), 15a; P. Pelliot, 'l\femoires sur les coutumes du Cambodge', BEFEO, II, 2,1902, p. 173, n. I. Chou Ta-kuan's transcription is Muo/J.Iu-ljang ~ aSR, 802a, 735a. Pelliot, identifying Malyang, was guided by Aymonier, and the identification has been upheld by Crodes; G. Crodes, The indianisedstates, p. 355, n. 147. Crodes remarks that, phonetically, Malyang would have been pronounced as' Molieng' or' l\foling '; O. Crodes, BEl!'EO, XXXII, I, 1932, p. 80, n. 1. Professor John McCoy has informed the author that the lIua·i i-yu, a Sino-Mongolian glossary of 1389, supports the value rna for the character ~ at that time. The author is grateful to Mrs. Jacob and Professors Pulleyblank and McCoy for their advice on the sounds represented by the Chinese transcriptions of place-names discussed in this 'study. Chou Ta-kuan describes Malyang as a ehiin tt~, for which' prefecture' is a more appropriate term than' province', which Pelliot used. Ohiin and chou tH had been used interchangeably for ' prefecture' since at least Sui times; Wen-h.nen t'ung-k'cw, 315, 2470. 24 10, V, 209. ])'or a discussion of the geographical significanee of this reference to Malyang, see Crodes, BEFEO, XXXlI, 1, 1932, p. 80, n. 1. 25 10, IV, 155. This inscription does not mention the status of Bhimapura, but 10, Ill, II, also of the eleventh century, describes Bhimapura as a province (villaya). An inscription of 1145 mentions the' district/village' (8ruk) of Piirvasrama in the province (vi~aya) of Malyang. The inseription is from near the present town of Battambang; 10, VI, 314. Piirvasrama is also mentioned in Vat Baset inscriptions of 1036 and 1042. Vat Baset is near Battambang; 10, III, 9, 23. 26 Crodes, The indianised state8, 170. The suppression of the revolt was sufficiently important to be commemorated on the bas-relief of the Bayou. 27 aSR, 933r, 350a.
a;
123
NORTH-WESTERN CAMBODIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY
359
an envoy came fromOhiu-mi, whose ruler had also sent a mission in 638, when the Malyang ruler sent his mission. The presumption is that the three states were in the same general area but that, because Pi~u-na sent a mission as late as 671, its conquest by Ohen-la, mentioned in the Hsin T'ang-shu, was later than 671 on account of geographical circumstances. In the Chinese Buddhist vocabulary Pi~u-na renders pUfJ,ya, punar, and purna, or ' hungry ghost ',28 and this would be a strange name for the principality in question. No place-name in published Cambodian epigraphy corresponds to any of these names or to a word such as ' Puna'. 29 The equivalence of -na and -na is not in doubt, and another possibility for the first syllable may exist. Seventh-century examples are available of the Chinese use of words beginning with p for transcribing v in foreign place-names. 3o Nevertheless, one would expect Pj~u-na to be based on a name which began with a p, as in the example ofPurut;!a-(pura}.31 The initial v is normally conveyed by a Chinese word beginning with b_ 32 Thus, vana, or ' forest', is transcribed as b'ua-na ~ m,33 and vana, or 'weaving', as b'jwang-na IW m_ 34 Yet Vanapura, a toponym appearing in Cambodian epigraphy, suggests the word which Pj~u-na conceals. Vanapura's location on the fringe of northwestern Cambodia, for which the evidence is given below, is an appropriate site for Pi~u-na in the seventh century. Pi~u-na's location would have been sufficiently far away from the TonIe Sap for it to be able to survive as a Chinese tributary state until at least 671. Moreover, although in Angkorian times Vanapura was only a sruk, or 'district/village ',35 and therefore of lower administrative status than the province of Malyang, its ruling family in 1041 belonged to the lineage of the Angkorian rulers, Hart;!avarman I and 2. w_ E. Hoothill and L. Hodous, A dict-ionary o/Chinese Buddhist te-rms, London, 1937, 370b. 29 G. Coodes, ' Index des noms propres de l'epigraphie du Cambodge " 1C, VIII. 30 HSiian-tsang transcribes Vrji as ~b ~ Piu~t-liet-zi; GSR, 500a, 403a, 961y. He also transcribes VaraJ}.asi as ~ A :J!1f Pua-la-(?)ni-8i~; GSR, 2511, 6a, 563a, 869a. Pelliot suggests that the seventh-century transcription ~ Nd-pjuat-nd represents' a la rigueur' Na-va-na-(gara), which Coodes subsequently identified from an inscription of 664 as 'Naravaranagara '; Pelliot, BEJ?EO, III, 2, 1903, 295; GSR, 350a, 500a, 350a; G. Coodes, BEFEO, XLIIl, 1943-6,4. 31 (Pi~u- ... ) and (B'iuat ... ); Hoothill, op. cit., 370a, 228a. 3. A frequent example is ijt .. (b'udt-mua = varman); GSR, 276b; B. Karlgren, Analytic dictionary o/Chinese and Sino-Japanese, Paris, 1923 (cited as AD), 593. 33 Soothill, op. cit., 347a; GSR, 25q, for ~ = b'ua. Also see Soothill, op. cit., 449b, for = vana = b'jwak ... = GSR, 771m. 34 Hoothill, op. cit., 248b; GSR, 740z, in respect of IW. Mrs. Jacob has remarked that, since -pura does not appear in the transcription, vana-, pronounced alone, may well have undergone a change of form from ~ ~ to ~-_ In this casc the Khmers may have pronounced vana in such a way that the Chinese heard a p. The Chinese transcribed Vrji as ijt III B'uat-dz'ja, where both syllables begin with a voiced consonant, but they also transcribed this word as ~b ~ ~ Pi'~at-liet-zi. In the latter form, the unvoiced p precedes two words beginning with voiced consonants, presumably to give greater effect to the stress in -rji. 35 P. Dupont suggests that sruk was the equivalent of -pura; BEFEO, XLHr, 1943-6, p. 116, n. 5.
Jt.
«; 11= iw
Ml •
JI!
m m
iw
*if
Jt.
124
360
o.
W. WOLTERS
Isanavarman II (910/912-28}.36 The lineage was sufficiently powerful to lead to a marriage alliance in the first half of the eleventh century between Suryavarman I and Sri Viralakli\mi, a member of this family, whose brother, Sri Bhuvanaditya, is described in 1041 as the prince of Vanapura. 37 The inscription of 1041 describes the sruk of Vanapura as being at the Dangreks and in the western part, and it was therefore in north-western Cambodia. The location is consistent with the name's appearance in a land grant inscription from Arannyaprat'et of 941, containing the earliest epigraphic reference to Vanapura. 38 The Dangreks were known as J eng Vnarp. Karp.veng or Jeng Vnarp. or, in Sanskrit, as Adripiida and Giripiida,39 and the territory of Jeng Vnarp. existed by the end of the ninth century.40 Its size is unknown, but its Sanskrit names, with their emphasis on 'the foot of the mountains', show that its territory was identified as being close to the range. Originally the area known in this way would not have extended westward beyond the present Khmer-Thai border, which seems to have been the limit of Khmer expansion in the west during the ninth century.41 The sruk of Vanapura is also unlikely to have been on the northern side of the range. On the north-western side of the Dangreks was the Virendra territory mentioned in an inscription of 928 and surviving until at least 1192, when Jayavarman VII built a hospital there. 42 Another indication that Vanapura was on the southern side of the range may be the circumstance that an eleventh-century land inscription from near Svay Chek, also south of the Dangreks, mentions it. 43 Vanapura, on the southern side of the Dangreks, was some distance from the Chen-La heartland east of the Tonie Sap, and its relative remoteness would explain why Pi~u-nd's mission was as late as 671. The ruler lived too far away to be concerned by the situation which caused the other rulers to send missions in 638. Vanapura's exact location is unknown, but some implications of the Sdok Kak Thom inscription of 1051 can be noted. At the end of the ninth century the I's year of accession is according to C. Jacques, BEFEO, J~VIII, 1971, 175. 3110, VI, 266; 10, I, 196 (of 1041). The origin of the connexion between this family and Vanapura is unknown. Sri Viralak~mi is said to be of the Vrah Sruk; 10, VI, 266. Vat Ek, near Battambang, was in the Vrah Sruk; 10, IV, 153, 155. 38 10, VII, 139. 3910, VII, 49; BEFEO, XLIII, 1943-6, p. 121, n. 7. 4010, V, 89-90, describing Jeng Vnal1l as a pramiin. The Sdok Kak Thom inscription of the eleventh century refers to the vi~a,ya of Adripiida in the context of Jayavarman II's reign and to the vi~aya of Jeng Vnal1l in Jayavarman Ill's reign; BEFEO, XLIlJ, 1943-6, 96, Ill. U The Bo Ika inscription of 868, from Korat province, is in a region described as ' outside Kambudesa'; 10, VI, 85. 4210, I, 53; 10, VII, 154. The former inscription, of 928, mentions a pramiin and also a sruk of Virendra. 10, VII, 154, provides the site of the city of Virendra; it is north of the Dangreks and was the provincial capital. The inscription of 928 states that the provinee of Jeng Vnal1l contained a sruk ofVirendrapaHana; 10, 1,30 and 54. It would have been a different place from the Virendra north of the Dangreks. 4310, VII, 49. 36 Har~avarman
125
NORTH-WESTER.N CAMBODIA IN THE SEYEXTH CENTURY
361
descendants of Jayavarman II's purohita, Sivakaivalya, were granted the lands of Bhadrapattana and Bhadravasa. Bhadrapattana was in the Dangreks territory 44 and is described as being' close to Bhadragiri " which was in the same area. 46 The temples, subsequently founded on these lands, reached as far west as Bhadraniketana, the site of the Sdok Kak Thom inscription and part of BhadrapaHana, 46 and Dupont believed that other foundations of Bhadrapattana were represented by some of the temples known today as Lbo'k Svay, Lbo'k Ampil, Rolom Crei, Srok Kok, and Tap Siem. 47 These temples, shown on Lunet de Lajonquiere's map, are to the west of the Makkak river,48 and Bhadrapattana and Bhadravasa were probably in the western and under-populated part of the ancient Dangreks region, which extended some way south at its western end. Moreover, the region during the seventh century, and contemporaneous with Piflu-na, contained Jye~thapura, mentioned in an inscription from near the Aran frontier post,49 and this may be another reason for not locating Vanapura at the extreme western end of the Dangreks. Vanapura was probably further east, and the area which suggests itself is immediately south of the Chup Smach and Chom Tup passes. 50 Aymonier was impressed by the denseness of the forests in this part of the Dangreks, contrasting the scene with what he saw elsewhere in the region. 51 The dipterocarp forest, flourishing on the sandy soil, explains the origin of the name of Vanapura, ' the City of the Forest'. 52 Pjflu-na was not the only principality to send a mission in 671. Ohiu-mi ItA ~, or Kjflu-mjet,53 which had been among the mission-sending states of 638, did likewise. The Hsin T'ang-shu includes Kjflu-mjet among the states conquered by Ohen-la after the 650-6 reign-period, and its two missions of 638 and 671 suggest that it was some distance from Malyiing but not as far away as Pjflu-na
44IG, v, 90, referring in 896 to the pramiin of Jeng VnalP . •• BFJFFJO, XLllI, 1943-6, 114. Aymonier and Groslier suggest that Bhadragiri should be identified with the Tangko peak in the north-western part of the Dangreks; Aymonier, Le Gambodge, II, Paris, 1901, 265; G. Groslier, BEFFJO, XXIV, 3-4, 1924,366. The peak is north to north-west of the Sdok Kak Thorn site. 4G BEFFJO, XLIII, 1943-6, p. 129 and n. 6. 47 ibid., 74. 48 E. Lllnet de Lajonqlliere, In'ventairc descripti/ des monument.~ du Gambodge. Cartes, Paris, 1911. u IG, v, 23-4. This inscription, of Khau Noi, dated 637, is in Khmer and mentions a Mratan Khlon Jye~1;hapura . • 0 In Aymonier's day the Chup 8mach was the main route for travellers from Laos to the Tonie Sap and Bangkok; E. Aymonier, 'Notes sur Ie Laos " Cochinchine Frmu;aise. Excursions et Reconnai88ances, IX, 21, 1885, 11. 61 ibid., 10-11: 'For an entire day, the traveller will walk in a dismal shadow which oppresses him like a nightmare, seeing nothing but enormous tree trunks .... When he leaves this gloom, he will greet the rays of the sun with joy, no matter how warm it is '. 52 On this forest see J. Delvert, Le paysan cambodgien, Paris, 1961, map 5. Lunct de Lajonquiere's map shows a number of small temples and reservoirs in the fertile depression at the foot of the range, through which streams flow into the Tuk Chun river; Lunet de Lajonquiere, lnventaire descripti/ des monuments du Cambodge, III, 405-13, and ibid., Caries. 53 aSR, 992n, 405p.
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O. W. WOLTERS
was. Unfortunately, only the beginning of its name can be restored, which was probably the syllable K um and the first syllable in the name. 54 The cluster of temple sites in the vicinity of Svay Chek may correspond to part of the lands of Kum- but this is only a conjecture. Not enough is known of these temples, or of the temples in the area proposed for Vanapura, to justify attributing any temple sites to the seventh -century principalities. 55 Suggestions have now been made for the identification of three of the five principalities in question. Two more remain to be discussed. Because they were in the mission-sending group of 638 and were said to have been conquered later by Chen-la, they, too, were probably somewhere between the TonIe Sap and the Dangreks. They are Chia-cha ~ ,!p, or Ka-d?-'a,56 and Seng-kao ft ~jj, or &mg-kiiu. 57 The author once believed that Ka-d?-'a represented I{afii,ha, or Kedah, 58 but a principality in the south-western Malay Peninsula is a surprising item in a list of countries which includes Malyang. The identification with Ka(aha must be discarded, and Gaja(-pura) is proposed as the correct restoration of the name. Ka- seems to be an acceptable equivalence of Ga-. 59 D?-'a was used in 1015 to render the last syllable in the name of a Tamil king, La-ch'a-la-ch'a IF, or La (= ra) rf,'a la d'/a. 60 The Tamil ruler in lO15 was Rajendraco!a, who had just succeeded Raj araj a, but Professor Nilakanta Sastri is surely right in supposing that the mission left in Rajaraja's lifetime and reached China in his name after a long voyage. 61 Chinese Buddhists rendered gaja 'elephant' in other ways,62 but the official who recorded the name of this' little country of the southern tribes' 63 is unlikely to have identified it with' elephant', a word hallowed in Buddhist texts and therefore requiring a transcription according to the rules observed by Chinese Buddhist scholars.
a *a
*
Ii'See E. O. Pulleyblank, 'The Chinese name of the Turks', JAOS, LXXXV, 2, 1965, 121-5, on the use of entering tone words to represent a single eonsonant in a non-final position. Professor Pulleyblank transcribes as miit; ibid., 123. Could Ki~ll-1niet be an attempt to represent Kam, noted by Crodes as a probable abbreviation of a title of someone connected wit.h Maleng = Malyang in 987? See IG, VI, 186, note (1). 1i5 For the temples in the Svay Chek area see Lunet de Lajon({uiere, op. cit., 371-91. The area was sufficiently important in Yasovarman I's reign at the end of the ninth century to justify the establishment of a royal monastery; IG, In, 65. Jayavarman V, in the second half of the tenth century, sought to recruit scholars from this area; IC, II, p_ 62, n_ 5. 56 AD, 342; aSR,806a. For ~ Professor Pulleyblank, pointing out that the character was reserved for foreign words, writes kid; Asia .Major, NS, XI, 2, 1965,202. 1i7 AD, 1047; aSR, 1129a. For iWi Professor Pulleyblank writes kau; Asia jllajor, NH, x, 2, 1963,220. 58 Wolters, Early Indonesian commerce, 163. IiU As in yuyana and garui/a, both of which begin with ~; Soot.hill, op. cit.., 817a and 315b. 10 SUll(J-shih (Po-na edition), 489, 21 b. 01 K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Golas, second ed., Madras, 1955,219. According to the Sungshih, the voyage took 1,150 days to reach Canton; Sung-shih, 489, 238-. 62 Sec Soothill, op. cit., 224b. The Chinese transcriptions are: Ka-ja (1/JJI Jm), AD, 342, aSR, 47b; Ka-ia (-f1m $), AD, 342, aSR, 47a; Ka-dz'j,a (~J\1 niP, AD, 342, aSR, 45h. 63 T l' YK. 970, 11398b.
127
XORTH·WESTERN CAMBODIA IN THE SEVENTH n:NTliRY
363
Gaja(-pura) is another Cambodian place-name with associations with north-western Cambodia. It is mentioned in an inscription of 949, found at Phnom Prah Net Prah between Mongkolborei and Kralanh. 64 The inscription concerns the foundation of a Sivaite asrama in 938, and the iiArama, which has been identified with the inscription's site, is described as being in ' the sruk of Tamvvang Chding in Gajapura '.65 Evidently Gajapura included the site of the foundation. Gajapura's administrative status in early Angkorian times is indicated by a postscript, added to the inscription, which connects the province (vifiaya) of Sangkhah with the asrama's administration. Crodes suggests that the name of ' Sangkhah ' survives today in the name of Prasat Sangkhah,66 which is on the western side of the Sreng river and about five miles north-west of Kralanh and about 15 miles from Phnom Pra,h Net Prah, where the inscription of 949, mentioning Gajapura, was found. In the tenth century Gajapura therefore included territory south and south-ea.st of the areas we have associated with Vanapura and K um- but north-west ofthe TonIe Sap. It was probably the name of a seventh-century town in the neighbourhood of one of the little hills in this part of the region. The name survives in an eleventh-century inscription from the Svay Chek area, which concerns the offering of slaves from several places to the Siva-liliga in the central tower of the Bantay Prav temple, also in north-western Cambodia. 67 The name is also mentioned in an inscription from the foot of Ba Phnom in southern Cambodia which lists the meritorious works of an official in the second half of the tenth century and is more or less contemporaneous with the inscription of 949. 68 The official undertook works in many parts of Cambodia, including Angkor and Bhimapura. In Gajapura he built a reservoir. His interest in Gajapura suggests that the place still had some importance. The last principality to be discussed is Sang-Mu, which is the first place to be mentioned in the Ts'eju yiian-kuei's list of principalities. Cambodian inscriptions refer to the province (vi~aya) of Sangkhah, noted in the previous paragraph,69 and to the sruk of J aroy Sangke. 70 One is tempted to identify Sang-kdu with one or other of these names. Sangkhah's provincial status in Angkorian times would be an appropriate sequel for a seventh-century principality, and its association with Gajapura would identify it with north-western Cambodia. 64IC, III, 36. An inscription from this site shows that the site was called' Giripura ' in the eleventh century; 10, III, 39. Giripura was the name of the ii8l"Uma and not of the area. 8810, HI, p. 37, n. 1, and 10, III, 45 . •7IC, III, 61. Also see 10, III, 63, for a similar reference to Gajapura. 6sIC, VIT, 14, The Khmer rendering of the name is • Gahjal:tpure '. '·10, 1lI, 37, dated 949. 70 IC, v, 207, dated 1003. The administrative status of Jaroy t-lallgke is not supplied. A Koh Ker inscription of 921 giycs a list of sf'uks, including .. .y Sangke, and the indistinct part of this name may have been Jaroy; Ie, r, 48. Sntk Sangke may also be mentioned in the Kralanh Thom inscription; 10, VII, p. 25, n. 3. Another inscription from neal' Koh Ker, of the tenth century, mentions a st'uk Sangke; 10, I, 186. 65
128
364
O. W. WOLTERS
Jaroy Sangke is another tempting possibility. An inscription which refers to it was found near Tano village, south-east of Battambang, and contains a reference to a royal official of the Malyang territory. Sang-kdu and Malyang are the first two names in the Ts'eju YUan-kuei's list, and a connexion between Malyang and Jaroy Sangke = Sang-kdu would be consistent with the Ohinese juxtaposition of the two names. Nevertheless, the final syllables of Sangkhah and Sangke are not very appropriate reconstructions of the syllable -kdu in the Ohinese transcription, and another, though geographically ambiguous, possibility is suggested by the toponym' Sangko '. Sangko is mentioned in a Vat Baset inscription of 1036 as the sruk travang Sangko, or the district of the Sangko reservoir. 71 Sang- was used by the Ohinese for transcribing sang- in sangha,72 and the diphthong in -kdu does not preclude the rendering of the sound by the single vowel 0. 73 Vat Baset is a few miles to the north-east of the modern town of Battambang, and the Sangko toponym therefore appears in an inscription from north-western Oambodia. The inscription does not reveal Sangko's province, but its context suggests that the sruk in question was not a great distance from Vat Baset. Several heads of sruks, or districts, were involved in a land purchase transaction, and they included someone from the sruk travang Sangko. Two other persons were from areas which were certainly not far away; they were from the sruk of Pilrvasrama, which was part of the province (vi§aya) of Malyang in 1138,74 and from the sr-uk of Manggalapura, from which the name of Mongkolborei is derived. 75 Mongkolborei is not very far north-west of Battambang. All these persons were evidently representatives of small territorial units, who participated in an event of regional interest, which was no less than the offering of land to the Jayakt;letra cult, the famous cult of Vat Baset itself. 76 Only the Vat Baset inscription of 1036 mentions Sangko. The sruk seems to have been in north-western Oambodia, but attempts to plot it on the map are bound to be conjectural. Some considerations can be noted. Neither Malyang nor Sangko are likely to have been north of the long river system, which stretches from the Aran region in the west to the northern end of the TonIe Sap and divides north-western Oambodia into two parts. 77 To the Ie,
III, 5 and 9. Soothill, op. cit., 420a. 73 Professor Pulleyblank informs the author that was sometimes used for a foreign -0-. Tau for example, is used as manyogana for the Japanese to. 74 Ie, IV, 314. 75 S. Lewitz, ' La toponymie khmere', BEFEO, LIlI, 2,1967,431. A representative of the 8l"uk of Manggalapura is mentioned in another Vat Baset inscription, together with a representative of Piirvasrama; Ie, III, 16. 76 The representatives of Sangko and Manggalapura were present at the time of the purchase of the land. The Piirvasrama representatives were among those who planted the boundaries of the land. The land was at Vak Tongting (ibid., 8), but the location of this place is unknown. 77 An excellent description of the geography of north-western Cambodia is given by Lunet de Lajonquiere, Inventa.i,·e dcscriptif, III, 1-7. On p. 3 he stresses the dividing effect of this river system. 71
7'
-au-
JJ,
129
NORTH·WESTERN CAMBODIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY
365
north of the river system, we have suggested, were the seventh-century kingdoms of Vanapura, Kum-, and Gajapura. In Angkorian times this northern area contained at least three provinces: the Dangreks province, Sangkhah, and Amoghapura. The first of these was at the foot of the mountains. Sangkhah included at least the territory between Kralanh and the site of the Phnom Prah Net Prah inscription between the river Sreng and the neighbourhood of the o Ta Siu river, which flows into the river system from the north. 78 To the west of Sangkhah between the Dangreks and Gajapura lay some, if not all, of the territory of Amoghapura province. 79 Several toponyms are therefore already associated with the northern part of north-western Cambodia. A geographical factor can also be taken into account as a reason for not extending the territories of at least Malyang to the north of the river system. In the summer months during the rainy season both sides of the waterway through north-western Cambodia are flooded, and the flooding is exceptionally severe in the neighbourhood of the Tonie Sap. According to Aymonier, the flooded zone reaches north towards Kralanh, north-west towards Mongkolborei, and south towards Battambang. 80 The flooded zone separates the lands to the north and south, and the division is reflected by an absence of temple sites in this zone. The territory and province of Malyang certainly included part of the 78 Part of Sangkhah province's location is indicated in 10, III, 37, which connects the vi~aya of Sangkhah with the iisrarna of Phnom Prah Net Prah. 10, nI, 45, comes from the site of Prasat Sangkhah, not far from the previous inscription. erodes thinks that Sangkhah may be the ancient name of the temple. ,9 The Sdok Kak Thorn inscription refers to Stuk Ransi in the province (vi~aya) of Amogha. pura; BEFEO, XLIII, 1943-6, 117. The rice·fields of Ganesvara, also in Amoghapura (ibid., 115), provided support for foundations in Bhadrapattana in the Dangreks province; ibid., 114-15. The same rice·fields also helped to support foundations in Stuk Ransi in Amoghapura (ibid., 115), and Dupont believed that Bhadrapattana was the eastern neighbour of Stuk Ransi (ibid., p. 121, n. 2) and that some of the Stuk Ransi temples were west of the Makkak l'iver; ibid., 74. The context of the Sdok Kak Thom inscription, from which this information comes, is the progressive development oflands in the extreme north· western part of Cambodia by Sivakaivalya's descendants, and Dupont was justified in assuming that the Amoghapura lands in question were in this part of Cambodia. Amoghapura's connexion with the lands to the west of the Makkak river may also be reflected in 10, III. 55, an eleventh·century inscription which states that an Amoghapura provincial official witnessed the demarcation of the boundaries of land given to the Bantay Prav temple near Svay Chek. Groslier believed that the Amoghapura province extended to the east at least as far as the Prasat Sangkhah region. He noted that revenue from Amoghapura was given to this temple; BEFEO, XXIV, 3-4, 1924,361; 10, III, 53. The gift is not, however, evidence of the location of Amoghapura. Groslier also noted that the rice·field of Stuk Veng, which he believed to be in Amoghapura, was given to a temple at Cung Vis near Prasat Sangkhah; art. cit., :~64-5. For Cung Vis' position, sec IC, III, p. 83, n.7. Yet the Koh Ker inscription, which Groslier quoted t.o connect Stuk Veng with Amoghapura, docs not contain this information; 1C, I, 47-71. 80 Aymonier, Le Cambodge, II, maps facing p. 304. Also see map 3 in J. Delvert, Le paysan cambodgien. In the seventh century the Tonie Sap was larger than it is today. Professor Delvert believes that it once reached to Mongkolborei and Sisophon; J. Delvert, op. cit., 57. A vivid description of the situation in the summer months is contained in Brien, , Aperc;u sur la province de Battambang', Cochinchine Fran9aise. Excurs'ions et Reconnaissances, X, 24, 1885, 343-4, in respect of the Battambang area. The writer refers to ' ... un spectacle des plus singuliers et des plus etonnants: la navigation it toute vapeur en pleine foret ! '.
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southern area in the Battambang-Mong region, and it would be surprising if the seventh-century principality of Malyang extended north of the flooded zone. Nevertheless, the assumption that Sangko was in the southern part of north-western Cambodia depends only on the fact that the toponym appears on the Vat Baset inscription, which is just south of the flooded zone. And if Sangko and Malyang in the seventh century were both in the south, the problem remains of defining their geographical relationship. One feature may be noted about the region south of the river system in the seventh century. The relative paucity of its extant temple remains does not mean that it was a wilderness in the seventh century.81 Two inscriptions of that century have been found there. 82 From near Battambang, and probably connected with the Vat Baset area, has come an inscription with a date which corresponds to 14 June 657, which reveals that there was a religious centre in the neighbourhood. 83 Another inscription has been recovered from a cave at Phnom Bantay Nan immediately south of Mongkolborei, which refers to the gift of booty to a linga set up by the victorious Bhavavarman I. 84 This inscription is undated, but it was written at the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century.85 An important battle had taken place, and perhaps one of the mission-sending states of 638 was involved. Further evidence can be considered in establishing the geographical relationship between Sangko and Malyang. Sangko is the first place to be mentioned in the Ts'eju yuan-kuei's list of states in 638. The last name is that of Kum-, whose association with Pi!!u-nd in 671 suggests that it was some distance from the Tonie Sap. The third toponym in the list is Gajapura, identified as being north of the river system. Malyiing, second in the list, in Angkorian times included lands south of Battambang. The sequence in which the names appear in the text does not seem to be haphazard. The juxtaposition of Malyang and Gajapura may mean that these two names were recorded in terms of their respective proximity to the Tonie Sap, while Kum-, which survived to send another mission in 671, may have been some distance away and therefore appears at the end of the list of these four principalities. The presumption would 81 The somewhat rare temple sites south of the river system extend from Mong towards Battambang and thence towards Mongkolborei; Lunet de Lajonquiere, Inver/to ire dcscriptij des monument8 du Oamhodge. Oartes. 8. The only seventh-century inscriptions so far discovered from the north are three from thc Aran region, two of which arc dated 6:{7 and 639. The names of kings are not mentioned; 10, v, 23-4. 83 The author is grateful to Professor R Billard, who, in a letter dated 23 June 1969, informs him that the inscription's horoscope shows that its date corresponds to Wednesday, 14 June 657, and about 8.30 a.m. local time. For this inscription see 10, II, 193-5. Its exact provenance is unknown. Professor Boisselier would not be surprised if a connexion exists between it and a lintel from the Baset hill, about 10 miles north-east of Battambang; J. TIoisselier, ' Arts du Champa " Artibus Asiae, XIX, 1, 1956,204. 84 A. Barth and A. Bergaigne, 1 nscription,~ sanscrites du. Oambodge et Ohampa. (henceforth eited as 1800), Paris, 1885, 28. 85 See G. Crodes, The indianised states, 68-9, for the chronology of this period.
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then be that the sequence was based on geographical considerations, recognized by the envoys of the four rulers who appeared in China in 638, and that Sangko's place at the head of the list reflected their sense of regional geography, implying that they regarded Sangko as being closest to the territories of the overlord whom they defied when they came to China as envoys of independent rulers. The Chinese understood the overlord in question to be the ruler of ' OMn-la '. A final consideration can be noted for distinguishing the geographical relationship between Malyang and Sangko in the seventh century. In Chou Ta-kuan's list of Angkorian 'prefectures' the first three are in southern = MuojMu-ljang), which is followed Cambodia. 86 The fourth is Malyang (~ by Pwat-sjat i\.1iY Malyang's northern neighbour is' Baset '.88 The modern town of Battambang is on the Sangke river about ten miles south-west of the Vat Baset hill. According to Pavie, writing in 1882,89 before 1835 the present Battambang site was occupied by the small village of Sangke, while 'Old Battambang' was in the immediate neighbourhood of ' Baset '. Pavie's account explains why Mouhot, visiting the area in 1859-60, believed that a numerous population had lived a century earlier around the ruins of , Bassette' 90 and why, some years later, Delaporte, quoting the explorer Faraut, refers to the' former capital of Basset' 91 and to the remains of the town's ramparts and moats. 92 During the nineteenth century north-western Cambodia was ruled as a Thai dependency, and old Battambang was originally the provincial capital. In 1835, and again according to Pavie, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, and the decision was taken in Bangkok to pull down the old
a
86 The first was reached by sea from Champa. The second has been identified as Kompong Chnang near the southern entrance to the TonIe Sap; G. Coodes, The indianised siaies, p. 355, n. 147. The third was on the coast. For these identificat,ions, see Pelliot, BEFEO, II, 2, 1902, p. 138, n. 4, p. 138, n. 9, p. 170, n. 4; Pelliot, M hnoires .~n'· les coninm-es du Gam-badge de Tcheou Ta·kouan, Paris, 1951,70,95-6. 87 Gh€n.lafeng.tu, 15a; Pelliot, BEFEO, II, 2, 1902, 17;J; GBE, 281a, 289d. 88 Today the Angkorian p has become b; 1G, II, 3. An example of the equivalence of the two consonants is provided by Pa· ~, the first syllable in the Chinese transcription of' Basan " the Khmer capital in 1371; JJfing·shih (Po.na edition), 324, 12b. The following explanation is proposed for the consonants at the end of the Chinese words. Chou Ta·kuan came from Chekiang province, and most of his informants in Cambodia were probably southern Chinese. In the transcription of foreign worus in modern Cantonese and lower Yangtse dialects the final consonant in the first syllable is lost or assimilated, but the final consonant in the second syllable is retained. These patterns are likely to be as old as Chou Ta·kuan's period. Thus i\ I~' ,It = pwat.si·wi, mentioned by Chou Ta·kuan, has been restored by Coodes as (ta)pa8vi; Pelliot, Mernoil'es, p. 65, n. 1. The consonant in the first syllable is also muted in numbers 24, 25, and 36 in Pelliot's list of Chinese transcriptions; M e.moires, 62-70. The retention of the final consonant in words of one or two syllables is illustrated by numbers 17, 30, and 34 in Pelliot's list. The author is grateful to Professor McCoy for advice on this subject. 8. A. Pavie, Gochinchine Fran~aise. Excursions et Reconnnissances, IV, 12, 1882, 526-9. 90 H. Mouhot, Voyage dans les l'Oyaum-es de Siam- . .. , Paris, 1868, 183. 91 L. Delaporte, Voyage au Gam-bodge, Paris, 1880, p. 132, n. 2. 9. ibid., 137. 'Baset' is not mentioned in the Portuguese and Spanish texts quoted in B.·P. Groslier, Angkor et Ie Gam-bodge au XVI' siecle, Paris, 1958. The letters of the French missionary, Langenois, who was in this area from 1790 to 1795, may contain information about Raset. On Langenois, see Groslier, op. cit., 134.
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town of Battambang and to rebuild it on the site of the Sangke village. s3 The provincial capital was now transferred to its present site, and the Dambang river, an arm of the Sangke river flowing by Vat Baset and entering the TonIe Sap south of the present Sangke estuary, was blocked. 94 The Cambodian chronicles refer to Battambang but not to Baset,95 and the antiquity of the name' Baset' is unknown. Nevertheless, the Baset area was an important one in Angkorian times. 96 Archaeological evidence in the seventh century consists only of a lintel recovered from the Baset hill,97 but, in later centuries, the site was famous on account of the Jayak!j\etra cult, first mentioned in inscriptions of the first half of the eleventh century.9S The explanation of the word 'Baset', proposed by Professor Martini, connects the name with 'Jayak!j\etra '. He notes that the word ba 'father' is often embodied in the names of sacred hills in Cambodia, whose ancient cults were later subsumed by , indianised ' ones, and he suggests that' Ba Set' is derived from pa = ba and siddhi. Siddhi is an epithet with the meaning of ' endowed with force or supernatural powers'. 99 This explanation of the origin of the name' Baset ' not only takes us back in time to the Jayak!j\etra cult but also makes it likely that the Baset hill had enjoyed the reputation of special sanctity long before the establishment of the cult. It is not surprising that Vat Ek, five miles to the north of Battambang and very close to Vat Baset, is described as being in the' sacred sruk ' (Vra~ Sruk).100 Vat Ek was built early in the eleventh century,lOl when the term' sacred sruk ' was already current. The cult on Baset hill was probably responsible for the prestige of this sruk. A name corresponding to ' Baset ' and 93 Pavie, art. cit., 526-9. Aymonier suggests that masonry from the temple site was used to build the new town of Battambang; Le Oambodge, II, 292-3. The author is grateful to Mrs. C. A. Trocki, who informs him that, according to the Battambang Chronicle, in 1838 the Thai general Bodin was ordered to establish the foundations and wall of the city of Battam bang. This account is somewhat different from Pavie's. 94 Professor Delvert suggests that the Dambang river had been the more important arm of the Sangke river; J. Delvert, op. cit., 58. Also see L. Delaporte, op. cit., p. 132, n. 2. Pavie quotes a legend which connects the name of the town with that of the river; Pavie, art. cit., 528. On the derivation of' Battambang' from diimba'l), a ' club " see Lewitz, art. cit., 394. 95 Because it lists 10 provinces, including' Battambang , and not' Baset', the' Histoire d'un centenaire roi du Cambodge au XVII" siecie' most clearly reflects the prevalence of the usage of Battambang; A. J3. rle Villemereuil, Explorations et mi.~8ion8 de Doudart de Lagree, Paris, 1883, 325. 96 Siiryavarman r established a linga here some time before 1018; 10, VI, 269. Jayavarman VII erected a hospital here; 10, III, 25. Jayavarman VII's wife established a Mahesvara image here; 10, II, 179. 97 J. Boisselier, art. cit., 204. 9810, III, 3-33. A lintel in the Vat Baset complex is thought to be as old as the end of the tenth century, indicating early buildings on this site; B. Dagens, 'Etude iconographique de quelques fondations de l'epoque de Siiryavarman rer " Arts Asiatiques, XVII, 1968, 188. 99 F. Martini,' De la signification de" ba" et" me" ',BEFEO, xuv, 1, 1947-50, (pub.) 1951, 202-4,207. 100 10, IV, 155, of the first half of the eleventh century. Narendragrama is the name by which Vat Ek was known. 101 The foundation of Vat Ek was probably not long after 1018; B. Dagens, art. cit., 176.
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derived from Pa-siddhi is likely to be of great antiquity, and Chou Ta-kuan's reference to ' Baset ' is not unexpected. Chou Ta-kuan says that there were more than 90 ' prefectures' in Cambodia. Each one contained an enclosure, with a wooden palisade. The large number of prefectures and the reference to their towns suggest that he was thinking of small-scale rather than of extensive areas, corresponding to Angkorian vi~ayas, or 'provinces '.102 He, or his informants, were distinguishing the town of Baset from that of Malyang, and the geographical relationship between the two places, implied in the sequence of prefectures named by him, is consistent with epigraphic evidence. The list begins with towns in the south, and, when it moves north, Malyang is mentioned before Baset. The sequence agrees with what is known of Malyang's location, provided by an inscription from near Tano village of 1003 which shows that a Malyang official was ordered to perform duties in the neighbourhood; Tano is south-east of Baset.103 Moreover, the' holy sruk " containing Vat Ek and almost certainly Vat Baset as well, is not described as part of Malyang but, instead, of Bhimapura province. 104 Chou Ta-kuan does not mention Bhimapura. After Baset are listed B'uo-mai rliJ ~ and D'i-kuJan
*l fl· 105
Chou Ta-kuan's evidence raises the possibility that, already in the seventh century, the Vat Baset area did not belong to the principality known as Malyang. For this reason, and also because of the importance of its holy site, the Baset area may correspond to part of the principality of Sangko, the rest of which lay to the immediate south of the flooded zone and close to the TonIe Sap. The river system, with its spectacular floods, is the most prominent geographical feature in the region, and the four envoys in 638, who probably arrived together, 102 In China, too, ckun is used ambiguously to refer to the area under the jurisdiction of the pl'Cfecture or to the town which served as the seat of the prefecture. Thus, according to Chou Ta-kuan, Malyang would have meant a town and its imme(liate environs, though Malyang was also the name of an Angkorian province. At the end of the twelfth century Jayavarman VII distributed 23 Jayabuddhamahaniitha images throughout the empire. This figure rather than Chou Ta-Iman's ' more than 90 prefectures' reflects the number of substantial territorial units in the kingdom at that timc, which included some in the Menam basin. Chou Ta-kuan's figure corresponds more closely to the 50 and more towers on the Bayon of Jayaval'man VII, which Mus suggested represented' at least religious or administrative eentres' of a province; G. Coodes, A ngkor, Hong Kong, etc., 1963,65. 103 Ie, v, 209. The Palhal inscription states that Jayavarman III, in the second half of the ninth centnry, chased elephants from I'ursat towards Malyang; G. Coodes, BEFEO, XIII, 6, 1913,27. Plll'sat is to the west of the southern part of the TonIe Sap and some distance south of Tano. 104 Ie, IV, 155, reveals that Vat Ek was in the' holy 81'uk' and also in Bhimapura. Ie, III, II, describes Bhimapura as a vi,.aya in the eleventh century. 10, IV, 71-3, shows that Bhimapura was regarded as a ' territory' (pramiin) in the tenth century. 105 R, 102n, 1240c; 560e,417a. B'uo-mai may have been intended to represent Bhima-pura, but it is more likely to stand for Bhumi. Bhumi, which earlier meant a large extent ofland, became equivalent with a 8TUk; Lewitz, art. cit., 407-8. In this case, part of the name is missing. The sl'uk of Hhilmyakara is mentioned in an unpublished tenth-century inscription from the Battambang region; C. Jacques, 'Supplement it !'index des noms pl'opl'es', BEFEO, LVIII, l!l7l, 185.
as
VOL. XXXVII.
PART
2.
26
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would have found it convenient to distinguish their countries in terms of their respective locations on or near the river system, emptying into the TonIe Sap, and the territories of princes living in southern Cambodia. This would explain why Sangko, near Baset, is the first state to be mentioned in the Ts'eju Y'iiankuei's list. lo6 It was on the river, probably the Dambang, which was known to be the closest to the TonIe Sap. In Angkorian times the ' holy sruk' of the former principality of Sangko would have become part of the province of Bhimapura, and the rest of Sangko's lands, together with its name, would have been a sruk in either Bhimapura or Malyang. lo7 Malyang's capital in the seventh century cannot be identified. It could have been between Battambang and Mongkolborei, which, in the nineteenth century, were two travelling days apart. lOS Banan, not far south of Battambang, is another possibility. Banan is a temple site and happens to be associated with a legend of moisture and drought, mythology associated with other pre-Angkorian sites. lo9 We can also bear in mind the Mong area south-east of Battambang. The Stu'ng Crap inscription, which contains an instruction to the Malyang governor to supervise a land transaction, mentions a land grant made before the end of the ninth century,uo No more can be said by way of identifying the principalities of northwestern Cambodia during the seventh century. We need not be disconcerted by the appearance at that time of toponyms attested in Angkorian epigraphy. South East Asia comprised many little regions, whose inhabitants had a stubborn sense of their group identity, and documents yield sufficiently numerous examples of ancient and persisting place-names to prevent us from being surprised that the name of Malyang, for example, should have existed at least as early as the seventh century and until at least the thirteenth. 111 Seventhcentury inscriptions from elsewhere in Cambodia reveal a similar patchwork of regional nomenclature.n 2 The Sui-shu, referring to the early seventh century, 106 The toponym' Hangke " the name of a woody plant associated with lac production as well as of the river flowing through modern Battambang and, according to Pavie, of the ancient village on the site of modern Battambang, is also very old, appearing at least as early as the eleventh century; 10, v, 207. The reference is to' Jaroy Sangke' and is on the Tano inscription. Mme. Lewitz defines jaroy as ' avancee de terre dans l'eau '; Lewitz, art. cit., 420. 107 The significance of the Bhimapura toponym has not been determined. Bhimapnra and Amoghapura are seventh· century as well as Angkorian toponyms; ISCO,42. In Angkorian times both had associations with north-western Cambodia. The Chinese evidence of the seventh century mentions neither of them. They could have been alternative names for two of the principalities mentioned in the Chinese records, imposed on conquered lands by southern overlords. In the seventh century they were under thc control of the lord of Tiimrapura, another unknown toponym. 108 E. Aymonier, Oeographie du Oambodge, Paris, 1876, 54. J09 E. Poree-Maspero, Etude sur lesl'ites agraires des Cambodgie118, I, Paris, 1962, lOO. 110 10, v, 206. 111 Barus, Dviiravati, and Malayu are familiar examples of ancient toponyms which lingered on for centuries. The antiquity of the ' Lavapura 'name has come to light; .J. J. Boeles, ' A note on the ancient city called Lavapura " JSS, LY, 1, 1967, 113-14. 112 The inscriptions mention Tiimrapura, Ugrapura, Pasengga, Indrapura, Vyadhapura, Dhl'llyapura, Bhavapura, Amoghapura, Bhima,pura, Cakrangkapma, and .T~-e~thapnra.
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states that there were 30 towns in Cambodia with more than 1,000 inhabitants in each one,1l3 and the Ohiu T'ang-shu, referring to the eighth century, states that to the east of ' Water' Ohen-la there were 'little towns', ' all of which are called kingdoms'.114 This evidence reflects the multiplicity of regional centres in the lands which, for convenience, we call' Cambodia'. Nevertheless, because of the phonological problems created by the Chinese transcriptions and the impossibility of precise geographical definition, the prudent reasons for accepting the Chinese evidence, reviewed above, as information about north-western Cambodia are the identification of Mju-ljang with Malyang, Malyang's association with the other three countries in the missions of 638, and the statement in the Hsin T'ang-shu that they were all conquered by Ohen-la. The missions were from states whose rulers were capable of organizing parties of envoys to China. We need not doubt that the ruling gToups in Malyang and its neighbours were Khmers. us A Khmer-language inscription, written in the sixth or seventh century, has recently been found a short distance south of Battambang town.l1 a Two other inscriptions, containing passages in the Khmer language and dated 637 and 639, have also been found in the extreme west of this region at Aran.1l7 They commemorate gifts to Samaresvara and to a Buddhist vihiira respectively. Neither of them mentions a king's name, which is not surprising; in 638 the chiefs of Malyang and the other three little principalities were asserting their independence. The principalities were small in size. Their rulers would have been territorial chiefs, whose influence was probably confined to the immediate neighbourhood of their strongholds. An impression of the distances between them is conveyed by the fact that Svay Chek, as the crow flies, is only about 50 miles from Battambang, that the Chup Smach pass through the Dangreks is only about 75 miles from the northern end of the TonIe Sap, and that the distance between Aran and Angkor is only about 150 miles, or an afternoon's bus ride. On the other hand, travelling in the seventh century was slow, and the chiefs' strongholds were much more isolated from each other than these distances suggest. Even in the nineteenth century Pavie estimated the duration of an elephant journey in the dry season from Battambang via Kralanh to Siem Reap near (Po-na edition), 82, 5b. Chiu, T'ang-shu (Po-na edition), 197, 2b. 115 The T FY K, in the passage quoted on p. 357 above, states that the' dress and speech (of the foul' tributary countries of 638) are similar to that of Lin-yi (Champa) '. This description of people in north-western Cambodia must be ignored. The Chinese court officials would have been perplexed by the identity of envoys from a hitherto unknown part of South East Asia, especially when their envoys insisted that their countries were not subordinate to any Khmer kingdom known to the Chinese. A cultural comparison with Lin-yi, the best known country in this part of mainland South East Asia, may have been regarded as an acceptable description. 116 Personal communication by Mr. Dam Chhoeurn, who discovered the inscription. The inscription, which mentions no king's name, describes gifts t,o the god Sri Prabhiisasomesvara. 117IC. v, 23-4. 113 Sui-shu
114
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O. W. WOT,TEltl'l
Angkor as being five days.1l8 Aymonier considered that the Chup Smach pass was four days away from Sisophon, which is about 20 miles south of Svay Chek,119 and that Battambang and Mongkolborei, about 30 miles apart, were separated by two days of travel.I 20 The physical environment north of the river system, dividing the region, would have encouraged the formation of small and independent territorial units, situated above the flooded zone and nestling around small hills, today often occupied by temple remains. 121 These lands lie north of the monsoon forests, which, in other parts of Cambodia, protect the soil. Here is the savannah (veal), where trees are sparse and soillaterizes readily.122 Water is scarce in the dry season. The Khmer response to this type of environment was to conserve monsoon rainfall in reservoirs built above the ground, and a feature of the archaeological remains north of the river system are loboks, or tanks. 123 Only irrigated fields close to the tanks would have been intensively cultivated, and the towns supported by the loboks would have resembled a series of strong-points, where economic and political resources were concentrated.124 The polities which developed would have been different from those in the swampier lands of southern Cambodia, where extensive drainage canals were necessary,125 requiring more extended, and therefore more vulnerable, political control to maintain and protect the canals. Savannah conditions also prevail to the immediate south of the river system, but the soils deposited by the rivers flowing from the southern mountains are relatively rich. Today the areas near the Mongkolborei and Sangke rivers are regarded as well-favoured agriculturalland. 126 I~unet de Lajonquiere's archaeological map reveals a span of monuments extending from the Angkor area into the lands of the north-west.127 These temples were built on land granted by the Angkor rulers, and the study of preAngkorian religious foundations has depended on surviving pieces of architecture and sculpture. Nevertheless, further research, including excavation in A. Pavie, Cochinchine Franyaise. Excursiolls et Reconnaissances, v, 14, 1882, 295. E. Aymonier, ibid., IX, 21, 1885, 13. 120 Aymonier, Geogmphie du Cambodge, 54. 121 Aymonier describes how, when one descends the Dangreks, one sees the scattered peaks and hills of Sisophon, Battambang, Phnom Srok, Chongkal, and Siem Reap; Cochinchine Fmnyaise. Excursions et Reconnaissances, IX, 21, 1885, 12. 12. On the subject of the veal see Delvert, op. cit., 127-30. 123 See Lunet de Lajonquiere, op. cit., passim. The inscriptions of the region often contain toponyms which incorporate what Lewitz calls' elements hydrographiques '; Lewitz, art. cit., 418-24. A reservoir was built in the Gajapura area in the tenth century; 1C, VII, 14. Siiryavar. man I built a dyke and reservoirs in the same area; C. Jacques, ' La stCIe dll Phnom Sres " BEFEO, LIV, 1968,616-17. 124 The lands north of the I'iver system are today regarded as being among the poorest in Cambodia; Delvert, op. cit., 632-4. 125 On the canals of southern Cambodia, sec P. Paris, ' Anciens canaux khmers " BEFEO, XLI, 2, 1941, map facing p. 372. 128 Delvert, op. cit., 88, 97-9, 634-40. 127 Lunet de Lajonquiere, op. cit., Cartes. 118
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CAlIIBODIA IS THE SEVENTH CENTURY
373
depth, may help to establish the location of ancient and continuously occupied settlements. Beneath the'rubble may be buried artifacts of very early times. This area contains one of the most ancient inhabited sites so far investigated in Cambodia,128 and the possibilities may one day be narrowed down for a more exact location of some of the five principalities discussed in this study. In the meantime, sufficient is known, in addition to inscriptions, to make it certain that, by the seventh century, this region belonged to a lively world of religious activity. A lintel recovered from Baset has been attributed to the middle of the seventh century.129 A statue, dated on stylistic grounds between 620 and 640, exhibits affinities with the art of Sambor in the first half of the seventh century,130 and the Aran area has yielded a statue of Uma.l3l The Baset inscription of 657 is evidence of the Bhagavata-Paiicaratra cult of Vi~l!uism.132 Moreover, north-western Cambodia was by no means an isolated region on the fringe of the Khmer world. Although its sculpture can be studied by means of art history elsewhere in Cambodia, evidence of the early influence of the Theravada of Dvaravati in the Menam basin is also coming to lightP3 The future will surely show that we shall be looking at north-western Cambodia through the eyes of the Chinese annalists if we regard it as being a South East Asian backwater. We should also remember that, although these principalities were small, the rulers of two of them, K um- and Pi~u-na, modelled their royal names on Indian titles. The name of the ruler of Gajapura is unknown, but his state had an indianized name. Moreover, in addition to ruling in lands exposed to a variety of religious ideas, these rulers' knowledge of other realities in the outside world was considerable, for they took the initiative of sending missions to China. The missions are all we know of the political history of north-western Cambodia in the seventh century, and their significance will be examined in the second part of this study. II In the last years of the sixth and the early years of the seventh century, north-western Cambodia lay within the sphere of influence of Bhavavarman I and his cousin, Mahendravarman. Bhavavarmall I erected an inscription near Mongkolborei 134 and his cousin did likewise in the Aranllyaprat'et area.135 They 128 C. and R. Mourer, ' The prehistoric industry of Leang I:lpean, province of Battambang, Cambodia " Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, v, 2, 1970, 127-46. 129 J. Boisselier, ' Arts du Champa " Artibu8 Asiae, XIX, 1, 1956,204. 130 J, Boisseiier, ' Dne statue feminine inedite du style de Sambor', Arts Asiatiques, II, 1, 1955, :.l5-3!. 131 ibid., 25. 132 K. Bhattacharya, Les religions brahmaniques, Paris, 1961. 98. 133 J. Boisselier, ' Travaux de la mission al'cheologique fran~aise en Thailande " Arts Asiatiques, XXV, 1972,53. 134 ISCC, 28. Barth refers to it as beillg' short and proud, worthy of a conqueror'; ibid., 27. 135 Ie, \'11, 152.
138
374
O. \Y. \\'OLTERH
were conquering princes,l36 and they are believed to have come from the Vat Phu area near the confluence of the Mekong and Mun rivers a.t the eastern end of the Dangreks.1 37 Their inscriptions have not been found south of Kratie on the Mekong, but Bhavavarman's capital, Bhavapura, has recently been identified with Sambor Prei Kuk in southern Cambodia. l3B Mahendravarman was succeeded by isanavarman I, whose latest dated inscription is of 627.139 The latter's capital was also at Sambor Prei Kuk, and his inscriptions have been found in southern Cambodia. The conquest of north-western Cambodia in the early seventh century is evidently an early phase in a series of victories which the northern princes won at the expense of the Khmer overlords in the south. HO The climax is suggested by the Hsin T'ang-shu's statement that lsallavarman I conquered Funan. 141 The significance of the missions of 638 from the four north-western principalities is now apparent. At least in this part of Cambodia the conquerors' successes were not enduring. In 638 the north-western princes had sufficient freedom of action to be able to establish their independence in the eyes of the Chinese court. One more seventh-century inscription throws light on the political situation in the north-west. The evidence comes from Baset, with a date corresponding to 14 June 657.1 42 The king in question is Jayavarman I, whose other first known date is also of 14 June 657.143 No conquest is mentioned, but the Vi1;llJ.u-worshipper, responsible for the Baset evidence, certainly recognized Jayavarman I's authority. The king is described as 'the conqueror of his enemies and a living incarnation of victory'. By 657 part of the north-west had therefore been reconquered. To this extent the history of north-western Uambodia provides a bench-mark for measuring the fortunes of Khmer overlordship in the seventh century. Yet no more than the missions of 638 is known of happenings in the north-west during the period between Mahendravarman's inscription and 657. Moreover, the situation elsewhere in Cambodia between 627, isiinavarman I's latest known date, and 657 is obscure. The only king known to have reigned is Bhavavarman II, whose single attested date is of 639, mentioned in an inscription from southern
136 Dupont remarks that the linga foundations, attested by these inscriptions, commemoratc the taking possession of the soil; P. Dupont, La statuaite p,.eangkorienme, AscOlla, 1955, 76. 137 Coodes, The indianised states, 66-9. 138 Jacques, BEl'EO, LIX, 1972,217. 139 ISCC, 38-44. 140 PeIliot noted a statement in the 'l"ang hui.yao that Chen·lft (the northern base of these conquerors) began to bring Funan (the southern overlordship) into submission in the 535-45 period; 'Deux itineraires', 368. He also noted Funanese missions in 559, 572, and 588; ibid., 389. 141 Coodes, The indianised states, 69. 14. IC, II, 193-5. 143 10, II, 149-52, found not far south of Ea Phnom. The author is grateful to Professor Roger Billard, who, in his letter of 23 June 1969, supplied this date.
139
NORTH-Wf;STRR,X r.UIBODIA IN THE KNYENTH n;NTl;R,y
375
Cambodia.144 Only with Jayavarman I, whose name is found at Baset in 657, does the political situation become clearer. His reign was a long one, comprising at least the period from 657 to about 690.145 It is by far the longest reign in the seventh century, and a long reign in early South East Asia is testimony of sustained royal prestige as well as of good health. Inscriptions from many parts of Cambodia consistently describe him as a warrior. His military prestige is emphasized as early as 657 and as late as 674.146 After his death his power is recalled by his daughter, Jayadevi. 147 She also refers to troubled times, presumably after her father's death.14s Striking evidence of his status during his lifetime is supplied by the undated Vat Phu inscription. Here he is attributed with one of the marks of a cakravartin and said to be ' the master of the earth' .149 Not surprisingly, he was also able to appoint a chief of Sre~thapura, a town in the neighbourhood of Vat Phu. 150 Jayavarman I's enemies are never identified. For example, on 14 June 657, and in what must have been an early period in the reign. the inscription from Ba Phnom in the south, erected by a royal servant, merely describes the king as ' the conqueror of the circle of his enemies' .151 But the location of the other inscription of 14 June 657, from Baset, can be related to the statement of the H sin T'ang-shll, examined in the first part of this study, that CMn-la conquered s,n'l1J-kau, Malyang, Gajapura, Kllm-, and Pji?u-na after the yllng-hlli reignperiod, which ended on 31 January 656. These two pieces of evidence point to the conclusion that, in the dry season towards the end of 656 and early 657, or perhaps even in the remaining part of the dry season early in 656, Jayavarman began campaigning in north-western Cambodia. 152 S'Jng-kall, the first place to be mentioned, probably fell first and by the middle of 657 at the latest. The suggestion has been made in this study that S'Jng-kau corresponds to ' Sangko " a toponym which appears in the Baset inscription of 1036, and the circumstance that the Baset area has also yielded the inscription of 657 tends to support the identification. The dates of the other conquests cannot be ascertained. According to the l's'elll yuan-kllci, K llm- and Pji?ll-ntJ, sent missions 144li. ('ccdes, IJEPEO, lV, 4,1904,691-7; ](',11,70. The I'xact provenance of the inscription is unknown. 145 For his death aft!'r 690, see Ccedes, '1'hr: illdialli.scd sliue8, p. 291, n. 70, which corrects the date in Ie, If, 40. 146 657 (IC, 11,149-52): 664 (IC, VI, S); 667 (/f)CC, 70); 673 (IC, 1, 14-15); 674 (IC, II, 12). Two undated inscriptions l'I.'fe1' to t.he I{ing in a similar nmnner: IO, T, )(); Ie, TIl, 163. "710, Y1I, 56: 'His power was well known'. ua 10, IV, 60. Jayadevi's relationship with Jayanlrlnan I is established in Ie, VIl, 51. 1411 A. Barth, BE,}!'EO, II, :3, 1902, 239. A cinfarntJ1(t is attJ-ibllted to him. The inscription extols his milit.ary skills. 150 IO, T, 11, verse xii. 101 If', 1[, 195, with the date supplied by Professor Hillard. It is remarkable that two inscriptions, som~ distance apart, have identical dates. The reason may be that the astrologer of this already powerful king had prepared It calendar of auspicious days for that year_ 152 The Hall Chey insCl'iption refers to a king's depal'ture to war in autumn. His enemies' lIloats were lh'Y; [SeC, 17. Fighting in the flooded zone of north-western CnmbmHa would have heen impossible during the wet season ill the middle of the year.
140
376
o.
W. WOLTERS
in 671; their relative distance from the TonIe Sap would have given them protection for a number of years. The conquest of north-western Cambodia by Jayavarman I therefore seems to explain the statement in the Hsin T'ang-shu that the five kingdoms were progressively conquered by Ohen-la after January 656. Their rulers, having thrown off vassal status imposed on them by Bhavavarman I and Mahendravarman by the beginning of the seventh century, were again reduced to submission by a Khmer overlord. Before the circumstances that permitted the missions of 638 are considered, two questions arise concerning the Chinese evidence of the reconquest of northwestern Cambodia' after 31 January 656 '. The first question is the time when the Chinese emperor was informed of Jayavarman's successes. Mter J aya varman's death no Khmer ruler before the ninth century possessed enough power to make his authority felt in the remoter parts of Cambodia.153 The conquests could, of course, have been reported after Jayavarman's death towards the end of the seventh century, but it is reasonable to assume that the conqueror himself announced them. Two missions can be considered as the occasion when he did so: 682 and 698.154 But in 698 the king would have been very old and probably already dead. 682 is the more likely year when the news of the conquests reached China. 682 is not many years after 671, when, according to the Ts'eju yiian-kuci, Kum- and Pi~u-na were still able to send their own missions to China. The Hsin T'ang-shu's manner of dating the conquests is certainly curious; they are said to have occurred' after 31 January 656 '. The explanation is probably connected with the compilers' intentions. lss They wished to improve on the performance of their predecessors, the compilers of the criticized Ohiu T' ang-shu, and they chose to do so by introducing new material on north-western Cambodia. The missions of 638 were their pretext for doing so, and their concern was simply to record additional Chinese' vassals'. For this reason Jayavarman's victories are not included in the section on Ohen-la. The information at their disposal was sufficiently specific to enable them to state that the conquests began after a certain date, customarily indicated by means of Chinese reign-periods, but they also wanted their new entry to be as brief as possible. The appropriate conclusion to their new entry would therefore have been the summary statement that these countries were (progressively) conquered after January 656, and could no longer behave as Chinese vassals. The date when the conquests were completed did not interest them, but it was certainly after 671. The mission of 682 from Jayavarman is close to 671, and we can suppose that in 682 the king, still in the first flush of his final victory, decided to announce the recent conclusion of a series of campaigns which had spanned about 20 years. 153 See P. Dupont, 'La dislocation du Tchen·la', BEFEO, XLIII, 1943-6, 17-55, for a study of the eighth.century evidence. 154 TFYK, 970, 11403a and 11403b. 155 See p. 356, above, for the intentions of the Hs-in T'ang.shu's compilers.
141
NORTH·WESTERN CAMBODIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY
377
The Khmer evidence in support of 682 as the date of the mISSIOn and terminus ad quem for the conquests is slight. Only the Baset inscription of 657 shows that Jayavarman controlled part of north-western Cambodia. All that is available are two details which may reflect his authority on the fringe of north-western Cambodia not long before 682. The first of these details is an inscription of 680 from the Puok district near Angkor, which mentions the' Kurung Maleng '. This person may be the now obedient vassal of Malyang. 156 The other detail is contained in an inscription from southern Cambodia of 674, which states that Jayavarman issued a royal order (iij1"iii) at the residence (mandira) of Purandarapura.1 57 Purandarapura's location has not been established. During the ninth century a little hill near Bantay Srei in the neighbourhood of Angkor was called Purandaraparvata. 158 A geographical precision has survived concerning Purandarapura in the Angkorian period; it was' to the east of Sri Lokaniitha '.159 Perhaps this is a reference to the Lokanatha shrine which existed near the future site of Angkor at the beginning of the eighth century, when Jayavarman's daughter, Jayadevi, endowed it with land. Though this evidence is insufficient to prove that Jayavarman's capital was Purandarapura at the northern end of the TonIe Sap, the circumstance that his daughter managed to retain some authority near the future Angkor site suggests that there was a special connexion between Jayavarman and territory on the fringe of north-western Cambodia. Jayadevi probably ruled in the area where her father had organized his campaigns against the north-west. His line of march is indicated in the Hsin T'ang-shu's statement that'Sang-kau's location is exactly north-west of Water Chen-la '.160 Presumably the detail was supplied by the king's envoys in 682. The second question now arises concerning the accuracy of the Chinese evidence of the reconquest of north-west Cambodia' after 31 January 656 '. The H sin T'ang-shu in the same passage describes Sang-kau as being' exactly northwest of Water Chen-la '. But no other Chinese document uses the expression , Water Chen-la' except in the context of the eighth century, when Cambodia was believed to he divided into two parts; according to the Chiu T'ang-shu and the Hsin T'ang-shu, the northern and southern parts were' Land' and' Water CMn-la ' respectively. The appearance of the expression' Water CMn-la ' in the context of a seventh-century situation is unexpected and may mean that the Hsin T'ang-shu's evidence is an unreliable basis for reconstructing seventhcentury Khmer history. 156IC, v, 49-52. 157IC, II, 12. For the meaning of (ijiia see Hubert ue Mestier uu Bourg, , Ajiia, pra9asta, 9asana ',JA, CCLV, 3-4, 1967,375-82. The name' Purandarapura ' is at least as old as 14 June 657, when it is mentioned in an inscription which also mentions one of Jayavarman 1's counsellors; IC, II, 151. to8 C. Jacques, 'Deux inscriptions du Phnom Bakhen " BEFEO, LVII, 1970,62. 159 IC, VlI, 14, verse xxxii. 180 Ie, VII, 56.
142
3i8
O. \\'.
'YOLTER~
Before we question the accuracy of the Hsin T'ang-sku's reference to , Water Chen-la' in the seventh century, we should bear in mind the perspectives which shaped the Chinese understanding of the evidence available to them from Cambodia. In particular, we should consider the significance of their expressions' Funan ' and' ChCn-la '. When, in the third century A.D., Chinese envoys visited Cambodia, they were satisfied that what they saw could be described as a kuo, or country or state, in the sense that it represented a definable unit of space. The unit in question could he identified in terms of its geographical location, the approximate size of its territory, its main physical features, and especially its situation in the system of communications which led from it to China or the Indian Ocean. Its identity was also believed to be reflected in the inhabitantR' speech, their CllRtoms, and their products. The Chinese chose to call this kuo ' Funan ' for reasons which have not been established heyond doubt,161 The Chinese also described the chief whom they met afl a ' king " and historians have become accustomed to regard the country or state of ' Funan ' as a ' kingdom'. They have been encouraged to do so for two reasons. The first reason is that the imperial historians of subsequent Chinese dynasties, reviewing the records of tributary missions from Camhodia to China, retained the name' Funan ' as the entry in their histories under which to include additional information supplied when Khmer ' kings' sent trihute. Century hy century the geographical location of ' Funan' on the sea route seemed, from the ChineRe point of view, to hecome more distinct and therefore rein forced the Chinese sense of the country'R identity. The second reason for sustaining the notion of a ' kingdom' il' that the Chinese historians alRo assumed that tIl ere was an unbroken line of kings. Already in the records of the third century there is a reference to 'the hereditary line of kingR '.162 The Liang-shu, which, more than any other carly imperial history, professes to supply a more or less continuous chronological account of ' Funan '. uses the expression' the later kings', 163 implying that, in spite of usurpations and unruly vaRsals, there was an unbroken sequence of rulers in this' kingdom' until the seventh century. In the seventh century. however, ' FU!lan ' waR helieved to have been conquered by vassals from a place called Chen-lao It was therefore now deemed to be appropriate for the Chinese historians to ahandon the !lame , Funan ' and to call the kingdom by its new name of' Chen-la '. But different realities had heen responRible for the political momentum
'"1 Ccecles, The -ind-ialliscd states, 30, ,liscusses t.he Jacques, ho\\'e\'(:!', reminds us that the equivalence of fu·nan is only a hypothesis. He notes thM no inscription ruler of an important kingdom; C. Jacques, .-1l/lIIwi1'e, Etudes, IV e section), tHO. '"2 Chin-shit (Po-na edition), \)7, lOll. "'" Lial/g·shu (Po·na edition), 8b, lOa.
143
transcriptioll of . FUllall -. Professor the local tcrm hl/(l.I!( • mountain' and mentions a ' king of t he mountain', the 1971-1972 (Ecole Prati'jue des Hautes
XORTH-WERTERX
CA~lROIJIA
IX Tfl g SEVEXTH
(,~;XTI;n.Y
379
within the territ.ories seen by the Chinese as a kUO_ 164 As the information about north-western Cambodia in the seventh century has shown, Cambodia comprised a number of independent principalities, and the evidence does not permit us to suppose that there was an unbroken sequence of overlords. The chequered record of overlordship in the seventh and eighth centuries shows that there were often intervals when the principalities went their own way. We do not know which principalities produced overlords or even for how long the town visited by the Chinese in the third century remained an overlord's base. Above alL we do not know at what rate the territorial scale of overlordship grew over the centuries. The Chinese historians knew nothing of these Khmer political realities, and t.he compilers of the Chiu T'ang-shu and the Hsin T'ang-shu, writing after the fall of the T'ang dynasty in 905, continued to maintain the convention of a single and ident.ifiable 'kingdom'. Thus, when the mission records at their disposal indicated a crisis at the beginning of the eighth century, they chose to believe that Chen-la was then divided into two parts, corresponding to the northern and southern parts of the ' kingdom'. They called these two parts 'Land Chen-la' and' Water Chen-la' respectively. Yet no more had happened than that a number of territorial chiefs were asserting their independence after Jayavarman I's death. One Chinese source, however, exposes the way in which the T'ang imperial historians later misconstrued the situation. This source is the Ts'ejtt yiian-kuei, which records the notices compiled when Khmer missions came to China in the eighth century. According to the T'ang histories, the' division' took place some time after 31 August 707. 165 The Ts'c-fu yuan-kuei mentions the first mission to arrive in China after the division; it reached the T'ang capital between 4 February and 4 March 710, and it came from' Chen-la '.166 But the same text also states that, between 14 June and 12 July 717, a mission arrived from' Chen-la Wen-tan '.167 This statement can only mean that TYen-tan had been part of the' kingdom of Chen-la '. It does not support the statement in the Chiu T'ang-shu that' Land Chen-let is also called Wen-tan country'. Moreover, when the compilers of the Ts'eju yiian-kuei record the missions of 753, 771-2, and 798, they always refer to Wen-tan, never qualifying it as ' Land Chen-la '.168 Similarly, they always 1.4 Professor .Jacques shares the present wl'iter's doubts concerning the suitability of the terms' Funall . and' (!hell-la. . liS categol'i('s for Khmer hi8tOl'~-: .Jacques, A /I/Illnirr, 1971-1972, 609--10. 165 C'l'.s, W7, 2b; H 1'.s, 222U, :3a. Thc division is said to havc occurred after the sMn-tuuy reign-period, which ended on :H August 707. A mission had arrived from' Chen-in' between 5 June and 3 July 707; Tl'YK, 970, 11404a_ 166 TFYK, 970, 11404n. 167 TFYK, 970, ll4050_ 168 l' FYK, 971, 11414a; 975, 11458b (753); 976, 11461b; 999, 11719a-b (771-2); 976, 11462b (798). The last mission came to the capital in the first month of 798 (22 January-20 February), and Pelliot's statement that 799 was the yeaJ' of the mission should be amended; J>elliot, ' Deux itinprail'es " 212.
144
380
O. W. WOI,TERS
record missions from 'Ohen-la ' and never from ' Water Ohen-la '. The T'ang historians describe the mission of 813 as coming from' Water Ohen-la', but not so the compilers of the Ts'eju yuan-kuei. 169 The' Ohen-la' mission of 814, mentioned in the Ts'eju yuan-kuei, can also be presumed to have come from the country known to the T'ang historians as 'Water Ohen-la '.170 Because the Ts'eju yuan-kuei never refers to 'Land Ohen-la' but only to Wen-tan, the Chinese expression' Land Ohen-la' should be understood as a geographical rather than a political one, and the correct context for this geographical usage is indicated in the second and third sentences in the following passage in the Ohiu T'ang-shu. , After the 705-7 reign-period Ohen-la was divided into two parts. Because the south was near the sea and had many marshes, it was called the Water OMn-la half. Because the north had many mountains, it was called Land Ohen-la, and it was also Wen-tan.' 171 The key phrase in this passage is ' it was called and the explanation must be that Khmer envoys, probably on the occasion of the first Miu,mtan mission in 717, said that Khmers discerned two geographical regions in lands occupied by Khmer-speaking peoples, commonly known to them as ' dry' and 'watery' lands. 172 They are unlikely to have used whatever local word is concealed by 'Ohen-la " for only the Chinese were in the habit of thinking of Cambodia as a kuo and of giving the kuo a name. The envoys would have gone on to say that, as a result of political disturbances, these two geographical regions now happened to contain two important centres of political power. The compilers of the T'ang histories, writing what they hoped would be an intelligible narrative and not merely recording missions as the Ts'eju yiian-kuei compilers were doing, construed the data as meaning that the terms for the two types of terrain were also official names of the two eighth-century' kingdoms'. They had, however, forgotten that these different types of terrain had been identified at least as long ago as 616, when isanavarman I's mission came to China. The Sui-shu, incorporating material recorded on this occasion, describes the same geographical situation which, in the Ohiu T'ang-shu, is said to explain why the two new 'kingdoms' were called 'Land' and 'Water' Ohen-la. According to the Sui-shu, ' In the north of Ohen-la there were many mountains. The south had water and marshes '.173 The background to the Sui-sh1i's statement is that, by 616, the northern
mz.',
TFYK, 972,11417b. T FYK, 972, 11417b (814). Only once does the T FYK refer to' Water CMIl-lu', which is in a chapter on 'ra.jds' and not on ' missions'. 'Water CMIl-la' attacked Champa in 838; l' }I' Y K, 995, 11688a. 171 T F Y K, 957, 11259a, is identical with this passage. IV en-tun can be restored as .ilfiu~n-tan, and the name may be derived from' Mun " the river which drains the Korat Plateau and enters the Mekong north of the Dangreks in the neighbourhood of Vat Phu; G. Cwdes, BEFEO, XXXVI, 1, 1936,2. 172 ~ is better rendered as' dry land " contrasting it with the' wet land' in the south. 173 Sui-shu (Po-na edition), 82, 7a. 169 170
X 'If!
145
NORTH-WESTJCRN CAlIIBODIA IN THE Sl cira'f{/> na hoti . khippal'{t eva iiyiimiti ta'f{/> sarnassiisetvii .•. nagarato nikkOOmi (Zp., 161). 41 So ManoOOriisantaka'f{/> cudiima1J-im iidiiya miitus sakiisa'f{/> ... kathayati .•• Duhitii Sakrakalpasya kinnarendrasya miinini/ piilyii virahasokiirtii rnadviitsalyadhiyii tvayii/ /(Da., 446). This verse is not found in the extant Bhaifajya.vastu (Gil. MSS, III, 1, 139) nor in its Chinese and Tibetan translations (see p. 545, n. 53). It is, however, found in Ak. : janani'f{/> svairam abhyetya pra1J-ipotya jagiida salJ,// Duhitii Sakrakalpasya .•• madviitsalyadhiyii tvayii/ /(Ak., 1Mb, 155). 42 Tena khalu samayena Vaisrava1J-o mahiiriijo •.• pa§yati Sudhanakumiira'f{/> •••. Tasyaitad abhavat. Ayal'{t bhadrakalpiko bodhisattmlJ .•• sahiiyyam asya kara1J--iya'l'{t •.. Pii,icika'f{/> ... iimantrayate ••. (Da., 447). cf. Tasmi'l'{t kha1J-e sakalanagare iira1ckhadevatiiyo .•. iiOOI'{tS1! : Bho devatii saMe rnaya'f{/> vasantii sabbatthiinesu/ ii:akkhiirna tattoo tattha gata'f{/> sasena'f{/> SudOOnu'f{/> sadii//(Zp., 161). Both Da. and' Pali ' give long descriptions of the battle. The' Saka ' is very brief and Ak. devotes only half a line: sa yayau tiir1J-a'f{/> sainyiicchiiditadinmukhalJ,j(157b). 4. Da.: Dhanena ca riijnii svapno dNtalJ,. Grdhre1J-iigatya riijna udara'f{/> sphotayitviintrii1J-Y iikarfya tan nagaram antrair ve~tita'f{/> saptaratniini grOO'l'!1 praveByamiiniini dr(ttiini (447). , Saka ': 'That night king Dada saw a dream that all his enemies had surrounded the city, they had burst open his belly, drawn out the intestines, had tbree times fastened it around the city' (Bailey, 'Sudhana poem ',510). Ak.: Dr~tam adya mayii svapne niruddhal'{t satrubhilJ, purarn/ piititodarakr(ttais ca mamiintrair pariveftitam//(164). Zp.: Evarupo supino ahosi : mniio anta'f{/> kucchito nikkhamitvii sakalajambudipa'f{/> tikkhattu'f{/> parivaUetvii puna kucchiya'f{/> pavisitvii atthiisiti (162). These four accounts of the dream show a curious relationship between the four versions. The grdhra of Da. and the corresponding 'enemies' in both' Saka ' and Ak. are absent from , Pali '. The' three times' of ' Saka ' is missing in Da. and Ak. bnt is found in ' Pali '. The reference to saptaratniini is pecnliar to Da., while the words grha'f{/> praveByatniiniini correspond to 'Pali' kucchiyal'{t pavisitvii. Da. agrees with ' Saka '·Ak. for tbe opening but with ' Pali ' for the close. Tyajed eka'f{/> kulasyiirthe griimasyiirthe kula'f{/> tyajed/ griirna'f{/> janapadasyiirthe iitmiirthe prthivi'f{/> tyajed/ /(Da., 448).
257
542
PADlIIANABH S. JAINI
In Mv., Manohara leaves the capital at the order of the king; her manner of departure is unspecified. In Da. she escapes from the palace by obtaining the crest-jewel from her mother-in-law. In' Saka' she obtains the jewel, comes forth into the sacrificial enclosure (nw!l;tr,lala-vala-grama), recites a spell, and rises into the sky. In Ak. also she is given the jewel by her mother-in-law and asked to proceed first to the place of sacrifice (yajnahhUmi) and then to fly in the sky.45 In' Pali' Manohara pleads with the queen to intervene, and when the latter tries to seek an audience with the king the men of the purohita prevent her. Manohara then asks for her padapurary,a and the alankarabhary,rJ,a, adorns herself, and begs leave. When the king's men arrive to capture her she flies in the air. In 'Pali ' the story is interrupted here by scenes of lamentation during which Manohara and Candadevi dwell upon the inevitability of karma which has brought about this separation. 46 In Mv. and' Chinese A' Manohara meets Utpalaka and Malaka, gives them the ring, and later proceeds to Kasyapa's hermitage. In Da. as well as in ' Saka ' and' Pali " she directly approaches the hermit, gives him the ring, and also explains the dangers the prince will meet on his way if he follows her. In Ak., however, after her flight she comes straight to her abode, is given a purifying bath, and then after a lapse of several days returns to the hermit to give him the ring. Sudhana returns triumphant to his capital and is stricken with sorrow on not finding Manohara. He obtains from Phalaka more information about the lake where she was captured and sets out alone in search of her. 'Saka' and Ak. do not refer to his meeting the hunter. In' Pali' he takes the hunter with him (instead of Vasantaka as in Mv.), and makes an Act of Truth (saccavacana) declaring his determination not to return to the city without Manohara. On the way to the hermitage he laments for Manohara asking various objects and birds the whereabouts of his beloved wife. The whole scene is This verse is found in the Mahiibhiirata and several other works. See Ludwik Sternbach: Cii:r.takya·niti.text-tradition, J, 1, Hoshiarpur, 1963, 109. Tyaja,nte jivitasyiirthe nijadesapriyiitmajiil,!/ jivitiid aparam riijan jivaloke 'sti na priyarn//(Ak., 193). SU'T}iihi me katham deva na thamenti param rakkha1'fl/ attiinam anurakkhii va thomenti yeva par.uJitii// Sasise patati aggi put/am pi jahati tar/)i/ kim mocesi pare dukkhi tvalf! gavesi sukham sadii/ /(Zp., 164). 45 Tat samanantaram eva MU1wharii gaganatalam utplutya giilham bhii~ate . .. (Da., 449). Cf. 'When she came forth into the ma'T}qala-viila-grama (gathering of the circular sacrificial enclosure) she three times incanted, she rose into the air (Bailey, 'Sudhana poem', 511). cf. Svasvii dattam samar/)iya baddhvii murdhni §ikhiima'T}im/ nrpiihrtii kratuk~etram gatva vyoma vyagiihata/ /(Ak., 193) . Nariinam migapakkhinam viyogo te kato pubbe/ tena atthi vipakena viyogo t'ajja patina/ / Kim karomi mama pubbe kareyya paraviyogam/ tena kammavipakena viyogo hoti amhiikan til/(Zp., 166).
••
258
THE STORY OF SUDHANA AND lIIANOHARA
543
reminiscent of a similar scene in the Vikramorvasiya 47 where the king searches for his lost wife. Mv. and the Pali versions have nothing similar to this and , Saka ' deals with it in a single line: 'Whatever came before him, tiryagyoni and all the wild beasts, bowing down he asked from the heart, Have you seen Manohara or not, where she has gone ~ , (Bailey, 'Sudhana poem', 512). Ak. devotes 12 verses to this scene. As in Mv., the hermit here also gives a monkey to guide the prince. But whereas he rides on the monkey (accompanied by companions) according to Mv., in Da. he proceeds to his goal leaving the monkey behind him. On this point both ' Saka ' and Ak. differ from Da. According to these the prince meets this monkey on a mountain called Kukiila, and rides on him. In' Pali ' he obtains this monkey from the hermit and makes him his guide but does not seem to ride on him.48 Instead he comes across a group of birds 49 (called 47 These and other striking similarities have been noted by A. Gawronski in his Notes sur es sources de quelques drames Indiens, 1921, 18-39, where the author discusses at great length the relationship of Sudhanakumaravadiina (Da.) to the legend ofPuriiravas and Urvasi in general and to Act IV of Vikramorva8iya in particular. 48 Mv., II, 108: So dani vanaradhipati tato eva aS1'amato atmana caturtha'f!/> kumara'f!/> pr~ta'f!/> arohayitva . ... Da., 455: ... tan apy atikramya Himavan parvatarajab. Tat pravesena tvaya imani bhai~ajyani samudanetavyani ... vanarab samudanetavyo •.•. On p. 457: ... tatas tena yathopadi~tab sarve samudiinitab sthapayitva vanara'f!/>. Ala'll! kumara •.. tva'll! ekaki . •.• Schiefner's translation differs here from Da.: 'When he had obtained all but the monkey, he came back with them to the Rishi. The Rishi gave him a monkey and said, 0 youth, ... alone, without companions, .. .' (Tibetan tales, 70). See Tibetan Tripi/aka, XLI, 201-5-6 (Ge 204&6). 'Saka' (Bailey, 'Sudhana poem " 512): 'He will come to the Black Mountains called Kaukiilaka. There lives a king of monkeys, huge in limb. To him food is to be given, and he will take him on his back '. Ak., 262b, 263: Himavanta'll! atikramya Kukuladrim avapa sab/ / Phalopaharaib svikrtya tatra vanarayuthapam/ Vayuvegiikhyam iiruyha sa ta'll! sailam alanghayat/I Zp., 172: Eva1} ca vatva mahasatto attano magganayaka'll! makkatapotaka'f!/> adaya ... gamanam arabhi. 49 There is no reference to any bird helping the prince in Mv. Da. refers to a' king of birds ' which will convey him over a mountain called Vajraka, fourth in a list of nine mountains: (Vajrake pak{lirajena pravesab (Da., 450; 456). In' Saka' (on the next mountain called Kamariipi) there is a rak{lasi: ' .•. (he) will come to the kiimarupins. In that place one amorous rak{lasi lives who through passion entices beings, at the last destroys them .... The rak{lasi carries him off, mounts him on the mountain peak. There he must promptly slay her .... Afterwards he will come to the mountain by name Ekadhvaja. There dwells a vulture-shaped riikIJaBi. For her let him touch the vitia and surely he will escape without danger' (Bailey, ' Sudhana poem', 512). Ak. is in close agreement here with the' Saka ' account except that here the prince uses the vitia not against the vulture-shaped rak{lasi on Ekadhvaja but against an ordinary rak{lasi on the mount Kamariipa. Here the 'vulture-shaped' rak{lasi appears on the mount Vajraka and carries him off to the peak of that mountain : Vitlasvanair vaSikrtya rak{lasi'f!/> kamarupitlim/ Kamariipadrim ullanghya prayayau kinnaripriyab/ /(265). Athogrataram aruyha Vajrakiikhya'f!/> sa parvatam/ grdhrarupa'f!/> samalokya rak~asi1;1, pi{litai{litlim//(267). Ma7!!8alubdha tam utk~ipya grdhrariipa nisacari/ nidadhe sikharasyagre bhoktu'll! bhi{latlavigraha/ /(268). Although some common basis exists for the incident of a rak{lasa-bird carrying the prince across the mountains, ' Pali ' alone shows this bird to be friendly to the prince and refers to his
259
544
PADlIIANABH S. JAIN!
hatthi-linga saku~~a) and learns from their talk about a great feast being arranged by king Duma for the purifying ceremony of Manohara. The prince ties himself to the wings of a bird and is flown across the mountains to a lake where several maidens are gathered to fetch water for Manohara's bath. The incident of the recognition of the ring is identical in both Mv. and Da. But' Saka' and Ak. give a slightly different account of Sudhana's attempt to place the ring in the pitcher. In Da. he places the ring secretly in the pitcher of a maiden. In' Saka ' he befriends an elderly maid: 'They lifted the jars to carry to the palace. One remained there, an aged woman, old, she could not lift the jar upon her shoulders .... He went to her, he asked, Mother where is the water carried? ' (Bailey, ' Sudhana poem', 513). In Ak. also it is said that he approached an elderly maid full of fatigue from lifting the pitcher and asked, ' 0 Mother, for whom is this being carried that you should disregard such great strain?' In both accounts the prince helps the old woman with her pitcher, obtains the news of Manohara, and secretly throws the ring in the pitcher. It is interesting to note that the Pali versions also make use of this ruse but without making the kinnari maid an old woman. Instead the prince resorts to an Act of Truth (sacciidhitthana) by the power of which one of the maidens becomes unable to lift the jar. She then approaches him and begs for his help.50 Only' Saka' and' Pali ' refer at this stage to the years he spent in search of Manohara. According to ' Saka ' it took him 12 years to reach the abode of the kinnaras, but according to 'Pali' he accomplished this in a period of 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days.51 In Mv. the reunion takes place without any further incident. King Druma receives him with royal honours and the couple are united. In Da. the prince is brought secretly into the palace and kept in a guarded place. 52 He is then flight (in the last stage of his journey) tied to the wings of it : Tasmirp, kha,(!e bahu Hatthilingasata"" vettavanarp, iigantvii tatth' eva nisidantii aii1iamaiiiiarp, pucchirp,su. Bhonto, ajja mayarp, kuhirp, gocararp, ga,(!hiimii ti . ... Atha mahiisatto ekas8a pakkhantamajjhe pavisitvii khaggarajjuyii pi attiinarp, bandhitvii nipajji (Zp., 173). See p. 554, n. 75. 50 Mv.: Sudhanuprcchati. Kahirp,udakarp,imarp,ni§yati. Ahansu. SiiManohariisniipayi§yati. Tasyii manU§yagandharp, apanayi§yati. Tena kUmiire,(!a anguUyakii palicime udakaghate prak§iptii yathii tiihi kinnarfhi na dr§ti'i. M anoharii sniiyati ca anguliyakii sniiyantiye tato ghatakato utsange patitii. Manohariiye sii anguliyakii dr§tvii parijiiiitii (n, 110). Da.: Tenaikasyiih kinnaryii ghate 'niilak§itarp, prak§iptii sii ca kinnari abhihitii anena tvaya ghatena Manoharii tat pmthamatamrp, sniipayitavya (458). Ak.: Kumbhotk§epe sramiirtiiyii8 tatraikasyiih sametya sah! hastiilambena siihiiyyarp, krtvii papraccha tiirp, sanaih//(283). Miitah kasya krte toyamidarp, yatnena niyate/ yad bhaktyii ga,(!yate niiyarp, bhavatibhih parisrama1Jj /(284). Zp.: Sace paniiharp, tassa mama sacciidhitthiinapiiramipurattena tiiya Manohariiya 8addhirp, samaggaviisarp, labhissiimi tasu ekikii kinnarikaniiii tam udakaghatarp, ukkhipturp, asakkonti tatth' eva titthatu ti adhitthahitvii ... atthiisi (174). 61 'During this interval twelve years had passed' (Bailey, ' Sudhana poem', 512). Cf. Atha bodhisatto mahii ussiihena gacchanto 8attavassiini sattamiisasattadivasiidhikiini ... (Zp., 172). 62 Gacchainarp, pracchannarp, pravesaya. Tayii pravesitah sugupte prade§e sthiipitah. Tata Manoharii pituh piidayor nipatya kathayati . .. (Da., 458). In ' Saka ' they meet secretly before his arrival is announced to king Druma: 'They agreed with her thought, they brought him into the palace. They searched out a place, all were in thelcu'l)ii,
260
THE STORY OF SUDHANA AND MANOHAR.i
545
put to two tests by king Druma before he can claim her as his wife. Whereas this last .episode is found in both Ak. and ' Pali " it is absent from ' Saka '. But' Saka' is not in complete agreement with Mv. Rather it seems to allude to some kind of test: 'he (Druma) imposed upon him unlimited punishment, harsh threats, abusive speech. All that the kinnara king asked him the prince made known to him. He went out invincible as a kesarin lion. He so said to him, Son, on your part remain now here .. .' (Bailey, ' Sudhana poem', 513). The first test consists of a feat of skill in archery reminding us of similar scenes in the Riimiiyat],a and the Mahiibhiirata, with this difference that here the prince accomplishes this feat with the help of Sakra. Ak. agrees with Da. in its account of this test and repeats five verses found in the latter. 53 In secret.... For many days they well honoured him. The kinnar'is secretly at night used to fetch him .. .' (Bailey, 'Sudhana poem " 513). Ak. follows' Saka ' : Taya guptatare nyasta'f{L kantam udyanamandire/ kumudvativa sasina'f{L gatviipasyan Manoharii/ /(293). Yad yat prem'lJ,ab sadrsam ucita'f{L yad yat autsukyarase/ tat tat sarvar(t pra'lJ,ayasubhagar(t dampati cakratus tau/ /(295 cd). 53 Aha ca: A Tvaya kantya jitas tavad ete kinnaradiirakab/ sa'f{LdarSitaprabhavas tu divyasambandham arhasi/ / B Atyiiyata'f{L saravana'f{L krtvoddhrtya sara'f{L k~a'lJ,at/ vyuptam anyunam uccitya punar dehi tiliiqhaka'f{L/ / C Sa'f{Ldarsaya dhanurvede drqhalak~iidi kausala'f{!/ tatab kirtipatiikeya'f{L tavayatta Manoharii/ /(Da., 458). These three verses are identical with Ak., 313-15. D BatakratU8amiidi~tair yak~aib sukararupibhih/ utpiitite saravane same vyupta'f{L tilaqhaka'f{L/ / E Ekikrta'f{L samuccitya Bakrasr~taib pipilikaib/ " kumiirab kinnarendraya vismitiiya nyavedayat/ /(Da., 459). These two verses are preceded by the following three verses in Ak. : F Mithyiisramaklesaphale pravrttarp, sarapii!ane/ ta'f{L vijiiiiya Sahasrak{lab pak{lapiitiid acintayat/ / G Ki'f{L bhiidrakalpiko bodhisattvo 'ya'f{L parthivatmajab/ niyuktab kinnarendre'lJ,a ni{lphale kle{lakarma'lJ,i/ / H Asyiismin samyiiyase kiirya'f{L siihayaka'f{L maya/ iti saiicintya Bakro 'sya karmani!lpattim iidadhe/ /(Ak., 317-19). Although verses A, B, C, D, and E, together with one more verse, viz. Duhita Bakrakalpasya ... , cited above (p. 541, n. 41), appear in both Da. (in all MSS used by Cowell and Neil) and Ak., they are not found in I.ching's translation of the Bhai{lajya.vastu. (Professor Simon, who kindly checked this for me, found that several other verses-notably 12 of Da., 455-7, from Dr{ltvii sa ••. to Candrasya khe .•. -although found in the Tibetan, are missing from I.ching's translation. Cf. TaishO Tripitaka, XXIV, 63b-64b.) The six verses in question are also mi88ing from the Tibetan translation ofthe Bhai{lajya.vastu. It is probable on the evidence of the Chinese and Tibetan translations, particularly ofthe latter, that these verses do not belong to the original Bhai{lajya.vastu. Verses A, B, and C appear to be quotations as they are preceded by the words aha ca in Da. These are followed by a prose passage containing a significant line: Devatiis cai{la'f{L autsukyam apatsyante avighnabhavaya (p. 459). At the end of this passage occur D and E which explicitly state that yak{las performed the feat at the instruction of Satakratu. Whether this intervention by Sakra was introduced into the Bhai{lajya·vastu story by the compilers of Da. (taking a clue from the line devatiis cai{la'f{L ••. ) or whether Da. was following a different MS tradition of the Bhai{lajya.vastu containing these verses cannot be determined on the available evidence. Only these six, out of 44 verses found in this avadiina of Da., are repeated (not as quotations)
261
546
PADl\IANABH S. JAIN!
, Pali ' the prince shows his skill in archery entirely on his own without the intervention of Sakra. 54 The Pali versions here introduce an additional test of his strength by making him lift a huge sapphire stone. The prince now has recourse to an Act of Truth asserting his future attainment of the Buddhahood and lifts it on his shoulders with great ease. 55 When he succeeds in his first test the king puts him to one more test of recognizing Manohara in the middle of a thousand kinnaris exactly like her reminding us of a similar scene in the Nala-Damayanti episode, 56 this time with the roles reversed. The prince, like Damayanti, has recourse to the utterance of a satyaviikya (the first and the only time in Da.) and by the power of its truth Manohara steps forward to meet him. Ak. treats this incident casually, simply stating that he recognized her and took her hand. 57 The Pali versions turn it into a more dramatic incident. He makes an Act of Truth (as in Da.) and begs the devatiis to point her out (among seven other kinnaris). According to Pj., Sakka comes down in person, and tells him that he will create a golden fly which will hover around her head. According to Zp., however, he comes down in the guise of a golden fly and tells him that he will indicate her to him by sitting on her hand. 58 Sudhana recognizes her and they are united. by K~emendra in his poem consisting of331 verses of his own. It is not improbable that K~emen. dra. was here introducing the intervention of Sakra either following some other version of the story or as one of his own innovations. His three verses (F, G, H) preceding D, E leave no doubt that the latter were also his own compositions. It seems likely, therefore, that the six verses in question were interpolated into the MSS of Da. at a later stage and have survived since then in all our known MSS of Da. The fact that Sakra's intervention at this stage of the story is not found in the Pali versions points to the same conclusion. 54 TaTf! sutva Budhano ... attano dhanuTf! aropetva ..• vijjhati. Atha so saro dhanujjiya mutto sattatalarukkhe ea satta udumbararukkhaphalake .•. eva'lIt parihhinditva .•• puna Sudhanuss' eva hatthe patitthiisi (Zp., 176). 55 Mahiisatto •. . mahallapasanaTf! niima nilm'arp(lapiisanaphalakaTf! upasaTf!kamitva tikkhattuTf! padakkhinaTf! katvii ... saee 'haTf! aniigate bodhirukkhamule .•. nisinno marabalaTf! vidhaTf!setva ..• anuttaraTf! sammasambodhiTf! abhisaTf!bujjhissami, api ea kho pana sace 'hallt sakalalokasanni. vasanaTf! sattiinaTf! jiityadimanasankhiitamahiipabbataTf! sankamituTf! sakkomi, idiini idaTf! mahalla· pasanaTf! nama jatigarukaTf! lahukam eva hotu Ii saeeiidhitthiinaTf! adhi#hahitvii taTf! ukkhipi ... (Zp., 177). 56 Yathii Drumasya duMtii mameha tvaTf! Manoharal Mghram etena satyena padaTf! vraja Manoharell(Da., 459). cf. HaTf!sanallt vaeanaTf! srutva yathii me Nai~adho vrtabj patitve tena satyena devas taTf! pradisantu mell(Nalopakhyana, v, 17). 57 AbhinnavarnarupiinaTf! tulyiibharanavasasaTf!1 kinnarinaTf! sthitaTf! madhye grhiina nijavallabhiimlI lty uktalp sa punas tena kinnariSatapancakaml tulyamrnavayovesaTf! dadarsa vyagram agratah/ I TasiiTf! madhye parijiUiya sa jagraha Manoharaml vallarivanasa7f!ChannaTf! bhnlgas cutalatam ivai I(Ak., 327-9). 58 Raja attano sattadMtam ... samanarupii ... patipiitiya niswapetva ' boo Budhanakumara, passasi marna dhitarabbhantare tava bhariya atthi udahu natthi' ti aha. Mahiisatto ••• ajanitva upayaTf! eintento ..• adhitthahanto aha,' Yadi sueeaTf! ahaTf! pubbe sabbasattahitaTf! karalltl paradaraTf! na gacehiimi pures8ami manorathaTf!1 na kinei paradiiresu aeikkhantu me devala til I Evan ea pana vatva Bakkassa bhava,naTf! unhiikiiraTf! dassesi. Bakko avajjanto taTf! kiira'lJoaT{!
262
547
THE STORY OF SUDHANA AND MANOHARA
As in Mv. the prince begins to feel homesick and wishes to see his parents, and the united couple are conducted to Hastinapura by the kinnaras. 'Saka' and Ak. do not refer to his longing to return home. The Pali versions give a long account of his sorrow; even king Druma accompanies them 59 (not found in any other version) and stays at Uttarapancala for a week enjoying the hospitality of king AdiccavaIpsa. The prince is now crowned and having ruled righteously for a long time enters Tusita heaven after his death. In ' Pali ' the jataka is properly concluded with a brief sermon on the four Noble Truths, at the end of which the monk attains arhatship.60 Samodhiina: samodhiina or identification of the characters of the story of the past (atitavatthu) with the persons connected with the story ofthe present (paccuppannavatthu) is one of the main features of a Pali jataka and also of thejatakas in Mv. Da. identifies only Sudhana with the Buddha. Ak. identifies only Sudhana and Manohara (with the Buddha and Yasodhara) and' Saka' only Sudhana and his parents (with the Buddha, Suddhodana, and Mahamaya). The chart on pp. 548-9 summarizes the nomenclature of the characters in the various sources; divergence in the samodhiina of Zp. and Mv. is also noted, since the development of the samodhiina, like that of the nidana and title, has some bearing on the genesis of the story as a whole. The presence or absence of the last four characters in the story, viz. Janmacitraka, the purohitas, and Sakra, standing respectively for the episodes of the nagaraja, the court intrigue, and finally the tests of valour, divides the story into its two main versions. Otherwise the subject-matter of the two versions including the names of the characters shows a virtually exact correspondence indicating a certain dependence of one on the other. The possibility of Mv. borrowing from the Miila-Sarvastivada version is very remote: there is no reason why the narrator of the Mv. version should purge these major and natvii iikiisena ligantvii santika'Yfl maOOsattassa etad avoca: 'tiita, maOOpurisa, aha'Yfl suvattttamakkhika'Yfl nimminitvii suvattttamakkhikii yassa itthiyii sisa'Yfl padakkhitta'Yfl katvii ta'Yfl tava bhariya'Yfl jiiniiM' ti (Pj., 71). In Zp., Sakka arrives in the guise of a golden fly and settles on Manohara's hand: Atha Sakko iivajjanto ta'Yfl kiiratta'Yfl natvii suvattttamakkhikena ligantvii bodhisattassa kattttasamipe samullapat;: 'siimi Sudhanu, aha'Yfl Sakko va sancarattamakkhiko hutvii tava bhariyahatthe patittOOmi, tva'Yfl tiiya sanniiya eta'Yfl hattha'Yfl gahetvii aya'Yfl devi mama bhariyii ti vadesi' ti (Zp., 178). For further changes in this scene made by the popular Burmese dramas see below (p. 557, n.86). 59 Tiita Sudhanu, aha'Yfl pi idiini tayii saddhi'Yfl manussalokarr. gamissiimi ti. .• . Dumariijii bodhisattassa miitiipitiina'Yfl niinappakiiriini datvii iipucchitvii puna attano nagaram eva agamiisi (Zp.,180). 60 Evan ca pana vitthiiretvii dhammadesana'Yfl iiharitvii bh ikkhave, eva'Yfl pi pubbe patttf,itii miitugiima1'{t nissiiya ..• pakkami'Yflsii yevii ti. Sankhepen' eva . •• tesa'Yfl pi bhikkhiina'Yfl cattiiri sacciini pakiisento imm'{t giithadvayam iiha : Dukkhasacca'Yfl samudaya'Yfl nirodhan ca maggasacca'Yfl/ iti hi ta'Yfl catusacca'Yfl sabbii tii kathitii mayii// Tebhiimaka'Yfl dukkhasacca'Yfl tattoo samudaya'Yfl niima/ nibbiina'Yfl nirodhasacca'Yfl atthangika'Yfl maggasaccan till Bhagavato desaniivasiine so ukkattthito bhikkhu arahattappatto nikkileso nibbhayo yeva ahosi. Anne pi sampattaparisii sotiipattiphaliidini piiputti'Yflsii ti (Zp., 181).
VOL. XXIX.
PART
37
3.
263
548
PADMA:'IABB S. JAINI
Characters in the story 1 Subahu Nan-lo-shih Dhana Adiccaval11sa
lIv. 'Chinese A' Da., 'Saka', Ak. 'Pali'
2' Sudhanusya miWi' Mv. unnamed ' Chinese A ' , Sudhanasya janani ' Da. Siiryaprabha ' Saka ' Rama Ak. Candadevi 'Pali'
3 Sudhanu Hsii-lo Sudhana 4 The other king: Sucandrima king of Ni-ho-pien (' Ie roi grand-pere') unnamed Mahendrasena 5 Sorcerer brahmin: absent unnamed Vidyadhara
6 Druma Duma T'ou·mo 7 Manoharii , Devi'
10 Malaka 'She-Ii' Saraka Padamaka Padmaka absent
llv.
Suddhodana
idem (' Chinese A': Kasyapa)
Mahamaya
idem (' Chinese A ': She-miao)
the Buddha
idem
Nv., Zp . • Chinese A'
Da., 'Saka', Ak., Pj. .lIv. 'Chinese A '
Da., ' Pali' 'Saka', Ak. "lfv., ' Chinese A ' Da., 'Saka', 'Pali '
not identified idem (' Chinese A': Suddhodana)
not identified absent
Ak.
All except' Pali ' 'Pali' 'Chinese A'
Siiriputta
All except' Chinese A 'Yasodharii
'Chinese A'
8 Manohara' smother: unnamed All 9 Utpalaka Yu.pen Phalaka or Halaka PUI.lqarika
Zp.
Nv .. Ak .. 'Saka ' ' Chine"e A '
Mahanama (' Chinese A ': not identified) idem (' Chinese A ' : Gopa)
not identified idem .:\.nanda
Rahula (' Chinese A': Maudgalyayana)
absent
;lnanda (' Chinese A ': Chandaka)
Ka.ssapa
Mahakasyapa (' Chinese A: Sariputra) Chandaka
Da. 'Pali' Mv. 'Chinese A'
Da. 'Saka' Ak. 'Pali'
11 Kasyapa unnamed Kassapa Valkalayana
Nv., Da., ' Saka ' 'Chinese A' 'Pa.li' Ak.
12 Vasantaka
only in "lI v.
absent
13 The rebel: absent unnamed Megha
Mv., ' Chinese A' Da.,' Saka.', 'Pali' Ak.
not identified absent
264
THE STORY OF SUDHANA AND MANOHARl
Characters in the story Zp. 14 The monkey: unnamed Mv.,Da., 'Saka', 'PaIi' Ka!udayi , Sakra in disguise' 'Chinese A' Vayuvega Ak. 15 The niigaraja : absent Mv., ' Chinese A' Janmacitraka Da. Citra 'Saka', Ak. Moggallana Jambucittaka 'Pali ' 16 purohita no. I : absent Mv., , Chinese A ' Devadatta unnamed Da.,' Saka' Kapila Ak. Kusala 'Pali ' 17 purohita no. 2 : absent not identified Mv., ' Chinese A' unnamed Da., 'Saka', 'PaIi' Puekara Ak. 18 Sakra: absent Mv., 'Chinese A', oSaka' Satakratu Da., Ak. Anuruddha • PaIi' Sakko
549
.ltv. Kal}thaka (' Chinese A ': Kal}.thaka)
absent
absent
absent
absent
inoffensive episodes from a good Buddhist avadiina. Rather it is probable that the simpler version reflected in Mv. has been re-edited with the introduction of the three new episodes. Since certain episodes are peculiar to JJlv. (notably the closing funeral rites) or Da., it will be necessary to distinguish between these redactions and the versions adopted by the Mahasanghikas (Mv. V) and the Miila-Sarvastivadins (Da. V). In this recasting the narrator had to make only two minor changes in the original story, viz. shifting the place (from Si:rp.hapura to Hastmapura) and time (after instead of before their marriage) of the sacrifice. The new episode of the niigariija merely culminates in procuring the noose with which the hunter captures Manohara, a result as miraculously achieved in Mv. with a simple Act of Truth. The wicked purohita no doubt plays a central role in the new story, but the germs of a court intrigue were already provided in Mv. V and can be detected in the scene where the prince is detained by the king and Manohara is ordered to return to her parents. Here the editor of Da. V had to make a slight change, sending the prince on an expedition on the one hand and making Manohara a victim of the sacrifice on the other. The third innovation, the tests of valour, appears like an appendix, not entailing any alteration in the original story. It only demonstrates the practice of the virya-piiramitii by the bodhisaUva amply achieved by Mv. V in its account of his crossing the mountains, etc., on his way to the abOde of the kinnaras. The remaining differences between Mv. V and Da. V also suggest that certain improvements have been effected by the latter on the former. The first of these concerns the two hunters. In Mv. V Manohara meets them in the
265
550
PADMANABH S. JAINI
Himalaya and gives them the ring to be given to the prince. She then arrives at the hermitage of Kasyapa, rests there for a while, and then proceeds to her abode. In Da. V she approaches the hermit directly and gives him the ring. Da. V would thus be more economical in eliminating two superfluous characters at this point and in making a better use of the hermit. In Mv. V the prince takes Vasantaka as an attendant in his search for Manohara. Vasantaka otherwise plays no part in the story. He also is absent in Da. V. Here the prince sets out alone on his arduous quest. The same motive of presenting the prince as a brave hero seems at work in the short scene connected with the monkey. In Mv. V the prince rides on him accompanied by three other attendants. In Da. he insists on going alone despite the pleading of the hermit. While we may assume that Da. V has introduced these innovations and improvements into the Mv. V version, there is no question of direct borrowing from Mv. by Da. For despite the general similarity between these two versions Da. does not repeat even a single line or verse of Mv., and presents its story in a very different style and language. On the other hand it is clear that the Miila-Sarvastivadins have drawn on some earlier Da. V text. Had there been a classical Pali Sudhana-jiitaka 61 it would doubtless have thrown further light on the matter. The possibility of the existence of such intermediate versions is indicated by the' Saka' which shares only two of the three major innovations (the episode of the niiga and the court intrigue) with Da. Were this to be the only difference between the two, 'Saka' could have been treated as merely an abridged version of Da. But there are in ' Saka ' several other distinctive points, preserved in Ak., suggesting an independent source for itself. In the order of their occurrence these can be listed as follows. (1) Name of the wicked king: Mahendrasena (same in Ak.) [po 539, n.30]. (2) Name of the niigariija: Citra (same in Ak.) [po 539, n. 31]. (3) Name of the hunter: Padamaka (Padmaka in Ak.) [po 539, n. 32]. (4) The two hunters being father and son (same in Ak.) [po 539, n. 32]. (5) Padmaka obtaining the niigapiisa on his first visit to the niigariija (same in Ak.) [po 540, n. 35]. (6) Description of the dream (' Saka' almost identical with Ak.) [po 541, n.43]. 61 The story of Sudhana is absent from the Pali Jataka book and other atthakathas. The Khm:ulahala·jataka (no. 542, J, VI, 129-57), however, offers several points of comparison with both Mv. and Da. Here also the king wishes to undertake a sacrifice to attain heaven alive (as in Mv. and' Chinese A 'i. Here also the king's credulity is exploited by a wicked brahmin minister (Khal}.qahiila) who encourages the king to engage in human sacrifice with a secret plan to kill the prince Canda the bodhisattva (as in Da.) who has exposed his acts of injustice. In this as well as in Mv. and' Chinese A ' the bodhisattva gives long sermons on the evils of sacrifice, the main Buddhist message of the stories concerned. But whereas the story of Sudhana develops into a beautiful love story with all the ingredients of an epic, the KharyJahala-jataka remains a purely didactic one being terminated by a rather premature intervention by Sakka at the performance of an Act of Truth by the wife of the prince.
266
THE STORY OF SUDHANA AND MAN OHARA
551
(7) Manohara going through the ma1:uJala-vala-grama before her flight (through yajnabhUmi in Ak.) [po 542, n. 45]. (8) Sudhana's meeting with the monkey on the mount Kaukiilaka (Kukiila in Ak.) and riding on it (same in Ak.) [po 543, n. 48]. (9) Account ofa rak~asi carrying the prince on the peak of a mountain (similar in Ak.) [po 543, n. 49]. (lO) Helping an old woman with her jar before putting the ring into it (same in Ak.) [po 544, n. 50]. (11) Secret meeting of Sudhana and Manohara before his arrival is revealed to king Druma (same in Ak.) [po 544, n. 52]. There are also three scenes and Ak.
62
found only in Da. but missing both in ' Saka '
(1) Sudhana's reluctance to leave Manohara before going on the expedition. (2) The scene of the battle waged by Paficika yak~a on behalf of the prince. (3) Sudhana's meeting with the hunter before leaving in search of Manohara. It is very significant that all these distinctive points, and in the case of the niiga1'aja 63 and the dream 64 even the phraseology used, are reflected in Ak., which in almost all other respects follows Da. (and repeats six verses 65 found in the extant version of the latter). This correspondence between' Saka ' and Ak. confirms our hypothesis of a source for the ' Saka' independent of both Mv. and Da., and in content intermediate between these versions. The compilers of Da. must have used an intermediate version related closely to the common sources of ' Saka ' and Ak. That K~emendra had access to Da. and the source material of ' Saka ' needs no further proof; but he may have used yet another version now lost to us. His title, as noted above, seems to combine the titles of Mv. V and Da. V. But there are certain names and a few minor scenes in Ak. that cannot be traced to any known version. Whereas two names, Mahendrasena and Padmaka, found otherwise only in the' Saka' are also to be found in Ak., the , Saka' name of Sudhana's mother, Siiryaprabha, is replaced here by Rama. Kasyapa is the name of the hermit in both Mv. and Da. In the' Saka' his name is not given. In Ak. he is called Valkalayana. Names like Vidyadhara (for the sorcerer who comes to capture the naga), Kapila and Pu~kara (for the two purohitas), Megha (for the rebel), and Vayuvega (for the king of the monkeys) are found only in Ak. 62 We ignore a scene found only in Da. showing the lamentations ofthe childless king Dhana, his prayers to gods, the conditions (pratyaya) of conception, the treatment of the queen in her pregnancy, and the birth of the child. This stereotyped description (tasya krii/ato ramamattasya na putro na duhitii ... vardhate hradastham iva pankajarp, ... (Da., 439, 11, 26-30 to 441) is also found in the Kotikarttiivadiina and Supriyiivadiina. It is also found with slight variations in the following avadiinas of the AvadiinaSataka: Kusida, Maitrakanyaka, Hirattyapiitti, and Gangika. 63 See p. 539, n. 31. 64 See p. 541, n. 43. 66 See p. 541. n. 41, and p. 545, n. 53.
267
552
PADMANABH S. JAINI
Of the scenes we may note the following. (1) In Da. the king is frightened at Manohara's flight and is worried that the sacrifice might remain incomplete. The purohita simply says: deva, siddhiirtho 'pagatapiipo deva~ sampratam iti (Da., 449). In Ak. the purohita is more convincing when he says: Mantrair maya samiikr§ta~ Krurakhyo brahmarak§asa~/ nirvighnas te kratu~ siddha~ sa haea tena kinnari/ /(Ak., 196). (2) In both 'Saka' and Da., Manohara first approaches the hermit (in Mv. the hunters) and gives him the ring before arriving at her abode. In Ak., after the flight she comes straight to her parents, is given a purifying bath, and after a lapse of several days returns to the hermit to give the ring (Ak., 198-202).
It is, of course, possible that these names and scenes (and possibly the one discussed above, p. 545, n. 53) are merely innovations employed by Klilemendra in the course of re-editing the story from different versions. Although the precise date of the composition of the Pali versions is not known, it is generally agreed that they are of a period later than all the versions hitherto discussed. Their relation to their predecessors therefore is of great importance in tracing their main sources, particularly as the works are extracanonical, and originate (traditionally) not in India or Oeylon, but in the distant land of the Lao. 66 With the single exception of the name Sudhanu (found only in Zp.) there is no indication that Mv. has been used by 'Pali '. Only one of the more important distinctive points common to Ak. and' Saka' is found here. This relates to the scene of putting the ring in the pitcher. Both' Saka' and Ak. make the maiden an old woman, unable to lift the jar. Zp. and Pj. employ an Act of Truth to make her unable to lift it instead of making her old. 67 There is another minor correspondence, viz. the length of the period of their separation. This point is mentioned only in ' Saka ' and ' Pali '. In the former this period is of 12 years, in the latter it consists of 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days. Although evidently some common ground exists, it is not sufficient to suggest that use has been made of any version close to the extant' Saka' and Ak. Oonsequently, the only source left for 'Pali' would be Da. However, from the comparisons given above, it is clear that although the Pali versions have much in common with Da., even more than' Saka' and Ak., they are by no means identical with it. The differences between ' Pali ' and Da. tend rather to indicate an independent source for the former. These differences may be grouped under three heads. (a) The absence of certain characters and scenes (1) Only one hunter and one hermit (instead of two of each). (2) The scene of Sudhana's lingering in the company of Manohara before he sets forth on the expedition [pp. 540-1, nn. 38-40]. 66
See p. 534, n. 8.
67
268
See p. 544, n. 51.
THE STORY OF SUDHANA AND ~[ANOHAlt.{
553
(3) The scene of Sudhana's lamentation while seeking for Manohara [po 543, n. 47]. (b) Additional scenes (1) Lamentations by Manohara's mother [po 540, n. 36]. (2) Sudhana flying tied to the wings of a bird [po 543, n. 49]. (3) Sudhana lifting the heavy stone by making an Act of Truth [po 546, n.55]. (4) The visit of king Druma to the capital of Uttarapancala [po 547, n. 59]. (c) Variations (1) Sudhana taking the hunter with him (instead of merely obtaining information from him about Manohara). (2) Sudhana making the monkey his guide (instead of going alone) [po 543, 11. 48]. (3) Sudhana making an Act of Truth to make the maiden unable to lift the pitcher (instead of simply putting the ring into the pitcher) [po 544, n. 50]. (4) Sudhana showing his skill in the feat of archery without help. (In Da., Sakra orders yakt;as to perform this for him.) [pp. 545-6, n. 53, 54.] (5) Sudhana recognizing Manohara out of seven kinnaris by the help of Sakka who comes down in person, and creates a golden fly which hovers around Manohara's head. (In Da., Sudhana has to recognize her out of 1,000 (Ak. has 500) kinnaris. Manohara steps forward when the prince performs an Act of Truth) [po 546, n. 58]. The last scene, the recognition of Manohara by the prince with the help of Sakka, supplies, we believe, a clue to the main sources of the' Pali '. Scholars like Oldenburg, Foucher, and Krom who studied the Borobudur reliefs depicting the story of Sudhana have considered that it was based on Da. 68 They had access only to Mv. and Da., and the reliefs do indeed to a large extent agree with Det. But relief no. 18 (plate I (b» depicting the scene of recognition, offered special difficulties in its interpretation and its identification with the Da. account. This relief shows seven maidens seated inside a pavilion (maryf,apa). A young man with a halo is standing in front of them. Behind him there is a raised standard with a winged conch 69 mounted on it. At the other end another person, also with a halo, is seated on a pedestal with attendants crouching under it. The scene clearly depicts the recognition of Manohara (among seven kinnaris) in the presence of king Druma. Of the two nimbate persons, the seated one was rightly identified by Foucher with king Druma, the only person depicted with a halo on two other occasions (reliefs nos. I, b, 14 and 17)-distinguishable as a king of kinnaras (semi-divine beings) from the king of See p. 534, n. 9. On the significance of the winged conch in Indian (and Borubudur) sculpture, see F. D. K. Bosch, The golden germ, 115 if., where a similar standard from the Borobudur reliefs is reproduced on pI. 52d. The conch is usually associated with Vi~l).u or his avataras. In Theravada Buddhism it is associated with Sakka, e.g. in the scene of Maravijaya : 8akko devaraja Vi.iayuttarasaitkharp, dhamamano a.t.thiisi, 80 kim sankho visarp,hatthasatiko hoti, sakirp viita.rp, giihiipetva dhamanto cattaro mast saddarp. karilt·a nissaddo !toli ... (Jii/aka, I, 72). 68
69
269
554
PADMANABH S. JAINI
Uttarapancala and all other human beings, including the prince. The standing nimbate figure could, on the basis of the Da. account, only be the prince. But as he does not appear with a halo in earlier or later scenes, Foucher assumed that the standing figure also depicted Druma granting his daughter to the prince. 70 This obvious error was noticed by Krom who identified the standing figure with the prince. 71 The contrast, however, between the ornate splendour of the dress of this nimbate figure and the simplicity of that of the prince in the preceding relief (plate I (a)) escaped his notice, and although he observed the raised standard, he did not try to explain its presence in this scene. The Pali versions, particularly Pj.,72 afford us a more satisfactory explanation of both the halo and the raised standard found in this relief. The standing nimbate figure depicts neither Druma nor the bodhisattva but Sakra who according to Pj. comes down in person. The arrival of Sakra on the scene is denoted by this standard which appears nowhere else among these 20 reliefs. He would be invisible to all but the prince, an effect achieved by the sculptor in a most ingenious way. Not a single eye is turned towards him. By contrast, in the preceding scene (plate I (a)) where the prince is engaged in the first test (the feat of archery) he is keenly watched by a large number of the assembly present. The remaining story, which presumably involved Sakra's conversation with the prince and the hovering of the fly, is left to the imagination of the spectators. Finally we may note yet another detail that agrees only with ' Pali '. Da. speaks of 1,000 kinnaris 73 (Ak. of 500) among whom Manoharii. is to be recognized. It is obvious that such a large number cannot be depicted on a relief and the sculptor would show only a few of them. Yet the fact that only seven maidens are shown is significant as this number exactly corresponds with the sattakaniiiiyo of ' Pali '. This number is again repeated in ' Pali ' in connexion with the scene of Manohara' s bathing in the pond (prior to her capture) and relief no. I, b, 5, depicting this scene, also shows only seven kinnaris (as against the 500 of Da.).74 It is true that the remaining three scenes (viz. the prince flying across the mountains tied to the wings of a bird, 75 the prince lifting the heavy stone, and 70 ' 18 (L. 36). II se resout enfin, ainsi qu'i! est ecrit et qu'on peut voir, It accorder au prince la main de sa fiUe', BEFEO, IX, 1909, 16. 71 We cannot accept Krom's suggestion (Beschrijving van Barabudur, 234-5) that relief no. 18 is depicting the majesty of the bodhisattva by giving him a halo, since elsewhere in the reliefs the same prince appears without halo. As regards the trace of a halo on the figure of the prince in relief no. 20 which according to Krom may be faintly visible, this is certainly an illusion produced by a slight break in the relief above his head. 7. See p. 546, n. 58. 73 Tatalt kinnarisahasrasya Manohariisamiinarupasya madhye Manohariirp, sthiipayitvii .•. (Da., 459). 74 Yiivan Manoharii kinnari pancasatapariviiritii avatir,(!ii sniiturp, (Da., 443). Cf. Atha tii sattakinnarikaiiiiiiyo Dumariijadhitiiyo ... kinnariga,(!aparivutii ... tassa tire otaritvii nisidirp,su ... (Zp., 154). Mv. does not give any number: Manoharii niima dhitii bahilhi kinnarehi kinnarihi ca pariviiritii ... (Mv., II, 97). 75 In this connexion, a pair of birds perched on the branch of a tree on the left-hand corner of relief no. I, b, 15 might be of some special interest. The relief depicts Sudhana's meeting with
270
:.-
y.
::;
;.
,; and ~,; given above) and that the first Muslim adapter of the Hindu saga (who was probably a $iifi) had the rijal.al-ghaib-the 'Hidden Ones' of the $iifisin mind (' the world is supposed to endure, thanks to the intercessions of a concerted hierarchy of" averting" saints, fixed in number . . . ', Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Ta~awwuf, § 5b). Another possibility is derivation from the wordjanggi ' warrior' of Persian origin. • This council of the gods oocurs also in Valmiki, I, xv. 3 The figure 33 has presumably been taken from the original number of the Hindu gods. In Valmiki, I, xvi, 7-8, the gods' caused warriors to be born in the monkey tribe from the wombs of countless celestial beings' (Hari Prasad Shastri (tr.), The Ramayana of Valmiki, London, 1952). 4 !,;:. 1.0:... ')\j) 1..L..i. Clearly the same as Vasuki or Se$a but his future role has been changed from that of Lak$maQa (as is to be expected from late Indian stories) to that of Rama's weapons. The Javanese Serat kanda story (Stutterheim, 74-5) follows the Indian version: Vi$Qu and the niiga (called' Basuki ' and elsewhere' Pratala Naga ') are inoarnated as the sons of Dasaratha. The naga's name brings to mind naga puspa-a traditional dragon motif on batik cloth (vide Wilkinson's dictionary, p. 160). S In other words the Golden Peacock (Garuqa 1) is to be reincarnated as Sita, a concept which Father Bulcke assures me is entirely absent from any Indian version of the Ramaya1J,a. Nevertheless the idea is continuously worked out in the Wilkinson, Raffies, and Roorda MSS of the HSR, both in the passages dealt with in the present artiole and in the better· known part of the Hikayat (where, however, direct mention of the reincarnation of Mahabisnu and his companions in the story of Rama's birth has been suppressed, evidently for religious reasons). It is clear that, in the original version of the Malay (or Javanese) story, it is Dewi Seri (i.e. Sri) and not a Golden Peacock, who is to be reincarnated as Sita Dewi. The Javanese Serat kanda story, described elsewhere, confirms this. 6 l..L.,.,.-i-- (= Parasurama 1). This name is not used again, as Mahabisnu is to rename his companion' KiSI).a Dewa ' (= Kf$Qa 1). As pointed out in n. 4, above, it is surprising that it is not the naga who is destined in the HSR for the role of Laksamana. As mentioned on p. 541, n. 5, however, there seems to be an Indian precedent for the incarnation of Kf$Qa as Lak$maQa.
280
FURTHER LIGHT ON WINSTEDT'S • MALAY VERSION OF RAMAYANA'
537
Seganda Dewa. Then he tells the Golden Peacock to fly him to Earth. The Peacock replies that he (she 1) has been his steed for several thousand years and now wants a new role-to become the most honourable of all the dewa zanggi-his terrestrial wife. Mahabisnu agrees to this and adds that it will be the Peacock who will start the war.l (W, 12) The Peacock now happily carries him to a jungle orchard on Earth called Inderapikrama. 2 On arrival there, Mahabisnu tells the naga and the Golden Peacock that, since Siranchak is to practise asceticism for twelve years, they had better do so for twenty. Mahabisnu now prays to Dewata Mulia Raya for a brother and companion. Immediately a champaka flower becomes a very handsome man of the colour of gold. Mahabisnu names him' Kisna Dewa ' 3 and says: 'We two are to be brothers reincarnated to the family of a great king '. Mahabisnu and Kisna Dewa now join the naga and the peacock in the practice of asceticism. Meanwhile Siranchak is below the seven patala under the Earth-weeping. (W, 13) He rallies and starts to dream of revenge. Then he cuts off one of his ten heads and converts the skull into the body of a viol. Then he cuts off three of his fingers and converts them into pegs for the strings. Then he cuts off an arm and converts it into the neck of the viol. Then he ties the whole together with his hair and cuts out tendons from his arm to form the strings. Then he plays his new viol in honour of Dewata Mulia Raya--very sweetly-for twelve years. At the end of this period a Voice 4 is heard saying: 'What wishest thou, Siranchak, that thou behavest thus?' Siranchak asks merely that he be allowed to ascend into the World, and this request is immediately granted. Having arrived in the World, Siranchak looks for his two brothers and his sister (W, 14) with a view to being reincarnated with them to the family of King Beramaraja. 5 Meanwhile one of his brothers, Girandiwama, and his sister, Sura M. nak. h, 6 have descended to Earth and are already looking for him. Suddenly they meet him in the jungle. He looks like a ghost and they run away .... We have now reached the passage quoted above as the beginning of Raffles Malay Manuscript no. 22 on which Sir Richard Winstedt has commented. From now on the two manuscripts are similar, but, since Zieseniss's important work starts to analyse the HSR only at the beginning of the Shellabear version, Since Sita Dewi is to be the cause of the war between Seri Rama and Rawana. l..~G~1. As will be seen on p. 541, n. I, and p. 542, n. 4, there are other variations of this name. 3 In Wilkinson the full name is Indera Kisna Dewa (usually spelt l,:..) but once 1
2
:rS"
.:,l.!S" (K.shana Dewa) and once ~.) .:,W Dewa (l,:..) l:..S). See also p. 536, n. 6. ~.)
(K.sana Dewa). In Raffies it is Betara Kisna
, This seems to be the only occasion in the H8R in which Dewata Mulia Raga is made anthropomorphic-if indeed Dewata Mulia Raya and not a servant of His, such as the Prophet Adam, is considcred to own the voice. & Here spelt in kreits:>h :>n I. 7 (last phrase) n:>a suweakka. Hah I from the dear realm TilangaI,la, place and town of Mons, The king being poor in merit, we were defeated and hastily fled to the easterly parts To the red earth, the promontory, the old excellent town. A barbarian A youth without guile, showed the road and we came hither, my son. Variants
1. 6. The king being of little glory. l. 7. suweakkii is meaningless. It is certainly corrupt because it gives a long a instead of the short, which is wanted for (visual) rhyme. 8uwekya (Skt. suvakya) may be conjectured. Tr. "in courteous manner ". Mon Te
hi -le-ya-Ie sang 6i sit:m ha moa b nai b khamang tn:>m
paing krung kathe k:>rem:mte me tEh sai khra t:>m r Eh sre bp
Variants
I. I. I. 1.
9. than krung kathe tesa poe M:>n 10. kauroam:>nte 11. he moa b tenai 12. rEh khamang
305
tesa rEh M:m tesa eh:>m wipiika bm ts:>p klung f:>ng bn.
THE SONG OF THE THREE MONS
37
Hi-Ie-yo-Ie ! from the mouth of the river Godhavari, place and country of Mons, The shore of ocean, Coromandel, our place. Being without a prince, we had to part and separate. It was the evil result of karma. To the island Bilugyun, on the flank of the Mudon country, we came and arrived, my son. Variants
1. 1. 1. 1.
9. 10. 11. 12.
Place of the river Godhilvari, place of us Mons. A variant spelling of CoromandeI. Being without a place of abode. To the country Bilugyun. NOTES
1. 2. pwn, which I have translated" for our part" usually means " again", " on the other hand", and would be more natural if another stanza had preceded. lagung, Trikumha, names of what is now Rangoon; see Pe Maung Tin, " The Shwe Dagon Pagoda," JBRS. xxiv. 1. 3. trwm. The dictionary recognizes only the meaning "tree". But the word occurs in a similar context in Lik Smin Asah, p. 59-wipak nu trwm kom oa ham pya, translated by Halliday" I will tell the evil results of her karma from the beginning". Dr. Blagden informs me that Halliday had added the meaning" beginning" in an interleaved copy of his dictionary. Possibly the original meaning of trwm was " stem". In old Mon of the late eleventh or twelfth century "tree" was chu, where modern Mon would ordinarily say trwm chu. 1. 5. smaya, written smiiyya. This looks like a Sanskrit or Pali word, possibly Skt. samasraya " refuge", " dwelling-place". It occurred twice in the Song of the Seasons, where I translated it " sweetheart" (JBRS. xxii, 133). Here, doubtfully, I have rendered it "dear". 1. 7. tei wan ketung suggests a place-name Ketung tei wan inverted for poetical purposes. Ketung occurs in at least two other names of places on the coast of the Irrawaddy DeltaKadonbaw and Kadonkani. Wan is given in Halliday'S dictionary in the sense" dressed laterite" and tma wan" laterite" is also given. I have come
306
38
J. A. STEWART-
across the combinations ang wan" laterite basin", rlat wan " bricks (presumahly blocks) of laterite", tko wan" laterite rising ground", and dung wan, Donwun, a town built on that ground. wan seems to be etymologically connected with tewan " spotted, variegated", a good description of the rough texture and mottled red colour of laterite rock. Tei wan means soil with an admixture of laterite such as a garden cultivator would consider infertile but on which rubber trees do well. The trouble is that we have to look for it on the Bassein side. There is laterite in the Bassein district, but apparently not on any coastal promontory. But red soil is a marked feature of the coast between the mouth of the Bassein River and the Bay of Bengal. "Along the coast, especially between Cape Negrais and Hmawdin [Pagoda Point] occur beds of blown sand, somewhat more earthy than sandy, which from their reddish colour when viewed from a distance are named [in Burmese] Kanni (Red Bank). A deposit of somewhat similar origin only coarser and distinctly accumulated under water is met with along the course of some of the less sheltered tidal creeks: it is a calcareous sand composed of comminuted shells and corals of living species, consolidated into a more or less calcareous sandstone or ragstone. To the altered rocks of the southern region was given the name N egrais beds, from their being very characteristically displayed about Cape Negrais" (Bassein District Gazetteer, A. vol., pp. 5 & 6.) Either of two possibilities would account for Ketung tei wan. It may have been the local name for the coastal projection between Cape Negrais and Pagoda Point-wan and tei wan having a different meaning from that prevailing in Pegu and Martaban; or it may have been invented by a Pegu or Martaban poet who saw the red banks and gave them the name of the only red soil he knew. £lung tarim" old town". Bassein was the chief seaport of Burma till the fourteenth century A.D., when ports on the Rangoon river came into prominence. Although it has no authentic early history, its antiquity is recognized in Burma. roa milikha " barbarian", Pali milakkha. 1 One of Ptolemy'S B7Juv yylTwvavOpw7Tocpaywv.
307
THE SONG OF THE THREE MONS
39
1. 8. pla t;:;"laU " showed the road", probably piloted them up the 70 miles of the Bassein River from Pagoda Point. kop here and in 1. 12 is followed by tsop " to arrive", and seems to be a mere jingle. 1. 10. ;:;lwm. Pali ahafJ1 "I". Halliday records form ;:;hong. 1. 12. khiJmang, Bilugyun, the island lying off Moulmein. sre (E:rellEd jrii.) was one of the thirty-two townships of Martaban and from its boundaries as given in a Burmese history of Martaban, it must have corresponded to Mudon, 20 miles south of Moulmein. It is said to have derived its name from a man in extreme old age (jarii), seen there by the Buddha, who commented on his sufferings. Paklat History of Thaton, p. 30. tnom tom. tom means" beginning" and is apparently identical in meaning with tnom, on which see note on 1. 3 above. Bilugyun was the "beginning" or an outpost of Mudonthe first land you sight. I ought perhaps to add in conclusion that the Mons in Burma have also a less well-established tradition of a fourfold division of their race-Mon au being added to the three already given. The list of 101 races of mankind given in Burmese works has likewise a fourfold division-Mun Thi: (9t), Mun Nan, Mun Nyan, and Mun A..
308
THREE 'IMMORTAL' BURMESE SONGS By HLA PE, ANNA J. ALLOTT, and JOHN OKELL Burmese scholars recognize-some with reservations-the existence of five songs or poems in Burmese literature memorable for having been composed at a critical moment in the lives of their authors. Students accept their authenticity as a matter of fact, and a large section of the Burmese public is familiar with at least one or two of these songs. It is not so much by virtue of their literary merit that they have attained their eminent position. They are widely known and admired because the dramatic circumstances of their composition, known from the Burmese chronicles or from tradition, invest them with a special appeal. The first is said to have been composed in 1173 by a courtier named Anantathuriya a few minutes before the executioners put him to death; the second in 1751 by the Burmese king Mahiidhammariijiidhipati (or 'Maha Dhamma-ya-zadi-pati ') while he was a captive in the hands of the Mons in Lower Burma; the third and fourth about a decade later by the minister Let-we Thon-dara in exile; and the fifth in about 1866 by UPon Nya as he awaited execution.! These songs have long been known and loved in Burmaso much so that they have become what might be called' immortal' songs. Much though the five' immortal' songs have been. acclaimed by Burmese lovers of literature, there are certain points of authorship and date which have never been decisively settled. Of the five, the first, fourth, and fifth in the list above have been selected for particular attention here. 1. ' Allaying the royal anger', by Anantathuriya This short poem is in the standard type of Burmese verse, with lines of four syllables and rhymes ' climbing' from the end towards the beginning of successive lines. The structure of the poem shows that it is not one of the specialized genres of Burmese poetry, and it is therefore called' lin-ga ' 2_ a term applied in Burmese generically to all verse, or, as here, specifically to verse not in one of the recognized forms. The circumstances which led Anantathuriya to write this poem are related in the ' Glass Palace Chronicle' as follows: 3 1 Mahadhammarajadhipati's poem is in ABL, II, 64-6. References to texts of the others are given in the following sections. A list of works cited is given at the end of this article. 2 Transliterated lanka, from Sanskrit ala~nkara, used in Burmese in the sense of ' ornamentation " 'embellishment '. 3 The following passage, including the poem, is taken from the translation of the ' Glass Palace Chronicle' by Pe Maung Tin and G. H. Luce, 139-140. Where we strongly prefer a different interpretation we have altered their version, as follows: 'son of the nurse of his brother' for their' tutor to his brother'; and in the poem: line 7: they have' shadow' ; line 9: they omit' Lasts but a lifetime' ; line 15: they have' Verily it is the nature of every living thing to decay' ; line 24: they have' Dissolution lures '.
309
560
HLA PE, ANNA J. ALLOTT, AND JOHN OKELL
, The!} he [King Narapatisithu, 1173-1210] seized Anantathuriya, the son of the nurse of his brother Minyin Naratheinkha [1170-3], and gave him over to the executioners to slay him. Now Anantathuriya was of a brave and constant heart; about the time of his death he spake four verses of linka, and gave them saying, "Offer them, I pray thee, to the king". Nevertheless the executioners tarried not but slew him, and afterwards gave the writing to the king. These are the four verses of that linka :
When one attains prosperity, Another is sure to perish. It is the law of nature. Happiness of life as a kingHaving a golden palace to dwell in, Court-life, with an host of ministers about one, Enjoyment-shade-peace, No break to felicityLasts but a lifetime, is but a bubble mounting for a moment to the surface of the ocean. Though he kill me not, But in mercy and pity release me, I shall not escape my karma. Man's stark-seeming body Lasteth not ever; All living creatures are subject to inexorable decay. Thy slave, I beg But to bow down in homage and adore thee! If in the wheel of samsara My past deeds offer me vantage, I seek not for vengeance. Nay, master, mine awe of thee is too strong!
310
THREE 'IMMORTAL' BURMESE SONGS
561
If I might, yet I would not touch thee; I would let thee pass without scathe; For the law of Impermanence lures the elements of my body. Now when these four stanzas were read before the king and he heard them, he commanded, saying" Set him free". But the executioners spake into his ear and said " The deed is done ".' This is a moving story to the Burmese Buddhist. After the king had executed his predecessor, his own eldest brother, his vengeance fell on the dead king's companion Anantathuriya. The innocent man, a devout Buddhist, far from feeling ill will against the king, composed a poem exonerating him. He attributed his fate to karma or the principle of ' as you sow so shall you reap'. He pointed out the vicissitudes of life and its impermanence; he remembered the law of reincarnation and retribution; and he faced death with courage and forgiveness. But did Anantathuriya really write this poem? Literary and linguistic considerations indicate a later period, and this is supported by the absence of early references to the poem. The date of the poem is given in the chronicles, and generally accepted to-day, as 1173. In extant Burmese literature it appears for the first time in an eighteenth-century chronicle 1 by U Kala (fl. 1714-33). No reference to this incident has been traced in any of the earlier works written on palm-leaf, of which the earliest extant example dates from 1455. This is all the more significant since the two most common themes of this literature, namely Buddhism and the king, are the very subjects of Anantathuriya's poem, and the incident might therefore be expected to have had a strong attraction for later writers. Furthermore the chronicles, of which U Kala's is the earliest surviving work to cover the period of Anantathuriya's death, are not generally reliable for events prior to the fifteenth century. The best evidence for this early period is found in the stone inscriptions, which date from the early twelfth century onwards; but here too one finds no reference to Anantathuriyathough it is of course possible that there had been no cause to mention him, or that inscriptions referring to him are now lost. Turning to the text of the poem, one finds an orderly disposition of the rhyme (except in stanza 2, lines 6-7), and a regular eight-syllable end-line to each stanza-both marks of a well-developed form, and too neat for a twelfthcentury Burmese poem. These features are found in the early palm-leaf poetry from the mid-fifteenth century onwards; but poems written before this, in the early fourteenth century, are preserved in the inscriptions and they show no such stylization, though they were composed over a hundred years after the accepted date for Anantathuriya. There are also a few verbal anachronisms in the poem. The words and expressions for ' palace', ' court life', 'lifetime', and ' stark-seeming' came
1 VOL. XXVI. PART
MY,
I,
259-60. 40
3.
311
562
HLA PE, ANNA J. ALLOTT, AND JOHN OKELL
into currency only in the late fourteenth century. The word for palace, nan:, superseded the older word rhwe ton 1 (literally' golden mountain ') in the late thirteenth century. The remaining three words-kra-nhan:, ta-sak-lya, and khuin kyaii/Yi-are usually used in poetry, and occur frequently in fifteenthcentury poems, but are not used in earlier texts. The absence of historical evidence, the developed verse structure, and the anachronistic vocabulary all combine to cast doubt on the date of 1173 for Anantathuriya's poem, and suggest rather that it was written in or after the fourteenth century by a poet whose identity is now lost. 2. 'A poem written in exile', by Let-we Than-dam The second' immortal' poem to be considered here is by a minister, court poet, and judge who served under several Burmese kings in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Named l\'Iaung l\'Iyat San, he is more generally known by one of his honorary titles, Let-we Thon-dara. He had various appointments in the palace and is the author of some fifteen poems of different kinds, including a legal treatise in verse; 2 but his immense fame and popularity in Burma rests largely on the two short pieces given above in the list of the five ' immortal poems '. At some stage in his career Let-we Thon-dara incurred the displeasure of the king and was banished to l\'Ieza, a penal settlement in an unhealthy valley over a hundred miles to the north of the then capital, Shwebo. His two famous poems were written during his exile, lamenting over the miseries of life in Meza and expressing his longing for the capital and his family. The poems eventually reached the ear of the king, who is said to have been so moved by them that he immediately ordered the poet's recall. The form in which the poems are written is known in Burmese as ' yadu '.3 The yadu ordinarily consists of three stanzas of verse in rhymed four-syllable lines, like the lin-ga, linked to form a whole by having the first line of each stanza rhyming with the first lines of the other stanzas in all four syllables; the longer final lines of each stanza are similarly rhymed, and in addition the last two or three syllables are usually identical in each of the three stanzas. This form came into prominence in the latter half of the sixteenth century. One of its most characteristic themes is the mood of longing and wistful sadness evoked by the contemplation of forest scenes or by being parted from home and family. There is often a reference at the beginning to the power and majesty of the king, and at the end to the writer's wife or lover. The first of Let-we Thon-dara's two yadu describes his longing for Shwebo, the royal city, with its bright golden palace and pagodas, and contrasts with 1 See, e.g., I B, pI. 36, 1. 4; pI. 74, 1. 11. The earliest occurrence of the word nan: so far traced is in pI. 283, I. 7 (A.D. 1294). 2 See entry for Let.we.thon·dara, JBRS, x, 3, 1920, 139-40. 3 Transliterated ratu. The origin of this word is obscure: as some yadu are reminiscent of KiHidasa's Meghaduta and Qtu8arp,hiira, Burmese scholars derive it from Sanskrit rtu 'season '.
312
THREE 'IMMORTAL' BURMESE SONGS
563
it the dark, heavily wooded scenes at Meza, the overcast sky, the mountain mists, and the cold. In the second poem he again expresses his longing to return from outlandish Meza to the sunny capital, pictures its brightness and peacefulness, and concludes with a reference to his wife and children. Of the two poems, the first has had perhaps rather more than its fair share of attention in Burma. It has been frequently prescribed in schools; a song was composed on it by U Sa in the early nineteenth century; 1 it has been translated four times in the Journal of the Burma Research Society,2 where it is also the subject of several essays in interpretation; and in the 1930's it reached the remotest corners of Burma through the records of the famous singer U Po Sein. Apart from two translations (with the first yadu) in the Journal of the Burma Research Society,3 the second poem has received comparatively little notice, and appears to have been almost forgotten in Burma; and yet there is a good case for considering it to have greater merit as poetry. The human feelings revealed by the poet's description of his longing for his wife and children add a personal element which is lacking in the first poem. There he seems to be less tender, more the dutiful courtier missing the stately scenes of the royal capital. There are also verbal felicities in the second poem which are not quite matched in the first. There is, for example, the effective use of the 4/1 rhyme, in place of the usual 4/3/2, in the phrase translated' these are other plains, strange woods, an alien soil'; the neat matching of ' when I go to rest I reverently pay homage, and thither I turn my gaze when I wake from sleep' ; and both these features in ' I speak but she hears not; I go, but we meet not' . It was felt that there were enough points of difference between our interpretation of the second yadu and those of our two predecessors to justify a new translation. It should perhaps be pointed out that Ratanasiilgha is another name for Shwebo, then the capital of Burma; that Shwebo is spoken of as the central point of J ambudipa, which, though only one of the ' Four Islands' of Buddhist cosmology, virtually represented all the known worldhence our rendering' world'; and that it was conventional to represent the Burmese king as the ruler of all the kings in J ambudipa.
1
JBRS, XII, 1, 1922, 36. 1, 1916, 13-14; VII, 1, 1917, 52-3; VI, 1, 1916, 15-17; VII, 1, 1917, 53-4.
• VI, 3
XI,
313
2, 1921, 102; xxv, 3, 1935, 129-35.
564
HLA PE, ANNA J. ALLOTT, AND JOHN OK ELL
(The above text is based on ABL, II, 228-9, but incorporates a few varia.nt rea.dings taken from JBRS, VI, I, 1916, 15-16, a.nd VII, I, 1917,53-4: c
1. a OJ::J.)~ JBRS,
rR C
C
b [j'lCC\)~gOJC?cg
VII.
r,'? C C r,; C • • '1 C 0 for crlCC\)~g OJG~I GI::lC\)~gOJC?cg IbId. c GmG~IC mJIlm1
ibid. d G51g~pg(,l~ ibid., omitted in J BRS, C C I'b'd I ., VI, ffg~JmG~ Oll)C I'b'd I ., VII. b j
Gij§")::J.)")&l'S ibid.
2. a G(,l~~~ JBRS,
3.
C'
C'
k
VI.
e BcS:'P J BRS, r,;' I'b'd I.
(,lG~t:egO?
(,lJoS§oSo1iBe ibid., ABL.
VII.
I3i. 0'5 ibid.
f
i CT.(golgC\)~()OJ 0 '1 • C
I ~tgC\)cS: JBRS,
g C\)Jj~JoSGOj1l'q ABL, JBRS , VI.
VII.
VI, VII. ('
e
c
c
c
Gmpcg::J.)")'\fmcg JBRS, VI. b G([)OJ~cgQll) JBRS, VII. C (,lijClfcOJ JBRS C' C' C' (" C c Old Mon [sic] jal ' to quarrel, fight', modern c3 ' to fight', Khmer cwal , collision, fight between animals, to butt'; *lap > Khmer litp 'to wash, to erase', *b-lap > Old Mon blip, modern plap 'to immerse oneself, bathe'. *warJ underlies Khmer vwarJ 'sphere, circle, disc', Vietnamese quang' (solar) halo, dark ring round eyes'; and, as noted above, probably Old Mon will" modern warJ ' to go round .. .', more doubtfully Bahnar werJ 'to surround .. .'. • cf. also bwil' large and bent " bwll' small and bent " cited below. A similar exploitation of vocalio variants is found in Khasi.
443
377 *wa(a)v. P:MK *actis reconstructed for the correspondence Old :Mon /ai/, /a/: Khmer a:, i Old Mon jriiy, modern sM 'to be lean, undernourished', Khmer crl Old Mon cran, modern SfV, Khmer crav , bank'; *gap> Old Mon gap' to be fit for, fit to " modern kdp [kd] 'ought, to be fit to " Khmer kJ Bahnar kiJw0rJ 'large and curving' (1) '" *kr-viJrJ > Khmer kriJvwiJrJ ' to coil up '. *gr-wiiJrJ > Khasi kyrwiang 'to wind up, turn round '. *c-wiiJrJ > Bahnar cuerJ 'to turn back, twist' '" *c-wiirJ > Bahnar cuerJ , to change the subject' '" *c-wairJ > Bahnar tsaarJ ' to turn round, go round '. *j-wairJ > Bahnar juarJ, jaarJ, tsuarJ 'to encircle, to beat up game'. *tm-wiiJrJ > literary Mon tamen 'compound' = Mon kiJmearJ 'outer part of veranda ' '" *tm-wiirJ > Old Mon turhwin ' enclosure '. *tr-wairJ > Khmer triJVi:rJ ' oval', Biat rwa:rJ ' to roll into a ball'. *d-wiiJrJ d-wairJ > Bahnar duerJ duarJ 'coiling, arched, round' '" *d-wiirJ > Bahnar duirJ duirJ 'going round in a circle' '" *d-WiJrJ > Bahnar [duirJ] dUiJrJ ' [tail] to wag'. *dr-wirJ > Bahnar diJwerJ, tiJwerJ 'surrounding', Praok [sive] siverJ' around '. *p[r]-wairJ > Bahnar PiJwarJ 'to surround, encircle '. *pn-wairJ > Khmer barJvi:rJ 'to divert, lead astray', Vietnamese ngoanh 'to turn [head] back '. *[m ]-WiJrJ > Khmer arJvwarJ ' [eye-]socket, disc'. *r-wi(i)rJ > Mon kawoirJ 'to whirl round the head, brandish', Bahnar rawirJ 'curved " Khasi rwing 'to go and return the same day'. *s-wi(i)rJ > Mon hwoirJ 'to wave (arms) about, gesticulate', Bahllar huirJ , [water] to swirl '. *sr-wiirJ > Khmer sraVYrJ ' drunk', Bahnar hawirJ = huirJ. 2. *wiar '" *wi(i)r '" *wuar '" *WUU1' '" wa(a)r ,...., *wa(a)r The second of our three word families is neither as widely represented nor as variously elaborated in its derived forms as the other two. It is therefore interesting that almost the full range of vowel alternances can be documented (with *aa counterbalancing the absence of *ai, rare except before velars). In a number of languages forms in *-r and *-1 fall together wholly or partly, whether by merger as in Palaung or by loss of both finals as in Praok and modern Mon. In such cases the main criterion for assigning a form to one series rather than the other will be the occurrence of a differentiable cognate in closely related languages. As may by now be appreciated, semantic considerations are of little help where the relation between the languages to be compared is a more distant one. Simple forms. PMK *wiar is represented by Khmer v~a (written viiJr) , 7 Bahnar wtr, Palaung (viar), Riang-Lang _vier, Praok viia 'to go aside, avoid " and by Khasi [ta]wiar 'to go round and round " apparently a compound. For *wiir we have Bahnar wir 'to twist', which is the probable source of a loanword wir 'to turn ' in the mainland Indonesian dialects J arai and Roglai; tentatively Praok vi 'to visit' may be assigned to the same etymon. *wuar 7 Final r, lost in spoken Khmer, is retained in the orthography (though some established spellings are historically suspect).
445
THREE MON-KHMER WORD ll'AMILIB:>
379
is attested by Stieng wuir 'to avoid' and perhaps, in spite of the semantic leap entailed, by Praok vua 'to wrap round'; a similar sense is found in some of the reflexes of *war but among l-forms only, more dubiously, in Bahnar kuiil 'to roll round'; nor is there other evidence for a form *wual. *wuur is represented by Old Mon wur, wur 'round, around', Middle Mon wu, Middle Mon wu duih ' all round' yielding modern wut tah by phrasal sandhi. For *wC1r we have Sre wor ' to stir', for *wC1C1r Bahnar UYJr ' to turn [something], to enclose, to wag [tail], to paddle, to go and come back '. *wa(a)r is better represented than any other alternant except *wiC1r, by Bre war' to go, put, round spirally', Biat war' to roll up, curl up', wa:r 'circumference', Bahnar war' to put, wind, fence, round; to roll up', Riang-Lang _var 'edge, rim, boundary', (presumably) Praok ve ' that which surrounds'. Derived forms. Only Biat kwe:r 'bend " < *k-wiC1r, and Bahnar kuiir 'to put arms round', < *k-war, constitute a formally related pair. Palaung km?ur 'edge, boundary', although semantically associated with the forms from *waar, represents *[k]n-wuur. *r-wir underlies Bahnar rowrr ' to stir' (cf. *r-wirJ > Bahnar rC1w~rJ, above). For Praok sive 'around' we may postulate a form *Cr-waar, with undetermined initial consonant; cf. *dr-wirJ > Praok [sive] siverJ; while *pn-wairJ > Vietnamese ngoanh suggests a tentative reconstruction *Cn-wC1(;J)r (*[p]n-w;J(;J)r 1) for Vietnamese ngoe [ngoay] 'to wag [tail] '. Finally, the high tone of Riang-Lang -WC1r 'to wander, ramble' implies a voiceless prefix, conceivably *8-, but the vocalism may be *C1C1, *a, or perhaps *tW; if Praok Vut ' to turn round, to turn something round' is to be equated with it the required fonn is *[s]-w;J;Jr, but Vut may equally represent *C-wuur or *wC1C1r or a form with final *l, and the equation must remain very tentative.
3. *WiC1l '" *wi( i)l '" *wail '" *W;Jl """ *wal The third series has a narrower range of alternants than the others, no back variants being recorded-unless we so reconstruct Praok vua, above-and no length variation other than in *i(i). Nevertheless it has a wide representation, striking by contrast with that of forms with final *r. PMK *WiC1l yields Khmer mC1l ' to dig round, cut round, to enlarge [hole] " Riang-Lang _viel 'to turn round', and probably Vietnamese q~o 'to turn, be winding '. (The tone of qUfJo invites the reconstruction of a final *-l?, as does that of queo ' to be curved .. .', < *k-wiC1l, but discussion of this problem must be left to a later occasion.) Thai wiC1n 'to revolve, gyrate, encirole' is more likely to have been borrowed from this root than from *wiC1r on the semantic evidence, but Khmer is not obviously its source. *wi(i)l is more widely represented with Khmer vw,l 'to turn (round)', Stieng uil ' to encircle, beat up [game] " Sre wil ' circle', Biat [d'a:k wac] we:l 'eddy', Bahnar wil 'round', Palaung vir' to recur, again' (rather than < *wiir), Praok ve 'coil' and perhaps vut 'to turn round' if it is not from a form in *-r. There are loans in the mainland Indonesian dialects: Cham vil, Rade wU ' round', Roglai wil ' circle'.
446
380
H. L. I:iHURTO
*wail has been reconstructed to account for the Khmer derived forms cited below and does not call for discussion at this point. *w"l is represented by Khmer vw"l 'to turn (round) " Sre wol 'to turn; again', to which we must probably add Old Mon wel 'also, too '. Although PMK *i" corresponds to Old Mon lei and its modern reflexes in most contexts, we have to postulate *-i"l> Mon -ea, -ea, written -ey, on the strength of *kri"l > Mon krea, Khmer kri"l ' sarus crane'. Although the Old Mon reflex of this rhyme (which may also represent PMK *-i"w) is not recorded, it is unlikely to have been -el. wel should not, therefore, be assigned to *wi"l; but noting the similar vocalism in the first syllable of the reduplicative forms wm"wey , enemy' and (wewo)t ' to layout', we may assume it to result from an earlier Iwell and derive it from *w"l. *wal again is well represented. We have Stieng ual 'to bend', Sre wal [bong] 'halo round sun or moon', Bahnar wal, Jal 'to return, to return [something]', Palaung (v"r), Riang-Lang _vel' to stir', and probably Khasi wan 'to come' (for the semantic development cf. Lawa yin 'to come, return': Riang-Lang _vi'(), etc., < *wii,(}). It appears as a loan-word in Cham val 'to turn '. Derived forms are numerous. We have *k-wi"l> Bahnar ku/!'l 'enclosure' (with short vowel by contamination with k Sre kuel ' to bend, twist' (1) ,....., *k-wal > Bahnar kual ' to roll round'. More speculative is *k-w"l > Vietnamese quay 'to surround, encircle', which is tonally anomalous by reference to qu~o, queo; perhaps we should rather seek an etymon in *-r for this word. *kn-wail > Khmer kJ'(}vael 'to go and return, to explore '. *kr-UJi"l> Bahnar hlwel 'small and bent' (with short vowel by contamination with the next alternant) ,....., *kr-wil > Khmer kr"vyl' ring', Bahnar k"wil 'large and bent',....., *kr-wail > Khmer kr"vael 'to go and return, to run back and forth, circle round' ,....., *kr-wal > Sre korwol ' whirlwind '. *c-wi"l > Khmer chvi"l ' to dig round, to fly in circles' ,....., *c-wail > Khmer chvael ' to go and return, to circle round '. *tr-wiil > Old Mon tirwil ' to attend on " tirwil 'retinue', modern k"wi 'retinue, (- k"wa,(}) to be attended by' ,....., *tr-wail > Sre [we]trowel 'winding , *tr-w"l > Old Mon tirw1:l ' limit, term', Middle Mon trawuir ' idem, boundary; to define a boundary', modern k"w'D 'limit, boundary' (rather than < *tr-wil in view of Khmer), Khmer troml ' extent'. *d[r]-wiil> Bahnar dawil 'round, disc-shaped, spherical '. *p-wiil1 > Biat [tJ:l pac] pe:l ' spiral'. *m-wial1 > Riang-Lang _miel' again '. *(C)m-wa(,,)l (*[t]m-wa(")l1) > Praok mm ' boundary'.
m,. . .,
*wi",(), *wi"r, *wi"l and their variants by no means exham;t the list of
447
3~1
PMK labial-semivowel roots of this kind. A root with final palatal nasal, for instance, underlies Khmer vejt , again', Bahnar wijt , to twist', wijt , to move in a curved path', wejt 'to wring, to pull out with a twist', duip, 'to turn', and Khasi tawain ' to go round and round'; and one with final dental nasal Mon wen 'to be crooked, deformed', Khmer VI,;Jn 'rolled up, spiral', among other forms. The three examined here were chosen because of the amplitude with which they display the possibilities of vowel alternance and of formal scatter in this specialized context. I hope as a result to have demonstrated that the phonaesthetic fecundity of the Mon-Khmer languages is firmly grounded in normal linguistic processes, and depends only marginally on spontaneous creation. Rounding the lips at round objects is not a monopoly of South East Asians; Sanskritists have their roots vval and VV?j, vvrt and vv~t, and the scholar whom we honour in these pages will be able to articulate giwan and g'wan. I hope that he will derive pleasure as well as instruction from a demonstration of the uses of language to philologists, through which there may just emerge a glimmer of the pleasure in language of men whose use for it is to carry their literature, laws, and history in their heads.
448
ACHINESE AND MAINLAND AUSTRONESIAN By H. L.
SHORTO
Achinese and the Austronesian languages spoken on the South-East Asian mainland (' Chamic ') are known to have borrowed numerous words from Mon-Khmer and to show other effects of Mon-Khmer contact. Systematic comparison especially of their historico-phonological peculiarities makes it appear that they are closely related, irrespective of this, within Austronesian. Such a postulated relationship is at variance with the findings of lexicostatistics. It is suggested that the discrepancy results from the very high incidence of Malay loans in Achinese.
Serious documentation of Cham began to appear in the 1880's (Landes, 1886; Aymonier, 1889), and it was not long afterwards that G. K. Niemann, in examining its Indonesian affinities, drew attention to special points of resemblance between it and Achinese (Niemann, 1891).1 His observation was founded on agreements in general lexicon and in such ' grammatical' words as pronouns. But the opening remained unexploited for more than 50 years until H. K. J. Cowan, in an article primarily directed to assessing the Mon-Khmer elements in Achinese, sought to chart the resemblances to Cham more specifically, in phonology, morphology, and syntax as well as lexicon (Cowan, 1948, 432-41). He showed correspondences in the loss of vowels in unstressed syllables, or dropping of such syllables, in diphthongization in stressed syllables, and in the occurrence of medial glottal stop, among other phonological features. In morphology, he noted Cham counterparts to the Achinese prefixes po(causative), too, mo- (reflexive/reciprocal), and the infixes -om- (detransitivizing), -an- (forming nouns of action), along with the absence of suffixation in either language. In syntax he compared the pronominal prefixes of the Achinese verb with the Cham use of a pronoun to resume a complex subject. Dr. Cowan's final conclusions in that article (1948, 489-90), stated with 'the greatest reserve ',2 were that the complex of traits shared by Achinese and Mon-Khmer brought to mind an etat de langue closer than that of the Malayo-Polynesian languages to one ' jointly MK and MP " antedating the migrations from the mainland of which the Achinese must have come with the last wave; that in any case Achinese could not be assigned to any recognized sub-group of MP, certainly not to Western Indonesian; and that it should be provisionally grouped with the mainland languages and probably Selung, the whole unity having a special relationship (betrekking) with MK. It is now generally accepted that the Austronesian languages of the mainland on the one hand, and Achinese on the other, show the effects of prolonged MK 1 For list of refcrences see pp. 101-2. Abbreviations: Ach. = Achinese, AN = Austronesian, Jar. = Jarai, Mal. = Malay, Md.AN = Mainland Austronesian, MK = Mon-Khmer, MP = Malayo-Polynesian, NR = Northern Roglai, PAC = Proto-Achino-Cham, PAN = Proto-Austronesian especially as reconstructed by Dahl, PMK = Proto-Mon-Khmer, PMP = Proto-Malayo-Polynesian as reconstructed by Dyen, Rag. = Roglai, UAN = Uraustronesisch as reconstructed by Dempwolff; dial. = dialectal, n. = noun, v. = verb; C = consonant, V = vowel. I And in not invariably transparent language. Dr. Cowan avoids such terms as ' Austric ' as conducive to oversimplification. I hope my summary does not misrepresent him.
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contact in structural features and not merely in lexical borrowings (which are found, though less abundantly, in Malay and in other Indonesian languages as far east as Borneo).3 (This differs from the extreme interpretation envisaged by Cowan, in which the same features would be aboriginal in Achinese and Mainland Austronesian.) But a particular relationship between these languages within the AN stock is at variance with the findings of lexicostatistics. Dyen (1965b) has published a comprehensive classification of AN languages based on lexicostatistic counts, in which Cru (Chru, Churu), as representative of Md.AN, figures alongside Batak and the ' Sundic hesion ' as a- primary branch within a ' West Indonesian cluster'. Achinese is given a fourth-order position within the ' Sundic hesion ' with Malay as its closest relative and Madurese and the Lampung dialects as its next closest. In an independent study Vaughn Collins (1969) found Achinese to be significantly closer to Malay than to the Md.AN language Northern Roglai; his indices for both relationships are markedly higher than Dyen's.4 Dyen's and Collins's results therefore raise the question whether the structural similarities between Achinese and Md.AN can be attributed solely to the exposure of both to MK contact over a prolonged period, without any more direct connexion. Are they, in other words, simply an areal phenomenon, a matter of geographical location 1 Cowan's grouping of these languages together, albeit provisional, was not dependent on their position vis-a-vis MK. The matter, at the very least, calls for further investigation, which the present study sets out to provide. In it I concern myself with the native AN elements in the languages under examination, in order to discover especially traits of common and distinctive phonological development. The languages principally cited, and sources used, are: Achinese, from Kreemer (1931); Cham, from Moussay (1971); 5 Jarai, from Lafont (1968); Roglai, from Bochet and Dournes (1953); Northern Roglai, from a word-list in Collins (1969) extracted from a MS dictionary by Ernest and Lois Lee. Transcriptions, except for that of Roglai, have been modified by the substitution of IPA symbols for those in the sources, for typographical convenience. In the transcription of Achinese 0 reproduces Kreemer's eu-a central vowel-while a reproduces his e, which occurs only as the second element of diphthongs. Cham and J arai vowel length in stressed syllables is indicated by the IPA symbol; Lafont's final short vowel (-a, etc.) is rendered as short vowel plus glottal stop, which Thomas (1963) shows it to represent; his short vowel in unstressed syllables, though the shortness is probably subphonemic, is shown 3 cf. in Sea Dayak (Scott, 1956) e.g. kuing 'to turn', kuir 'to swing, whirl " 1((1;r 'to stir', to be compared with the forms discussed in Shorto (1973). 4 Collins's indices are higher by a factor of about 1· 4 in both cases. Thomas and Healey (1962,27) found for Md.AN and Malaya percentage of agreement 1·5 times Dyen's. 5 I use Moussay rather than Aymonier and Cabaton (1906) because (i) his entries, being current, are homogeneous, whereas theirs drawn from a variety of sources are multiple and difficult to order; (ii) his transcription indicates relevant phonological features not appart'nt from the orthography.
450
ACHI:1i'ESE _-I.ND MAINLJ.ND AIJSTRONESIA:1i'
83
by raised " a. Cham low tone following a plosive, which Moussay indicates by a dot beneath the latter, is shown by a grave accent over the vowel (as it is in Blood, 1962). In citing reconstructed forms I have used Dempwolff's formulae (' VAN '), adding Dyen's and Dahl's revisions (' PMP '; 'PAN ') 6 only where they were germane to the point under discussion. This I have done not out of disrespect for the latter two authors, but for the reader's ease of reference to Dempwolff's compendious third volume (1938). (It may be added that VAN-except for the laryngeals, where PMP partly clarifies a confused situation-provides an adequate basis for understanding most developments in the western languages, to which local adequacy some more recent refinements add nothing.) Preliminary studies have been made of PAN reflexes in Cham by Mrs. Blood (1962), and in Rade, Jarai, and Cru by Mrs. Thomas (1963). I have benefited by their work, especially in interpreting the rather sketchy phonetic information given by Moussay and Lafont in explanation of their transcriptions. They drew on .vocabularies collected in the field; both employ a more restricted set of comparisons than can be assembled from full-length dictionaries. Among the phonological peculiarities shared by Achinese and Md.AN some can be attributed at once and without doubt to MK influence. Such is the stressing of the final syllable-a pattern characteristic of MK, and other mainland languages, as against Indonesian ones-with whatever consequences may be thought to flow from it. These fairly certainly include the diphthongization of high vowels in open final syllables (following non-nasal consonants), a phenomenon which is found in MK languages also. Thus we have *tali' , cord, rope' > Ach. taba, Cham taley, Jar. t>lai, Rog. tolei, NR talai; *talu" three' > Ach. lhea, Cham. kbw, Jar. klvJo, Rog. klou, NR tlau. 7 With less certainty we can attribute to the same cause the disappearance of suffixation as a productive process (p. 81 above). At any rate something similar has happened in MK, where there are traces of suffixes that have in general been lost with the fall of syllables following the stressed final one of the base. 8 It is reasonable to see as a consequence of the stress pattern the phenomenon which has sometimes been referred to as a ' tendency to monosyllahisl11 ': the loss of vowels in unstressed syllables following plosives and preceding liquids 6 ' PAN' will occasionally be found used in a general sense and not in specifio referenoc to Dahl (1973). Such extension will, I think, always be self-evident. 7 Cowan (1948, 451-2) notes that a similar diphthongization OCOllrs in some languages of Borneo and the Philippines (e.g. Tiruray, Miri; for Bintulu examples of. Blust, 1973, 608-9). Here there is no suggestion of final stress. For successive diphthongizations in both Mon and Khmer see Shol'to (in press). In part: (i) PMK *-iil > Old Mon -ey, Khmer -ai; (ii) Middle Mon -i « Old Mon IiI' il iw/) > modern -~e following certain consonants; Khmer -i « PMK *-'i/) > modern -lfY following certain consonants. 8 A causative suffix *-s[ ] is seen in alternances reconstructible as *-11. ~ *-8, *-1 ~ *-8, *-t ~ *-c. e.g. in Old Mon lab, , to extend' against lilB ' to unroll [something]. spread [soml'thing] out' « *lah-s[ ]). 8 VOL. XXXVIII. PART 1.
451
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H. L. SHORTO
and laryngeals, as in ' three' above. The evidential value of this is in any case reduced by its incidence varying from language to language; it has gone furthest, among languages here examined, in J arai. 9 It is most widespread, apart from the nearly universal loss of *a, in sequences *-uCu-, though even here it does not affect all items of vocabulary in all languages : cf. *pukun ' trunk of tree, origin' > Ach. pkon 'beginning, origin', Cham, Jar., Rog. pkun 'tree, trunk of tree, origin'; *buyuk 'spoiled, rotten' > Ach. bra?, Cham pru?, Jar. bru?, Rog. bru, NR vrU'vk; *puluk' ten' > Ach. plok, Cham pluk, Jar. plu:k, Rog. plu, NR pluk; but *bulu' 'body hair' >' Ach. buleiJ, Cham P~Ww, Jar. MDJO, Rog. bUm, bOlOu, NR vibu; *gulurJ' to roll' > Ach. glorJ 'coil, ron, bundle' (and gulorJ 'roll, to roll up " probably +- Malay gulong), Cham kdlurJ, Jar. k"lurJ 'to roll'. It is by no means obvious that MK influence is responsible for the widespread splits following nasals of which some examples are given later in this article; e.g. *'anak, p. 87, versus *ti[j]ak, p. 86. As with vowel loss, however, their value for our purpose is reduced by their varying incidence, which suggests a series of independent developments. Post-nasal splits are more numerous in Achinese than in Cham, and in Cham than in other Mainland languages; while some Achinese splits involve liquids as well as nasals. (Similar developments are not unknown in MK; there have been minor post-nasal splits in Mon within the period of textual record, while Khmer shows the effects of complex splits involving nasals inter alia. See Shorto, in press.) When all these are eliminated, there remain a series of parallelisms quite specific in their incidence, and not readily attributable to areal factors, which I examine in successive sections below. They are (i) a set of correspondences which point to the common occurrence of a vowel-length distinction in Ach. and Md.AN; (ii) another which calls for the reconstruction of a special set of medial laryngeal consonants for the same languages; and (iii) a parallel treatment of PAN reduplicative bases of the type *2(CVC). The first two sets cast some doubt on the adequacy of hitherto accepted reconstructions of PAN. In a fourth section I deal with a number of minor agreements in phonology and morphology. l. A VOWEL-LENGTH DISTINCTION? The most striking of the phonological agreements between Ach. and the Mainland languages, because not readily derived from any feature hitherto reconstructed for PAN, is the correlation between vowel length in Cham and the split in the Ach. reflexes of PAN *a before final stop or nasal. This is a limited part of the phonological pattern, but it accounts for nearly one-fifth of the entries in Dempwolff (1938). Ach. has from *a in final (so, stressed) syllables variously a and OiJ: e.g. pasarJ 'to harness; pair', pasOarJ 'rising tide', for all of which Dempwolff reconstructed *pat' arJ. In an article in course Q
For Jar. deletion rules see Thomas (1963, 61).
452
ACHINESE AND lIIAINLAND AUSTRONESIAN
85
of pUblication Dr. Cowan sees this split as reflecting an earlier length distinction, on the evidence among other things of the treatment of Arabic and Indo-Aryan loans (Cowan, in press); cf. e.g. alam 'flag', salOam 'peace, greeting', from Arabic 'alam, salam. His argument gains force when the Ach. material is confronted with the Cham. Cham vowel length is regularly marked by Moussay (for examples of minimal pairs see Moussay, 1971, p. xiii).lO It is at least partially correlated with vowel length in Jarai, and within the limited material available regularly so with the Northern Roglai (pitch 1) feature which the Lees note by the grave accent (see p. 88 below). The reflexes of *a include a number of special cases which are contextually conditioned. (i) Ach. a occurs in all contexts, but O~ is in complementary distribution with 0 following a nasal (whether original or reflecting PAN nasal plus voiced stop), and in some other cases. (ii) Cham has 'ta, 'ta: generally following an original nasal, but a(:) following one which arises by cluster simplification; i: sometimes following p of either kind. (iii) Finally, various developments in Cham result from the characteristic Mainland phenomenon of , vowel-medial metathesis' following nasals and liquids, in which the reduction of distinctions in the first-syllable vowel was accompanied by the development in the final syllable of a diphthong which reflected the original vowel sequence. (Cf. Thomas, 1963, 61.) Of lexemes listed by Dempwolff we have with Ach., Cham a : *k'~lc'ak 'house lizard' > Ach. cwa'?, Cham kaca?; *tulak 'to push away' > Ach. tula? 'to ward off, push away', (1) Cham tala? ' to remit a debt' ; *mat'ak (rather *[ Jat'ak ,...., *m-at'ak, *t-at'ak) , ripe, cooked' > Ach. masa?, tasa?, Cham tatha?, Jar. wsa?, Rog. sa'; *'uyat' nerve, vein' > Ach. urat, Cham ara?, ura?, Jar. arat, Rog. ara'; *t'ukat ' to measure' > Ach. sukat, Cham OOka?, ka?, Jar. haka? ; *t'u[,at 'writing, letter' > Ach. surat, Cham hara?, Jar. hra?, Rog. hara'; 11 *[t]apat 'straight' > Ach. topat, Cham tapa?, Jar. wpa?, Rog. dOpaa, NR tupa?; *kat'ap , smoke' > Ach. asab, Cham atka?, too?, Jar. asap apu:i, Rog. sao, NR asa? ;12 *ga'l.lijarJ (,...., *g-ay-~1J4arJ) 'drum' > Ach. gOndrarJ by metathesis; Cham kdnarJ may reflect the simple or the infixed form ; 10 No indication of vowel length appears in Blood (1962). Her material appears to differ dialectally from Moussay's standard, e.g.• to give' and' forehead' rhyme for Moussay (prl:y, thi:y) but not for her (pr~y, thdy). Thomas shows vowel length as distinctive, at least phonetically, in Jarai, Rade, and Cru. 11 This is unlikely to be from Arabic 8ura in view of its occurrence in Malagasy. 12 Dyen reconstructs *[#h]asep, as he does *paqet for *pahat below. This may be ignored; UAN *~ yields consistently Ach. a, Cham short vowel; PMP *e does not, and has its justification outside western Indonesia.
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H. L.SHORTO
*bama!) 'goods, gear' > Ach. bara!) 'goods; ordinary, any', Cham plra!)-plra!) 'everything' (cf. semantically Mal. barang 'any; luggage, goods'); *[']ag'an 'name': *[']a-?J-g'an > Ach. nan, Cham a!)an, !)an, Jar. (tnan, Rog. angan, NR anan. Cham has ut following original nasal in *wmak 'fat' > Ach. lOma? 'fattasting, succulent', Cham limut?, Jar. r'ma?, Rog. lOrna', NR luma? Vowel-medial metathesis is seen in the following: *pilak 'silver' > Ach. pira?, Cham parya?, Jar. pra:k, Rog. pria; *pi!)gan 'dish' > Ach. pi!)an (beside pi!)gan ~ Mal. pinggan) 'pottery plate or dish', Cham pa!)in 'bowl', Jar. p"ftan 'cup', Rog. pongan 'mediumsized bowl '.13 With the principal long-vowel correspondence-Ach. OJ, Cham aI-we have: *li[j]ak ' waves, surf' > Ach. royiXP, riy&P, Cham rayaP; *palag' 'palm of hand' > Ach. palO'Jt, Cham palaP, Jar. pla?, Rog. plaa; *pahat 'chisel' > Ach. phO'Jt 'chisel', Cham phaP, Jar. pha?, Rog. phaa , to chisel ' ; *''Jpat ' four' > Ach. pO'Jt, Cham paP, Jar. pa?, Rog. paa, NR pa?; *k'aba!) 'fork' > Ach. cabOa!) '(forked) branch', Cham caba:!), Jar. t"6a:!) , fork' (with as yet unexplained glottalization in Md.AN) ; *luba!) 'pit' > Ach. lubo'J!) 'puddle of domestic wast~ under house', Cham lipa:!) ,14 ROg. lobang , hole' ; *'uq,a!) ""'"' *huif,a!) = PMP *quDa!) 'prawn, crayfish' > Ach. udo'J!) , Cham haw:!), ta:!), Jar. h'da:!) ; *'uya!) 'human being' > Ach. uroo!), Cham ura:!), Jar. ara!), Rog. arak, NR urak; *t'aha!) , to taste peppery' > Ach. ko?o'J!) , idem " Cham Ma:!) 'sharp and strong (acre et fort)' (beside ha!), Jar. ha!), Rog. hak 'peppery', from the MK cognate); *yuha!) 'space between, interstice' > Ach. ru?o'JrJ 'idem, bay of house', Cham rawa:!) 'bay of house'; *g'Jla!) , bracelet' > Ach. glO'J!) , bracelet, anklet', Cham kla:!), Rog. glaang 'ferrule' ; *[t]ula!) 'bone' > Ach. tulo'J!), Cham tala:!), Jar. tala!), Rog. wlang, NR tulak; *kala!) , coral reef' > Ach. karo'J!) , idem " Cham kara:!) 'polyp' ; *kama!) 'kind of mussel' > Ach. kro'J!) 'small kind of shellfish', Cham kra:!) , mussel' ; *ku1a!) , insufficient' > Ach. kuro'J!) 'idem', Cham karat!) 'to get less, be used up'; 13 For Cham i < *ia following nasal cf. *'i'~[h], pp. 92-3. This word occurs in Malagasy, so is unlikely to be from Persian pingan. a Referred by Mrs. Blood to *l~b~?J 'pit, grave', which the long vowel precludes our doing.
454
ACHINESE AND MAINLAND At"STRONESIAN
87
*hud/an 'rain' > Ach. ujo,m, Oham haca:n, cam, Jar. h(Jjam, Rog. hajaan, NR hujat; *[£l¢]ahan 'branch' > Ach. dkO(Jn, Oham toom, Jar. thaIn, ROg. than; *[t]ijan 'belly' > Ach. tio(Jn 'foetus', Oham tyam, Jar. ki:an, Rog. tian , belly' (for semantics of Ach. cf. Mal. tian ' womb' and Ach. motiom, Oham pa? tya:n, Jar. -ki:an, Rog. motian ' (to be) pregnant ') ; *bulan 'moon, month' > Ach. bulo(Jn, Oham pUa:n, lam, Jar. blaIn, Rog. blaan, bOlaan; *papan ' board, plank' > Ach. papo(Jn, Oham papaIn, ROg. kOpan ; *lipan 'centipede': *li-m-pan > Ach. limpo(Jn; Oham lipam, Jar. r'pa:n, Rog. lapaat mayor may not reflect the form with nasal augment; *hu[t]an 'forest' > Ach. utO(Jn 'forest', Oham hata:n, tam' jungle-[fowl] '. Oham a: corresponds to Ach. 0 following a secondary nasal and in two instances following h. This last development, diverging from that in *pahat, *[£l¢]ahan above, must be characterized as sporadic. Thus: *pm.uJak 'short' > Ach. pano"? 'short', Oham panaP 'not having long to live'; *kambafj , to swell, bloom' > Ach. komofj, Oham kama:fj , parched rice' ; 15 *h Cham karaP , psoriasis'; Mal. kurap , ringworm ' -- Ach. kuraM j I have not included all variant spellings here. This may well be one of phonologioallength. Thomas (1963, 61) remarks that the current orthographies of Rade, Jar., and Cru employ tone marks to symbolize pitch features which are 'conditioned by length and glottal stop '. cr. also Smalley (1954) for pitch as an exponent of vowel length in Sre, a MK language in contact with Rog. 19 Of the equivalent correspondences referable to DempwolfI about half reflect *a. If this proportion holds good in the non-referable material, another three could be added to our list. 17
18
456
ACHINESE AND MAINLAND AUSTRONESIAN
89
*gilarJ 'to glitter' > Cham Tcala:rJ-kdlo:y 'beaming [face]'; Mal. gilang , glittering' ~ Ach. gilarJ-gumilarJ~ ; *'ikan 'fish' > Cham ika:n, ka:n, Jar. aka:n, Rag. akan, NR ikdt; Mal. ikan ~ Ach. ikan (in certain collocations, beside orJkot) ; *d'alan 'path, road' > Cham cala:n, Jar. jala:n, Rog. jolaan, NR jazat; Mal. jalan ~ Ach. jalan~ This item, though basic, is a likely topic of bilingual inquiry. There are three other anomalous cases. Cham vocalism as well as length, and NR vowel marking, are unexplained in the reflexes of *tarJan 'hand': Ach. tarJOn' forepaw', Cham tarJin, Jar. wrJa:n, Rag. tOngan, NR tarJan' hand '. Cham p~la:rJ 'variegated' may perhaps represent an infixed derivate of *balarJ, but the voiceless initial and vocalism of Ach. plarJ are then both obscure. Finally, *vanan (= PAN *uan1ai) 'right-hand' yields Ach. unOn normally, but the Md.AN forms suggest a revised reconstruction of the base. They are: Cham hanu?, nu?, Jar. kmu:a?, Rag. hiinoa, noa, NR hanuak (with vowelmedial metathesis throughout; NR -k from stop following nasal). In *bi[t]uMn = PAN *bi(N)t1uq-anl (and -anI) 'star' > Cham patu'.>, Jar. p·tu'.>, p'tut, Rag. bOtOu, NR pitu? we have Cham -?, etc., < *-Mn.20 I shall therefore propose PAN *[q?]uan1aqai ; 21 the presumed development is something like *-han > *-tI> *-t > -?, and the short vowel results either in the special case or from vowel-medial metathesis. We have had, in the material for which Dempwolff provides reconstructions, 45 examples of the regular correspondences against 8 contrary ones, for most of which explanations could be suggested. Short-vowel correspondences accounted for just under a third of the regular examples. At this point it is appropriate to quote Dyen (1951, 534), writing in support of his first proposal to add a new phoneme to the PMP inventory: ' ... changes within the daughter languages other than phonetic change ... cannot be a solution for a hitherto unassigned correspondence found in a set of otherwise systematic comparisons (1) if the correspondence is found in a position not subject to the effects of analogy and (2) if two or more languages exhibit respectively the same (or identifiable) unanticipated correspondents in each case. Borrowing in great quantity from other dialects or from related languages might produce such an effect if only one language were concerned, but it is hardly likely to do so in two languages independently'. It may possibly be argued that the more frequent long-vowel set of correspondences represents the regular development in the languages under examination, and that the short-vowel set results from 20 Ach. is here not available for comparison, having binta1J < *binta1J. Note, however, (i) Ach. ba1Jkua1J 'species of pandanus' < *ba1J-kuva1J = PMP *b[ae]1Jkuqa1J, where Cham has hab:? ' P. utili8' perhaps from a variant-prefix form; (ii) Ach. gaaim 'poor' (: Mal. kaaihan 'pity'); Cham kath'Jt, Rag. kOsot, where doublets *kat'ih[~]n """ *kat'uh[~]n might be reconstructed. 21 On Md.AN h- here cf. p. 90, n. 25, below.
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borrowing. Any such argument would have to account for borrowing affecting very largely the same set of lexemes in both Ach. and Md.AN, and would seemingly entail recognizing a' proto-Achino-Cham' stage in which a substantial part of the horrowing took place. But the creation of so fundamental a distinction as that of vowel length by borrowing seems intrinsically unlikely. On the other hand, contact with MK languages, in many of which (as in PMK) a vowel-length distinction operates, would favour the retention of an original distinction conceivably lost elsewhere.
2. THE LARYNGEALS The evidence of the Mainland languages and Ach. agrees well with Dyen's reconstructions of *q so far as initial and final position are concerned. To this extent it supports Dyen against Dempwolff, with whose *' and *h it yields no consistent correlations. It does not ordinarily provide differentia for Dyen's *zero and *h/*8 22 in these positions (see, however, the discussion in section 3 of the divergent treatment of PMP *baba and *ku8ku8). Initially it appears that *zero and both laryngeals merge as zero (glottal stop?) in Ach., the relatively few words with initial h being loans. Md.AN has regularly h- < PMP *q-, and zero (or glottal stop, as noted by Mrs. Blood for Cham and by Mrs. Thomas for Jarai, Rade, and Cru) < PMP *zero, *h- (*8_),23 though Cham, usually in byforms, may drop either type of presyllable. 24 Cf. e.g.: *'u19g' = PMP *qulpj 'worm, maggot' > Ach. ulat, Cham kala?, Jar. Mat, Rog. kala', NR hula? ; *huijip = P:NIP *quDip 'to live' > Ach. udeb, deb, Cham kat1w?, t1w?, Jar. hOdi:p, Rog. haju, NR hadiu? ; *'ikuy = PMP *ikuR 'tail' > Ach. iku, Cham iku:, Jar. aku:, Rog. aku, NRiku; *'a?Jin ~ *ha?Jin = PMP *ha?Jin 'wind' > Ach. a?Jen, Cham a?Jin, ?Jin, Rog. angin, Jar., NR a?Jin. 25 22 Dyen (1965a) substituted *8 for what he had earlier (1953b) reconstructed as *h., to take account of the reflex 8 found in some Formosan languages. I reproduce PMP forms with *l! or *8 according to the source from which they are quoted . • 3 Bochet anu Dournes's transcription of Rog. has somc inconsistencies.-Bloou (1962) anu Thomas (1963) make the same formulation. But they confuse the issue by reproducing a melange of PMP and arbitrarily rewritten UAN; hau either direct access to Dyen (1953b)? Mrs. Blood appears not to have realized that he sometimes reconstructed zero. 24 Bloou (1962, 12) indicates that such aphacretic forms are a colloquialism avoiueu by literates. 25 The following cases require comment (against 26 straightforward ones, plus 6 more where Dahl has auded to Dycn's reconstructions). P}IP *abuh. = ·'abu' 'ash' rests on Tongan e!u, since Mal. has doublets abu, habu. Dahl, quoting the PMP form without comment as *qabuh, reconstructs PA..~ *qabu, which fits Cham hapjw (and p~w), Jar. h'ba:o t'pu:r, NR hav~u ' ash " Rog. habau 'ash', habOu 'dust'. Perhaps uoublets should be reconstructed. PMP *qayun = *'ajun 'to swing' rests on the dubiolls comparison of Tagalic words meaning' to agree', , to conform' and is contradicted by Cham a!Jun ' hammock' (beside yun ' hammock, to shake
458
ACHlNESE AND MAINLAND AUSTRONJo;SIAN
91
The corresponding PMP finals yield respectively -h and zero in Ach. as well as Md.AN (PMP *-a, *-ah > Ach. -:J?) following nasal). Cf. e.g.: *'iyah = PMP *iRaq 'red': *m-iRaq > Ach. mirah, Cham mwryah, Jar. dial. mri:ah, Rog. moriah, NR mariah; *bat'ah = PMP *baseq 'wet' > Ach. basah, Cham pathah, Jar. p'sah, Rog. bOsah, NR pasah ; *iJuva' = PMP *DewSaa 'two' > Ach. dua, Cham twei:, Jar. dual, Rog., NRdua; *tuha' ("" *tuva') = PMP *tuqaS14 'old' > Ach. tuha, Cham taha:, Jar. that, Rog. tahaa. Medially we find a more complex state of affairs. Ach. and Md.AN both yield three sets of correspondences which, if a 'proto-Achino-Cham' were to be postulated, might be referred to PAC *zero -=1= *? -=1= *h. ' PAC *h' again generally corresponds to PMP *q. 'PAC *zero" and' *?', however, do not show any such neat correlation with PMP *zero and *h/*S.26 This material will be examined more extensively. PMP *-q- is usually reflected as Ach., Md.AN -h-. Where the initial consonant is a stop the first vowel is lost in all languages unless it is a high vowel and the second a low one (as in *tuqaS, above; cf. UAN *tija?), *tuvan, p.92, n. 27); Ach. may have variants with 0. Cf. e.g. : *paha' = PMP *paqa[ ] 'thigh' > Ach. plw" poha, Cham, Jar. plw,:, Rog. pha, NR -pha ; *tahun = PMP *taqun 'year' > Ach. tMn, Cham, Jar., Rog. thun, NR thut. The trisyllabic type of *bi[t]uhan = PMP *bituqen, etc., 'star' > Cham patu?, etc. (p. 89 above), is a special case of the rule. [something] '). It should be discarded. PMP *[gh]andep = UAN *ha-n-d~p 'front' can be rewritten *handep on the strength of Cham ana?, Jar_ anap 'in front (of) '. *hantu' = PMP "'gantu[ #h] , ghost' yields Rag. Mtiiu ' grave' if that is correctly recorded; Cham alow ' spirit of the dead " Jar_ alo:o ' corpse', Rag. alau ' dead person' must be derived from the doublet UAN *'anitu' 'dead soul '. PlIlP/PAN *g- can now be reconstructed in the following cases: ·'ag'arJ' charcoal' > Cham !tataV (and tarJ), Jar. hfJdarJ, Rag. (h)adak; *'ulun' servant' > Cham, Rag_ halun 'idem', Jar. Mu:n 'slave'; *hid'av' green' > Cham hacd:w (and cti:w); *hutJi" rear' > Cham !tatty (and tty), Rag_ Mddei, had6i, adae' after, behind'; *hud'urJ' end, tip' > Cham hacurJ' top of tree " Jar_ h'ju:V 'point, top of tree or roof', Rag. hajung, hajuk, hOdiong , end, tip, point, top of tree'. In certain items where DempwolfI reconstructs *v- (rewritten by Dahl as *u-), or where Dahl reconstructs *uV-, *q must be inserted in the reconstruction, though at what point is not clear. }Id.AI.~ has initial zero (or glottal stop) in Cham alty, etc., 'younger sibling' < *'ag'i' = PAN "'[qu]ag'i (so rather *uag'i); Cham alhow, etc., 'dog' < ""at'u' = PMP *Wasu[ ] = PAN *ual"u; Cham it-itrJ, etc., 'nose' < *'ig'urJ, with *"ug'urJ provisionally = PAN *uig'urJ. It has hin Cham hany, Jar. h,.:i, Rag.1u5re, NR hurai' sun, day' < *vayi' = PAN *uayi; Cham hanu?, etc., 'right-hand' < *vallan = PAN *ua~ai (rather *[ ]uan1aqai: p. 89 above). Note also Ach. ukMa, Cham aklvi:, klul:, Jar. akha:, NR ukha' root', but Rag. akua, < *vakaUJ,.., ·'akaU] = PAN *uakad 2 • 26 The situation is morc complex than envisaged in Blust (1973), whcre Jar. 6- (one case of PAC *-?-; see below) is taken to be the regular reflex of *bVS-.
459
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H. L. SHORTO
The only exceptions are *tahan = PMP *[tTJahan (Dyen, 1953a, p. 12 and n. 44, assuming borrowing in Javanese to accommodate the Tagalic cognates; rather *taqan, with borrowing or a doublet in Tagalic 1) 'to endure' > Ach. t(o)lWn, Cham thaIn, etc. (p. 87 above); *luval = PMP *luqar 'outside' > Ach. loo (possibly +- Mal. luar ' outer part, external', but Dahl reconstructs PAN *loor; Cham lirJi:w, rJi:w, Jar. ga:h r'rJia:o 'outside, exterior', < *l-irJ-u[ Jar, are compatible with either reconstruction under the trisyllabic rule); *yuharJ = PMP *RuqarJ 'space between, interstice' > Ach. ru?oorJ 'idem, bay of house', Cham rawa:rJ 'bay of house' (p. 86 above). Cf. also *t'uhun = PAN *t'uqui, p. 94 below.27 There is some evidence from MK loans that PMP *q was indeed a stop rather than a spirant, and that the sound change *q > h in Ach. and Md.AN postdated the earliest stratum of borrowings. Thus PMK *k?iim 28 underlies Ach. khem (beside /rem) 'to laugh " Cham khim-kla:w 'to smile', while Cham liphOn, Rog. lOhmon represent early and Cham liman later borrowings from a reflex of PMK *l-m-? Ach. bah, Cham pfJ:h, Jar. ba:h, Rog. boh, NR vah (the vocalism suggests a metathetic *bauq) ; *luvat' = PMP *luas 'to issue, emerge[, extend]' > Ach. looih 'broad, wide', Cham liwah, Rog. luah 'space' (cf. semantically Mal. luas 'broad, wide '). Dyen has reconstructed *h/*S in three instances, all similarly involving high vowel followed by low vowel: *'i' Ach. tiha?}; *tuvan' master' > Ach. tuhan, beside toon +- Mal. toon; but Ach. pralw • fishing. boat ' is probably +- Mal. perahu • boat, ship' < *poJ.ahu· (cf. on the last two items Dyen, 1953b, § 168). Cf. also PMP *zaqit • to sew', p. 94 below. 28> Old Mon k'im, Vietnamese chim. 29> e.g. Sre 16b6n, Bahnar ramu·;m. 30 > e.g. Mon oik, Sre ee, Bahnar i· k, i· c. 31 Noted also by Thomas for Jar.; thus for' belly' she has kyan (i.e. kya:n).
460
ACHINESE AND MAINLAND AUSTRONESIAN
93
Jar. m".rw?,:foa? v., ROg. m-iah n. (*-q > *-k probably by laryngeal dissimilation following *?_; cf. PMP *pahuq, below); *OO'at = PMP *buhat 'to make, do' > Ach. buat 'work', NR '()a? vuii? 'to work', (*b-aR-uhat » Cham priP, Jar. bru:a?, Rog. brua' 'work'; *iJ,uva' = PMP *DewSaa ' two' > Ach. dua, Cham twa:, etc. (p. 91 above). For Ach. lua < PMP *luqar see p. 92 above; Ach. ba'()kua'() < PMP *b[ae]'()kuqa'() (p. 89, n. 20) is probably a special trisyllabic development. Dyen has made no reconstructions in the following nine instances: (vowels high-low) *lija' 'ginger' > (Mal. ha-lia ~ Ach. halia,) Cham liya:, Jar. r'ya:; *[t]uvah 'luck' > Ach. tuah, Cham twah, pa-twah, Rog. m6-tuah; *[t]uva'() , to cast in metal' > Ach. tua'(); *la'()ku[v]at' , kind of plant' > Ach. la'()kuiYah, Cham likwah ' galanga '; (vowels high-high) *[']iju'() , to miaow ' > Ach. io'() ; *[']iju'() 'mynah' > Ach. t-io,() , Cham t-yJ:'(), (?) Jar. ci:m jJ:'(); *bali[j]u'() (rather *bal-i[j]u'(), *[']i[j]u'() 1) 'kind of adze' > Ach. blio'() 'large adze', (1) Cham adJ:,(), co:'() 'axe with counter-balance', Jar. jJ:,(), Rog. jok 'axe'; *k'ijum' to sniff, nose-kiss' > Ach. com, Cham, Rog. cum, Jar. cu:m; (vowels low-high) *[t']a[j]i['] , who 1 ' > Ach. SJ'iJ, Cham they. , PAC *_?_, subsumes (i) medial glottal stop in Mainland languages (so noted by Blood and Thomas; indicated in Cham by the writing of successive vowels and in Jar. by that of'iJ followed by another vowel; written' usually in Rog. and by a hyphen in NR); (ii) actual or reconstructible glottalized consonants in Mainland languages (including Cham b, d versus low-tone p, t, and NR b versus v), reflecting PAC *bV?_; *dV?-, *nV?-; (iii) medial glottal stop in Ach.; (iv) zero initial (glottal stop 1) in Ach. accompanied by loss of the first syllable of the UAN base; this corresponds to (ii) and some cases of (i). PAC *_?- corresponds to Dyen's *zero in three instances, embracing both high-high and low-high vocalism: *nijuy = PMP *niuR = PAN *niuy , coconut' > Ach. u, Cham liu:, Rog. lii'u (Mainland l- confirms, against Dyen, the *n- restored by Dahl; see section 4 below) ; *la'ud = PMP *laud ' sea' > Ach. la?ot ; *t'avuh = PMP *sauq' anchor' > Ach. sa?oh. Dyen has reconstructed *h/*S in six instances, with high-high, low-high, and in one case high-low vocalism: *[t]u'ud = PMP *[tTJuhu[dj] 'knee' > Ach. tiPot, Cham tauP, Jar. k'-t'iJut; *OO'uk = PMP *OOS14ek[ ] 'hair' > Ach. o? (beside bu?o?, characterized as an archaic form by Cowan: 1948, 433), Cham but?, Jar. 6uk, Rog. boo, NR biP; *na'ik = PMP *nahik ' to go up , > Ach. e?, Cham diP, Jar. rfi?, Rog. ddii; *da'un = PMP *Dahun ' leaf' > Ach. on ; *pa'uh = PMP *pahuq 'kind of tree' > Ach. pa?oh 'wild mango', Cham PaJ:?, Jar. pJ-:P, Rog. po'oo 'mango tree' (Md.AN, but here not Ach., *-k by laryngeal dissimilation; cf. PMP *[ ]is,eq, above) ;
461
94
H. J.. SHORTO
*bu'at = PMP *buhat ' to lift' > Ach. (bot by paronymic attraction of bot 'to pull up .. .' < *butbut, p. 95 below,) biPot, bb"?uat 'to lift up, pick up '.32 Dyen's reconstruction of *Za[h#]uq to unify the UAN doublets *d'a'uh and *da''dh ' distant' is put in doubt by the Ach. and Md.AN reflexes: Ach. jiPoh, ji?oh ' distant', ;)h ' distance', Cham had;Jh, d;)h 'distant'. First, in view of the discrepant vocalism Ach. jij?oh etc. cannot be treated as byforms of ;)h standing as bu?o? to o? Secondly, PMP *Z- yields PAC *j-, Cham low-tone c- ; it cannot be shown that PAC *jV?- does not yield Cham d-, but since Cham has a glottalized 'j 33 such a development is implausible. I shall assign Ach. jij?oh, ji?oh to UAN *d'a'uh and Ach. ;)h, Cham d;)h to *da'uh, so corrected; 34 Cham had;Jh must represent a prefixed form of some kind. Dyen has made no reconstructions in the following four instances (with high-high, low-low, and low-high vocalism): *t'uhun' to carry on head ' > Ach. sij?on ' idem', Cham haun 'to put pad on head in order to carry load' (here Dahl has reconstructed PAN *t'uqui; so *-?- perhaps by spirant dissimilation) ; *t'aha'i) 'to taste peppery' > Ach. kiPo'd'i), Cham 7.:00:1) (p. 86 above); *t' ahu[dg'] 'to answer' > Ach. siPot; *lijan (""' *lajin) 'to change' > Ach. la?en 'other' (and Mal. lain' (an)other, different ').35 I have noted three cases where the Ach. reflex is at variance with the Md.AN ones. Ach. zero with vowel syncope corresponds to Mainland glottal reflexes in *ba'u' = PMP *bahu ' smell[, to smell] , > Ach. be'd; Cham b;)w, Jar. 6v:o, Rog. bbou, NR cu-biju. Ach.? corresponds to Mainland zero in *yuha1) = PMP *Ruqa'i) 'space between .. .' > Ach. ru?o'd1); Cham rawa:1) (p. 86 above), perhaps as a result of contamination with *Iuva'() 'aperture, hole' (= PMP *ru[h#]a'(), cf. Javanese rong). It corresponds to Mainland h in *d'ahit = PMP *zaqit ' to sew' > Ach. ja?et; Cham chiP, Jar. jhi:k, Rog. sii, NR cM? (Here we might expect Ach. **jhet. jh- is not in fact attested before front vowels; ja?et perhaps arises by arbitrary deformation to avoid homophony with jahet , to increase " from Arabic zii'id.) Finally, the word for' water' shows a sequence of glottal and zero reflexes. For UAN *vaj'dy Dyen proposed *wa[h#]iR. In PAN *uai'dY Dahl effectively 32 I take Dempwolff's *b'u'at, and Dyen's *buhat, to conflate two bases meaning (i) , to make, do', (ii) 'to lift'; both must be reconstructed as PMP *buhat (*buSat) according to Dyen's principles. To the first I refer Old Javanese bu;at 'made " Mal. buat 'to do, build', Malagasy vuatra ' to arrange', Bisayan buhat 'to work " and the forms cited on p. 93 above; to the second, Toba Batak buat 'taken away', Jayanese a-bot' heavy, weight', bo-bot 'weight', wo-wot-an 'load', mot' loaded " Mal. muat, Ngaju Dayak buat 'load', Tagalog bu:hat 'raised high " Bisayan buhat 'to raise', etc. Ach. bo?ot perhaps from a metathetic *ba'ut; but all three variants show the effect of contamination, which must account for the retention of bO- in bo?ot, b6?u~t (contrast o?, bu?o? above). 33 Written by a modified form of the palatal nasal. See Moussay (1971, p. xviii) . • & UAN *~ on the strength of Toba Batak 0, but this sometimes reflects *u (Dyen, 1951, 538) . •• For PAC *-1- \\"c can add some items not found in Dempwolff, and not known to be borrowed from ~IK: Ach. ell, Cham dih, Jar. ai:h, Rug. ddih, NR aih ' to lie down, sleep'; Ach. i~m, l\lal. diam' silent'; Ach. u~?' white woodworm', Chamhadol, do?' rotten [wood]' (?); Ach. kO?i~rJ, l.;i?i~U, Cham kairJ ' waist'; Ach. -mo?en, Cham 'inUl'in, Rug. tn(,;)hin, NR mn-ill, Mal. main' to play'; Ach. po?ct, Jal". rniii:t, Sea Dayak pait '" mait ' to send'.
462
95
ACHINESE AND MAINLAND AUSTRONESIAN
restores Dempwolff's construction, while denying phonemic status to the contoid/vocoid distinction in DAN *v/*u, *j/*i (which is not constant in all now reported material). In Ach. i Ach. ku ' to grate' ; 36
Confirmed by Blood. Cham distinguishes ?y- ¥= y-.
463
96
R. L. SHORTO
*kuykuy , to hold fast' > Ach. kay' firm, stout'; *k'itk'it' chirrup' > Ach. eet-eet onomatope for cry of house-lizard; *lunlun' to swallow up , > Ach. wn , extinguished '; *t' akt' ak ' to thrust in ' > Ach. sa? ' to stick in, insert, put in ' ; *t'ukt'uk 'to insert, stick in ' > Ach. so?; *d'agd' ag *d''dfJd''dfJ 'to get a foothold' > Cham cd? 'to plant one's feet firmly, to climb [stair] '; *d'avd'av 'to stand' > Jar.ji:y, Rog.jiYng' to be, exist '.37 There are several exceptions to the general rule. (i) In a number of onomatopes with fin~l plosive Ach. preserves the final consonant of the first syllable, inserting an anaptyctic 0 where appropriate; simplified forms may exist as doublets. Thus *hikhik 'to titter' > Ach. khi?-khi?, Cham kla:w hi?-hi?; *pukpuk 'to strike with a tool' > Ach. kopo?, po?, po?-po? 'to slap, clap' ; *taktak 'to knock, rap' > Ach. kota?-koto? ' rhythmic striking'; *tuktuk' to knock' > Ach. to?-to? ' (to sound a) clapper', kota?-koto? ' rhythmic striking', and secondarily to?, to?-to? ' to rap, tap'. (ii) Reduplications with plosive initial and nasal final are not simplified in Cham, presumably as a result of early assimilation of the first-syllable nasal to the following stop. Thus *di?Jdi?J 'wall, partition' > Cham tani:?J '(to erect a) partition'; *tivtiy 'to sift by shaking' > Ach. teV, tev-tev, Cham tati?J, katiy. (Evidence for Md.AN languages other than Cham is lacking.) 38 (iii) If Cham papah 'to wash [clothes] , is ascribed to *pat'pat' 'to shake (out), clean " a similar restriction must be stated for forms in *-t'. (This is a single instance. Ach. keh-keh, Cham kakeh ' to scratch' are to be referred to *ka'it' , to scratch the ground' in view of their vocalism, but Cham may show contamination with *kit'kit' , to scrape' or with a MK form-Cowan, 1948, 502, in fact treats Ach. keh-keh as a MK loan.) (iv) Ach. radoab, radoab 'Erythrina indica' < *rJaprJap, which cannot readily be accounted for by borrowing, shows a dissimilation which like the assimilation in (ii) must antedate the operation of the main rule. The same dissimilation is seen in radom 'dark' < *rJarJa-m, but not in dada 'chest' < *rJarJa'; and we have d- < *rJ- in e.g. dara 'virgin' < *rJaya', dua 'two' < *rJuva'.39 I shall attribute to borrowing the following seven items, the first four of which are specifically marked as loans by the non-simplification of the voiced medial cluster following initial plosive: *ba?JbaV 'broad, extensive' > Mal. bambang' [sun] appearing large [at sunset, sunrise] .. .' - ? Ach. bambaV ' orange [sun at sunset] '; *rf.'iYYYIi!am' to keep silent' > Mal. dendam ' longing' ---+ Ach. dOndam ' to long for'; *d'u?Jd'uV 'to carry on head' > Mal. junjong , idem' !"'oJ
31 Cowan (1948) proposes MK etymologies for Ach. bot, b'O, Ion. The second is certainly invalid and the others seem inferior to the straightforward AN derivation. 38 Cham at~:'O, t~:'O, Rag. atong • to beat', Jar. "to:'O, to:'O • to beat drum' are not < *tu'Otu'O but - Mal. genggam ' to grasp in fist ' -+ Ach. g01Jgam ' fist '; *tiktik' to tick' > Mal. titek , drop, drip' -+ Ach. tite? ' idem'; *t'alt'al' to regret' > Mal. sesal ' remorse, regret' -+ Ach. sosay 'idem'; *t'ubt'ub' to slip off' > Mal. susup 'to creep, crawl, under' -+ Ach. susob 'to slip [something] under '. -+ Ach.
Dempwolff's constructions of fully reduplicated forms are not complete. Since his *' is in effect a zero consonant,40 and since he never writes medial *-'C-, a form such as *baba' is ambiguous between 2(CV)C and 2(CVC) if' zero' is included in the consonant system. Furthermore, he reconstructs no instances of 2(CVC) in which C2 is *h. Dyen, whose laryngeal hypothesis enlarged this neutral zone by a term, has in his later work made reconstructions of both 2(CV)C and 2(CVC) type within it. There is evidence for a distinction of this kind in PAC, though the evidence is niggardly in amount and the distinction partly secondary. We have, first, *baba' = PMP *baba 'to bring' > Ach. ba, Cham pal, Jar. bat, Rog. baa-so 2(CVC)-versus e.g. *ijaija' , chest, thorax' > Ach. dada, Cham tata:, Jar. dial. tiJda:, Rog. tOdaa; *kuku' = PMP *kuS 2kuS 2 'nail, claw' > Ach. gukea, Cham kakow, Jar. takv:o, Rog. (!) kiiu. These suggest some such reconstructions as PAC *baba, < PMP *baba, versus PAC *dada?, < PMP *DaDaS or *DaSDaS, etc. The PAC distinction must be secondary, since we are assuming PMP *kuSkuS > PAC *kuku?, with loss of *S medially before consonant; this rules out any possibility of PAC *2(CV?).41 Secondly, we have *bubuh 'to place, put' > Ach. boh, Cham pu:h-so again 2(CVC)-versus e.g. *babah 'mouth' > Ach. babah, Cham papa:h, Jar. b'bah, m'bah, Rog. baba, NR muvah; *mamah = PMP *mamaq 'to chew' > Ach. marrwh, Cham mutmut:h, Jar. mall, m'mah, Rog. bamah. Here the required PAC forms must be *buhbuh versus *babah, etc., preserving an original PMP distinction in *buqbuq and *babaq. (Dyen, 1965a, has a reconstruction of the first type in *paQUJUQl' which replaces his 1953 *paqepaq = UAN *papah in *p-al-apah; *Ql here noting a particular set' of irregular reflexes otherwise subsumable under *q.) Partial reduplications are not simplified; cf. besides the putative examples just cited e.g. *t'it'i[l] 'comb' > Ach. sisi 'comb of bananas', Cham tathi:, Jar. t'si:' comb, comb of bananas " Rog. gosi' comb', dosii' comb of bananas '. Three apparent exceptions in Ach. are to be attributed to borrowing from MK : peh 'to grind [currystuffs]' (PMK *piS42), beside pipeh < *pipit'; pot' to cf. Dahl (1973, ch. vi). Dahl reconstructs a variant *kuS to account for an infixed form in one Formosan language, but it seems far· fetched to invoke it to explain the divergent Rog. reflex. Note that I am now proposing a PAC three·term laryngeal/zero distinction in final position, later in part neutralized, which parallels the medial one but unlike it can be derived from Dyen's reconstructions, U > e.g. Old Mon pis, Bahnar pe·h. 40
U
465
98
H. L. SHORTO
blow' (PMP *puut 43 rather than < DAN *puput); tab 'to close, cover' (PMK *tup; 44 Cham hatu?, tu? 'lid of pot' is from a related form), beside tutob < *tutup 'to cover'. For two other exceptions I propose to construct byforms. *dadav' to heat' yields Ach. dado(J1J 'to dry over fire' regularly, but Ach. dang-dang , cauldron' appears to reflect rather *da1Jda1J,45 to which Mal. dandang , idem' could be and Cebuano Visayan dangdang , to heat gently' is probably to be referred. Ach. lilet 'coiling round' is regular from *lilit 'to wind round " but if Cham liP, Rog. lii 'to roll between fingers' are connected a variant *litlit must be constructed. 46 . The development examined in this section has to be considered in the light of the structural patterns not of AN only but also of Austric. The latter appears to have had both simple and reduplicated CVC forms; at any rate both occur in Munda and, marginally, in MK. MK, however, in the course of a general development towards monosyllabism in the root, typically generalized the simple form while conversely AN generalized the reduplicated one. We have therefore to decide whether the monosyllabic forms of Ach. and Md.AN are simple or simplified ones; whether they are retentions from Austric or a special development from the canonical AN structure. The answer must partly depend on the assumed chronology of the differentiating MK and AN developments; proximity to MK-speakers is likely to have played a part in either case. 47 But the exception rules set out on p. 96 seem decisive for simplification against retention, since they specify changes operating on a typically AN form and removing it from the class of full reduplications on which the main rule, subsequently, operates. Reflexes of 2(CVC) forms in Gayo, the language spoken inland of Ach., give a hint of the course such a simplification may have taken. Gayo has e.g. pep;)k 'to tap, slap' < *pukpuk, tenting' to sift by shaking' < ti1Jti1J. The antecedent stressing of the second syllable of reduplications which this implies parallels the stress pattern of word reduplications in Mon 48 and at least some other MK languages; it is likely to be a contact phenomenon. We may postulate e.g. *pitpit> *pit'pit > *p(Jpit> *ppit> Ach. pet, etc. Of the exception rules, (iii) and (iv) are relatively trivial, and need be given no great weight. Considering only rules (i) and (ii), it is striking that they differentiate Ach. and ~Id.AN, testifying to an independent development in each case. The origin of rule (i) is likely to have been dialectal and its spread limited, since it gives rise to doublets. But in view of the priority of the exception rules as a whole, the evidence for a common PAC simplification of
> >
e.g. Kensiu (Semang) pat, Palaung put. e.g. Sakai tup; Mon Itatvp , cover, lid'. 4,~ Note the' vowel-length' difference in the Ach. forms! U To which, if Ach. and Toba Batak Wit-along with Karo Batak lilit ' coil', Gayo lilit , bend, coil '--are assumed to be loans from Mal. lilit, the remaining forms cited by Dempwolft· can equally well be referred. 47 Though similar reflexes are apparently found in Borneo languages; Blust (1973) fjuotes Bintulu keb 'lid, cover', presumably < UAN *kabkab. 48 As in proh ' to be fjuick " pl"oh proh [pr~'proh] , quickly'. 43
44
466
99
ACHINBRB AND MAINI,AND AUSTRONJ.}8IAN
reduplicates must be reckoned a good deal weaker than that from the vowellength and medial-laryngeal correspondences. 4.
MisCELLANEOUS
It remains to consider a number of minor points of phonology and to note some shared morphological peculiarities in lexical items. None of these have great evidential value in themselves, but taken together with the points discussed in the last three sections they serve to strengthen the general argument. We may note, first, the shared development *n- > *l- > l-, Jar. r- (except, in part, before PAC *_?-: cf. *na'ik and *nijuy, p. 93).49 Thus we have *nipit' 'thin' > Ach. lipek, Cham lipik, Jar. r'pi:k, Rog. lopik, NR lupik; *nupi' (and/or *nu-m-pi') 'dream[, to dream] , > Ach. lumpJa n., Cham lipey, Jar. fapa:i, Rog. lopoei v. In *nanak 'pus' > Ach. danok, Jar. [i:a] r"nak,50 Ach. d- results from the nasal dissimilation next considered. Dempwolff notes as an 'unexplained irregularity' Toba Batak libuy 'kind of palm' from *nibU'lj. Though Ach. has niboy ~ Mal. nibong, may not libu1J be a loan from a supplanted earlier Ach. form ? 51 Dissimilatory replacement of an initial nasal by a stop, as in Ach. danJk < *nanah above, appears to be shared in *ltamuk ' mosquito' > Ach . .jam~P, Cham cam:P, Rog.jomu' (contrast the mixed reflexes in *nava' 'spirit' > Ach . .JWWJrJ 'soul, spirit', Cham yawa:, Jar. JUJa 'breath " Rog. jua 'breath', yoa ' air " NR lawa 'breath'; Ach. has also yw,la < *nala' 'flame', .J~aJwa, flai-flai < *tl,a1l,i' 'singing, to sing ',flata < *'/wta' , clear, distinct '). A shared dissimilatory replacement of *-k by *-k has already been noted in connexion with *'i'a[h] 'urine' (pp. 92-3), though in *pa'uh 'kind of tree ' . (p. 93) only Md.AN and not Ach. shows such a shift. Lexica. We have already noted some items where the evidence both of Ach. and of Md.AN seems to call for revision of previous reconstructions: , root', p. 91, n. 25; 'water', pp. 94-5. For *bid'[i'] , seed' we have Ach. bijeh, Cham pace:h, Jar. p'jt:h, Rog. boje, NR vijeh, which suggest PAN *bid,[aa]iq. Dempwolff's *bid'[i'] implies' *bid'i' or *bid'uj', but only Toba Batak biji , a coin', conceivably a loan, impedes the reconstruction of UAN *bid'aj. If PAN *-aiq or *-airj can be shown to be compatible with Mal., Javanese -i, it should be reconstructed here. 52 It need not occasion comment that in a number of cases Ach. and l\1d.AN both show reflexes of a nasal-augment form not previously cited. But •• It is unlikely that the 1'eflexes of *na'ik concelll an intermediate *l?- in "iew of Ach. Irt?ol *hl'ud, ibid . •" Blood (1962) notes Uham lini:h, sc. liltUlh in our transcription. 51 Ach. na16JrJ (p. 88 above), from II base reconstructible as *Ia/'tl), may show the l'Csult, of hypercorrection; it is not a regular dissimilation. 5. Ach. has also jadeh ' to happen' : Mal., Toba Batak .indi, Javanese rladi < "d'ad'i' = P:~IP *.,arli; sc. PAN *d'ad[aa]iq?