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Art. IV.—An Account of the Malay “Chiri” a Sanskrit Formula

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

W. E. Maxwell
W. E. Maxwell
Affiliation:
Colonial Civil Service
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Extract

The presence of a large number of Sanskrit words in the Malay language has often been pointed out, and the purity with which they are reproduced has been a subject of remark, showing, as it probably does, that they have been borrowed direct from the parent-language, and not from any of the Sanskrit-derived languages of India. Their sense, equally with their pronunciation, has varied little, and though many of them are more commonly met with in books than in the colloquial dialects, they are more completely part of the language than the ever-increasing crowd of Arabic words which have been introduced into it since the faith of El-Islam became established among the Malays. There is no documentary evidence, however, to show that the Sanskrit character was ever known to the Malays. What their alphabet was before the introduction of the Arabic character, or whether they ever possessed one, is unknown, though it has been conjectured that the Battak alphabet, or one closely resembling it, may have been in use among them.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1881 , pp. 80 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1881

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References

page 80 note 1 On this subject see “Ueber den Ursprung der Schrift der Malayschen Völker,” von Dr. Friedrich Müller. Wien, 1865.Google Scholar

page 81 note 1 Chiri is a Javanese word, but is found also in the Menangkabau dialect of Malay.

page 82 note 1 Malay and Arabic words are in italics.

page 83 note 1 The dipping of weapons into water or other liquid on the occasion of a solemn oath or engagement is an aboriginal custom which the Malays have, in common with other Indo-Chinese races, the Karens of Burmah for instance. See Journ. Ind. Arch. Vol, iv. p. 503Google Scholar; McMahon, , “The Karens,” etc. p. 286Google Scholar; Forbes, , Burmah, 252Google Scholar; Pallegoix, , Siam, i. 261Google Scholar.

page 83 note 2 The names and dates introduced record the appointment of one “Pangeran Hashim” to be “Pangeran Kasuma Nagara,” and of a Chinese named Lee Cheng Lan to be “Captain-Major Darma Raja.”

page 87 note 1 One of whom, in some versions, bears the significant name of Kisna Pandita, Kisna = Krishna or Vishnu: so here we have two out of the three princes identified hy attribute or name with gods of the Hindu Triad.

page 90 note 1 Translated from MS. No. 80 in the Raffles Collection of Malay MSS. in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society.

page 91 note 1 Ayeen Akbery.—Gladwin, , Calcutta, 1785, vol. ii. p. 85Google Scholar.

page 91 note 2 Châraṇa, a panegyrist.—Benfey.

page 92 note 1 Forbes.—Mâlâ, Râs, ii. 262Google Scholar.

page 93 note 1 Longman, London, 1820, Vol, i. p. 20.

page 94 note 1 Asiatic Researches, x. 171Google Scholar; Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands, sub voce Hindu.

page 94 note 2 Marsden combated the Telinga theory, in the introduction to his Malay Grammar, pp. xxix–xxxii, but it has been re-asserted by Mr. Taylor in an essay “On Early Relations of Continental India with Sumatra and Java,” Madras Journal, (1850), vol. xvi. p. 104.Google Scholar

page 94 note 3 Braddell, , Journ. Ind. Arch. vol. v. p. 132.Google Scholar

page 94 note 4 Asiatic Researches, vol. xx. p. 1.Google Scholar

page 95 note 1 See the account given at length by Raffles, , History of Java, vol. ii. p. 87Google Scholar (second edition).

page 95 note 2 Akbery, Ayeen, vol. ii. pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

page 95 note 3 Champa. This word occurs in Malay history as the name of an independent Malay kingdom once established in Cochin China. See Crawford, 's Malay Grammar, Dissertation, cxxixGoogle Scholar.

page 96 note 1 Translated from MS. No. 18, Raffles Collection, R.A.S. Library. Malaka = âmalaka (Sansk.), Emblic myrobolan.

page 97 note 1 vol. iv. p. 479.

page 97 note 2 “Elements of South Indian Palæography,” A. C. Burnell. Trübner & Co., 1878.Google Scholar

page 98 note 1 Vincent, , Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, vol. ii. pp. 404.Google Scholar

page 98 note 2 Malay Grammar, Introduction, p. xxxiiGoogle Scholar. Objections of this sort do not need answering now. An author who wrote half a century ago says, “Modern inquiries into these matters have been cramped by an erroneous and contracted view of the power of this ancient people (the Hindus), and the direction of that power. It has been assumed that the prejudices originating in Moslem conquest, which prevented the Hindu chieftain from crossing the forbidden waters of the Attoc, and still more from ‘going down to the sea in ships,’ had always existed. But were it not far more difficult to part with erroneous impressions than to receive new and correct views, it would be apparent that the first of these restrictions is of very recent origin; and, on the other hand, that the Hindus of remote ages possessed great naval power, by which communication must have been maintained with the coasts of Africa, Arabia, and Persia, as well as the Australian archipelago. It is ridiculous with all the knowledge now in our possession, to suppose that the Hindus always confined themselves within their gigantic barriers, the limits of modern India.”—Tod, , Annals of Rajasthan, ii. 218Google Scholar.

page 99 note 1 Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, vol. ii. p. 462Google Scholar.

page 99 note 2 Annals, Malay, Longman, 1821, pp. 24, 100.Google Scholar

page 99 note 3 Collection des principales Chroniques Malayes, Paris, 1849.

page 99 note 1 Légendes et traditions historiques (Paris, Leroux).

page 101 note 1 This is one account. Sometimes the white bull of Sang Purba is substituted for the cow of the Palembang women.

page 101 note 2 Awang and Dara are Kawi words, meaning respectively “man” and “woman.” They are not used in those senses by the modern Malays, but Awang is a common proper name (masculine), and dara preceded by the word anak signifies in Malay “a virgin.”