(Singhapura), near the point of the river, is a large stone bearing an inscription in a character which has hitherto, I believe, resisted the efforts of all decipherers, Sir Stamford Raffles among the rest.
At Malacca and the states in the interior my efforts were unavailing to procure a single inscription or sculpture, prior to Mahomedanism. My enquiries, not confined to the Malayan tribes, extended to the savage aborigines, inhabiting the wilds and forests of the peninsula, but not a vestige of Buddhism was to be traced—save their veneration for these ancestors, the partial belief of a state of future existence in the west, and the imperfect notions entertained by them of the metempsychosis.
Identity of the sacred language among the Buddhist nations of Eastern Asia. The Káwi, the sacred or poetical language of the Javans and Balinese, bears great affinity to the Pali. Most of the inscriptions found in the Buddhist temples of Java, their ancient religious works, poetical epitomes of the Ramayana and Mahabharat, are written in this language. The characters are square, many of them corresponding exactly with those of the Pali of Burma and Siam.[1] The knowledge of these ancient characters, like those of China and Japan, is confined to a few individuals. Some of the Káwi inscriptions, it is alleged by natives, go back as far as the beginning of the 6th century of Salivabana[2], though Mr. Crawford contradicts this.
Sacred languages of the Buddhists of the Indo-Chinese kingdom. There appears to be little doubt that the sacred language of the Buddhists of Magadha and Ceylon, Burma and Siam, is essentially similar, though varying considerably in its written character. According to Major Wilford, Magadha and Pali or Bali are considered synonymous by the people of Siam, Ceylon, and Burma[3]. Leyden and Kæmpfer inform us that among the Indo-Chinese nations the Pali is frequently denominated Sanka-basa, Maccata-pasa or Magadhi-bhasa, i. e. languages of Ceylon or Magadha, plainly indicating its origin. In Ceylon the terms Magadhi and Pali are both applied to it.
Sacred language of China and Japan. The sacred language of the Buddhists of China is termed the Fan-yu—the language of Fan, (India?) where they suppose Fuh or Buddha was born. Having few books, particularly modern works on Chinese philology, to refer to, I do not know whether this language has ever been examined, or speci-
- ↑ Mr. Medburet, when at Sangora, a Siamese town on the east coast of the Malay peninsula, wrote out the Japan alphabet for the Buddhist priests there, who were much struck with the great similarity existing between the characters composing it and their own. Journal of a Voyage up the east coast of the Malay peninsula.
- ↑ Crawford's Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 213.
- ↑ Dissertation on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese nations, page 121.
