1850.] 



of Continental India, fyc. 



123 



portant ; and the whole of the invocation or mantra (as well as a 

 preceding one) is clearly a dialect of Sanscrit. There is " a feast 



# p 39 » sacred to the earth* puja-Viimi" common 



w T ith the villagers, but particularly observ- 

 ed by the people termed Kalung, who in this, and some other 

 things, recall the idea of customs among the Khoonds or Codulu of 

 Goomsoor ; but who may have been aborigines of the island, 



* P 329 They are however held in great contempt by 



the Javans.* There is another class of peo- 

 ple who " still follow the Hindu worship" residing among the 



Tenqqar mountains ; and, by their use of 

 * P. 330, 331. i * • ,i > A. • 



the term* nama-sirva ha in their mantras or 



invocations, they must be of Saiva descent. It may be noted 

 that they bury, and do not burn their dead. There is also a class 

 of people in Bantam (a district of Java) called Bedui, who are 

 also of Hindu descent. 



The chapter on language brings us into full comparison with 

 similarities with the Hindus. The Kami is the* sacred language. 

 - or Kavi is Sanscrit for poetry ; so used in all 



Hindu dialects. Prom the numerous speci- 

 mens of Kawi given, it may, with confidence, be pronounced to be 

 a Pracrit, or dialect of Sanscrit : all things being considered I 

 think it first came by way of G-ujerat to Java with Aji-Saka, of 

 whom more hereafter. In the island of Bali (obviously Sanscrit) 

 the ancient religion, and literature of Java took refuge ; and Raf- 

 fles* states " we must there look for illustra- 



* P 358 



tions of the ancient state of the Javans." 

 The word Madura, as the name of an island close to Java, on my 

 first reading his work, naturally associated itself with the southern 

 Madura, but this latter word is a corruption by Europeans of the 

 proper word ; and besides the other term, I find from the poeti- 

 cal portion of the work, should be Mandara being an allusion to 

 the mountain called Mandara wherewith, (as fabled by Hindus) 

 the celestials churned the sea of milk. The Hindu origin of the 



# p 3 „ g term is by consequence clear. Letters are 



termed aksara* which is also the name in 

 Sanscrit, borrowed in most other dialects. The letters of the an- 

 cient Java alphabets, are calculated, with patience, to assist in de- 



