The Date of the Hikayat Inderaputera, 



By E. 0. WlNSTEDT. 



Many MSS. of this romance exist. References and descrip- 

 tions will be found in van cler Tuuk's catalogue of Malay MSS. 

 belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society (" Essays relating to Indo- 

 China," vol. II, p. 10) ; in Juynbolr's catalogue of the Leiden 

 MSS. (p. 121) ; in van Ronkel's catalogue of the Batavian MSS. 

 (p. 97) and in Snouck HurgronjVs " The Achehnese," vol. II, 

 p. 148. There are also MSS. of it at Brussels and the Hague. 

 The late Mr. D. F. A Iiervey owned a copy (300 pp., dated 1307 

 Malacca). An edition has been lithographed in Singapore (A.H. 

 1321) ; the text of which judged beside the selections given by van 

 der Tuuk and Juynboil is corrupt, A poem, the Shair Indrapura, 

 founded on the prose work has been printed in Singapore. 



Many quotations from the romance are given in Werndly's 

 " Maleische Spraakkunst " (1736), and the book is mentioned by 

 Valentijn (ed. 1726), III, p. 26. Nowhere have I found any re- 

 ference which puts back the date of its composition earlier than 

 1726 A.D. 



There is a well-known religious work the Sir at ul-mustakim 

 composed by Shaikh Nuni'd-din the author of the Bustanu s-salatin 

 in A.H. 1044 (1634 A.D.)— Juynboll's " ■Catalogus," .p. 257 

 wrongly gives the equivalent of the Muhammadan date as 1628 

 A.D. Of this work there are several MSS. at Leiden and Batavia; 

 one edition lithographed in Singapore in 1330 A.H. (giving the 

 date of the original composition 1044 A.H. on the cover) ; one 

 printed in Masir (Egypt) in the margin of the Sabil al-muhtadin, 

 which is founded on the Sirat ul-musiakim. Now on p. 32 of the 

 lithographed edition and on p. 39 of the printed marginal edition 

 occurs the sentence: tiada liarus bersuchi dengan suatu benda young 

 di-hormati pada shara' saperti tulang dan kulit yang belum di- 

 samak atau Parang sa-bagai-nya, tetapi harus istinja' dengan kitab 

 Taurat dan Injil yang sudah berubah dari-pada asal-nya dan de- 

 mikian-lah harus istinja dengan kitab yang tiada berguna pada 

 shara' saperti Hikayat Seri Rama dan Indraputera, dan barang sa- 

 bagai-nya, jika tiada di-dalam-nya nama Allah. 



Professor Dr. Ph. van Ronkel has been good enough to ex- 

 amine the two Leiden MSS. and informs me that the passage occurs 

 in both of them. He agrees with me that the passage may be 

 accepted as occurring in Shaikh Nuru'd-din's original work, so 

 that clearly the reference proves the Hikayat Inderaputera to be 

 old enough to have been quoted as a profane classic in 1634. That 



R. A. Soc, No. 82, 1920. 



