By Ahmad Murad Merican

Recently on 29 January, 2026, I convened a Symposium Ahmat Adam Remembered: Historian, Indonesianist.

I spoke about the works and contributions of the late scholar on the intricacies and our understanding of the nation’s past.  I related on my several encounters with him, one of which was almost 25 years ago in Melaka on the sidelines of a conference.  

There were talks about his writings and future projects. I referred to The Vernacular Press and the Emergence of Modern Indonesian Consciousness published in 1995 by Cornell University Press. 

The late Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr. Ahmat Adam, FASc.

The Vernacular Press is a classic. It remains a rare serious study of the history of the Press in Indonesia.  And it needs a revisit in the relevant departments on campus.  Most accounts have been narratives on limited research of newspapers and periodicals published in the Dutch East Indies. The native Press, as he has described it was a mid-19th century phenomenon with the first “native-language” newspaper published in the Javanese language. This was the weekly Bromartani published by the Harteveld Bros with its editor C.F. Winter, the Javanese philologist.

In my conversation with Prof Ahmat Adam then, I noticed a sense of intellectual fondness and pride expressed, on his empirical focus on what is now Indonesia (and the Malays in the Archipelago). That day, Ahmat Adam  proclaimed “I am an Indonesianist”  and continued  on his ‘discourse’ on Java for the rest of the day. It was a ‘course’ on Javanese  cosmology, history and society.  And that was why I used the word on the Symposium.

In Ahmat Adam’s 2017 rejoinder on Batu Bersurat (Terengganu Inscription) titled The New and Correct Date of the Terenggnu Inscription, the historian devoted a chapter on Java and the Javanese titled as “Javanese Influence” (Chapter Four).  Ahmat Adam provides us with a brief understanding about Javanese cultural influence on the Malay Peninsula, and Terengganu in particular. The Terengganu Stone Inscription may be framed against a historical moment and political background of the rise of a new power in Java which came to be known as the Majapahit kingdom.

The 14^th century and the two centuries preceding it had witnessed the rise of the Javanese as a formidable nation in insular Southeast Asia. Javanese hegemonic power over areas of the Malay Peninsular had begun at the end of the 10th century during the period of the Sailendras when Ligor and Kedah had come under the patronage of its rulers.

According to Ahmat Adam, based on the Chaiya inscription and the Leiden copper plates of the Cholas dated 1006 AD, and 1019 AD, the king of Kataha (Kedah) was called Culamanivarman, who was the founder of the Buddhist temple at Nagapatnam in c 1004.  Culamanivarman was a Sailendra prince and Lord of Srivisaya (Srivijaya). However, the Sailendra’s rule over the Malay Peninsula appeared to have dissipated after the 11^th century.

 Javanese hegemony was again imposed over territories of the Malay Peninsula following the establishment of Singhasari in 1222 AD by King Rajasa (r.1222- 1227). Rajasa is popularly known as Ken Aŋrok.  Ahmat Adam refers to the Pararaton: A Study of  the Southeast Asia Chronicle (1996) by I. Gusti Putu Phalgunadi. The height of Singhasari was under the reign of King Kertanagara (c 1267-1292).

Kertanagara extended his dominion outside Java. In 1275, Kertanagara sent the ‘Pamalayu’ expedition to subjugate Suvarnabhumi (Sumatra).   He then began to exert Javanese control over Pahang,  Sunda and Madura, Bakulapura (West Kalimantan) and Gurun (Lombok). In expanding his territory,   Kertanagara came into confrontation with the armies of Kublai Khan.

Later, Kertanagara’s Raden Wijaya, seized control of Javanese lordship under the title Sri Kertarajasa Jayawardhana (r. 1294-1309). He set the foundation of the Majapahit Kingdom which was to rise as the new power in Java paving the hegemony of the Malay Archipelago. Ahmat Adam contends that it would be likely that between the 12th and the 14th centuries, the ports in the Malay Peninsula could have attracted traders especially from China, the Arab lands, Persia and India. The trading ports of East Java such as Gresik and Surabaya saw the presence of such traders. It is to be noted that at the same time, Majapahit went through an expansionist policy under the reigns of Kertarajasa and Hayam Wuruk carved out by the renowned prime minister Patih Arya Gajah Mada.

From the Nagarakertagama, during the reigns of the kings of Singhasari and Majapahit, the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Makassar, Buton, the Moluccas, Selayar and Sumba in east of Java were brought into the Javanese dominion. Likewise, Ahmat Adam mentions the territories on the Malay Peninsula hujung Medini (Earth End, in reference to the Malay Peninsula), Pahang, Langkasuka, Saimwang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor, Paka, Muar, Dungun, Kelang, Kedah, Kanjapiniran and also Tumasik were all brought under the status of dependencies or vassal states.

Reference was made to Javanese and Sanskrit words in Old Malay; and even in modern Bahasa Melayu. For decades, since the discovery of the inscription in 1887, many were baffled. They had thought that the inscription was written in Malay Jawi. Ahmat Adam cites an example of those who failed to recognise Kawi (sometimes call Old Javanese, or Sanskrit origin).  Take the spelling [s-n-t-a-b-y] which appears on Face A of the inscription. He claims that “it is this very word that Prof al-Attas has misread, and his reading after 1970 came to be adopted by several others.” Ahmat Adam attributes this to the failure at recognising the word santabya for sanabi.  Upon closer reading, Ahmat Adam concludes that the spelling is for ‘santabia’ which is an Old Javanese root word for Ksantabya or Ksantawya.

The word, which in both Sanskrit and Kawi renders the meaning of ‘to be pardoned’ or the expression ‘may I, you or they, be pardoned’.  Accordingly that would have been problematic due the absence of vowels, and of dots for many of the letters. Another example given is the Kawi word uwara.  He notes that is the corrupt form of unwar which means to announce, declare or to proclaim. It is pronounced ‘unwarang’ “possibly due to the influence of the Terengganu dialect.

I give two examples of Ahmat Adam’s rendering of the correct reading. This is the sentence on the first line of the first face of the inscription.

• Rasul Allah dengan nang uwarang santabya mereka saka […]

Translation:

The Messenger of God thus makes the proclamation ‘May they be pardoned because of […]’

And subsequently

            [2] asa pada. Dewata Mulya Raya beri hamba meneguhkan agama Islam

                  Translation:

Their desire to [go to] heaven.  The Godhead, All-glorious and Almighty, has granted  benefaction on his servant to secure firmly the religion of Islam

Nang is the Kawi word nan pronounced according to the Terengganu dialect.  Nan or nahan is Old Javanese which means ‘thus,’ ‘such,’ ‘like that’.  Subsequently uwar is the kawi word which carries the meaning ‘to announce,’ or ‘proclaim’. The word saka is Old Javanese which means ‘because of,’ ‘originating from.’  The word asa means ‘wish,’ ‘desire,’ ‘hope,’ ‘expectation’ in Old Javanese; and as for pada it means ‘abode,’ ‘home’ or ‘heaven.’

The rest of the readings of the Batu Bersurat contain Sanskrit, Old Javanese, or Old Malay, such as Bhumi (earth, territory, place, district, country), mandalika (province, ruling a province), wicara (‘deliberation,’ ‘reflection,’ ‘investigation.’ ‘examination,’ ‘dispute.’ ‘discussion,), dharma (‘law,’ ‘doctrine,’ ‘prescribed conduct,’ ‘the rule of life and conduct, as established by divine disposition,’ ‘duty,’ ‘justice; ‘virtue,’ ‘morality,’ ‘religion,’ ‘good works.’ There is also the word sa which means ‘all’ in Old Javanese, and titah which means ‘commandment.’  There is also the word banua – a corrupt form of the Old Javanese word (as also Old Malay) wanya or wanwa. It gives the meaning of an inhabited place or area, district, village, or settlement. In present Bahasa Melayu usage, it means continent, spelt as benua; or whenua  in the Maori language.

Side B of the Terengganu Inscription carries the word banua, meaning country of a place. Hence the phrase ‘banua Jawa’. The country of Jawa deserves a re-reading in the history of the nation and the Archipelago.

The writer is Director, Centre for Malay-Islamic Civilizational Studies International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (CMICS-ISTAC).