1836.] 



Battas of Sumatra, 



145 



though much disguised by the more recent prevalence of Mohamed- 

 anism. To gather the whole together, would be properly the work of 

 one part of an essay, such as before alluded to. Omitting many other 

 deductions from names, the following in Mr. Anderson's list of Batta 

 states (pp. 225-26) may be specified ; that is to say, Purba, Mahriat, 

 Naga-sariba, Nagore, Shiga, Perdumbanam, Dorma-Rajah : these are 

 Hindu names, slightly modified. In an account of a survey, by Lieut, 

 Crooke, of the Jambi country and river, the name Jambi strikes one as 

 apparently derived from the Hindu Jambu-dwipa, and it contains the 

 mountain Indragiri, a purely Sanscrit name, meani ng the mountain of 

 Indra, regent of the atmosphere. But, I allude to the survey chiefly 

 because it states that, at the town of Jambi, were found statues of great 

 antiquity, and to me most evidently of Hindu characters. Two of these 

 seem to have been Buddha? or Jaina, images, specifically so in the case 

 of one with features broad and flat, hair curly, in little round knobs, 

 and formed into a top knot. Four other figures are those, unquestion- 

 ably, of Ganesa ; another of Nandi, the bullock vehicle of Siva ; and, 

 moreover, the ruins of an ancient temple are spoken of, the images 

 and sculptures of which the natives now term " chessmen of the giants, 

 or genii." 



" I will merely add the singular name of a queen, or princess, men- 

 tioned by Mr. Anderson in the early part of his book ; this is Rajah 

 Wan Chandri Devi. Wan seems to be a modern Sumatran, or Malayan, 

 title ; the other three names are Hindu, only one of which, Devi 

 (goddess*) could, with grammatical propriety, be applied to a female, for 

 Rajah and Chandra are both masculine epithets,, according to Hindus ; 

 yet we find the termination of one of them modified to Chandri, a femi- 

 nine term unknown in Tndia, and therefore a Sumatran change, while 

 Rajah remains unaltered, as if from ignorance of the proper mode of 

 adapting that title to a female princess. Once mor e, the remains of an 

 antique fort Mr. Anderson tells us is termed Kota-Jawa, because sup- 

 posed to have been built in former ages by the Javanese. Ko ta is the 

 name of a fort in Telugu ; and the same word is only a little modified 

 in Tamil. This last reference may seem trifling. I conceive it is not 

 so ; for it gives a clue to the origin of Hindu names and antiquities, in- 

 timating Java as the possible medium of communication ; and Java, as 

 has already been stated, is full of antique Hindu vestiges. 



" These remarks are but hasty and superficial. I apologise for them 

 as such : yet I think a field of research is opened of some interest, as 

 connected with the history and antiquities of a local section of mankind. 

 The clue, ingeniously offered by Lieut. Newbold, I have endeavoured 

 to lay hold of, and offer it to others. If the result be enquiry, and 

 greater certainty than I can now assume, I shall be abundantly re- 

 warded." 



* Or more restrictedly Parvati ; the consort of Siva. 



