Material Stone | Size 50 cm × 80 cm | |
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Writing Pallava script in Old Malay Created 606 Saka (corresponds to 23 March 684) Discovered Bukit Seguntang near Palembang, Indonesia Present location National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta | ||
Talang Tuwo inscription is a 7th-century Srivijaya inscription discovered by Louis Constant Westenenk on 17 November 1920, on the foot of Bukit Seguntang near Palembang.
Contents
This inscription tells about the establishment of the bountiful Śrīksetra park awarded by Sri Jayanasa the king of Srivijaya, for the well being of all creatures.
The inscription was discovered in good condition with clearly inscribed scripts. Its size is 50 cm × 80 cm. It is a stone block and it is dated from 606 Saka (corresponds to 23 March 684), written Pallava script in Old Malay. The inscription consists of 14 lines. Van Ronkel and Bosch are the first scholars who translated the inscription. Their work was published in Acta Orientalia. Since 1920, the inscription has been stored in National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta, under inventory number D.145.
Content
The writings on the Talang Tuwo inscription:
Original script
Translation
The translation according to George Cœdès.
Old Malay vocabulary
The inscription is among the earliest evidence of written archaic Old Malay language. Many words are still recognizable and intelligible with modern Malay language and Indonesian language. The most significant differences are found in verbal affixes. While modern Malay language and Indonesian language use the prefix di- to mark passive, in Old Malay we find ni-. The same holds for the active prefix men- corresponding to Old Malay mar- or ma-. The modern possessive and object suffix -nya corresponds to the Old Malay -na. Old Malay words and their modern Malay and Indonesian counterparts are listed below, followed by their English gloss.