Identification of Holotan Country

In the Chinese Book of Sung (宋書) it was described that “A certain country, written in Chinese as ‘呵羅單國’ had ruled Java, the country had sent envoys to China three times in 430s AD, that the king of the country was usurped from his position for a while....” Ever since the record received attention in the late nineteenth century, the identity of the country had been a matter of debate among historians. Some of them assumed the country would have existed somewhere in the Malay Peninsula, but others thought it must have been in the Island of Java. In 1980, an Indonesian scholar published an idea that the name of the country which was first transliterated and read in alphabet as “Ho-lo-tan” would have corresponded to Aruteun of Ci-aruteun River in West Java. The same idea independently occurred to the present author some years later as detailed in his book, “Java Essay”, published in 2013 and 2015 in Japanese and English.

Meanwhile in West Java, several stone monuments, locally called “prasasti”, were found piece after another in and after the mid-nineteenth century and, from the fragmental epigraphs, it was established that a kingdom named Tarmanagara had existed around the fifth century, that the kingdom was ruled by King Purnawarman at least for a certain period and that the king’s family had worshipped Hinduism, although the whole figure of the kingdom remained obscure.

Whilst no historical documents which must have been written in ancient times existed, a group of documents, which is said to have been compiled in the court of Cirebon in the late 17th century and called Naskah Wangsakerta (Wangsakerta Manuscripts), was collected in the 1970s by a member of the State Museum of West Java Province, Bandung. Although the authenticity of the documents was questioned by senior archaeologists, one of them, Pustaka Pararatwan i Bhumi Jawadwipa Parwa 1, Sargah 1 (The Book of the Stories of Kings on the Soil of Java Volume 1, Issue 1), hereinafter PPBJ 1-1, described the events in West Java from the primeval times to the period of Tarumanagara quite in detail.

During the last decade the present author has tried to identify the Ho-lo-tan Country, translating the relevant part of the Book of Sung into Japanese and English and studying the Indonesian text of PPBJ 1-1, and has become convinced that Ho-lo-tan Country was another name of Tarumanagara, the capital of which was located on the bank of Ci-aruteun (Aruteun River) that ran, and still runs, through the present-day Desa Ciaruteun Ilir, Kecamatan Cibungbulang, Kabupaten Bogor (where the stone monuments, viz. Prasasti Ciaruteun and Prasasti Kebon Kopi, were found).

Manuscripts written about the results have been submitted to several history journals but rejected, if not ignored, saying that the author should consult with an expert of ancient Chinese language, the Wangsakerta Manuscripts were not approved as historical documents, etc. The academia of history and culture might be more or less exclusive and conservative, compared to that of science and technology with which the author was familiar. A professor whom he visited seemed not much interested in the work of an outsider.

Although his own website was a possible medium, the author has thought that, if published as a book, this work may have more chances to draw the attention of those who are concerned with the subject.

Three appendices, 1: The Pronunciation of Key Chinese characters （假, 羅, 單, 津, 婆）, 2: Hindu Calendar/Saka Calendar, and 3: Test-translation of PPBJ 1-1, Part II, have been added.

The interpretation of the text in the Book of Sung was helped by Prof. Naohiro Matsunami, Department of Philosophy, Gakushuin University, Tokyo. The English translation from the Indonesian text of Pustaka Pararatwan i Bhumi Jawadwipa Parwa 1, Sargah 1 was kindly checked by Prof. Iratius Radiman, Bandung Institute of Technology. The contents of this book were intensively discussed with Raden Ayoe Ekowati Sundari, M. A., The National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta. The author expresses his sincere thanks to abovementioned persons, as well as anonymous Indonesian colleagues, from whom he received a great deal of knowledge about the history and culture of Indonesia. Special thanks are due to Prof. Malcolm Mackley, Cambridge, who kindly read and edited the draft to bring it up readable as English. The final manuscript was checked by my granddaughter, Kanako, a student in Hokkaido University.

Dr. Masatoshi Iguchi, born in 1938 in Nagoya, Japan, had finished the Graduate School of Tokyo Institute of Technology, awarded a doctor of engineering in 1966. He served most of his career time for a governmental research institution under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Japan, to work in the area of polymer science and technology until retired in 1999. Then, he obtained a fellowship from the Science and Technology Agency, Japan, and worked at Bogor Research Station for Rubber Technology, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, for three years. After retired from full-time occupations in 2002, he became interested also in the history and culture, viz. of Indonesia. He published the following books in the category of history and culture.

(1) Marquis Tokugawa, Journeys to Java - translated by M. Iguchi, ITB Press, 2004.

(2) Marquis Tokugawa, Perdjalanan moenoedjoe Djawa, diterjemahkan oleh Ririn A, dan Aprianti I., Penerbit ITB 2006 (Retranslation to Indonesian from the above English translation).

(3) Masatoshi Iguchi 井口正俊, Java Quest: The History and Culture of a Southern Country ジャワ探究－南の国の歴史と文化, Maruzen, Tokyo 丸善, 東京 2013

(4) Masatoshi Iguchi, Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country, Troubador, Leicester 2015.

(5) Masatoshi Iguchi, Gutta Percha: A Journey, With Appendices on Xylonite (Celluloid)/Amber & Copal , Amazon.com, 2021.

"Holotan Country" in the cntents page oof The Book of Sung (right) and the abbrevviated text in the History of South Dynasty (left).

A Wangsakerta Manuscript (left) and the collective volumes (right) in The Ajip Rosidi Library. Photographs from: https://www.kairaga.com/2019/08/01/naskah-kuno-koleksi-perpustakaan-ajip-rosidi/

Prasasti Ciaruteun, Prasasti Tugu and Prasasti Cianten of Tarumanagara Era (from left to right). Photographs taken by M. Iguchi, 2006, 2006, 2015.

Congklak game arena (left) and large foundation stones (middle and right) in Ciaruteun Ilir Village. Photographs taken by M. Iguchi, 2006.

Modern studies on the ancient history of Java that started in the late nineteenth century has relied primarily upon relics, viz. stone inscriptions, as documents which must have been written from time to time did not remain, presumably neglected or destroyed in the course of Islamic Invasion. In fact, even copies of such chronicles or books of historical interest, such as Pararaton[1], Nagarakertagama[2] and Kidung Sunda [3], written in the Majapahit Period, which are available today, were those discovered after the late nineteenth century in Bali or Lombok, where Javanese nobles had evacuated with their belongings. Such epics as the Javanese-version Ramayana, Bharatayuddha, Krsnayana, Bhomakawya (Bhomantaka) etc. composed between the ninth and twelfth century did not remain either in Java. [4] The copy of Bujangga Manik, a story of pilgrimage of a prince and monk of Pajajaran Kingdom that gives useful knowledge about the topography and the customs and manners of the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries Java was somehow taken to England and stored in a library at Oxford since 1627 or 1629 [5].

In West Java, several stone monuments, namely Prasasti Ciaruteun, Prasasti Kebon Kopi, Prasasti Jambu, Prasasti Tugu and Prasasti Cidanghiang, which bore Sanskrit phrases written in Pallava scripts, were intensively studied ever since the mid-nineteenth century, and it was established that a certain kingdom named Tarumanagara had existed around the fifth century, that the kingdom was ruled by King Purnawarman at least for a certain period and that the king’s family had worshipped the Hinduism. From the style of scripts, the founder of the kingdom was assumed to have come from Pallava, India, and, from the distribution of these monuments, the power of the kingdom was considered to have ranged over a significantly wide area of West Java. The details will be reviewed in Chapter 2.

In China, the chronicle of every dynasty, specifically from the Former Han Dynasty (206 BC-8 AD) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), included the history of the countries which had contemporarily existed in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in the world. In The Book of Sung (the Southern Sung Dynasty, 420-479 AD), it was recorded that a certain country, written in Chinese as “呵羅單國”, ruled the province of Java (闍婆), the country sent envoys to China in 430 AD, ….” In the late nineteenth century this record had received the attention of G. Schlegel [6], who assumed, or “identified” in his own term, that the country which he transliterated into alphabet as Holotan or Kalatan, must have corresponded to Kĕlantan or Kĭlantan on the Malay Peninsula. The location of the country was debated thereafter by a number of scholars, somehow adopting the above transliteration, “Holotan” or “Ho-lo-tan”, as it was. Whilst L. L. Moens [7] was of the same view as Schlegel, Paul Pelliot[8], K. A. Nilakanta Sastri[9], O.W. Wolters[10], et al. considered that Holotan would have been located in the island of Java. R. C. Majumdar[11] in particular believed that it was in West Java where Tarumanagara Kingdom prospered.

A peculiar idea that Holotan Country (呵羅單國) was the phonetic transcription of Sailendra was once presented by K. Iwamoto, [12] but this theory is considered of little value, firstly because no linguistic explanation was given, and secondly because the rise of the Sailendra was around the mid-eighth century (in the Central Java), whereas the records in The Book of Sung was issued in the early fifth century. Rather recently S. Suzuki [13] voiced a theory that Holotan was not in Java Island but Kelantan on Malay Peninsula, without referring to Schlegel’s and Moens’s papers, and that the Malayan country had ruled a part of Java, asserting that Java at that time had not been civilised enough to be able to send missions to China, whether an audience would lend his/her ear or not.

To what extent these authors looked into the relevant Chinese text in The Book of Sung is unknown, except for Schlegel [14] who gave a short abridged translation (ca. 90 characters from ca. 945 characters).

In any case, the origin of the country does not seem to have been determined so far.

In an essay published in 2013/2015 [15], the present author has assumed that the three Chinese characters for the country’s name (呵羅單), originally transliterated as Ho-lo-tan, could alternatively be read as “A-ro-tan” and that the A-ro-tan Country was the representation of Tarumanagara by the name of its capital which would have existed at least for a period around the present-day Ciaruteun Ilir Village (Ilir = downstream), where Prasasti Ciaruteun and Prasasti Kebon Kopi were found. In the same essay, he also reported for the first time on two other stone relics, i.e., a game arena situated on the ground and a score of foundation stones for pillars of a large building, possibly a palace or a pavilion, allegedly of the Tarumanagara age.

It must be acknowledged, however, that a theory to regard Holotan as Aruteun had been published earlier by Slamet Muljana in 1980 [16] a few years before the same idea occurred to the present author. The existence of the rather rare book came to notice to the present author in a later year in a local bookstore in Bogor. It was the time when Internet search was yet to be available. The details of the theory will be discussed in Chapter 3.

Although no contemporary documents other than those on stone inscriptions remained, the history of ancient times from prehistoric times down to the New Mataram Era was recorded in the so-called Naskah Wangsakerta (Wangsakerta Manuscripts), which are said to have been compiled in the 17th century in Cirebon by Pangeran Wangsakerta (Prince Wangsakerta) and his committee members, assembling old fragmental records and oral traditions.

The manuscripts were elaborately collected by Drs. Atja in the 1970s and intensively studied by Dr. Edi S. Ekadjati,[17] Dr. Ayatrohaedi[18] et al. Sejarah Bogor (A History of Bogor), authored 1983 by Drs. Saleh Danasasmita[19], was one of the earliest publications in which knowledge from the stone inscriptions were complemented and the genealogic relationships between kings and lords analysed.

Meanwhile, the authenticity of the Wangsakerta Manuscript, whether the contents were not fake, was argued after the 1980s by senior archaeologists, viz. Dr. Boechari[20], Prof. R. Soekmono[21], Prof. R. P. Soejono [22], et al., who suspected they were not written by Prince Wangsakerta and his team in the 17th century but were fabricated by someone in the early 1960s after the publication of Prasasti Indonesia II by Prof. J. G. de Casparis in1956[23]. Even the existence of Prince Wangsakerta was questioned. The fact that the manuscripts gathered were not the originals but copies was also reason for dissatisfaction.

These criticisms were countered by Drs. Atja[24], Dr. Ayatrohaedi[25], Prof. Edi S. Ekadjati[26], Prof. Nina, H. Lubis[27], et al., verifying that the Prince Wangsakerta was a real character and that his purpose was basically to “reproduce” the history, as such deeds were undertaken in the East and Central Java and elsewhere in the world. It was also claimed that the availability of old documents only in the form of the copy of copy was common elsewhere. Assuming that Wangsakerta Manuscripts were created by some other person, a question would remain on why the writer had a reason not to publish the works of more than 50 volumes, each consisting of 150 to 280 pages, by his/her own name.

Most relevant articles have been compiled in Polemik Naskah Pangeran Wangsakerta[28]. As a whole, the present author had an impression that negative opinions were more or less conservative and fundamentalistic. The descriptions about Tarumanagara Kingdom in Pustaka Pararatwan i Bhumi Jawadwipa Parwa 1, Sargah 1 (lit. The Book of the Stories of Kings on the Soil of Java Volume 1, Issue 1)[29], hereinafter PPBJ 1-1, at least, seems to be informative, as will be discussed in Chapter 4.

In this book, after reviewing the contents of stone monuments of the Tarumanagara Era and carefully examining and translating the text in The Book of Sung (宋書), the abovementioned assumption that the Holotan Country (呵羅單國) would have been a synonym of Tarumanagara will be discussed in comparison with relevant descriptions in the Wangsakerta Manuscripts, namely PPBJ 1-1.

Inscriptions on the prasasti of Tarumanagara era and notes on stone relics in Aruteun village

Seven stone monuments are known today. Although the results of transliteration and translation of the epigraphs as well as their origin and features of the monuments have been given in various publications [30], let us briefly review them herewith, adding some comments, for the sake of facilitating later discussion.

Figure 1 shows the location of stone inscriptions, as well as temples, riverwork sites and capitals, in Tarumanagara Era.

This stone monument was found in a riverbed of Ciaruteun (Aruteun River) in Desa Ciaruteun Ilir, Kecamatan Cibungbulang, Kabupaten Bogor in the 1860s. It was a round natural rock of about 2.2 metres wide and 1.4 metres high, on the surface of which were carved a pair of human footprints and some symbolic letters (Figure 2). The symbols inscribed were similar to those used in the Pallava Empire which prospered in India in the fourth-fifth centuries and used Sanskrit as their language. The large symbols on the right-hand side of the footprints were decoded in the early days as “The King Purnawarman of Tarumanagara”, and the strings of small symbols on the left-hand side were deciphered in the 1920s. In English, it said:

This suggested that King Purnawarman of Tarumanagara was regarded and respected as the incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu, or an existence with a similar divinity.

This stone monument found in a coffee plantation, not far from Prasasti Ciaruteun, and reported also in the 1860s (Figure 3) is alternatively called “Prasasti Telapak Gajah” because a pair of elephant’s footprints are carved on it. The Sanskrit text inscribed between the two elephant’s footprints said:

Since Airawata was the white elephant that was the vehicle of Indra, the God of War,[33] the king and his family is supposed to have believed in the Hinduism. Since endemic Javan elephants (Elephas hysudrindicus) had become extinct before the historical time[34], the elephants are supposed to have been brought from Sumatra or the Asian continent by the king and his followers.

This rock inscription, also called “Prasasti Pasir Koleangkak” which existed on a hillock named Pasir Koleangkak, in Kebun Jambu [35], Desa Parakanmuncang, Kecamatan Nanggung, about 30 km to the west of Bogor, was known since the 1850s. A two-line Sanskrit verse was read as:

This stone monument is considered to have been erected after Purnawarman’s death as a eulogy to record that Purnawarman was an excellent warrior.

This stone monument (Figure 4) had formerly exposed only 10 cm of its head on the ground, near the coast to the east of Tanjung Priok, in Desa Tugu, Kecamatan Koja, North Jakarta. Local people offered flowers and burnt incense in its side. When dug out in 1879, it was revealed that it was a round-triangular or egg-shaped stone of about one metre height and that on the surface of it was an epigraph of a five-line, 100-word poem recording the riverworks conducted during the time of King Purnawarman. It was translated as follows:

This description is ambiguous in some parts. Firstly, although Candrabhaga and Gomati were probably named after the rivers that had existed in India, it was not sure to which rivers in West Java they actually corresponded. Assuming that the stone inscription was placed at the site of the riverworks, Candrabhaga was regarded as the present-day Bekasi River, and the river name was interpreted to have derived as:

by R. M. Ng. Poerbatjaraka [38], whereas the fact that the location of the stone inscription was closer to the Cikajang River was pointed out.[39] Secondly, it was doubted whether it was possible to dig a river or a canal of such a length as 6,122 dhanus, which is assumed to be 7 miles (11.3 km) or 12 miles (22.9 km) within a matter of twenty-one days [40]. The year of the work was not written. Thirdly, the relationship of Purnawarman to “the king of kings” or the Grand-father and the Royal Sage was obscure. [41] Notwithstanding, the records suggested that the rulers such as Purnawarman had made efforts to manage rivers in West Java which often flood even today, and that Tarumanagara ruled the area as a solid settlement.

This stone monument, often called “Prasasti Lebak” or “Prasasti Munjul”, was found in 1947 on the edge of Cidanghiang River, in Desa Lebak, Kecamatan Munjul, Kabupaten Pandeglang, Banten. The two-line inscription on it was deciphered and translated in the 1960s as:

The content was another homage to King Purnawarman but the fact that this stone inscription was located far away from others manifested that the power of Tarumanagara had ranged over a wide area of West Java. In respect to this inscription an interesting comment is found in an article [44] that can be paraphrased as “Before our ancestors got the guidance of the Islamic Almighty God, they needed a person, king, community chief or whosoever, who gave guidance for their life”. To the author’s understanding, this is still true today particularly among average people in the island of Java.

This rock inscription (shown in Figure 5) was found in the 1860s in the riverbed of Cisadane River near the junction point of the tributary Cianten River, as “muara” meant river end, in Kecamatan Cibungbulang, Bogor, not far from Desa Ciaruteun Ilir where Prasasti Ciaruteun and Prasasti Kebon Kopi were found. Besides some botanical ornaments which look like runners protruding out of tubers, some curly symbols are sculptured, but what they mean has not been clarified. [45]

This inscription was found in the 1860s in the Cipamingkis forest on the southern slope of the Pasir Awi Hill in Desa Sukamakmur, Kecamatan Sukamakmur, Bogor. On the surface were carved a pair of footprints and some curly patterns. The latter could be some letters but not be deciphered. [46]

(i) A certain kingdom named Tarumanagara had existed around the fifth century in West Java.

(iv) The founder of the kingdom is supposed to have come from Pallava, India, from the style of the script.

(vi) The power of Tarumanagara ranged over a significantly wide area of West Java.

(i) The relationship of Purnawarman to “the king of kings” or the Grand-father and the Royal Sage are obscure.

Besides the abovementioned seven stone monuments, one more monument, called “Prasasti Pasir Muara”, was found in Ciaruteun Ilir Village in the nineteenth century and said to have been somehow lost in the 1940s. The text written with Kawi script in Old Malay was deciphered by F. D. K. Bosch [47] as,

Although in the normal manner the three figures of the year should be read from the right to the left as 458 Saka, Bosch put them the other way round as 854 Saka (932 AD), because the year, 458 Saka, was too early for the use of the Malay language. Thus, this inscription was not included in the monuments of Tarumanagara Era.

As briefly mentioned above, when the present author visited Aruteun village, the caretaker of the archaeological site guided him to a spot, not far from the places of Prasasti Ciaruteun and Prasasti Kebon Kopi, where five pieces of stone of some half a metre diameter remained. Two of them embedded in the ground had semi-spherical holes of 6–7 cm diameter on the flat surface, about twenty together (Figure 6). As his friend admired, it must be an arena of a game called “congklak” in Sundanese, alternatively called “dakon” in Javanese or “mancala” in Europe, which is still popular today among children in Indonesia as a table-top intellectual game. Although different theories say that the origin of the game was not in India but somewhere in Arab or Africa, it is certain that the game was introduced into this site by the immigrants from India who founded Tarumanagara. It was amusing to imagine that ancient people were playing the game around these stones.

The caretaker also showed us several pieces of granite blocks of about 50-cm cubic shape, with a hollow of about 40 cm square and 5 cm depth on one of their surfaces, having been collected and laid under the eaves of his house (Figure 7). Several more pieces were found scattered in a near-by banana field. The stone blocks must have been the foundation stones of a building and, judging from the size of pillars to fit the square hollow, the building is considered to have been a big palace or pavilion of King Purnawarman which had stood at that site.

The caretaker told us that the name of Darmaga village halfway from Bogor, well known as the site of the new campus of Bogor Agricultural University, would have been originated from King Dharmayawarman, the predecessor of Purnawarman, although no substantial evidence was available.

Before ending this chapter, let us focus on a small area, shown in Figure 8, where Ciaruteun and Cianten Rivers merge to Cisadane River, in which five Tarumanagara relics, i.e., Prasasti Ciaruteun, Prasasti Kebon Kopi, Prasasti Muara Cianten, congklak arena and foundation stone blocks, remain. This area is supposed to have been the centre of Tarumanagara Kingdom for a certain period, as will be discussed in the next chapter.

Full translation of the records on the “Holotan Country” in The Book of Sung

In common with other old books, The Book of Sung (Sun Shu, Vol.97, Biography Series 57, Barbarians 宋書卷97, 列傳第57, 夷蠻) [49] was written with no punctuations and brackets. The source text [50] comprised 776 characters to which 169 punctuations and brackets were added by the editor. For convenience, the text was divided into 8 paragraphs as below.

The reason to read the county’s name, 呵羅單, as “A-ro-tan” and regard it as the transliteration of “Aruteun”, was hinted by a Chinese descent in Jakarta, an acquaintance of the present author, who was not a linguist but talented in language. When questioned, she answered that the original sound for the name would have been “a-lo-tan”, or possibly “a-ro-tan”. The ambiguity is ascribed to the fact that, although the middle character, 羅, is usually pronounced as “lo” or “luó”, it is also applied to the sound of “ro” in the words of foreign origin, e.g., 羅馬 (Rome), 歐羅巴 (Eu rope) etc. Then, an idea that the three Chinese characters must be the transcription of “Aruteun” of Ci-Aruteun (Aruteun River), where the Prasasti Ciaruteun and the Prasasti of Kebon Kopi were found, flashed into the present author’s mind.

Perhaps the sound of the first character, 呵, is controversial. Although “ho” seems to be common for idioms in the Wage-Giles system as actually adopted for transcribing the country’s name as “Holotan”, the basic sound was “a” or “ā” and used for such words of foreign origin as “a cha chia” for 呵吒迦 (Skt. hāṭaka), “a lo lo” for 呵羅羅 (Skt. Atata, the third of the eight cold hells), etc. The third (last) character, 單, has no other choices but “tang” in Wage-Giles and “dan” in Mandarin. [51]

Let us also examine the province name, 闍婆, which was traditionally transcribed in alphabet as “She-po”. Although the first character is usually pronounced as “she” or “tu”, it is also of use for “ja” for Sanskrit words, such as yojana (踰闍那, length unit, ca. 7 km), Jātaka (闍陀迦, stories of previous life), etc. The common sound of the second character, 婆, is “po” but the character is also used for “va” as in the Sanskrit words, “Shiva (濕婆)”, “Deva (提婆)”, etc. More examples are shown in Appendix 1.

The theory of Muljana[52], mentioned above, was obtained in a different way, as he emphasised, from “toponym” or the study of the name of places derived from topographical features.

(1) In West Java, there are many places named Ciliwung, Cisadane, Citarum etc. which bear prefix, “Ci-”, meaning water.

(2) A kingdom located close to the sea at the mouth of a river was often called by the name of the port.

(3) Fifteen centuries ago, when the alluvial sediment of Cisadane was far less than today, the river is supposed to have had a long estuary and a port existed at the upper end, near the present-day Ciaruteun Ilir, where Ciaruteun River joins Cisadane River.

As to the backword transliteration of “Holotan” to Aruteun, the author just mentioned that “Holotan and Aruteun show a very similar sound”. [53]

With regard to Cisadane River, although whether the estuary had ranged up to the present-day Ciaruteun Ilir is uncertain, it must have been the sole waterway for transportation from this point to the Java Sea, as still is. Figure 9 is a raft seen in a recent year near the river junction.

Figure 10 shows the alluvial sedimentation around the Jakarta Plain, a work by H. Th. Verstappen.[54] According to the Google Earth, the height of the riverbed of the Ciaruteun’s downstream is ca. +95 metres above sea level. It must have been lower than that in the Tarumanagara Era.

Muljana further claimed that “Aruteun Kingdom was the first ever kingdom existed in Java Island before Tarumanagara” and that “the kingdom was conquered or subordinated by Purnawarman of Tarumanagara”. These claims are not appropriate, if referred to the Wangsakerta Manuscript which described that Salakanagara was the first kingdom founded in West Java and that the kingdom was passed down to Jayasinghawarman who married to the daughter of the last king of Salakanagara, Dewawarman VIII, and established Tarumanagara. Purnawarman was a son of Jayasinghawarman (See, Chapter 4).

Back to The Book of Sung, Paragraph 2 described the sending of a mission to China in 430 AD and the list of tributes.

Among the listed tributes, the gold ring might have been a native product from Java but the red parrots were allegedly the species captured somewhere in Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands beyond Bali, in the eastern side of the Wallace Line) or their offspring. This suggests that the country had interaction with such remote areas. The cotton fabrics from Tianzhu and Kasyapa imply that the country had trade relations with India.

Paragraph 3 recorded a letter from the king of Aruteun submitted probably by a messenger in the 10th year of Yuanjia (元嘉), 433AD. The letter was a long one in which as many as 234 characters were spent for the homage to the Chinese emperor, who is identified as Emperor Wen (文帝, reigned 424-453 AD) of Liu Sung (劉宋).

The backward transliteration of the king’s name, 毗沙跋摩, as Wisnuwarman, would be reasonable, as Wisnuwarman actually appeared in the Wangsakerta Manuscripts as the person who succeeded the throne of Purnawarman and made efforts to keep friendly relationships with China and other foreign countries, as will be mentioned in Chapter 4.

The long and courteous homage seems to show the subordinate position of Aruteun to Liu Sung, although such homage would have been a common protocol at that age. The fact that great many phrases were cited from Buddhist sutras suggests that the king of Java and probably his guru were well versed in Buddhist philosophy despite the fact that their religion was Hinduism, even if the fact that the Buddhism had hierarchically derived from the Hinduism is taken into account. For writing Chinese, they would have received assistance from the ambassador from China stationed at their capital.

Paragraph 5 recorded another long letter of 390 characters from King Wisnuwarman sent to China in the 13th year of Yuanjia (元嘉), 436 AD. After a long homage, the king wrote that he had lost his position by the coup d’état but had a strong will to revenge and that he wished the Emperor would help his retainer, dispatched to Liu Sung, with purchasing necessary things and returning home safe.

This coup d’état might correspond to an incident described in the Wangsakerta Document, as will be mentioned in Chapter 4.

This implies that the king had recovered his position, as actually had, as written in PPBJ 1-1.

In this paragraph, in the names of three countries, the first Chinese character of the first country, Holotan, 訶, was different from that appeared in Paragraph 1, 呵 of 呵羅單. John Guy [56] assumed that the set of three countries, 訶羅單, 媻皇 and 媻達, read as Kelantan, Pahang and Perak, respectively, were the countries that had coexisted in the Malay Peninsula. An Internet article by Koji Sato [57] speculated that the three countries were located in the present-day Viet Nam.

Thus, the present author would assume that the above paragraph had nothing to do with the “Holotan” country in Java, having been erroneously incorporated from some source material during the compilation of The Book of Sung.

For reference, the summary of the record on the “Holotan Country” is included in Nanshi (南史, The History of South Dynasty), compiled by Li Yanshou 李延壽 and published in 659 AD in the Tang Dynasty Era, specifically in Vol. 78, Biography Series 68, Surrounding Barbarian 1/2, Maritime Countries [58].

In this summary, the fifth character (治, rule, govern) in the Paragraph 1 of the Book of Sung was replaced with a different character (都, capital city), so as “Aruteun Country is the capital of the province of Java”, instead of “Aruteun Country rules the province of Java”, although the meanings of the two sentences were virtually the same.

The Paragraph 3-2 was shortened and Paragraphs 5-2, 6 and 7-2 were omitted, whether the compiler had carefully examined and judged the contents extraneous.

As a record of contemporary Java, a passage in A Record of the Buddhist Countries (佛國記) or The life of Faxian (法顯傳) is well known. In 414 AD, a Buddhist priest, Fa Xian (or Fa Hsien, 法顯), from the Eastern Chin (Jin) Dynasty (東晉), arrived, after a hard voyage of ninety days, in Javadvipa (lit. Java Island) on his way back to China from Ceylon and stayed there for five months. He wrote:

Although the name of the kingdom was not explicitly given, the country has been widely accepted as Tarumanagara. “Paganism (外道)” in this passage must have meant the ancestor worshipping of the native Sundanese inhabitants. [60] The word “Brahmanism” was commonly used in China as a synonym of what is broadly called “Hinduism”. Then, this description agrees with the aforementioned assumption derived from the stone inscriptions that the immigrants were “Hindu” worshippers.

The PPBJ 1 covered the chronicles of many countries or kingdoms which rose and fell in Java Island from ancient times to the establishment of New Mataram in the late 16th century. Amongst, PPBJ 1-1 wrote about the rulers and their genealogy as well as the events and achievements in the period from the beginning of Salakanagara to the era of the fourth king of Tarumanagara, Wisnuwarman, preceded by the introduction and the prehistory of primeval times. Leaving aside the argument about the authenticity mentioned in the Introduction (Chapter 1), the data included in the manuscript is considered useful for supplement the knowledge from the stone inscriptions and The Book of Sung, as partly done by Danasasmita [61] for the former.

The second chapter was easy to follow, as the contents of the original text, which were inconsistent in some parts and contained redundant expressions, have been digested and orderly rewritten by the translators, but the unabridged, word-for-word text in the third chapter was also referred to. The test-translation of Chapter II from Indonesian to English is given in Appendix 2.

The main part of PPBJ 1-1 commenced with the founding of Salakanagara, the first country that had existed on the soil of Java Island before Tarumanagara.

It was additionally said that a son of Dewawarman VIII became the crown prince and, after his father’s death, became the king of Salakanagara, but his territory was under the command of Tarumanagara, a new kingdom established in 270 Saka (348 AD) by Jayasinghawarman who came from Salankayana and married the daughter of Dewawarman VIII, named Dewi Minawati.

It ought to be noted that a contemporary record in The Book of Later Han (後漢書) has been argued ever since the early twentieth century. In the Biography Series 76: South Barbarian - Southwest Province, it was written,

In this line, Ye-bian (葉調) and Bian (便) were interpreted by G. Ferrand [64] as Jawadwipa (Skt. Yava-dvipa) and Warman (Skt. Varman, =Dewawarman), respectively. According to Tomonobu Kurihara [65], the first character (調) of Diao-bian (調便) could be regarded as a sort of “extraneous character”, so that the emperor gave the items to “the messenger”. In any case, if Ye-bian was the transliteration of Jawadwipa, then it is highly possible that the country was Salakanagara, because no established kingdom had existed in the early second century Java.

As mentioned above, Tarumanagara was founded in 270 Saka (348 AD) by Jayasinghawarman who arrived from Salankayana and married the daughter of Dewawarman VIII of Salakanagara. His kingdom was initially a small village but grew to a significant size. The capital named Jayasinghapura is allegedly the origin of the present-day Jasinga, located about 45 km to the west of Bogor. [66] He was famous as “The Sage of the House of Ghomati (Sang Lumah ri Ghomati)”. He reigned until 304 Saka (382 AD).

Purnawarman, whose name appeared in the stone inscriptions, was a great king who subjugated or conquered regional kings around West Java and expanded the territory of Tarumanagara to such an extent as judged from the locations of the discovered stone inscriptions (Figure 1). The Empress of Purnawarman was a princess of Swarnabhumi (Thailand), whereas other consorts were from Bakulapura (East Kalimantan) and Central Java. From the empress was born the crown prince named Wisnuwarman. The younger sister of Purnawarman, named Harinawarmandewi, became the wife of a rich man of Bharatanagari (India). He had a younger brother, Mandala-Minister Cakrawarman, who became the warlord and, after the throne was succeeded from Purnawarman to Wisnuwarman, attempted a coup d’état to become the King of Tarumanagara. This coup d’état must correspond to the record in The Book of Sung.

During his reign, Purnawarman made efforts to establish friendly relations with foreign countries, performed a number of riverworks, built two temples and edited many books, as will be mentioned below. His reign ended in 356 Saka (434 AD) and his throne was succeeded by his son, Wisnuwarman. He was called the Lord in “The Abode of Taruma River (Yang Bersemayam di Sungai Taruma)”.

Wisnuwarman, the fourth king of Tarumanagara, was the person who sent envoys at least twice to China. His seat was once seized by his uncle, Cakrawarman, but the treason was settled after a while. He married Princess Dewi Suklawati of the king of Indraprahasta (a subkingdom) who captured the rebel, as his first empress had already passed away. The incident will be mentioned below. He was succeeded by his son, Indrawarman, in 377 Saka (455 AD).

Figure 11 shows the genealogy of kings and their family members in Salakanagara and Tarumanagara covered by PPBJ I-1. The list of all kingdoms that had existed in West Java was given with reference also to other sources by Danasasmita.[67]

Although “outside” in the first clause is implicit, the subsequent clause strongly suggests that the capital was “Aruteun” on the bank of Ciaruteun where the Prasasti Ciaruteun would have originally existed, though it was actually discovered in the riverbed and moved above the bluff in 1980s [68].

This suggests that the large foundation stones that remained near the Prasasti Ciaruteun, mentioned above, were of use for the palace built by Purnawarman. The previous capital which Purnawarman moved from, is supposed to have been Jayasinghapura where his grandfather, Jayasinghawarman, had founded Tarumanagara.

Figure 12 shows the image of flags with the symbol of Airawata in the modern kingdoms of Siam and Laos.

The above paragraph suggests that Purnawarman moved the capital again. The phrase, “the capital city of Sundapura on the bank of Ghomati River” is worth paying attention to. If the Prasasti Tugu in which the name of Gomati (Ghomati) River appeared was placed not far from the site of the riverwork, then the location of Sundapura would have been around the present-day Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. The centre of Sundapura is supposed to have shifted due to the change of the coastline [70] and developed into Sunda Kelapa, the main port town of the Pajajaran Kingdom which was occupied and renamed as Jayakarta by Moslems in 1526-7 AD and subsequently became the nucleolus of the Dutch Batavia (Jakarta) constructed in 1621.

It is considered that Purnawarman had decided to build the new capital Sundapura at the coast of the bay for the sake of convenience of sea trading, as his kingdom had become solid and safe, whilst the previous capitals at Jayasinghapura and Aruteun, both located at the confluence of rivers in mountainous areas, were advantageous from the defensive point of view. For the environment of Aruteun, see Figure 8.

A passage in the PPBJ 1-1 said that Dharmayawarman tried hard to teach their religion (Hinduism) to the native inhabitants but many of those who adhered to believe in their ancestors were not easily taught and consequently the natives were divided into four caste groups, i.e., Bhrahmana, Kastryah, Waisya and Sudra, in which the lowest one was the majority. In another passage it was written that

These descriptions about the religious situation coincide with the aforementioned comment in A Record of the Buddhist Countries (佛國記) that “In this country, the paganism and Hinduism flourish but Buddhist dharma is trifling.”

The fact that Purnawarman worshiped Wisnu was proved in the epigraphs of Prasasti Ciaruteun which said that “the pair of footprints like unto Vishnu’s are Purnawarman’s”. In the PPBJ 1-1 it is also written that all participants in the banquet organised on the occasion of the ceremony of honour praised Purnawarman and his queen, as if they were God Wisnu, (the supreme lord in the Vaishnavism) and Goddess Laksmi (the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity), respectively.

Ever since ancient times the control of river water and the irrigation of the field have been big issues, namely in West Java, one of the most pluvial areas in Java Island or in the world.

With regard to the riverworks at Candrabhaga and Ghomati Rivers, it was described in the PPBJ 1-1 as follows.

It is quite stunning that the dates of both starting and finishing of the work, as well as the number of immolated cows, exactly coincide with those written on the Prasasti Tugu. Then, the year of the work which was not inscribed on the Prasasti Tugu is considered to have been 339 Saka (417 AD). Now it is almost certain that “the king of kings” and “the Grand-father” in the Prasasti Tugu would have denoted Jayasinghawarman. “The Royal Sage” is still uncertain but the person would have been Dharmayawarman who was a devout religious teacher. The above description was preceded by a description that

This corresponds to the first verse of the Tugu Inscription. Although the work period, 21 days seems to be very short to dig such a long canal of over 11 km, the work could have been done because the work at Candrabhaga River was just for repairing and also because the whole work was incessantly conducted day and night by concentrating such a great number of labourers, as much as several thousands. If one assumes that 5,000 labourers had engaged for the work of 11 km, the section of the bank per person was only 2.2 m in average.

The statue is said of Wisnu’s in this case but supposed to have been the image of Purnawarman. The farmland created by riverworks is considered to have been provided with a drainage and irrigation system for agriculture. With respect to the Prasasti Tugu, it was concluded [72] that “the canals described were excavated in order to control the flooding of the river in the port area, rather than for the purpose of irrigation, as had been suggested by George Coedes [73] and others” but this was not the case at least at the Sarasah River.

In addition to the abovementioned river sites, Purnawarman conducted riverworks at three more sites. The name of the rivers and the year of the work were as follows.

For the riverwork at these remote places in subkingdoms, Purnawarman sent a large number of labourers from the central kingdom. After the completion of the works, a thanks-giving ritual and a banquet were held as usual and monuments were erected.

The description that Purnawarman erected a statue of himself, as well as stone inscriptions, in multiple places (at the sites of Candrabhaga/ Ghomati Rivers, Sarasah River and other villages) is noteworthy. Although the two statues found in the Cibuaya Site were named as Arca Wisnu Cibuaya I and II, their photographs (Figure 13 (1) and (2)) give an impression that they were modelled after an armoured warlord, presumably Sang Purnawarman himself, who as aforementioned always wore iron armour. The age of the making of the two statues, assumed as the fifth or sixth century from the archaeologically aspect [77], is not much different from the time of Purnawarman’s reign, 317-356 Saka (395-434 AD). The Wisnu statues from Cibuaya, Figure 13 (1) and (2), are quite in contrast with the hallowed image of other rulers, e.g., the statue of King Airlangga of Kediri (3), who was also believed as the incarnation of Wisnu and that of King Kertarajasa (Raden Wijaya) of Majapahit (4), who was simulated to Harihara, a deity of half Shiva and half Vishnu.

While Rajarsi (Dharmayawarman), the father of Purnawarman, retired and lived two years in hermitage before he died, Purnawarman made an inscription on a stone column, built a temple for Rajarsi on the bank of Candrabhaga River and another temple for Rajadhirajaghuru (Jayasinghawarman), the grandfather, on the bank of Ghomati River.

It was quite new at least to the present author that Purnawarman had constructed temples. From the above description, it is obvious that the temples on the bank of Candrabhaga and Ghomati Rivers had given the honourable names, “The Sage of the House of Candrabhaga” and “The Sage of the House of Ghomati”, for his father and grandfather, respectively. The year of the construction of the temples was not written but the year for the first one at Candrabhaga, at least, is assumed to have been between 317-319 Saka (395-397 AD).

These temples, however, are considered to be different from those discovered at the sites of Batujaya and Cibuaya located to the north of the present-day Karawan.

Besides the two temples at the banks of Candrabhaga and Ghomati Rivers, a passage which was grammatically inconsistent, but could be interpreted as follows, was found.

Dewawarman VIII of Salakanagara (reigned 270-285 Saka or 348-363 AD) built a temple (or temples) and installed the statues of Siwa and Wisnu,

This suggests that some temples had been built and statues, installed already in the third century during the Salakanagara Era.

According to The Book of Sung, the Aruteun Country sent envoys to Liu Sung China three times, for sure, in 430, 433, and 436 AD. Although no name was given for the first instance, the sender is considered to have been Purnawarman on account of the period of his reign, 395-434 AD, and the chief envoy, his uncle, Nagawarman.

The sender of envoys in 433 and 436 AD was apparently Wisnuwarman. In the former instance (430 AD), since Wisnuwarman was still the crown prince, it is probable that he wrote the letter with his signature on behalf of King Purnawarman. The year 436 AD in The Book of Sung is considered to correspond to the year 435 AD in the PPBJ 1-1, although one year difference lies between them.

The incident recorded in The Book of Sung that Wisnuwarman had once lost his position by a coup d’état may agree with the case written in PPBJ 1-1. As to the reason why the year is not found in the Chinese book, it could be probable that the relevant passage was a record from another letter received in 437 AD or in a later year.

Although Cakrawarman had failed to assassinate Wisnuwarman, he is considered to have taken control of the country for a while as written in The Book of Sung.

The scene of the battle was vividly written to tell us how the battle at that age was like. They had not only war-horses but also war-elephants. A lot of blood was shed in the battlefield and all houses around there were burnt. Cakrawarman and his commanders were killed during the battle.

As an achievement of Purnawarman, it was mentioned that he composed various books, such as below, and many others.

It is remarkable that many books were composed around the end of the fourth century to the early fifth century. As far as the present author knows, this fact has not been written in any publication other than PPBJ 1-1.

Among the list of materials used for the preparation of PPBJ 1-1 [79] are found books, Pustaka Tarumarajyaparwawarnana (The Book of .Descriptions about Old Taruma Kings) and Pustaka mengenai Warmanwamsatilaka i Bhumi Dwipantara (The Book about Warrior Society Tilaka on the Soil of Dwipantara) , the title of which look similar to those ofNitipustaka Rājya Tarumanagara and Pustaka Warmanwamsatilaka in the list of Purnawarman’s books. This suggests that the copies of Purnawarman’s books might have been available in the library of the Court of Cirebon in the beginning of the seventeenth century when the Wangsakerta Manuscripts were composed.

As mentioned above, the Wangsakerta Manuscripts told of Bakulapura in Tanjungnagara [Kalimantan] which was established by Aswawarman, the second son of King Dewawarman of Salakanagara, who had moved there and married to the daughter of local chief, Kudungga. Since the names of Aswawarman and Kudungga appeared in the stone inscriptions called “Prasasti Mulawarman” (or Prasasti Kutai) [80] discovered in the lower basin of Mahakam River, Bakulapura was considered as the real name of Kutai Kingdom or Kutai Martapura Kingdom that was conventionally given after the Sultanate of Kutai Karta Negara in Martapura founded in the beginning of the fourteenth century. Figure 14 shows pictures of Prasasti Mulawarman.

Although the history of Bakulapura has no bearing on the subject of this book, let us en passanat discuss relevant passages in PPBJ 1-1 to verify the image of “Kutai Kingdom” obtained from the stone inscription.

With regard to the origin of the family, it was written that their ancestor arrived in Tanjungnagara [Kalimantan] from the Sungga dynasty in Magadha (in Bihar), India, when the dynasty was defeated by the Kusana [81] and fled scattered around the Archipelago. The village where their ancestor had settled was named Kuta (or Kutai). Kudungga was the son of Attwangga, and Attwangga, the son of Mitrongga Lughubhumi who was a contemporary of Dewawarman VI of Salakanagara (reigned 211-230 Saka/ 289-308 AD). The family in Kalimantan is said to have begun with Pusyamitra but the relationship between he and Mitrongga, whether the former was the father or grandfather of the latter, was not clear, as unfortunately the descriptions about Bakulapura did not give the year of the kings’ coronation and abdication, unlike those about Salakanagara and Tarumanagara. The kinship between Aswawarman and Kudungga was not clear from the Prasasti Mulawarman, but it is now evident that the former was not the real son but son-in-law of the latter, originally the second son of King Dewawarman of Salakanagara of West Java who married the daughter of the latter.

During the reign of Aswawarman Bakulapura became a great country, where people lived prosperously and peacefully. Thereby Aswawarman was regarded as the founder of the Bakulapura kingdom. After the throne was succeeded by Mulawarman, Bakulapura grew further into a bigger and more powerful country, so that kings in neighbouring countries were subjected to Bakulapura’s authority. With Tarumanagara, Bakulapura had maintained a good relationship. About the decline of the kingdom, no description is found in the Wangsakerta Manuscripts.

It should be remarked that a past view that “Kudungga is not a Sanskrit word, and seems to point to the Indonesian origin of the family” [82] seems to be inappropriate now with reference to the information from the Wangsakerta Manuscripts. The fact that the Bakulapura family worshiped Hinduism was already evident from the Mulawarman Inscriptions.

Nevertheless, with respect to the location of Candrabhaga and Ghomati Rivers, whichever of the followings is right, remains still unclear.

[1] . Pararaton, a biography and genealogy of Ken Arok who founded the Singasari Kingdom, allegedly written in 1481-1600 by an anonymous author. The copy was found in Bali by J. L Brandes in 1890th (J. L. Brandes, Pararaton (Ken Arok): of het Boek der Koningen van Tumapĕl en van Majapahit , Bataviaasch Genootschap, 1920). Although in some books are written that Pararaton was found earlier by Stanford Raffles and published in his The History of Java (1817), it does not seem to be correct. Full English translation: I. Gusti Putu Phalgunadi, The Pararaton: A Study of the Southeast Asian Chronicle, Sundeep Prakashan, New Delhi, India, 1996.

[2] Nagarakertagama (Desawarnana), a homage and travelogue of King Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit who travelled around the kingdom’s territory, authored in 1365 by Mpu Prapanca who accompanied the king. The copy was discovered in Lombok by Dr. J. L Brandes in 1890s (J. L. Brandes, “Nagarakertagama: Lofdicht van Prapanjtja op Koning Radjasanagara, Hajam Wuruk, van Madjapahit, naar het eenige daarvan bekende handschrift, aangetroffen in de puri te Tjakranagara op Lombok”, Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen , LIV, Part 1.Nijhoff, 1902). Full English translation: Stuart Robson (trans.), Desawarnana (Nagarakertagama) by Mpu Prapanca, KITLV Press, Leiden, 1995.

[3] Kidung Sunda, a semi-fictional tragic epic of King Linggabuana of Kawali (Sunda) and his family who visited Majapahit for his daughter’s wedding with King Hayam Wuruk but were massacred at Bubat Field by Gajah Mada in 1357, written afterwards by an anonymous author sometime. The book was first published by Dr. C. C. Berg (C. C. Berg, “Kidung Sunda, inleiding, tekst, vertaling en aanteekeningen”. BKI vol. 83, 1927). Abstract: Claire Holt, Art in Indonesia: Continuities and Change, Cornell University Press, 1967; P. J. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, A Survey of Old Javanese Literature, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1974. Full Indonesian Text: Haksan Wirasutisna, Kidung Sunda I–II, Departmen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Jakarta: 1980.

[4] See, e.g., J. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan, A Survey of Old Javanese Literature, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, (1974).

[5] J. Noorduyn and A. Teeuw, Three Old Sundanese poems (Leiden: KITLV, 2006), Chapter 4.

[6] G. Schlegel, ‘Geographical Notes. XI. Holotan 呵羅單 or Kĭlantan 急蘭丹 Kalatan or Kĕlantan’, T’ung Pao, 10, 2 (1899). pp.159–163.

[7] J. L. Moens, ‘Crîvijaya, Yäva en Katäha’, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-‚ Land- en Volkenkunde, 77, 3 (1937), p.343.

[8] Paul Pelliot, ‘Deux itinéraires de Chine en Inde à la fin du VIIIe siècle’, Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 4 (1904), p.287-288.

[9] K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, ‘Sri Vijaya’, Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 40, 2 (1940), P.239-313.

[10] O.W. Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce. (Cornell University Press, 1967), p.216

[11] R. C. Majumdar, The History and Culture of the Indian People Vol. 3: The Classical Age , (New Delhi, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1997), pp. 650-61.

[12] Yutaka Iwamoto 岩本裕, ‘Sailendra Dynasty and Candi Borobudur’*, Southeast Asia: History and Culture, 10, (1981), pp17-38.

[13] Shun Suzuki 鈴木峻, ‘Mistery of Srivijaya - Revision’*シュリヴィジャヤの謎, http://www7.plala.or.jp/seareview/newpage5.html

[14] Ref. 6.

[15] Masatoshi Iguchi 井口正俊, Java Quest: The History and Culture of a Southern Country ジャワ探究－南の国の歴史と文化, (Maruzen, Tokyo 丸善, 東京 2013)*, p.5, p.15, pp.110-111; Masatoshi Iguchi, Java Essay: The History and Culture of a Southern Country, (Leicester Troubador Publishing 2015), p.11, p.23, pp.114-116.

[16] Slamet Muljana, Dari Holotan ke Jayakarta, Yayasan Idayu, Jakarta 1980.

[17] Agus Aris Munandar, Edi Suhardi Ekajati, Pustaka pararatwan i bhumi Jawadwipa, parwa 1, sargah 1-4: rangkuman isi, konteks sejarah, dan peta , Yayasan Pembangunan Jawa Barat, 1991 (https://galuhkiwari.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/ppbj-1-1.pdf ).

[18] Ayatrohaedi, Sundakala: Cuplikan sejarah Sunda berdasarkan naskah-naskah Panitia Wangsakerta Cirebon , Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta 2005 (Google Books).

[19] Saleh Danasasmita, Sejarah Bogor (Bogor, Pemerintah Daerah Kotamadya DT II Bogor, 1983).

[20] Boechari: “Beberapa kritik atas naskah-naskah sejarah dari Jawa Barat”, in, Edi S. Ekadjati, Polemik Naskeh Pangeran Wangsakerta (2nd Edition), Dunia Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 2017, 70-82.

[21] R.Soekmono: “Beberapa catatan tentang naskah sumber sejarah Kerajaan Tarumanagara” , in, Edi S. Ekadjati, Polemik Naskeh Pangeran Wangsakerta (2nd Edition), Dunia Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 2017, 70-82.

[22] R. P.Soejono, “Konsep prasejarah Naskah Wangsakerta mendahului zaman”, ibid, 70-82.

[23] J . G. de Casparis, Prasasti Indonesia II: Selected Inscriptions from The 7th to The 9th Century A.D., Masa Baru, Bandung 1956.

[24] Atja: “Beberapa catatan tentang tanggapan terhadap pustaka karya pangeran Wangsakerta” (1981), in Edi S. Ekadjati, Polemik Naskeh Pangeran Wangsakerta (2nd Edition), Dunia Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 2017, 70-82.

[25] Ayatrohaedi, “Kebenaran Sejarah’ Naskah-Naskah Panitia Wangsakerta” (1988); “Mengapa dipermasalahkan? - Keaslian Kitab Wangsakerta digugat para ahli Purbakala” (1988), ibid, 61-69, 116-118.

[26] Edi S. Ekadjati, “Tiap-tiap disiplin ilmu mempunyai metodologi masing-masing” (1988), ibid, 147-152.

[27] Nina H. Lubis, “Naskah Wangsakerta sebagai sumber sejarah?” (2002), ibid, 217-225.

[28] Edi S. Ekadjati, Polemik Naskeh Pangeran Wangsakerta (2nd Edition), Dunia Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 2017. The first edition was published in 2005.

[29] Ref. 17

[30] E.g., J. Ph. Vogel, ‘The Earliest Sanskrit Inscriptions of Java’, in: F. D. K. Bosch (ed.) Publicaties van den Oudheidkundigen Dienst in Nederlandsch-Indie, Deel 1 (Batavia Albrecht & Co., 1925); Hariani Santiko, ‘The religion of King Purnawarman of Tārumānagara’, in: Marijke J. Klokke and Karel R. van Kooij (ed.), Fruits of Inspiration: Studies in Honour of Prof. J.G. de Casparis (Groningen, Egbert Forsten, 2001); etc.

[31] Stutterheim wrote in 1925 that it was not yet deciphered (W. F. Stutterheim, (Trans. by Mrs. A. C. de Winter-Keen), Pictorial history of civilization in Java (Batavia: The Java Institute and G. Kolff & Co., 1927), but the translation into a modern language was shown in a treatise by Vogel in the same year (J. Ph. Vogel, ‘The Earliest Sanskrit Inscriptions of Java’, in: Vogel (1925)).

[32] Based on the decipherment by J. Ph. Vogel (1925) but some unclear part has been filled by the present author with reference to: Saleh Danasasmita (1983).

[33] For reference, Nandi, an ox, was the vehicle of Shiva, and Garuda, an imaginary bird, was a carrier of Vishnu. Garuda has been adopted as the national emblem and the name of the national airlines of Indonesia.

[34] D. A. Hooijer, ‘Fossil Proboscidea from the Malay Archipelago and the Punjab’, Zoologische Verhandelingen, 28. (1955).

[35] Lit. Plantation of Jambu. Jambu, precisely called Jambu Air, is a fruit different from Guava, the Latin name being Syzygium aqueum.

[36] Vogel (1925). Ref. 30.

[37] ibid .

[38] Amir Rochkyatmo, “Prof. Dr. Poerbatjaraka dan sastraa babad”, Praprosiding Seminar Mengenang Seratus Dua Puluh Dua Tahun Prof. Dr. R.M. Ng. Poerbatjaraka , Perpustakaan Nasional RI, 2006.

[39] J. Noorduyn and H.Th. Verstappen, ‘Purnavarman’s River-Works near Tugu’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 128, 2/3 (1972), pp.298-307.

[40] Phalguna and Caitra of the Hindu calendar correspond to 20 February–21 March, and 22 March–20 April, respectively. Since each month is divided into white-half (new moon to full moon) and dark-half (from full moon to new moon), the period in the text is calculated as twenty-one days. Cf. Appendix 2.

[41] F. D. K. Bosch, Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology, (The Hague Martinus Nijhoff, 1961), pp.165-167.

[42] Hariani Santiko, “The religion of King Purnawarman of Tārumānagara”, in: Marijke J. Klokke and Karel R. van Kooij (ed), Fruits of Inspiration. Studies in Honour of Prof. J.G. de Casparis , Egbert Forsten, 2001.

[43] Test translation from Indonesian text, “Inilah tanda keperwiraan, keagungan dan keberanian yang sesungguh-sungguhnya dari raja dunia, yang mulia Punawarman, yang menjadi panji-panji sekalian raja-raja”, in: Halwany Michrob, “Suku Baduy di Banten Selatan”. In; Buletin kebudayaan Jawa Barat, vol. 5 - 12, Proyek Penunjang Peningkatan Kebudayaan Nasional Propinsi Jawa Barat, 1974 (Google Books).

[44] Halwany Michrob (1974) “Suku Baduy di Banten Selatan”. In; Buletin kebudayaan Jawa Barat, vol. 5 - 12, Proyek Penunjang Peningkatan Kebudayaan Nasional Propinsi Jawa Barat., 1974 (Google Books). Original was possibly in; Buletin Kebudayaan Jawa Barat, No. 5, II/II: hlm, 1974, pages. 27-33.

[45] Richard Solomon, “Progress toward Decipherment of the Shell Inscriptions”. Adyar Library Bulletin 46, 1982, p. 93-172.

[46] Prasasti Pasir Aw i, https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasasti_Pasir_Awi.

[47] F. D. K. Bosch , “Een Maleische inscriptie in het Buitenzorgsche”, Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Iinstituut 100: p.45–53, 1941.

[48] Translated from the Dutch text in: F. D. K. Bosch (1941), Ref. 47.

[49] The Book of Sung (Sun Shu), the chronicle of Liu Sung Dynasty (劉宋, 420-479 AD）, was written after the fall of the dynasty in 492–493 by Shen Yue (沈約) by the order of Emperor Wu (武帝) of the Southern Chi dynasty (齊, 479–502).

[50] From the archive of Oriental History Laboratory, Nagoya University (http://toyoshi.lit.nagoya-u.ac.jp/maruha/kanseki/). Other text checked includes: Historical journal of Japan, Vol. 11, p.79, 1900; Du Doucheng (ed), Passages concerning Buddhism from the official histories, CBETA, https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=NJ_SCQAAQBAJ&pg.

[51] Free Chinese & Japanese Online Dictionary , https://www.orientaloutpost.com/dictionary.php

[52] Slamet Muljana (1980), Ref. 16.

[53] Original Indonesian text: Nama Holotan dan nama Aruteun menunjukkan persesuaian bunyi yang mirip sekali .

[54] H. Th. Verstappen (Dithertation 1953), in: Suryomiharjo, Abdurrakhman, The growth of Jakarta, Djambatan, Jakarta 1977. The work was published as: Herman Th. Verstappen, “Old and New Observations on Coastal Changes of Jakarta Bay: An Example of Trends in Urban Stress on Coastal Environments”, Journal of Coastal Research, 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 573-587.

[55] Ibid.

[56] John Guy, Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia . Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2014.

[57] Koji Sato, Beyond the House of cards - For the new Southeast Asian history ,* http://www.sumai.org/asia/spcham.htm

[58] Nanshi , https://toyoshi.lit.nagoya-u.ac.jp/maruha/siryo/nanshi078.html

[59] Text from: 文學古籍刊行社出版, 『法顯傳』, 新華書店, 上海（Classic Book Publisher, The life of Faxian, Xinfua-bookstore, Shanghai）, 1955*

[60] A literal translation by the present author. This interpretation is in accordance with that by H. A. Giles, “… where heresies and Brahmanism were flourishing, while the Faith of Buddha was in a very unsatisfactory condition” (Fa-Hsien, translated by H. A. Giles, The travels of Fa-hsien (399-414 A.D.): or, Record of the Buddhistic kingdoms , Cambridge University Press 1923). If the phrase, 外道婆羅門 is interpreted as “Heretic Brahmans”, the translation will be different as was done by J. Takakusu as “Heretic Brahmans flourish there, and the Buddha-dharma hardly deserves mentioning” (I-Tsing; J. Takakusu (trans.), A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (AD. 671–695) , Clarendon Press, London, 1896).

[61] Ref. 19; 32

[62] Ref. 17

[63] Rajatapura was probably located on the coast of the present-day Bay of Lada, to the west of Pandeglang City.

[64] G. Ferrand, G. “Le k’ouen-Louen et les anciennes navigations interoceaniques dans les mers du sud”, J. Asiatique 13, (1919),455.

[65] Kurihara, Tomonobu 栗原朋信, Study on the history of Qin and Han 秦漢史の研究, Yoshikawa-koubunkan 吉川弘文館 1986.

[66] Sundakala: Cuplikan sejarah Sunda berdasarkan naskah-naskah Panitia Wangsakerta Cirebon , Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta 2005.

[67] Danasasmita. See Ref. 19.

[68] See the episodes in: Iguchi 2015. Ref. 15

[69] Erawata, or Airawata, is a mythological white elephant who carried the Hindu god Indra.

[70] Noorduyn and Verstappen (1972), 298-307.

[71] Kali Sarasah is supposed to be the present-day Cimanuk (lit. Manuk River) which originate from Mt. Papandayan and flows northwards through Indramayu district into Java Sea. The location of the revierwork is unknown but supposed to have been the downstream area of the river.

[72] Noorduyn J. and Verstappen, H. Th.: “Purnavarman’s River-Works near Tugu”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 128 - 2/3 (1972), 298-307.

[73] Coedès, George: The Indianized States of South-East Asia, University of Hawaii Press, 1968, 54.

[74] Indraprahasta is believed to have existed on the northern foot of Mt. Ceremai, located at Cirebon Girang, to the south of the present-day Cirebon. Ghangga River (Sungai Ghangga) must have been nearby but the present name is unknown to the present author. The location of the revierwork is unknown either but supposed to have been the downstream area of the river.

[75] A village named Cupunagara exists in Kabupaten Subang, to the north of Bandung.

[76] The location of riverwork is not specified but it is supposed to have been the downstream area of the river.

[77] J. W. Christie, “State formation in early maritime Southeast Asia; A consideration of the theories and the data”, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 151, Leiden 1995. The age labelled for Arca Wisnu Cibuaya I and II, in the National Museum of Indonesia, as 6-7 century, 8-9 century, respectively, must be based on some old data.

[78] The wording, “Arab Abbasid”, in the list must be erroneous because Abbasid Caliphate started in 750 AD, four centuries after the Purnawarman’s era. The writer of the manuscript would have meant countries or trader’s settlements existed at that time in the Arabian Peninsula.

[79] The whole list is: 1. Pustaka Nagara Nusantara; 2. Pararatwan Sundawamsatilaka; 3. Serat Ghaluh i Bhumi Sagandhu; 4. Pustaka Tarumarajyaparwawarnana; 5. Pustaka mengenai Warmanwamsatilaka i Bhumi Dwipantara; 6. Pustaka Serat Raja-raja Jawadwipa; 7. Serat Purnawarmanah Mahaprabhawo Raja i Tarumanagara; 8. Pustaka Sang Resi Ghuru. (See the Egglish meaning of the book titles in Appendix 3, p. 103)

[80] The contents of four stone inscriptions would be roughly as follows in English, if the fragmental and ungrammatical texts, deciphered and translated into Indonesian (Sumantri, http://file.upi.edu/Direktori/ FPIPS/JUR._PEND._SEJARAH/ 197706022003122-YENI_KURNIAWATI_SUMANTRI/ Bahan_ajar_SIK.pdf), were interpreted with imagination.

(i) Maharaja Kudungga had a renowned son, named Aswawarman, who, like Ansuman (Sun God) had grown the very noble family. Aswawarman had three sons who shone like fire on three-branch lamp stand. The first son, Mulawarman became a well cultured, strong and powerful king. King Mulawarman has held a golden ceremonial banquet. To commemorate this event, this stone monument was erected by Brahmins.

(ii) Hear all of you, prominent Brahmins and all subjects must know about the goodness of the great and glorious King Mulawarman, his benevolence suffices all needs of life, like a palm tree gives everything. To notice this this monument is erected by Brahmins.

(iii) This monument is to notice the orders of King Mulawarman to keep oil for lighting for flowery messenger from Gods. The Mulawarman, the glorious and eminent king, has given alms 20,000 cows to the fire-like Brahmins, (housed) in the holy land (named) Waprakeswara. Make (warning) of the goodness of the king’s mind, this monument has been made by Brahmins who come to this place.

(iv) Sang Mulawarman, the glorious and eminent king, has given alms of 20,000 cows to the fiery Brahmins in the holy land of Waprakeswara. This monument is to remember the event erected by Brahmins.

[81] Probably “Eastern Kushan” that is estimated to have existed 225 - 375 AD from the data in: World Heritage Encyclopaedia, http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Kushans. No details about Sungga Dynasty is known to the present author.

[82] Hall, D. G. E.: A History of Southeast Asia (Fourth Edition) . Macmillan, London, 1981.

•	Nitipustaka Rājya Tarumanagara (Policybook of the King of Tarumanagara),
•	Nitipustaka ning Aksohini (Policybook of Battle Formation),
•	Nitipustaka Yuddhawarnana (Policybook of Warfare Description),
•	Nitipustaka Desantara i Bhumi Jawa Kulwan (Policybook Foreign Countries on the Soil of Java – One)
•	Pustaka Warmanwamsatilaka (Policybook of Warrior Society Tilaka*)
•	Pustaka Ghosanājñārājya (The book of Gosha-Anja-King?)
	*) Marks placed on the forehead among Vaisya class people to show their sect.

(a)	Around the present-day North Jakarta, where the Prasasti Tugu was unearthed,
(b)	The present-day Ciaruteun Ilir Village, where stone monuments, Prasasti Ciaruteun and Prasasti Kebon Kopi, were found,
(c)	Elsewhere.

(1)	The previous assumption by the present author that the unidentified country, 呵羅單, recorded in The Book of Sung was the transliteration of Aruteun and that Aruteun Country was the alternative name of Tarumanagara represented by the name of the capital has been ascertained with detailed investigation of the Chinese text and reference to the Wangsakerta Manuscripts, viz. PPBJ 1-1. In particular, the dispatching of envoys to China by King Wisnuwarman (毗沙跋摩) has been confirmed by the corresponding descriptions in PPBJ 1-1. It has also been learnt that friendly relationships were established earlier during the reign of King Purnawarman and ambassadors were exchanged not only with China but also many other countries.
(2)	The origin of the family of Tarumanagara and Bakulapura (Kutai), which was formerly assumed as India from the Sanskrit script of stone inscriptions, is now clear and the kinship between the families of Salakanagara, Tarumanagara and Bakulapura has been learnt from PPBJ.
(3)	Descriptions corresponding to those in the epigraphs on the stone inscriptions of Tarumanagara Era were also found in PPBJ 1-1. It is especially remarkable that the year of riverworks at Candrabhaga and Ghomati Rivers which was not written in Prasasti Tugu was specified in PPBJ 1-1 and that “The king of kings” and “the Grand-father” in the same stone inscription were identified as Jayasinghawarman, the founder of Tarumanagara. According to PPBJ 1-1, Purnawarman conducted riverworks not only at the above two rivers but also at many other rivers in the territory of Tarumanagara and founded many cities including Sundapura, the nucleus of the later-time Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta, Batavia and Jakarta.
(4)	The fact that Purnawarman had composed many books and that they would have remained in the court of Cirebon when the Wangsakerta Manuscripts were written is new to us, not found in other references.
(5)	The Arca Cibuaya I and II discovered at the Cibuaya Site and possibly similar ones erected at other places are considered to have been modelled after the armoured Sang Purnawarman, although this is no more than an imagination.