144 



On the Language of the 



[July 



Fudha, in the high dialect, is commonly used for war, and Baratham is 

 the familiar name of the same epic poem or romance. The Javanese 

 inscriptions, in one or two instances, more resemble the inscription at 

 Allahabad (also given in the 7th vol. of the Asiatic Researches) than 

 those at Delhi; but, besides this circumstance, others have Tamil let^ 

 ters, and, in the Javanese alphabet, some bearing the same name and 

 power as the Tamil, and others of the same form, bat differing in 

 power ; and, as the analogy seems still closer to the Grandam letters, 

 the character in which Sanscrit is usually written in the Peninsula, 

 and the matrix of the Tamil letters, I infer that they may be derived 

 from the Grandam. Other characters resemble the Telugu letters, and 

 others, as before said, the Hala Canada. Now Mr. Wilkins informs 

 us, in his grammar of Sanscrit, that many provincial alphabets, less 

 perfect than Deva-nagari, exist. The Tamil, I am clearly certain, is 

 formed on the model of the Grandam. The Telugu indicates a different 

 matrix. The Hala Canada differs still. But, as Javanese inscriptions 

 and alphabets partake of the Deva-nagari, the Hala Canada, the 

 Grandam, the Telugu and the Tamil forms, is it not at least possible, 

 that, at a remote period, the Javanese alphabet was shaped, or select- 

 ed, out of all these ? Unless, indeed, it be a primitive and earlier cha? 

 racter than any other of them, and a parent, rather than a derivative. 

 There are ancient inscriptions, in different parts of the Peninsula, 

 which pass for Hala Canada ; but are not entirely resolvable by such 

 specimens of the character as have been deciphered. May the Java- 

 nese character by any possibility give an additional clue ? On this 

 point conjecture only can be offered. But I do think it extremely likely 

 that Javanese antiquities will reflect light on obscure Hindu traditions, 

 writings or inscriptions, and receive illustration in return. 



" Sir S. Raffles expressly says, that, while the people of the Javans 

 are of Tartar origin, their chiefs differ, and resemble more the Hindus ; 

 and by Hindu emigrants, very probably, the country was, at some time, 

 subjugated. The Yavanas are almost as familiar to Hindu records, as 

 the Bramins, the Bauddhas, or any other tribe. 



" 10. Finally, referring to Anderson's Mission to the east coast of 

 Sumatra, I may observe that his narrative confirms the preceding 

 deductions. His mission was properly commercial ; he saw but little 

 of those Battas who reside nearer to the west coast; and besides, being 

 apparently a young man, he evidently had little taste for history and 

 antiquities. The cannibalism of the Battas, seemed to be his chief 

 point of enquiry. This most depraved and disgusting feature in their 

 character, is strongly repulsive ; but it may be separated from enquiries 

 as to their origin. He saw only some straggling traders, and one petty 

 rajah (a sort of Zemindar), of that class, and intimates that the 

 Malays considered it to be a miracle that he escaped without being 

 eaten. Notwithstanding these things, there are, scattered through his 

 book, vestiges of Hindu relations in the ancient people of Sumatra, 



