[tamil] Archeological proof for Tamil Kingdom in Indonesia

[pnkumar@texmaco.co.id]

Dear friends
There are ruins of numerous Hindu temples I find scattered in this  archipelic country, especially in the island of Jawa and I am told  that the most ancient of them are the ones built by the Pallavas  during 6th / 7th Century. I suppose that of St.Arasu / Mahendra  Pallava period. Here is a piece authenticating what I hear often,  published in the Jakarta Post recently.

Western Java's history written on stones

By Ida Indawati Khouw 

Many may be unaware that flood problems in the capital  Jakarta,date back to ancient times. The evidence is on ancient  boulders, which also show that Jakarta was part of the ancient  Tarumanagara kingdom. 

JAKARTA (JP): The capital, along with neighboring Bogor and the 
Banten area, once formed part of Tarumanagara (1), the oldest 
Kingdom in Java. 

Jakarta was the site of the most important ancient monument, the 
Tugu, one of seven stone monuments dating back to the Kingdom. 

Tarumanagara existed between the fifth century and the seventh 
century. The area where the substantial monument was found was 
a village of Batu Tumbuh in present-day Tugu subdistrict in North 
Jakarta. 

Besides praising the revered Tarumanagara King Purnawarman, the  opal- shaped Tugu boulder told of the digging of a water channel,  called Gomati, near the place where the monument was found. 

The stone also described another water channel, Candrabhaga  (2), also built during the era of the kingdom. It is believed the two  channels were near the present Cakung River in the Tugu area. 

The story, which was written in the South Indian Pallava script of  the Sanskrit language (3), said the digging of the 11-kilometer  Gomati "river" which passed through the Brahman priests' lodgings  was completed within 21 days and the priests were rewarded with  1,000 cattle. 

The boulder does not tell the purpose of the project, but experts  surmise it was to cope with flooding or an irrigation system for  crops. 

Experts say the historical evidence makes it unsurprising that  modern-day Jakarta is drenched by devastating floods during the  annual rainy season. 

The evidence is slim, but archeologist Hasan Djafar from the  University of Indonesia said the two ideas about the use of the  channels seemed the most reasonable. 

"The surface of Jakarta's land is one meter to two meters lower  than the sea level, compared to centuries ago when some areas  were equal to the level. So, it's reasonable to assume that flooding  also occurred in the fifth century like this year." 

He speculated that residents were also involved in farming during  the kingdom era. 

"Hulls of rice used as a mixture for bricks of ancient temples were  found at the archeological sites of Cibuaya and Batujaya villages in  Bogor (West Java)," he said. 

"It indicates that hulls of rice were abundant, meaning that paddy  fields existed at that time." 

Historian Adolf Heuken questioned whether the original  construction was a river. 

"It's so surprising that an 11-kilometer river could be built within  only 21 days, or it is just a ditch?" he said in his book Sumber- sumber Asli Sejarah Jakarta (The Original Sources of Jakarta  History). 

But the king's prize of 1,000 cattle indicated that the project was a  great achievement, he said. 

Heuken said the project showed that people at the time had the  capability of digging long water channels, and were also able to  breed livestock. 

Besides the Pallava scripts, a picture of a priest's trident rod was  also carved in the monument, functioning to separate the beginning  and the end of lines, Heuken said. 

"It could be that the rod has symbolic or magical meaning," he  said. 

The stone was found in 1879 at Batu Tumbuh, which literally  means "emerging stone". 

"It is said that the stone appeared suddenly after a monthlong  period of rain. I think the monument appeared after the soil was  eroded by rain," said a resident of the Tugu area, Samuel Quico. 

Hasan said Tugu subdistrict, and thus the present Jakarta area,  was only part of the Kingdom, which spanned over much of present  day Jakarta -- ranging from Banten in the west, Karawang in the  east and Sukabumi in the south. 

Experts are still searching for the kingdom's capital as no  archeological proof has been uncovered. Many believe it was at the  Tugu area but others consider the likely site in Bekasi (4), about  40 kilometers east of Jakarta. 

It is also notable that the seven monuments dating back to the  third century only mention one king, Purnawarman (5). 

Four other monuments at Bogor's Ciaruteun, Kebon Kopi and  Jambu, and Cidanghiang in the Pandeglang area about 120  kilometers southwest of Jakarta, also praise Purnawarman as a  great and powerful king. 

Images on two other stones, the Muara Cianten and Pasir Awi  monuments of Bogor, remain indecipherable up to the present. 

The eight-ton Ciaruteun stone was named after the river where it  was found in 1863. It is now well protected by the Bogor  administration, which built a structure to protect the stone from the  elements. 

It is not easy to reach remote Kampung Muara village -- visitors  must use a muddy, unpaved road, and pass along a wooden bridge  with some of its slats missing. 

The four lines written in Pallava tell of two footprints carved in it,  and note their similarity to those of the Hindu god Vishnu, "These  are the footprints of His Majesty Purnawarman, the brave king," the  inscription reads. 

Unfortunately, inscriptions bearing no relation to history -- such as  "Ina, I love you" -- have been written on the stone. 

Located nearby is the Kebon Kopi stone with the engraving of a  couple of big footprints of Purnawarman, akin to those of the strong  Airwata elephant. 

Footprints and more praise of Purnawarman are also at the Jambu  monument. The Cidanghiang stone bears only two lines of  inscription about Purnawarman, who is proclaimed the standard for  rulers around the world. 

Hasan said the footprints found at almost of the monuments have  been interpreted by some as a seal, while others believed they  were a fertility symbol. 

He said Purnawarman's identification with Vishnu showed that the  king was Hindu. 

"Based on reports from China, written by traveler Fa Hsien, it was  known that the Tarumanagara people followed Hindu and Buddhist  teachings. But he also found some professed 'dirty' religion,  probably referring to prehistoric beliefs." 

Another interesting aspect is that the scripts were written in 
Pallava/Sanskrit, proving that Tarumanagara was exposed to 
foreign cultures. 

It is unclear what language was used by the local population, of 
Mongoloid and Australoid-Melanoid extraction. 

"The local language is probably what developed into the Sundanese 
or Javanese languages," Hasan said. 

Research has failed to reveal exactly when Tarumanagara came to 
an end. 

"At present it is believed that the kingdom finally related to the 
expansion of the Buddhist Sriwijaya kingdom from Sumatra, as 
dates back to year 686 and says that Sriwijaya did its utmost to 
shown by Kota Kapur monument of Bangka island," Hasan said. "It 
subjugate Java which did not bow to Sriwijaya." 

From
The Jakarta Post

Note:
1. They call it Dharmanagara 
2. In Bahasa Indonesia C is Cha and hence Chandrabagha
3. As I see,it is not Sanskrit, may be old Tamil script. 
4&5. I live here and I come across names like Purnawarman and  Marawarman still, especially among the Sundanese, the West Java  ethnic group.

Anbudan 
Kumar

To get help, send mail to help@tamil.net  and look at http://www.tamil.net/special/tfhelp.pdf
For instructions to download Tamil fonts and view mail in Tamil, refer  http://www.tamil.net/tscii/faq1.html ,
 http://www.tamil.net/special/tsciitxt.pdf and http://www.tamil.net/special/anjal.pdf
To start or stop receiving mails from this mailing list, follow steps in http://www.tamil.net/list 
(You will be asked to reply to a confirmation Email. Just reply without changing anything - subject or body)  
Inaiyam  http://www.tamil.net  is sponsored by The Asia Pacific Internet company. 
http://www.apic.net The Asia Pacific Internet Company (APIC) is about to go into pre-IPO mode.
To learn more about it, send mail to gerry@apic.net  
APIC - Interactive cultural communities sustained by e-services.