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The Scottish orientalist John Leyden (1775-1811), ‘the Bard of Teviotdale’, was a close friend and collaborator of Sir Walter Scott who had won renown as a poet even before he sailed for India in 1803. A prodigious scholar of Indian languages, Leyden also had a deep interest in Malay, and built up an important collection of Malay literary manuscripts which is now held in the British Library. Leyden’s Malay manuscripts mostly originate from Penang, where from late 1805 to early 1806 he spent three months convalescing in the house of Thomas Stamford Raffles. Indeed, some of the 25 Malay manuscripts in Leyden’s collection are copies commissioned by Raffles, although older manuscripts are also found. The collection is rich in prose works (hikayat) and also contains a few syair, or long narrative poems composed of four-line stanzas with the same end rhyme, including Syair Silambari and Syair surat kirim kepada perempuan. But Leyden seems to have had a particular interest in a lesser-known Malay poem called Syair Jaran Tamasa, ‘The Lay of Jaran Tamasa’.

A view of Penang from the sea. Anonymous watercolour, bound in to a copy of Norman Macalister, Historical memoir relative to Prince of Wales Island (London, 1803), presented by the author to Alexander Dalrymple. (With thanks to Nicholas Martland for first showing me this drawing.) British Library, 571.h.19.

Two manuscripts of Syair Jaran Tamasa are found in the Leyden collection; both have now been digitised. MSS Malay B 9, which is in a brisk cursive hand, was copied by a scribe named Ismail on 10 May 1804. The second manuscript, MSS Malay D 6, is clearly a direct copy of MSS Malay B 9, and reproduces Ismail’s colophon word-for-word, while noting that this copy was made for Raffles by Muhammad Bakhar. Although this second copy of Syair Jaran Tamasa is not dated, it was probably copied in Penang in April or May 1806, for on 24 May 1806 Raffles wrote to Leyden in Calcutta, ‘I likewise send you herewith per favour of Mr Patton, the remaining sheets of the Jaran Tamassa’ (Bastin 2003: 40).   

Opening pages of Syair Jaran Tamasa, copied by Ismail, 1804. British Library, MSS Malay B 9, ff. 1v-2r

Colophon of the original copy of Syair Jaran Tamasa: 'written on 29 Muharam 1219  (10 May 1804), in the year ba, on Monday, at noon; Ismail is the owner/writer of this poem' (pada sanat 1219 tahun-tahun ba pada sembilan likur hari bulan Muharam pada hari Ithnin pada waktu tengah hari akan surat ini Ismail empunya syair tamat). British Library, MSS Malay B 9, f. 103v

Colophon of the second copy of Syair Jaran Tamasa, copied from MSS Malay B 9, which reproduces Ismail's original colophon, and then continues: ‘ordered by Mr Raffles to make a copy, I, Muhammad Bakhar, wrote this poem, and with the help of God the Exalted it has been completed in full, but if there are mistakes your forgiveness is begged for me, an old man with failing eyesight’ (disuruh Tuan Raffles salin senda Muhammad Bakhar menyurat syair ini ditulong Allah ta’ala sudahlah dengan sempurnanya di dalam ini jikalau ada salah pinta tuan2 maaf akan hamba tuan orang tuha lagi mata pun cedera tamat). British Library, MSS Malay D 6, f. 67r

Syair Jaran Tamasa is one of a number of Malay literary works inspired by Javanese tales of Prince Panji, and in its first line introduces itself with the Javanese title Kakawin Jaran Tamasa. As the Indonesian scholar Poerbatjaraka noted, many of the names of characters in the Panji romances bore an animal title such as Bull, Buffalo or Horse, and the name of the eponymous hero of our story, Jaran Tamasa, means 'Horse Affected by the Darkness'. Set at the court of Majapahit in Java, our poem tells of the love between Jaran Tamasa, the youngest of three sons of the vizier Arya Senopati ('Noble Military Commander') who are adopted by the king after their parents’ death, and Ken Lamlam Arsa ('Admiration/Delight of Love/Desire'), who with pleasing symmetry is the youngest of three daughters of Temenggung Singa Angkawa ('Proud Lion'). [1]

Leyden’s papers suggest he spent some considerable time working on the Syair Jaran Tamasa. In his essay ‘On the languages and literature of the Indo-Chinese nations’ first published in 1808 in Asiatick Researches, Leyden discusses Malay works with ‘Javanese relations’, and alongside the Panji stories Hikaiat Chikkil Wunnungputti (i.e. Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati, MSS Malay C 1 is Leyden's copy) and Kilana Perbujaya Cheritra he includes ‘Hikaiat Jarana Tamasa, or the love of adventures of a chieftain of Minjapahit, in Java, composed by Andika’ [2].  The British Library holds a number of Leyden’s manuscript notebooks, and in one (Or. 15936, f. 108v) we find a page headed ‘Jaran Tamasa’ containing explanations of phrases such as ‘Dikichip dunghin ecor mata [i.e. dikecip dengan ekor mata], glance with the tail of the eye’ , evoking the sultry atmosphere of the poem. And in the list of Leyden’s books and manuscripts, purchased after his death by the East India Company, included in item 25 is the ‘History of Tarana (sic) Tamasa, from the Malay’ [3], suggesting that somewhere – albeit presently still unidentified – amongst Leyden’s papers now in the British Library is an English translation of the Malay Syair Jaran Tamasa [4].

The heroine is introduced in Syair Jaran Tamasa: 'The youngest was named Ken Lamlam Arsa / she looked like a royal flower / planted among samandarasa flowers / fit to be worn in the hair of a god' (yang bungsu bernama Ken Lamlam Arsa / Rupanya laksana bunga rajasa / diselang dengan bunga samandarasa / patut disunting dewa angkasa). British Library, MSS Malay B 9, f. 4r

Leyden’s jottings on Jaran Tamasa, including, at top and bottom, the flowers to which Ken Lamlam Arsa is likened: 'Boonga Rijasa - a yellow flower' and 'Boongga semandarasa - a flower of a tree'. British Library, Or. 15936, f. 108v

As far as is known, the two manuscripts in the British Library are the only known copies of Syair Jaran Tamasa, which has never been published. A closer look shows that both Malay scribes appear to have struggled with unfamiliar Javanese names and words. Ken Lamlam Arsa is most likely an error for Ken Lam Arsa, heroine of another Malay Panji story, Hikayat Ratu Anom Mataram, a manuscript of which is held in the National Library of Indonesia (W 135) [5].  Muhammad Bakhar has further transformed the Javanese Arsa (spelled a.r.s) to the (more intuitive and melodious to Malay ears) Rasa (r.a.s). And while John Leyden identifies the author of the poem as Andika, this is actually the Javanese word for 'you' [6], which is written Idika by Ismail in 1804 and Indika in Muhammad Bakhar's copy in 1806.

Muhammad Bakhar was certainly a less accomplished scribe than Ismail; his hand is more stilted and shaky, and he seems to have left out three stanzas, for while in Ismail’s copy there are 1525 stanzas of four lines each, totalling 6100 lines, there are only 6088 lines in Muhammad Bakhar’s. At the end of the manuscript Muhammad Bakhar blames any ensuing mistakes on his age and his ‘failing eyesight’ (mata pun cedera). Poor eyesight must have been an occupational hazard for Malay scribes: on 15 December 1810, Raffles, newly arrived in Melaka, wrote to Leyden in Calcutta: ‘Pray send me a Dozen pair of good Spectacles that all my people may see their way clear – I have had at least half a Dozen broad hints for them’ (Bastin 2003: 51). Muhammad Bakhar's protestations fall well within the range of conventional self-deprecations of Malay scribes (see Braginsky 2002); nevertheless, Raffles should perhaps have sent to Calcutta for spectacles a bit earlier.

Notes

[1] With many thanks to Vladimir Braginsky for information on the animal form of names/titles in Panji stories.
[2]  See p.178; in fact, no prose hikayat of this name is known, only the verse form.
[3] The list of Leyden’s collections is published in the Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological Society (1911), pp. 55-6, and reproduced in Bastin (2003: 79-83).
[4] See, for example, the excitement generated by the recent 'rediscovery' in the British Library of Leyden's translations of Panjabi literary works.
[5] With many thanks to Gijs Koster for this identification.
[6] With thanks again to Vladimir Braginsky.

References

John Bastin, John Leyden and Thomas Stamford Raffles. Eastbourne: printed for the author, 2003.
V.I. Braginsky, Malay scribes and their craft and audience (with special reference to the description of the reading assembly by Safirin bin Usman Fadli).  Indonesia and the Malay world, 2002, 30(86): 37-62.
John Leyden, On the languages and literature of the Indo-Chinese nations. Asiatick Researches, 1808, 10: 158-289.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia  

The Mahabharata in Malay manuscripts

Panji stories in Malay

The Malay Tale of the Wise Parrot

The wily Malay mousedeer

Digital access to Malay manuscripts

The great Indian epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata were known throughout Southeast Asia, but it was the Ramayana that most profoundly influenced Malay literary tradition. One of the oldest Malay manuscripts in a British collection is a copy of the Hikayat Seri Rama in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which bears the ownership inscription of Archbishop Laud dated 1633. The British Library holds a manuscript of Caritra Rama, 'The story of Rama', in romanised Malay, which was copied in Surabaya in 1812.

Caritra Rama, in romanised Malay with many Javanese elements, copied at Surabaya in February 1812. British Library, MSS Malay D 7, f. 5r (det.).

There are however also Malay versions of the Mahabharata, some of which probably entered Malay as abbreviated prose renditions of the Old Javanese Bhratayuddha. The earliest, Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya, ‘The tale of the war of the victorious Pandawa’, was composed some time between the late 14th and early 16th century, and is mentioned in the Bustan al-salatin of Nuruddin al-Raniri composed in Aceh in 1638 (Braginsky 2003: 143).

Opening pages of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya, with double decorated frames in red, pink, black ink and reserved white. British Library, MSS Malay B.12, ff. 1v-2r 

Simple finialed black ink outlines enclose the colophon of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya giving the date of copying as 22 Syaaban 1219 (26 November 1804), in the year ba, on Monday, and the name of the scribe as Muhammad Kasim. British Library, MSS Malay B 12, f. 117r.

An illuminated manuscript of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya (MSS Malay B 12), with brightly decorated opening frames, was copied in 1804, probably in Penang, by Muhammad Kasim. In the following year, the same scribe is known to have copied an illuminated manuscript of Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiah (MSS Malay B 6) which is also in the British Library. The epic tale revolves around the war between the Pandawas and the Korawas, brought about by a fateful game of dice which the Korawas win by deceit, and is presented in three parts.

The second part of the work, entitled Hikayat Pandawa Jaya, ‘The tale of the victorious Pandawas’, tells the story of the Pandawas' victory in the great war, and this part is also contained in another manuscript in the British Library, MSS Malay B 4.  According to the colophon on f.90r, this manuscript was copied on 10 Rabiulawal 1220 AH (8 June 1805 AD) in the reign of Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin in Kota Setar Dar al-Aman. It was conventional practice in a number of Malay states to accompany the toponym with an honorific epithet in Arabic, such as Palembang Dar al-Salam, 'Abode of Peace', and  Perak Dar al-Ridwan 'Abode of Grace', but no other Malay state is known to have had as close an association with its epithet as Kedah had with Dar al-Aman, ‘Abode of Security’, to the extent that the term Dar al-Aman alone is often used to refer to the state.

Opening lines of Hikayat Pandawa Jaya, copied in Kedah, 1805. The visible diagonal brushstrokes on the page suggest that this is Chinese paper. British Library, MSS Malay B 4, f. 2v (det.).

A third Malay manuscript in the British Library related to the Mahabharata is Hikayat Maharaja Boma (MSS Malay C 8), a variant of the story better known as Hikayat Sang Boma or Hikayat Sang Samba. The five Pandawa brothers and their families feature in this tale (and indeed the monkey kings from the Ramayana also put in an appearance), but the main heroes are Kresna, the earthly incarnation of the god Bisnu (Sanskrit: Vishnu) and his father Basudewa (Sanskrit: Vasudeva), brother Baladewa and son Samba Prawira Jaya (Braginsky 2003: 152). Hikayat Sang Boma was probably composed in the 15th-16th centuries in one of the traditional centres of Javanese-Malay cultural contact.  At the start of this manuscript it is said that the story was originally in 'the Indian language' (bahasa Keling), and was then translated into Javanese, and finally rendered into Malay. According to the colophon and marginal notes, the manuscript was copied by Du'ad on 24 Zulkaidah 1219 (24 February 1805).

Opening pages of Hikayat Maharaja Boma, with the date of copying of 1219 (1804) inscribed vertically in the right-hand margin of the first page. British Library, MSS Malay C 8, ff. 1v-2r.

Malay tales based on the Mahabharata and Ramayana remained popular long after the coming of Islam. Vladimir Braginsky (2003: 147) sugggests however that the Hindu philosophical ideas which permeate the Sanskrit epics are barely evident, and instead ‘the Malays saw primarily absorbing stories about exemplary heroes displaying military valour and courteous behaviour’, as well as relishing the exquisite descriptions of incomparable beauty.  Still, the dichotomy of attempting to rationalise the older literary inheritance with Muslim beliefs and practice is a recurrent theme over the centuries. One approach taken in a number of Malay manuscripts now in the British Library collection is to place clearly visible moral warnings that the texts should be read ‘with a pinch of salt’ and should not be taken to heart.  Thus the copy of Hikayat Pandawa Jaya ends with a brief unfinished syair (poem) of which the first stanza reads: 'This is the story of the victorious Pandawas / whoever reads it, don't believe a word of it / it's full of hopeless lies / of glorious imaginary worlds' (Inilah hikayat Pandawa Jaya / siapa membaca jangan percaya / bohongnya banyak tiada berdaya / dunia kayangan sangatlah mulia). Du’ad, the scribe of the manuscript of Hikayat Maharaja Boma, has added the stern admonition ‘don’t believe this’ (jangan beriman) to every folio, as can also be seen in the left-hand margin above, and at the end of the story he added a more explicit caution.  The same lip-serving religious censorship device can be seen in another manuscript in the British Library copied by the same scribe (although here he spells his name Da'ut), of a Malay Panji story, Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati (MSS Malay C 2). 

Closing verse in Hikayat Pandawa Jaya exhorting readers not to believe in the tale. British Library, MSS Malay B 4, f. 90r (det.).

The top right corner of each folio of Hikayat Maharaja Boma is labelled: 'don't believe this!' (jangan beriman). British Library, MSS Malay C 8, f. 10v (det.).

The disclaimer placed by the scribe Du'ad at the end of Hikayat Maharaja Boma: 'This writing is packed full of untruths, because it has been embellished over and over again by all the writers who have copied and recopied the text; whoever takes this Javanese story to heart is believing a pack of lies more numerous than stars in the sky or grains of sand on a beach, and his sins will pile up and multiply, so don’t be unaware or forgetful of this while reading these [undoubtedly] beautiful words, this is my warning! (Adapun khabar ini terlalulah amat dusta oleh ditambah2 oleh orang yang menyurat oleh sampai pada orang yang menyurat akhirnya ditambah barangsiapa ada menaruh iman seperti tersebut di dalam surat Jawa ini maka terlalulah amat dustanya tiada terbilang sebilang bintang di  langit dan sebilang kerisik di pantai demikianlah dosanya kanda berkanda dosa diperolehannya jangan tuan2 sebagian tiada ketahui akan dan lupa lalaikan pada tatkala membaca surat dan tatkala perkataan yang indah2 kalau [berlikha?] di dalamnya itulah perintahnya).  MSS Malay C 8, f. 64r

All the Malay manuscripts mentioned above how now been fully digitised and can be read on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts site.

Further reading

V.I. Braginsky, The heritage of traditional Malay literature: a historical survey of genres, writings and literary views.  Leiden: KITLV, 2004, pp. 143-156.

A.T. Gallop, ‘Abode of peace’: the use of honorific epithets for place names in the Malay world. Cetusan minda sarjana: sastera dan budaya, penyelenggara Ampuan Haji Brahim bin Ampuan Haji Tengah. Bandar Seri Begawan: Dewan Bahasa dan Budaya Brunei, 2014; pp. 27-51.

R.O. Winstedt, A history of classical Malay literature.  Revised, edited and introduced by Y.A.Talib.  Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1991; includes a lengthy summary of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya and Hikayat Sang Boma on pp. 149-162.

Panji stories in Malay

A new edition of Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya, based on Royal Asiatic Society MS Raffles Malay 2, is currently in preparation by Liubov Goriaeva, to be published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia  

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In November 1714, three British merchants from the East India Company ship Borneo were granted permits to trade by the sultan of Banjar on the south coast of the island of Borneo, now known as Banjarmasin in present-day Indonesian Kalimantan. The issuing of trading permits was a common occurrence, but what was exceptional in this case was the form of the permit itself: a thin piece of gold stamped with the sultan’s seal, with a personalised inscription naming each of the three officers.

At this time the ruler of Banjar was Sultan Tahmidullah (r.1712-1747), and the presentation of the permits took place at his palace at Caytongee or Kayu Tangi, about a hundred miles upriver from the port of Banjarmasin. The occasion was described by Captain Daniel Beeckman in his travelogue, A voyage to the island of Borneo in the East-Indies, published in London in 1718:

‘He caus’d three Gold Plates to be made of the Form and Size here mark’d, of which he gave one to me, another to Mr. Swartz, and the third to Mr. Becher; and told us, that was a Token of the Friendship, and a Chop, or Grant of Trade, having the Stamp of his Great Seal on it; that on the producing it at our return, he would not only protect us, but grant us the liberty of Trade in any part of his Dominions; Then he wish’d us, in a hearty manner, a good Voyage, and a speedy Return. I have here inserted the Words that are on the Gold Chop, as also the English of them, as near as I can, viz. De ca Tawon Zeib, daen ca Boolon Dulcaidat, Eang Sultan Derre Negree Caytongee, dea Casse enee Chop pada anacooda Beeckman. That is, In the Year Zeib, and the Moon Dulcaidat, The Sultan of Caytongee gave this Chop to Captain Beeckman’ (Beeckman 1718: 110-111).

Daniel Beeckman, A voyage to and from the island of Borneo in the East-Indies (London, 1718). British Library, T 11938 4.

Hardly surprisingly, none of the original gold tokens is known to have survived. But tucked inside a manuscript volume of miscellanea in the British Library’s department of western manuscripts is a document with a tracing of the token granted to Bartholomew Swartz, supercargo of the Borneo. As part of the Harleian collection, this manuscript dates from before 1753, and was therefore probably drawn up not long after the return of the ship Borneo from the East Indies. The piece of paper is inscribed: 'The Contract with the Emperor of Borneo (in the East Indies). Mr. ... Swartz's Agent from the East India Comp. London. This was an agreement to settle & Trade or Commerce with full liberty to the Subjects of England or great Britain'. In the middle of the sheet of paper is a drawing of the token, which is labelled, 'This is on a gold plate, impressd. by the Emperor, almost as thinn as this paper, whereby it is plainly seen on the other side'.

Traced copy of the gold trading permit bearing the seal of Sultan Tahmidullah of Banjar, with a presentation inscription in Malay to Bartholomew Swartz dated 1714. British Library, Harley MS 6824, f. 194r.

The outline of the original gold plate has been traced with a sharp implement, and the inscription on the seal and the token copied out in black ink. The scored outline shows that the gold plate was rectangular on the three lower sides but rounded at the top, and measured 87 mm high by 48 mm wide. Impressed at the top of the token was the round seal of the sultan, measuring 45 mm in diameter with a triple-ruled outline, with an inscription in the middle and in a border around the edge.

This drawing is doubly significant, not only as a record of a rare seal impressed in gold, but also because it depicts the oldest Islamic seal known from Borneo. In Malay seals, the main inscription giving the name of the seal owner is invariably located in the centre, while the border houses a secondary inscription, often religious in character. However, in this seal, the only logical way of reading the inscription is to proceed from the border inwards to the centre: Sultan Tahmidullah ibn Sultan Tahirullah ibn // al-Malik[?] Allah, ‘Sultan Tahmidullah, son of Sultan Tahidullah, son of // al-Malikullah’. [It is probably significant that the only other Malay seal known where the inscription should be read from the border inwards is also from Banjar.]

Detail of the drawing of the gold sealed trading permit. British Library, Harley MS 6824, f. 194r.

Underneath the seal impression, the gold plate was inscribed in Malay in Jawi script with the date and the name of the recipient: Pada tahun zai pada bulan Zulkaidah hijrat [a]l-nabi seribu seratus enam tahun, Sultan Banjar mengasih cap kepada Batalomu Suwas, ‘In the year Zai, the month Zulkaidah, the year of the migration of the Prophet one thousand one hundred and six, the Sultan of Banjar gave this seal to Bartholomew Swartz’. Although the date on this copy is given as Zulkaidah 1106 (June/July 1695) it should, without doubt, read Zulkaidah 11[2]6 (November/December 1714), which accords exactly with the dates of the Borneo’s visit to Banjar.

No other reference is known to trading permits from the Malay archipelago in the form of gold tokens, and another East India Company ship, Dragon, which visited Banjarmasin in 1746 during the reign of Sultan Tahmidullah's son, Tamjidullah (r.1746-1756), received more conventional trading permits, written on paper in Malay in very stylish Jawi calligraphy, and bearing the sultan's seal stamped in red wax.

Trading agreement for pepper issued by the Sultan of Banjar to the East India Company, received on 24 October 1746: 'This is our royal decree to Mr Butler, Mr Stewart and Captain Kent; as your trading vessels sail in and out we agree that they will not be searched; you must not allow any nobles or notables to board your ship, or anyone at night, and during daytime only two or three merchants may board (at any one time); and we promise the Company to supply six thousand pikul of pepper, this is not negotiable, and each year whether two or three ships come, it will be [only] six thousand' (Bahwa ini titah kami kepada Mister Butel dan Mister Asdut serta Kapitan Kin jikalau ada perahu masuk atau perahu keluar tiada kami berikan diperiksa yang jenis perahu dagang dan lagi pula kalau raja2 atau orang besar2 hendak bermain ke kapal jangan dinaikkan atau orang henda naik pada malam melainkan orang berdagang dua tiga orang beroleh naik pada hari siang dan akan perjanjian kita dengan Kompeni memuat lada enam ribu pikul tiada kita mengubahkan tiap2 tahun jikalau kapal datang dua atau tiga enam ribu jua). British Library, IOR L/Mar/C/324, f. 65r.

Financial surety issued by the Sultan of Banjar, 1746: 'This is our surety issued to Mister Butler for the rials, valid only as far as Batavia; if Mister Butler does not return to Banjar our friendship with the East India Company will be revoked' (Bahwa ini surat kami akan Mister Butel mengganti rial itu sehingga ke Betawi saja, jikalau tiada kembali ke Banjar adalah Mister Butel menceraikan sahabat kami dengan Kompeni). British Library, IOR L/Mar/C/324, f. 64r.

Two red wax seals bearing the name Sultan Tamjidullah, both inscribed from the bottom up so that the word Allah is elevated to the position of honour at the top of the seal. British Library, IOR L/Mar/324, f. 64r (left) and f. 65r (right).

Further reading

A.T. Gallop & V. Porter, Lasting Impressions: Seals from the Islamic World. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2012.

A.T. Gallop, Elevatio in Malay diplomatics, Annales Islamologiques.  Dossier: Les conventions diplomatiques dans le monde musulman.  L’umma en partage (1258-1517), ed. Marie Favereau.  41 (2007), pp. 41-57.

Malay manuscripts from Borneo

With thanks to Richard Morel who discovered the two permits of 1746.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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Stories of the Javanese culture hero Prince Panji probably date from around the 13th century, and mark the development of a truly Javanese literature no longer overshadowed by the great Indian epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Set around the Javanese kingdoms of Kuripan and Daha, the stories tell of Panji’s search for his beloved, Princess Candra Kirana, and his many adventures, undertaken in various disguises and with a range of different names, before the lovers are reunited. During the Majapahit empire from the 14th to 15th centuries the Panji stories became extremely popular, and the figure of Panji is found engraved on temple reliefs (always wearing a distinctive cap on his head), while the Panji tales came to constitute the repertoire of wayang gedog theatrical performances. The British Library holds eight Javanese manuscripts containing Panji stories including Panji Kuda Waneng Pati (Add. 12319), Serat Panji Kuda Narawongsa (Add.12333), Serat Panji Murdaningkung (Add. 12345), Panji Angreni (MSS Jav 17) and the beautifully illustrated Panji Jaya Kusuma (MSS Jav 68), all described in the catalogue by Ricklefs & Voorhoeve.


Prince Panji (on the right) hands a letter to his clown-retainers (panakawan) Bancak and Dhoyok, in a Javanese Panji romance, 19th century. British Library, Or. 15026, f.85r (det.)

Panji tales are found not only in the Javanese literary tradition but also in Balinese and Malay, and on the Southeast Asian mainland in Thai, Lao, Khmer and Burmese versions, where the hero-prince is known as Inao (after his main Javanese name, Raden Inu Kartapati). The Panji stories appear to have been translated into Malay at an early date, perhaps in the cosmpolitan port city of Melaka in the 15th century, and influences can be discerned in the Malay texts Sejarah Melayu and Hikayat Hang Tuah. Over a hundred different Panji stories in Malay are known, in numerous manuscripts, many originating from the northern peninsular states of Kelantan and Kedah where wayang (shadow puppet) stories were most popular.

Sketch of Panji, wearing his distinctive rounded cap, found in a Malay manuscript of Hikayat Dewa Mandu, copied in Semarang, 1785. British Library, Add. 12376, f. 219r (det.).

The British Library holds ten Malay manuscripts containing Panji stories or related tales, all of which have now been fully digitised:
MSS Malay C 1, Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati. Under the name Cekel Waneng Pati, Panji undergoes innumerable trials to regain his love Raden Galuh Candra Kirana: he captures the deer with golden antlers, solves riddles, cures Candra Kirana of illness, defeats a black-bearded villain, himself falls ill but is cured by his son Mesa Tandraman who obtains a heavenly flower of blood from a nymph’s bosom, and wins yet more battles before all can finally live happily ever after.
MSS Malay C 2, another copy of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati, dated 1787.
Or. 11365, possibly another copy of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati, written on Javanese paper, acquired from Kelantan.
MSS Malay C 3, Hikayat Mesa Tandraman, about the son of Panji, copied in Penang by Ibrahim for Raffles in 1806.
Add. 12380, Syair Mesa Gumitar, about a king of Kuripan, apparently related to the Panji stories.
Add. 12383, Hikayat Carang Kulina.
Add. 12387, Hikayat Mesa Taman Sira Panji Jayeng Pati, written on Javanese paper.
Add. 12391, Hikayat Naya Kusuma, where the hero is named Mesa Susupan Sira Panji Kelana Asmara Pati.
Or. 16446, an unidentified Panji tale, starting with the Maharaja of Jenggala, written on Javanese paper in romanized Malay.
Or. 16447, ff. 89v-91r, a fragment of the Syair Ken Tambuhan, copied in Taiping in 1888.


Opening pages of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati. British Library, MSS Malay C 1, ff. 1v-2r.


Opening pages of the Syair Mesa Gumitar. British Library, Add. 12380, ff. 3v-4r.


The seduction scene from Syair Ken Tambuhan, whose name, in this manuscript, is always spelt Ken Tabuhan (Ken Tabuhan terlalai dalam seketika / kainnya terlingsir lalu terbuka / pinggangnya bagai taruk angsuka / Inu mencium melakukan suka). British Library, Or. 16447, f. 89v (det.)

The large number of manuscripts still found today testify to the enduring popularity of Panji stories in the Malay world, but the continuing enjoyment of literature rooted in the pre-Islamic era was never uncontroversial, as graphically demonstrated by the earliest of the Malay Panji manuscripts in the British Library. This is a copy of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati written by a scribe named Da'ut, possibly in the environs of Kedah, and dated 10 Zulhijah 1201 (23 September 1787). Above the text frames on the opening page on the right is an exhortation to readers not to believe the contents of this story, with a similar comment on the left-hand page addressed to listeners (reflecting the fact that traditional Malay tales were not designed to be read silently by an individual, but were recited aloud to an audience). On a later page the threat posed by this ancient Javanese fantasy tale to Muslim faith is made explicit, and thereafter, the top of every single right-hand page of this manuscript of 151 folios bears the warning: ‘don’t believe this!’ (jangan beriman akan). 

In early 17th-century Aceh, the stern theologian Nuruddin al-Raniri decreed that copies of the Hindu-infused romance Hikayat Inderaputera should be banished for use in the lavatory, and, judging the writings of Shaykh Shamsuddin al-Sumatrani heretical, consigned his books to the flames.  The late 18th-century Malay scribe Da'ut has taken a different and very pragmatic approach, of boldly and visibly plastering his book with spiritual health warnings while leaving the text itself intact, so that those prepared to brave the morally hazardous terrain filled with deities, ogres, cross-dressing princesses and magic potions might venture forth at their own risk.


Opening pages of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati, prefaced at the top with a strict message to readers and listeners: 'Will all readers please make sure not to take this book to heart because it's really just a pack of lies, and will you also please stress to your listeners on each page that they should not believe it' (Maka hendaklah tuan yang membaca surat ini jangan menaruh iman di dalam hati karena semata sekaliannya itu dusta belaka dan lagi / tuan2 kata akan pada sekalian orang yang menengar surat ini pada tiap2 halai tekan pada mereka itu, jangan beriman akan). British Library, MSS Malay C 2, ff. 1v-2r. 


One full page of the manuscript of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati is dedicated to a warning about its potential impact on faith: 'Never fail to keep in mind Allah and His Prophet when you read this book; these Javanese stories are a tissue of fantasies, composed simply for amusement by writers whose skills were different from those of people now, and so these tales of olden times just read like nonsense today' (Jangan sekali-sekali lupa akan Allah dan rasulNya pada tatkala membaca surat ini perkataan surat Jawa ini terlalu amat dusta sekali oleh dicandakan orang yang menyurat yang bijaksana orang tetapi bukannya orang pada masa ini dahulu punya perbuatan ini maka orang sekarang ini sedikit2 dicandanya pulak jadilah perpanjanglah kata). British Library, MSS Malay C 2, f. 5r (det.) 

At the top of every single right-hand page, there is an appeal to readers not to believe the contents: jangan beriman akan. British Library, MSS Malay C 2, f. 8v (det.) 

Further reading:
V.I. Braginsky, The heritage of traditional Malay literature: a historical survey of genres, writings and literary views.  Leiden: KITLV, 2004, pp. 156-175.
Lydia Kieven, Following the Cap-figure in Majapahit temple reliefs: a new look at the religious function of East Javanese temples, 14th and 15th centuries. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
M.C.Ricklefs, P.Voorhoeve† and Annabel Teh Gallop, Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain: a catalogue of manuscripts in Indonesian languages in British public collections. New Edition with Addenda et Corrigenda. Jakarta: Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia, 2014.
R.O. Winstedt, A history of classical Malay literature.  Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977; summary of Hikayat Cekel Waneng Pati on pp. 2231-250.

Pameran naskah cerita Panji: Exhibition of Panji manuscripts in Javanese, Balinese and Malay at the National Library of Indonesia, October 2014

Related blog posts: Soother of sorrows or seducer of morals? The Malay Hikayat Inderaputera

With thanks to Lydia Kieven for advice, and for identifying the sketch of Panji above.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia 

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Permulaan, 'The beginning', first word of Kitab pengajaran. MSS Malay B 13, f. 1v (detail)

Malay manuscripts rarely give full details about when and where they were written, and we are often reliant on the biographies of western collectors in order to date a manuscript or gauge its origin. Little such information is available for one Malay manuscript (MSS Malay B 13), entitled blandly Kitab pengajaran pada segala orang sekalian, ‘A book of instruction for everyone’. It contains moral guidance on all aspects of social behaviour, with sections for example on anger (murka, f.31r), hopes and fears (pengharapan dan ketakutan, f.25r) and love and passion (berahi dan asyik, f.35r), on family relations including the role of fathers (pangkat bapak, f.42r) and sons (anak laki-laki, f.44r), and between layers of society, such as masters and servants (orang yang dipertuan serta yang diperhamba, f.52v). The annotation ‘Hastings MS’ indicates it may have been owned by the Marquess of Hastings, who succeeded Lord Minto as Governor-General of Bengal from 1813 to 1823.

Opening pages of Bahwa ini kitab pengajaran pada segala orang sekalian; note the very neat handwriting and use of paragraphing. British Library, MSS Malay B 13, ff. 1v-2r

One possible clue to the provenance of this manuscript may lie in the handwriting. The manuscript is written in a clear, neat and precise hand, with carefully spaced words, meticulous diacritical marks, and - very unusually - paragraphs: all hints that the book was probably specifically written for a European patron and thus needed to be very legible. Such a school of scribes was active in Batavia in the early 19th century, associated with the General Secretariat (Algemeene Secretariaat) of the Dutch administration, founded in 1819. Manuscripts by this group of scribes can be seen in Leiden University Library, the National Library of Indonesia and the Berlin Staatsbibliotheek, all distinguished by great care in the writing, and stylish use of rubrication and bold letters for certain significant words. One highly distinctive letter form found in MSS Malay B 13 which is associated with this school is the ‘squashed’ form of medial ha, with the loops above and below both bent to the right, which suggest that the Kitab pengajaran was copied in Batavia in the early 19th century (despite endpapers of English paper watermarked '1794', which may have been added later when the MS was rebound in Calcutta). If it was acquired during the British administration of 1811 to 1816, this would make it one of the earliest known examples of this characteristic 'Batavia' hand.      

   
The word syahdan, 'then', with distinctive 'squashed' medial ha, in three manuscripts. Left: Kitab pengajaran. British Library, MSS Malay B 13, f.5v; Middle: Hikayat Bujangga Indera Maharupa, copied by Muhammad Cing Saidullah, Batavia, 1830. Courtesy of Leiden University Library, Kl.7, p.442;
Right: Hikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain, copied by Muhammad Hasan, probably in Batavia in the early 19th century. Courtesy of Leiden University Library, Cod.Or.1967, vol.2, p.249

Awareness of the importance of palaeography – the study of historical styles of handwriting – for the study of manuscripts was the impetus behind the recent publication of ‘A Jawi Sourcebook for the Study of Malay Palaeography and Orthography’ as a special issue of the journal Indonesia in the Malay World in honour of Professor Ulrich Kratz, who recently retired from SOAS after three decades of teaching Malay and Indonesian literature. The Jawi Sourcebook was compiled with the aim of presenting a body of source material to enable a fresh look at Jawi script, and is modelled on a landmark guide to European palaeography by my former colleague Michelle Brown (1990), despite a complete reversal of theoretical grounding. Brown’s book, A guide to Western historical scripts from Antiquity to 1600, presented photographic facsimiles of manuscripts accompanied by comments on the handwriting, in order to illustrate over 50 acknowledged styles of script in Latin letters. Yet in the absence of any recognized categorization of Malay hands, all that the Jawi  Sourcebook aims to do is to to present, in chronological order, the raw material that could be utilised to advance the study of Malay palaeography and orthography. This has been done by selecting a corpus of 60 securely dated or dateable Malay manuscripts from the late 16th to the early 20th century, each of which can be located in a specific part of the Malay world, from Aceh to Aru and from Melaka to Mindanao. Thanks to the recent Malay manuscripts digitisation project, which has enabled full online access to all the Malay manuscripts in the British Library, many of these were selected by international contributors to the Jawi Sourcebook. A selection of sample lines from British Library manuscripts, accompanied by comments on the handwriting by various scholars, is presented below.

ACEH, 1764

Mirat al-tullab, by Abdul Rauf of Singkel, composed in 1074/1663, this MS copied on 14 Muharam 1178 (14 July 1764) in Aceh. British Library, Or.16035, f.4r.

'In this MS, two dots are connected and look like a short line, while three dots look like ‘one dot and a short line’. Note the unusual appearance of segala, here and elsewhere in this MS, as the ga-lam resembles a capital ‘B’' [at the end of the first and third lines above].   Yumi Sugahara, Osaka University (Jawi Sourcebook, no.17)

SEMARANG, 1797

Hikayat Raja Pasai, copied in Semarang, central Java, ca. 8 Syaaban 1211 (6 February 1797). British Library, Or. 14350, f. 78r.

'The script is small and neat, and appears to have been written by a professional scribe. The initial sin is in the form of a flowing stroke. In order to preserve a straight left edge, the copyist varies extended and close strokes, resulting e.g. in a relatively long tail of the wau in the pre-final line or in a rather ‘crammed’ way of writing the last words in the final line.' Edwin Wieringa, Cologne University (Jawi Sourcebook, no.21)

PENANG, 1806

Syair surat kirim kepada perempuan, copied by Ibrahim ca. 18 Syawal 1220 (9 January 1806), British Library, MSS Malay B.3, f. 40 r.

‘Ibrahim does indeed possess ‘characteristic handwriting’ (Teeuw et al 2004: 16): very upright, inscribed confidently and with considerable brio. The letter forms are very distinct, though he is occasionally somewhat cavalier about the dotting. There are no dots to distinguish ga and kaf.’ Mulaika Hijjas, SOAS (Jawi Sourcebook, no.25)

PONTIANAK, 1813

Kitab ubat-ubat dan azimat, ‘Book on medicine and talismans’. A note on the front cover reads: ‘Tay Segalla obat or The Malay Materia Medica, from the practice of Tama, Physician to the Royal household of His Majesty of Pontiana, copied May 17th 1813’. British Library, MSS Malay B.15, f. 2r.

'The handwriting in this manuscript is neat and clear with a faint slant towards the left. Occasionally letters that follow an alif are raised upwards to link to the top of that alif (e.g. the nga in ‘jangan’). The letter kaf is sometimes written in an elongated form (e.g. ‘manteraku’). Although the hand is legible the spelling is erratic and inconsistent, making it difficult to determine the ingredients and spells used in the treatments. Therefore a comparison with similar texts found in other manuscripts is necessary to determine the correct reading.' Farouk Yahya, SOAS (Jawi Sourcebook, no.28)

SINGAPORE, 1832

Sejarah Melayu, copied by Husin bin Ismail in Tanah Merah, Singapore, on Saturday 16 Rajab [1248] = 8 December 1832. British Library, Or. 16214, f. 2r.

'The writing is neat and regular which is typical of Husin bin Ismail. In contrast to Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi (no. 38), this scribe has no evidently distinct features in his writing. A characteristic which he shares with other scribes is writing kaf for ga ... Interestingly, in our fragment he writes orang besar differently on both occurrences, first conjoined and then separated. Remarkable is the spelling of cucu, using the number ‘2’ (c.w.2).' Roger Tol, KITLV, Jakarta (Jawi Sourcebook, no.35)

BRUNEI, ca.1900

Syair Baginda, concerning Sultan Abdul Mumin of Brunei (r.1852-1885). On the basis of the watermark (‘Superfine 1895’) can be dated to ca.1900. British Library, Or. 14549, f. 3r.

‘The syair is written in black ink in two columns, in a characteristic Brunei literary hand familiar from hikayat and syair manuscripts, notable for its extreme horizontal aspect, and very different from the chancery hands evident in royal Brunei letters over the centuries (Nos. 1 and 5). The orthography too reflects Brunei phonetic norms such as the preference for medial a rather than ĕ pĕpĕt.’  Ampuan Haji Brahim bin Haji Tengah, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, and Annabel Teh Gallop, British Library (Jawi Sourcebook, no.56)

Further reading

‘A Jawi sourcebook for the study of Malay palaeography and orthography’. Contributors Wan Ali Wan Mamat, Ali Akbar, Vladimir Braginsky, Ampuan Haji Brahim Haji Tengah, Ian Caldwell, Henri Chambert-Loir, Tatiana Denisova, Farouk Yahya, Annabel Teh Gallop, Hashim Musa, I.R. Katkova, Willem van der Molen, Mulaika Hijjas, Ben Murtagh, Roderick Orlina, Jan van der Putten, Peter G. Riddell, Yumi Sugahara, Roger Tol and E.P. Wieringa; edited and introduced by Annabel Teh Gallop. Indonesia and the Malay World, Special Issue in honour of E.U.Kratz, March 2015, 43 (125): 13-171.

Michelle Brown, A guide to Western historical scripts from Antiquity to 1600. London: British Library, 1990.

Teeuw, A., Dumas R., Muhammad Haji Salleh and Van Yperen, M.J.  2004. A merry senhor in the Malay world: Four texts of the Syair Sinyor Kosta. Leiden: KITLV Press.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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From 1602 until 1684 - when they were ousted by the Dutch - the English East India Company maintained a ‘factory’ or trading settlement at Banten on the western tip of the island of Java. This lengthy sojourn of over eighty years is notable for the almost complete absence of interest from any EIC official based in Banten in the history and culture of the land on which they were encamped, and not a single Malay manuscript in the British Library can be traced to this period.  In striking contrast, around three hundred Malay, Javanese and Bugis manuscripts - indeed, the majority of Indonesian manuscripts in the British Library - derive from a brief period in the early nineteenth century centred on the British administration of Java from 1811 to 1816.  At the helm of this 'Enlightenment' group, who were inspired by the earlier studies of William Marsden in Bengkulu and the publication in 1784 of his path-breaking History of Sumatra, was Thomas Stamford Raffles, who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Java from 1811 to 1815. Other notable scholar-administrators of this period who accompanied Raffles to Java were John Leyden and John Crawfurd - both of whom had also spent time in Penang - and Colin Mackenzie. With the help of aristocratic local historians such as Kiai Adipati Sura Adimanggala, Regent of Semarang, and Panembahan Nata Kusuma of Sumenep as well as like-minded officials from the earlier Dutch administration including the naturalist Thomas Horsfield, great efforts were put into the collecting of source materials in the form of manuscripts in local languages on history, literature and legal institutions, drawings of archaeological remains and natural history specimens, and surveys of the surrounding countryside. Raffles was able to make swift use of these materials, in part by compiling and quoting wholesale from surveys and reports submitted to him, in his two-volume work The History of Java published in London in 1817.

The cleaning of Candi Sewu, Prambanan, Central Java, by Major H.C. Cornelius, 1807, from the collection of Colin Mackenzie. British Library, WD 957, f.1 (82)

Raffles’s personal collection of manuscripts in Javanese and Malay is today held in the Royal Asiatic Society, but the British Library holds the collections of Crawfurd, Mackenzie and Leyden, as well as a few manuscripts originally owned by Raffles. The majority of the materials collected in Java were naturally in Javanese, but there are also manuscripts in Malay, including some translations from Javanese manuscripts.  Among the Malay manuscripts in the British Library which have just been digitised are several titles on Javanese history, collected and commissioned during the British period in Java. Hikayat Tanah Jawa, ‘Chronicle of the land of Java’, written in Jawi script (MSS Malay D 9), ends following the Second Javanese War of Succession (1719-23) with the death of Pangeran Purbaya (Ricklefs 1994: 87). Two other manuscripts are both in Malay in roman script.  Hikayat Babad (MSS Malay D 8), which according to the colophon was written for Raffles in 1815, mainly concerns Mangkunegara I (r.1757-95), founding ruler of the minor princely house of Surakarta. The third manuscript, Babat Sekander (MSS Eur Mackenzie Private 43), is a Malay translation from the Javanese of the pseudo-history, Serat Baron Sakender, about the coming of the Dutch to Java.  

Opening pages of Hikayat Tanah Jawa. British Library, MSS Malay D 9, ff. 1v-2r 

Final lines of Hikayat Tanah Jawa, which ends with the death of Pangeran Purbaya in Batavia (maka Pangeran Purbaya pun kembalilah ke rahmat Allah taala, maka disuruh bawa oleh kompeni akan mayat Pangeran Purbaya itu ka Kartasura, kemudian maka ditanamkan oleh Susunan akan mayat Pangeran Purbaya itu di Kartasura. Demikianlah halnya sampai sekarang ini adanya, tamat, tam.) British Library, MSS Malay D 9, f. 48r (detail)  

Closing lines of Hikayat Babat, naming Raffles as the owner (adapoon Ienie hiekaijat Babat die sambarken kapada njang mempoenja hie yaitoe njang die pertoean Besjaar Tomas Stamfort Raffles, Lieuttenant Gouvernoor njang batama darie Goovermijeent England die Noesa Jawa adanja). British Library, MSS Malay D 8, f. 107v (detail)

Opening lines of Babat Sekander, a Malay translation in roman script of a Javanese manuscript of Serat Sakondar (Add. 12289, shown below), this manuscript copied in Surabaya in 1814. British Library, MSS Eur Mackenzie Private 43, f.2r (detail)

Serat Sakondar, the original Javanese version from which the Malay manuscript above of Babat Sekander was translated. British Library, Add. 12289, ff. 2v-3r

Further reading

Theodore G. Th.Pigeaud, Literature of Java.  Catalogue raisonné of Javanese manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and other public collections in the Netherlands.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968.
Thomas Stamford Raffles,  The history of Java. London, 1817. [Facsimile reprint, with an introduction by John Bastin. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1965].
M.C. Ricklefs, A history of modern Indonesia since c.1300. (2nd ed.)  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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Think ‘Malay manuscript’, think ‘Jawi’ – the modified form of the Arabic script used in Southeast Asia – but this is not invariably the case. Manuscripts in the Malay language from the interior regions of south Sumatra are often written in local incung scripts of Indian origin, which read from left to right. Apart from the rare Kerinci script, the two main variants of incung script encountered in manuscripts from south Sumatra are Lampung and Rejang (or rencong). In addition to paper, manuscripts are written on pieces of bamboo and strips of tree bark folded in concertina form. Most such manuscripts probably date from the late 18th and 19th centuries, but a bark book in Lampung script was given to the Bodleian Library in Oxford by Jo. Trefusis in 1630, making it by far the earliest dateable south Sumatran manuscript known (reproduced in Gallop & Arps 1991: 71).


Syair perahu, ‘The poem of the boat’, Sufi poem in Malay in rencong script. British Library, MSS Malay A 2

Among the Malay manuscripts in the British Library that have recently been digitised are four manuscripts from south Sumatra. Shown above is a folded tree bark manuscript of Syair perahu, ‘The poem of the boat’, written in Malay in rencong script (MSS Malay A 2). This Sufi poem comparing the mystical path to a voyage in a boat, based on the system of the ‘seven grades of being’ (wahdat al-wujud), was formerly attributed to the Sumatran mystic Hamzah Fansuri. However, Braginsky (2004: 676) has distinguished two distinct Syair perahu, neither of which is by Hamzah; the first - as in the present manuscript - which has only survived today in rencong script, and was probably composed in the second half of the 17th century by Syamsuddin of Pasai or one of his disciples; and a second, better-known, version, currently preserved in Jawi manuscripts.

A brief unidentified text, perhaps an incantation, with drawings, at the end of the manuscript of Syair perahu. MSS Malay A 2

Two other manuscripts are both written on bamboo. One incomplete text in rencong script, comprising 31 strips of bamboo, contains a tembai (myth of origins) and teremba (genealogy), in the form of a metrical litany narrating the descent of the soul from its prenatal state in the land of the souls (MSS Malay D 11). According to the Dutch linguist and authority on Sumatran langauges, Petrus Voorhoeve, ‘It is a curious document of the syncretism of animistic and Muslim ideas that is characteristic for South Sumatra in the period of transition from the old religion to Islam. In such a composition one cannot expect a strick adherence to the rules of logic.’  Voorhoeve further notes that the last part of the text 'refers to the reluctance of the soul to be born, caused by the premonitions of death that it feels during the last nine days before birth. On each of these days it entreats its parents to avert this threatening danger. Reflection on its eternal origin, purification with citrus-juice, sacrificial meals and prayers are the means to reach this end. Their effect is that the soul feels "a little better", and though the text ends abruptly in the middle of the last day we may suppose that the soul is at last persuaded to take its abode in this world of "time" and "death". Perhaps this litany was recited during the ceremonies which were performed in the last days before the birth of a child.'

Tembai and teremba, Malay manuscript in rencong script on bamboo. The first lines of the text have been read by Voorhoeve: Anjut parahu dari ulu / pisang rukama kanan pari / tambai kutahu dari guru / taraba kapun barahi. British Library, MSS Malay D 11, f. 1r

The second manuscript on bamboo is Seribu maksa (Or. 12986) concerning a conversation between the Prophet (Nebi Rasululah) and Sayih Wali Mahemat. The text is in south-Sumatran literary Malay in Lampung script, which can be distinguished from rencong script by the presence of a symbol for the vowel ĕ pĕpĕt (like the initial 'a' of 'alone'). Digitised together with the manuscript is a typed sheet containing Voorhoeve's revision of the order of the bamboo strips, based upon the same text as found in the National Library of Indonesia, Jakarta, MS E 86.

Seribu maksa, in Malay in Lampung script. British Library, Or. 12986

The fourth manuscript (MSS Malay A 4), and the only one on paper, is a collection of pantun or quatrains entitled Surat pantun cara Lampung, written in parallel columns of the Lampung dialect in Lampung script and Malay in Jawi script. The manuscript, which is dated 1812, contains poems used by young people in courtship. It was probably written for a European, perhaps in Bengkulu, where the East India Company had a base.

Surat pantun cara Lampung, courtship poems, 1812. British Library, MSS Malay A 4, ff. 2v-3r

To this small collection of four Malay manuscripts from South Sumatra in the British Library, we are very pleased to have added a fifth, thanks to the generosity of Christopher and Zissa Davidson. Chris worked in Lampung in the 1980s, and when he and Zissa left in 1988 they were given a bark book as a leaving present by very close Dutch friends. The book had earlier been acquired by these friends in a small tourist shop selling some local artefacts in a hotel beside Danau Ranau, a volcanic lake in the northwest of the province. Zissa first contacted the British Library in 2002 to find out some information about the manuscript. After some discussions, earlier this month she and Chris most kindly came up from their home in Hampshire to donate the manuscript to the British Library, where it has been given the shelfmark Or. 16936. The contents have not yet been identified (alas, Dr Voorhoeve passed away in 1996), but the ruled lines dividing the pages suggest that this may be a compendium of short texts. We hope to be able to digitise the manuscript soon so that it can be studied by the few people still able to read Lampung script.


Lampung manuscript on folded tree bark. British Library, Or. 16936


The Lampung manuscript (Or. 16936) donated to the British Library by Chris and Zissa Davidson, 1 April 2015

Further reading:

Vladimir Braginsky, The heritage of traditional Malay literature. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004; on 'Sufi poems of the boat' see pp. 676-688.
Mark Durie, ‘Ancient links: the mystery of South Sumatra’ in: Illuminations: the writing traditions of Indonesia, ed. by Ann Kumar and John H. McGlynn. New York: Weatherhill; Jakarta: Lontar, 1996, pp. 247-52.
Annabel Teh Gallop with Bernard Arps, Golden Letters: writing traditions of Indonesia / Surat Emas: budaya tulis di Indonesia. London: British Library; Jakarta: Yayasan Lontar, 1991
P. Voorhoeve, Critical survey of studies on the languages of Sumatra. ‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955.  

Download MSS.Eur.C.214 contains a synoptic romanized text of MSS Malay A.2 by P.Voorhoeve.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia 

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The prestige of a royal house in the Malay archipelago rested in no small part on claims of  descent from illustrious ancestors. At the most deep-rooted level, myths of origin in Malay texts drew on primordial Austronesian beliefs of unity between the earth and sky, symbolised by the marriage between a prince who descended from heaven and a princess from the earth or water, who emerged from a mass of foam or a clump of bamboo (cf. Ras 1970: 81-99). With the coming of Islam, into this chain of descent were introduced powerful figures from the Islamic pantheon, pre-eminently the great hero Iskandar Zulkarnain (Alexander the Great), as well as the first man, Adam, and the Raja of ‘Rum’, as the Ottoman lands were known in the east. These ahistorical genealogies are found in court chronicles such as the Hikayat Raja Pasai, Sulalat al-Salatin or Sejarah Melayu recounting the origins of the sultanate of Melaka, the Hikayat Banjar from southern Borneo, and Hikayat Jambi from east Sumatra, preceding the more factual elements of the texts.  

In the Sejarah Melayu, the sultans of Melaka are said to be descended from the union of Raja Iskandar (Zulkarnain) and the daughter of Raja Kidi Hindi. In this episode, Nabi Khidir marries the couple according to Islamic rites and asks Raja Iskandar if he agrees to the dowry of 300,000 gold dinars (‘Bahwa sudahlah hamba kahwinkan anak Raja Kidi Hindi yang bernama Syahral Bariah dengan Raja Iskandar, adapun isi kahwinnya tiga ratus ribu dinar emas 300,000, ridakah tuan hamba?’ Maka sahut Raja Iskandar, ‘Ridalah hamba’). British Library, Or. 14734, f.4v (detail)

As well as depictions in prose, royal genealogies or silsilah are occasionally visualised as charts or diagrams, as found in three recently digitised Malay manuscripts depicting the ancestry of the royal houses of central Java (Or. 15932), of the kingdom of Pajajaran in west Java (MSS Malay F 1), and of Luwu’ in south Sulawesi (MSS Malay D 13). Artistically the most impressive is a genealogy in the form of a tree tracing the descent of the kings of Java, starting with Adam, placed in the roots of the tree, and ending in the outermost leaves with Sasunan Pakubuwana keempat (Pakubuwana IV of Surakarta) and Mataram keempat (Sultan Hamengkubuwana IV of Yogyakarta). The genealogy is found at the end of a volume containing the work Papakĕm Pawukon, containing an illustrated description of the 30 wuku of the Javanese calendrical tradition. The manuscript, in Javanese and in Malay in Jawi script, was written in Bogor in the Javanese year 1742 (AD 1814/5). It is said to be from Kyai Suradimanggala, Bupati sĕpuh of Dĕmak, who was one of Thomas Stamford Raffles’s closest friends and informants in Java.

Genealogy of the Javanese kingdoms, from Adam to Pakubuwana IV of Surakarta and Hambengkubuwana IV of Yogyakarta (Adapun ini suatu masyal pohon riwayat tahta kĕrajaan tanah Jawa). British Library, Or. 15932, f.72r

Little is known of the early history of the Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Pajajaran in the Sundanese region of west Java, which was conquered by Muslim Banten in ca. 1579 (Ricklefs 1994: 38). A manuscript chart (MSS Malay F 1), just over a metre long, contains a genealogy written in romanised Malay starting with the legendary founder of Pajajaran, Prabu Siliwangi, and continuing through Suhunan Gunung Jati of Cirebon, one of the nine sages (wali) believed to have brought Islam to Java, to 'Pangeran Adipati Moehamad Djamoedin Aloeda' son of 'Pangeran Radja Nataningrat wakil Soeltan Sepoeh [of Cirebon] taoen 1880'. The list was probably written in the 1890s.  

First entries in the royal genealogy from west Java, starting with Prabu Siliwangi of Pajajaran, a MS chart in romanised Malay, ca. 1890s.  British Library, MSS Malay F 1 (detail, top)

A third manuscript genealogy, like the west Javanese one above presented from top to bottom, but in this case written in Malay in Jawi script, is labelled 'Succession of the Datus of Luwu' (MSS Malay D 13) and contains the descent of the rulers of Luwu’, the oldest and most prestigious kingdom in south Sulawesi (see OXIS below). The genealogy starts with Orang Manurung and continues through 26 generations to Matinru ri Sabang Paru whose daughter married Sultan Nuh of Soppeng (r.1782-1820).

Genealogy of the rulers of Luwu' in South Sulawesi. British Library, MSS Malay D 13 

Perhaps the most grandiose narration of descent of a Malay royal house is depicted in a manuscript held not in the British Library, but in the Library of School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). This is an early 20th century  genealogy of the ruling houses of pre-Islamic Persia, the Malay sultanates and Turkey, joined by their common ancestor Yapit, son of Nabi Nuh (Noah). The left-hand branch shows the descent of the sultans of Johor and Perak from Iskandar Zulkarnain and the kings of Persia and Melaka. The right-hand branch shows the Turkish line, through mythical rulers to the Seljuks and Ottomans, ending with Sultan Abdülhamid II (r.1876-1909). This genealogy was published in the photographic exhibition Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean, exploring links between the Ottoman empire and Southeast Asia.

Genealogy of the sultans of Perak and Johor, early 20th c. Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, MS 40334

Further reading

J.J. Ras, Hikajat Bandjar: a study in Malay historiography.  The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968. (Bibliotheca Indonesica; 1).

M.C. Ricklefs, A history of modern Indonesia since c.1300. (2nd ed.)  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

OXIS (Origins of Complex Society in Sulawesi) project: website with many links to publications concerning Luwu' and other early Sulawesi kingdoms

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

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