Dharmasraya A (Padang Roco Amoghapāśa base), 1286 CE

Author of digital edition: Arlo Griffiths (argr).

Palaeographic description: The hand is exactly the same as that responsible for two inscriptions issued by Kertanagara in East Java, the Wurare and Camundi inscriptions.

Languages: Old Malay (omy) [Kawi (kawi)], Sanskrit (san) [Kawi (kawi)].

Repository: Nusantara Epigraphy (tfc-nusantara-epigraphy).

Identifier: DHARMA_INSIDENK00007.

File path: xml/DHARMA_INSIDENK00007.xml.

Version: (8550245), last modified (8550245).

Edition

⟨1⟩ ⟨Face a⟩ || | svasti śaka-varṣātīta, 1208, bhādravāda-māsa, ti⟨Face B⟩thi pratipada śukla-pakṣa, mavulu, vāge, vr̥haspati-vāra, maḍaṅkuṅan·, grahacāra nairitistha, viśākā⟨Face c⟩-nakṣatra, sakra-de[vatā,] [*******]-[ma]ṇḍala, śubha⌈-

⟨2⟩ ⟨Face a⟩-yoga, kuvera-parbeśa, kiṁstughna-muhūrtta, kanyā-rāśi, I⟨Face B⟩nan· tatkāla pāduka bharāla Āryyāmoghapāśalokeśvara catu(r)daśātmikā sapta-ratna-sahita,, diĀntat· ⟨Face c⟩ dari bhūmi jāva ka svarṇnabhūmi dipratiṣṭa di dharmmāśraya, Akan·

⟨3⟩ ⟨Face a⟩ punya śrī viśvarūpakumāra, prakāran⟨d⟩aṁ ditītaḥ pāduka śrī ma⟨Face B⟩hārājādhirāja śrī kr̥tanagara vikramadharmmottuṅgadeva maṅiriṅkan· pāduka bharāla, rakryān· mahāmantri dyaḥ ⟨Face c⟩ Advayabrahma, rakryān· srīkan· dyaḥ sugatabrahma, mūAṁ

⟨4⟩ ⟨Face a⟩ , samagat· payānan· haṅ dīpaṅkaradāsa,, rakryān· damuṁ pu vīra, ⟨Face B⟩ kunaṁ punyeni yogya diAnumodanā Oleḥ sakaprajā di bhūmi malāy(u?), brāhmaṇa kṣatriya vaiśya sūdra, Ā(cā)⟨Face c⟩ryy(o)pāddhyāya, śrī mahārāja śrīmat· tribhuvanarājamaulivarmmade⟨Face D⟩va pramukha, || Anena k(u)śal(e)nāha(ṁ), buddhatvam ¿i?dhigamya ca, tārayeyañ jagat sarba,m ¿ā?gādhāt· bhava-sāgarāt·, ||

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ sakra-de[vatā,] ⬦ cakra-de[vatā,] K D • With viśākhā-nakṣatra, the expected devatā is Śakrāgni, but this appears not to have been written. — ⟨1⟩ śubha⌈⟨2⟩⟨Face a⟩-yoga • The taling of yoga, already noted at the end of line 1, is repeated redundantly at the start of line 2.

⟨2⟩ diĀntat· D ⬦ diĀntuk· K. — ⟨2⟩ Akan· K • Probably due to inadvertence, Damais 1955 omits this word.

⟨3⟩ prakāran⟨d⟩aṁ ⬦ prakāranaṁ K D.

⟨4⟩ diAnumodanā Oleḥ ⬦ diAnumodanāñjaleḥ K D. — ⟨4⟩ malāy(u?) ⬦ malāyū K D • It seems certain that no subscript vowel marker ū is engraved below the y, by contrast with the preceding word bhūmi. We cannot exclude that bhūmi malāya was intended, because Adityawarman's inscriptions (Rambahan, Gudam I) refer to the royal capital being called Malayapura; nevertheless, it is possible discern faint traces of vowel marker u rather than ū, and the expression bhūmi malayu is indeed attested in the Deśavaraṇana ​(13.2 yekādinyaṅ vatək bhūmi malayu), so that it seems hard to believe that any other expression was intended here. — ⟨4⟩ brāhmaṇa ⬦ brāhmaṇaḥ K D. — ⟨4⟩ Ā(cā)⟨Face c⟩ryy(o)pāddhyāya ⬦ Ā⟨Face c⟩ryyāmāddhyāt· K D • Our new reading is supported by Kertanagara's Amoghapāśa plaques: see the Commentary below.

Translation

⟨1–2⟩ Hail! Elapsed Śaka year 1208, month of Bhādravāda, initial tithi of the waxing fortnight, Mavulu, Vāge, Thursday (i.e., 1286-08-22), (wuku) Maḍaṅkuṅan, the grahacāra in the south-west, lunar mansion Viśākha, deity Śakra, the maṇḍala being […], the conjunction Śubha, the regent of the astronomical node Kuvera, the muhūrta Kiṅstughna, the zodiac sign Virgo.

⟨2–4⟩ That is when the holy deity Ārya-Amoghapāśalokeśvara with fourteen selves (?) together with the seven jewels was brought from Javanese soil to Svarṇabhūmi (i.e., Sumatra) ⟨and⟩ installed at Dharmāśraya, as (akan) the meritorious work (puṇya) of Śrī Viśvarūpakumāra. Because (? prakāranaṅ)1 it was ordered by His Majesty the Overlord of Great Kings, Śrī Kr̥tanagara Vikramadharmmottuṅgadeva, the holy deity was accompanied by the lord Great Minister dyah Advayabrahma, the Lord of Sirikan dyah Sugatabrahma, with the official of Payānan, haṅ Dīpaṅkaradāsa, ⟨and⟩ the lord of Dəmuṅ pu Vīra.

⟨4⟩ As for (kunaṅ) this meritorious work, it deserves the assent of all inhabitants of Malay soil, whether Brahmins, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas or Śūdras, and first of all (Śrī Viśvarūpakumāra's) masters and preceptors, ⟨as well as⟩ the Great King, the illustrious (śrīmat) Tribhuvanarājamaulivarmadeva.

1.

Thanks to this merit may I attain Buddhahood and help all creatures cross the deep sea of existences!

Commentary

The text is engraved on the separate stone base of a monumental sculpture of the Buddhist deity Amoghapāśalokeśvara (see e.g. the OD photo 3379, reproduced also in Reichle 2007, fig. 4.2.4), and alludes to certain iconographic details of the sculpture. It is laid out in an unusual pattern, starting on the lateral face to the deity's proper right, continuing on the adjoining front face and the following lateral face, before returning to the next line on the initial lateral face. As a result, the back is uninscribed except in the case of line 4, which is the only one to continue onto that face.

The language is a form of Old Malay with more than average infiltration of Old Javanese elements, such as the elaborate dating formula, the words muaṅ and kunaṅ, the prefix saka-, and possibly a case of Old Javanese predicate-subject word order (line 3 maṅiriṅkan). On the other hand, it also furnishes the oldest attestations of some characterically Malay words such as titah, oleh and akan, and a base spelled antat, i.e., /antad/, a form that is preserved dialectically but whose final consonant /d/ has come to be replaced in standard Malay by /r/, probably under Javanese influence (Adelaar 1992, p. 198).

The concluding Sanskrit verse is known from Buddhist literature in India, notably from the Āryaśrīmadvādirāḍmañjuśrīsādhana contained in the Sādhanamālā, where it appears, introduced with jagaddhitāya praṇidhānaṁ kuryāt, in the following slightly different wording (Bhattacharya 1925, p. 108): anena kuśalenāhaṁ buddhatvam adhigamya ca | tārayeyaṁ jagat kr̥tsnam agādhād bhavasāgarāt ||. The placement of the verse on a part of the base that was perhaps not meant to be seen by the public in the original arrangement, is reminiscent of the dedicatory formula in Sanskrit prose engraved on the back of the base of a bronze statue of Lokanātha from North Sumatra (N. 59).

It is also reminiscent of the Sanskrit dedication by King Kertanagara engraved on the back of each of the series of no less than five small Amoghapāśa plaques now kept in various western museums (Speijer 1903, Speijer 1904; Reichle 2007, pp. 99–101, 117–120). The latter use partly similar phraseology, notably in the phrase ācāryyopādhyāya-mātā-pitr̥-pūrvvaṁgamaṁ kr̥tvā sakala-satva-rāśer anuttara-jñāna-phalāvāptaya, which helps to restore the words at the transition between faces B and c in line 4 and suggests that Tribhuvanarājamaulivarmadeva was Viśvarūpakumāra's father.

Bibliography

First edited by Krom ([1916] 1917), with exclusion of the Sanskrit stanza. A slightly improved reading, again only of the Old Malay text, was presented by Damais (1955). The present edition by Arlo Griffiths (2026), for the first time with inclusion of the Sanskrit stanza, was established by direct inspection of the stone at the National Museum of Indonesia and using photogrammetries made in 2025 by Garin Pharmasetiawan.

Primary

[K] Krom, Nicolaas Johannes. [1916] 1917. “Een Sumatraansche inscriptie van koning Kṛtanagara.” VMKAW-L 5e reeks, 2, pp. 306–339.

[D] Damais, Louis-Charles. 1955. “Études d’épigraphie indonésienne, IV: Discussion de la date des inscriptions.” BEFEO 47, pp. 7–290. DOI: 10.3406/befeo.1955.5406. [URL]. Pages 99–101.

Secondary

OV 1912. Oudheidkundige Dienst in Nederlandsch-Indië: Oudheidkundig verslag 1912. Weltevreden; 's Hage: Albrecht & Co.; Nijhoff, 1912. Page 49, item 51.

Bambang Budi Utomo and Nik Hassan Shuhaimi. 2009. Inskripsi berbahasa Mālayu Kuno di Asia Tenggara. Bangi: Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Pages 63–64.

Notes

  1. 1. The meaning and correct division into words of prakāranaṅ remain elusive. What would fit best in the sentence is a word with a meaning like “servant” or “delegate”, but no plausible candidate comes to mind. The solution that we hesitantly retain here assumes that prākaranaṅ somehow corresponds to Sanskrit kāraṇa which has yielded Malay karena/kerana, though it leaves both pra- and -ṅ unexplained. The following two interpretations may also be considered, both implying that prakāra corresponds to modern perkara and that naṅ could function as relativizer — though mentioned in some Malay dictionaries as equivalent to yang and nan, this nang does not seem to be solidly attested in Malay texts:

    1. “The matter (prakāra), which (? naṅ) was ordered”;

    2. “As for (prakāra) the ones who (? naṅ) were ordered”.

    Finally, the best solution might be to emend prakāranaṁ to prakārandaṁ, with pronominal suffix -nda(ṅ) (i.e., to postulate omission of subscript d), and to take prakāra as a plural marker (see its use in the Talang Tuwo inscription), somewhat like lvir and prakāra in Old Javanese, or lir and prakara in Modern Javanese: “All (prakāra) of the ones who (-ndaṅ) were ordered”.